[Discoveries] 12-07-07 Our job -- John 1:31

[Inspiration in Your Inbox]

/We show people how to experience God's love. Out of that encounter 
flows everything good -- healing, growth, obedience, sacrifice, mission. 
As you plan your year-end giving, remember that a gift to Dwight Clough 
Ministries Inc. empowers us to help people on every continent to 
experience God's love, sometimes for the very first time. See 
DwightClough.com for details./

/*... the reason I came baptizing with water was that He might be 
revealed ... -- John 1:31*/

John the Baptist is getting at more than just the reason for his 
ministry. He is getting at the reason for everything we do. Why do I hug 
my children? So Jesus might be revealed. Why do I pay my taxes? So Jesus 
might be revealed.

Our lives make room for Jesus to show up. John's baptizing could never 
change a nation. But, by leaving room for Jesus to show up, the whole 
world was changed. There is a role for our inadequacies. It is to remind 
us to make room for Jesus to show up.

Jesus, of course, was here all along. But we need life as a visual aid 
to help us see Him. Jesus was obscure and unknown until after John 
started baptizing. So also, He may be obscure and unknown to someone in 
your world or in mine. But we do what God calls us to, and we can tell 
if we are successful by remembering John's word's, "He must increase, 
and I must decrease."

The people who produced the movie series, Lord of the Rings, made a 
statement that struck me: "If you say to me, 'Wow, that was a great 
special effect,' then we have failed. Our job is to make the special 
effects look like the real thing."

It isn't about us and our work. If we are successful, people aren't 
looking at us. Rather, they are all looking at Him.

Be encouraged!
Dwight

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