Don't Just Stand There...

It is amazing to me just how many quips and sayings we use each day that have their origin from the Bible. Phrases like, “the quick and the dead” (1 Peter 4:5), “at their wits end” (Psalms 107:27), “nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9), and “the skin of my teeth” (Job 19:20), just to name a few. Today, I came across a new one in my daily devotional. It was Jacob's instructions to his sons during the great famine when he’d heard there was grain in Egypt:

“When Jacob heard that grain was available in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you standing around looking at one another?” Genesis 42:1 (NLT). In other words, we’re dying here of hunger, there is grain in Egypt, what are you waiting for? Go get us some food so that we won’t die!

Funny, but I thought my dad came up with that one! I can remember many times when my brothers and I would be standing around, knowing there was something that needed to be done but for whatever reason, not doing it. It was then our dad would exclaim, “Why are you standing around? Get busy!!!”

As I thought about that, I couldn’t help but relate it to a young man who came to Christ this weekend. He sent me an email that said, “I just wanted you to know that today after the service, I went to my car and started crying. Jesus has exposed my darkness and I’m coming into the light! I just wanted to say ‘thank you’ for showing me the way.” Wow! Thank you Jesus! And then it hit me…

Why are you (we) standing around? There is a famine in the land of the Word of God! And without the Word, without us telling others about Jesus and what He has done for us, Paul asked this question that is still very pertinent to us today:

“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” Romans 10:14 (NLT)

So why are we standing around? People are dying without Christ! Let’s go tell them the Good News! They no longer have to walk in darkness…the Light, King Jesus, who said I Am...The Light of the World, has come!

Have a great and blessed week!

Pastor Steve