AVAILABILITY

B.W.Ward

Luke 7: 7, 8; Mark 13: 33-35 (to ' therefore').

As thinking of this passage in Luke this evening it struck me as I do not think it had before that the centurion goes into some detail; he does not use a lot of words, he does not simply say that I have soldiers who are obedient to me, but he says, "I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my bondman, Do this, and :he does it''. We have often been reminded how delightful this word was to the Lord Jesus, by His comment that He makes immediately following. How He would Himself think of those who were around Him and those who would come under His regulation and control down the dispensation, what He would say to them to do and that they would do it! There is variety; we are not all alike. These men, two of them are soldiers and the third one is a bondman and the word to him is very simple; "Do this, and he does it". I think this would come down to matters of detail with us. If we think of some of those whose histories we know about, if we think of Philip, having had a very successful period of service, he was directed to go to a desert place, it was just, Go there and he went. And John was on the isle of Patmos in God's ways and he had that remarkable experience of the revelation given to him there. Others were in other places, sent to other places. We might think of how Barnabas went on one occasion to bring Paul because he knew that he could fit in with what was required perhaps better than he. All this, I think, would illustrate how that the Lord has His servants under His control, He wants them like that, wants every one of us like that. That is partly why I read in Mark, the scripture is very well known; He gave to "his bondmen the authority, and to each one his work". "Each one his work". It is the Lord's work, of course, it all is the Lord's work, but I think it means that each one has his or her work to do; the thing is to be available to do it.

I think it may come down to quite small things. Am I ready to be available to the Lord in the service at any time? At any time. I remember being helped a good many years ago now by a brother who said, if you observe that in the service of God there seems to be a deficiency or a lack in any particular feature, be concerned to be available to meet that, to be available at that time. I felt that was good counsel and it seems to me that this little bit of detail that the centurion gives would indicate that while we are varied in our capacities, quite varied in what we are fitted to do, yet the question is, is each of us available to do what we are told to do? We may very well think, and often do, that someone could do it better than I. Before I got up was that not the case. Are there not many who can speak better than I at the moment? But if it was Do this, well then I must do it.

So that we may be encouraged, beloved brethren, whether we are young or old, because how valuable the contributions of the younger are, how encouraging and stimulating they are. We do not, where we now are, have anyone very young to contribute, but there are gatherings where there are younger brothers and what a cheer it is to hear them and how it can set things on. So that let us all be ready for this simple direction, Go, or Come, or Do this, just whatever it is. Some are called upon to go, to go in service somewhere. We hear of our brethren being drawn upon to go somewhere. How good that is, how the Lord is increasing the number; how happy that is that He should have increasingly those who are available to go or to come or to do this.

So let us all be encouraged, beloved brethren. Our numbers, as we said, are not so many, but then that simply means that the responsibility falls upon each of us a little more heavily. So let us be encouraged, and be concerned, exercised, just to be available. Maybe we are often told things like this, but maybe we can bear it again. As we come into the meetings are we just concerned to be available to the Lord to do this, whatever this may be, and whenever it is the time according to His judgment, to do it for His pleasure?

LONDON

13 February 1973