September 22, 2007
Newsletter Archives

Looking at the lives of some people, I feel a certain sadness when I perceive outstanding potential that has never been harvested. No doubt there are various reasons why this tragedy occurs. I expect a good majority never consider the prospect of being more than ordinary and this alone is a roadblock to greater things. There are limitless possibilities if a life were simply yielded to the will of God.
The apostle Paul was not one of those whose life was wasted. He realized that God had brought him into the world for a distinctive purpose and he wanted to live it. He expressed the longing: “…that I may lay hold
on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus” Philippians
3:12. I think we would agree that he discovered God’s purpose and lived it to the full. And we can do the same.
Naturally, it must begin with a friendship with the Lord. When the Lord Jesus had His last discourse with His disciples, He told them He had brought them into a friendship relationship with Himself. He tells them: “No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known unto you” John 15:15.
Out of this friendship developed the foundations of the Christian faith. The millions of lives that have been transformed over the centuries were altered by men who had been liberated from the cage of the ordinary. They were released into a wider world where they spread their wings and soared. Friendship with the Lord Jesus can do the same for us.

Russ Nesbit