Problem or Solution

    Every now and then we hear someone say, "Are you part of the answer or are you part of the problem?"  I get that impression quite often and end up asking myself if I should continue a in a certain direction or decide that a change is necessary.  It is easy for me to get excited about something and to then expect that everyone else is just as excited about it as I am.  That certainly is not the case.  People don't seem to jump on the band wagon in response to my urging them or anyone else.  I am excited about the fact that God is supervising the work of translating the Bible into the languages of the people around the world.  There are several agencies who are doing this work such as the Lutherans, New Tribes Mission and Wycliffe.  Our generation has had the Bible every since the founding of our country.  Even the Spanish world had a copy of the Scriptures for hundreds of years, but many of the tribes in countries like Paraguay and Papau New Guinea just got a copy of God's Word.  How exciting that was for all of them.  So, am I part of the problem in getting people excited about Bible Translation?   First Corinthians 9:26-27 says, "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 
      Paul had this thought in the back of his mind wherever he went and whatever he did.  He had the fear of being put on the shelf, so to speak.  He says that he doesn't want to be a "castaway."  That would be saying that God was finished with his ministry so Paul would have been no more of a use to God and put on a shelf.  Of course, that didn't happen in Paul's life.  He came to the end of his life and was able to say that he had finished the course.  He had finished the work that God had given him to do.  That would be a comforting thing.  When you come to the end of your life, will God say that you did a good job, that you were faithful and that you have completed your task or will God say, "Well, you did the best you could but it was not what we had wanted."  I don't know too many people who would be content with that type of evaluation.  We would look more to the welcome statement, "Well done!"  As we go through this life, we need to make sure that we are following the directions given to us in God's letter, the Bible.  If we stay in line with what God's instructions say, we will end up with a positive evaluation at the end.  In the end, we want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.  Praise God today for the instructions that He has given to us.