My wife and I moved from Georgia into our retirement home at Dalewood Shores in Lauderdale over a decade ago. We enjoy working in our yard, growing flowers and observing God’s wild creations like the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. Every summer there seems to be an abundance of beautifully colored hummingbirds of all sizes visiting the flowers in our yard. For some reason, we didn’t have too many hummingbirds at our former Georgia home, so here I find them fascinating.
At one point, I decided to buy three liquid hummingbird feeders, hanging them in various backyard locations in view of the windows and screen porch. We faithfully kept these feeders full of the red sweet liquid. It didn’t take the hummingbirds long to find these. At first, all who came by drank freely and together from the feeders.
Then came the bully hummingbirds. These aggressive hummingbirds would drink their fill at the feeder, then find a hidden perch in a nearby tree. When any other hummingbird happened by and tried to drink, the bully would swoop down to attack and physically chase it away. It got to a point where other transient hummingbirds weren’t allowed access to even the flower blooms in our yard before being attacked!
After a while, the other hummingbirds found that by acting together, they could get past the bully. One “decoy” bird would go to the feeder to drink. The bully would swoop down and make chase. The decoy would go slowly enough to keep the bully chasing, but fast enough to keep him occupied for a short time. Meanwhile, the decoy’s buddy hummingbirds were at the feeder, drinking their fill!
I thought: “That bully hummingbird does nothing to furnish the liquid to keep the feeder filled. Second, there is no way that the bully can ever drink enough by him/herself to empty the feeder, and should share it!” Even if used up, it would immediately be refilled.
How is that situation not different with God’s other creations, including mankind? As Creator, everything created belongs to Him, but He gives freely for our well-being. Two examples that come to mind are God providing manna to the Children of Israel and the widow who the prophet asked to share with him something to eat. She had just enough oil and meal to feed herself and her son, but as long as she fed the prophet first, there was enough oil and meal for her and her son! (Examples of obedience and faith)
Like the bully hummingbird, our world has always been full of unscrupulous evil individuals, rulers and governments that hoard and deprive their fellow citizens and individuals rather than sharing with them.
Then I began to wonder, how is this different than we, as professing Christians, content, complacent and sitting in our brick-and-mortar church buildings worshiping our God and Savior Jesus Christ, rather than out sharing the Gospel with those outside the building walls? In some cases, we tend to discourage these “undesirable and dirty” people from entering “our” church building!
Before ascending back into heaven Jesus told his followers as recorded in Acts 1:8:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” (NIV)
My understanding of this verse is that it states the fact, not a suggestion or option to His followers. At Northcrest we call this action “Missions”! Our “Jerusalem” is our neighbors, our city, and county; our “Judea and Samaria” is our state and country. The “ends of the earth” represent the remaining parts of the world.
My wife and I feel fortunate that we can be a part of the Northcrest Baptist’s body of believers who take Acts 1:8 (and missions) seriously! The Bible says that “By their fruits, you will know them…“. Northcrest’s fruits include past foreign mission teams sent to share the Gospel in the Ukraine, Philippines, and Costa Rica, to name a few. The latest and largest mission team will leave for the Dominican Republic on Oct 13th, 2017!
Then came a somber thought: What about those nay-sayers who are professing Christians and who are complacent and contented to sit and worship in their brick-and-mortar church buildings rather than taking a part in sharing the Gospel with those outside of their building walls? Perhaps these nay-sayers are still waiting to “receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you …” We who can’t go on mission trips in person (for various reasons) can support those who can go through prayer, finances, and encouragement.