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Question of Ownership TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1, by Os Hillman 11-22-2010 "Whoever finds his life will lose
it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." -
Matthew 10:39
Otto Koning was a missionary in New Guinea. He worked among a native
tribe that had known only their village ways. One of those village ways
was stealing from others. When Otto and his wife arrived and moved into a
hut, the natives often came by to visit. The Konings would notice that
after the natives left the missionaries' home, various household items had
disappeared. They saw these items again when they went to preach in the
natives' village.
The only fruit Otto could grow on the island was pineapples. Otto loved
pineapples, and he took pride in the pineapples he was able to grow.
However, whenever the pineapples began to ripen, the natives would steal
them. Otto could never keep a ripe pineapple for himself. This was a
frustration, and he became angry with the natives. All during the
seven-year period in which this took place, Otto preached the gospel to
these natives, but never had a conversion.
The more the natives stole, the angrier Otto became. Finally, one day
Otto had a German Shepherd dog flown in from another missionary to protect
his pineapple garden after other frustrated efforts failed. This only
further alienated the natives from him.
Otto took a furlough to the United States and attended a conference on
personal rights. At this conference, he discovered that he was frustrated
over this situation because he had taken personal ownership of his
pineapple garden. After much soul searching, he gave his garden to God.
Soon the natives started having problems among their tribe. They
discovered that Otto was the reason for their problems because he gave his
garden to his God. The natives saw a correlation between what Otto had
done and their own lives being affected by calamities in their village.
When Otto gave his garden to God, he no longer got angry and was free from
worry. The natives started bringing him fruit from the garden because they
didn't want any more calamities to come into their village.
The light came on one day when a native said to Otto, "You must
have become a Christian, Otto. You don't get angry anymore. We always
wondered if we would ever meet a Christian." They had never
associated Otto with the kind of person he was preaching about because his
message did not line up with his life. Otto was broken in spirit when he
realized he had been such a failure.
At the end of seven years, he witnessed his first conversion, and many
began coming to Christ once he fully gave his garden to God. The fruit
grew so abundant that Otto began exporting it and growing other types of
fruit, such as bananas. His village became the most evangelized in the
whole region, yet for seven years he had not one convert.
Otto realized something each of us must realize: To gain your life you
must lose it, along with your possessions. It was only when he gave all
his possessions to God that he became free from them. God measured back to
him manifold once He had complete ownership.
Do you have some possessions that you need to give up to God today? Let
God have all that you have. Become a steward, not an owner. You will be
surprised at how well God can take care of His possessions. Today God Is First (TGIF) devotional message, Copyright by Os Hillman, Marketplace Leaders. Permission is granted and encouraged to forward this email in its entirety to others without making any changes or deletions. Church Growth Institute, PO Box 7, Elkton, MD 21922-0007 USA |
When does God call people to long-term missionary service?
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