Cornerstone

Eccl. 1:1-11; Matt:28:18-20

Maintenance and mission are both necessary in order to minister effectively. When maintenance is emphasized while neglecting mission, it loses its purpose and becomes little more than a bore and a chore. When mission is emphasized at the expense of maintenance, its accomplishment is neutralized. Maintenance and mission are both necessary and important. Maintenance may not be very exciting, but it shows that we care. Mission is exciting but easily forgotten because of the sense of urgency that maintenance declares.

This is a tension that we experience in our calling. We have a mission to accomplish but in order to accomplish the mission we must maintain the vehicle and trappings necessary to accomplish the mission. Often our emphasis on one or the other gets out of balance and we are less effective in our work as a result.

If it seems that your ministry is ineffective you can still ignite a spark of renewed flame in your work. But to see this happen you must do some self-evaluation. How is the balance in your life AND work between maintenance and mission? Are you so caught up in the necessary things involved in your work that you have forgotten the purpose for it all? The proper balance can bring new life and new excitement to your work. You can come to the place where you can ‘t wait to get to the work because of what you are sure God is going to do through you.

Dr. Gayle Woods

Jn 15:1-7 (4)

Wong Yoke Lin had moved with her family to Singapore just a weeks earlier in order to earn better wages. She was getting accustomed to the large, noisy machinery in the plywood factory where she was now employed. That morning in April 1975 all seemed to be going well as the plywood planks rolled down the chute to the conveyor belt. Then a plank got caught and Yoke Lin tried to free it from the machinery. In horror and pain she screamed as her arm was quickly torn off at the elbow.

She was rushed to the hospital. Her severed arm was removed from the machine and was sent with her in the lorry. Four surgeons battled for five exhausting hours to save the seventeen year old girl and to reconnect her arm to her body. The surgery was successful. Later she returned to the factory where she worked for four more years.

The stark reality is that if the vessels, tendons, nerves and muscles on both sides of the arm had not been wedded together the girl would have lost the arm. In much the same way each born again believer is part of the body of Christ. If we are severed from Him by sin then we loose our ability to function and maintain life. Without Christ we are nothing… and without Christ we have no spiritual life.

Dr. Gayle Woods