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Friday, June 26, 2020 - Join Pastor John for a Daily Devotional

June 26, 2020 by Rev. John Hartman

“Faithfulness”

Tony Campolo tells about a friend of his who was traveling on a train just outside London. He was sharing a compartment with two other men. About twenty minutes out of the station, one of the men fell to the floor with an apparent epileptic seizure. His body grew rigid as the seizure took control. Immediately, the man’s traveling companion dropped to the floor beside him, rolled up his jacket, and placed it behind his friend’s head. He then began blotting the perspiration from the man’s brow, – and spoke to his friend softly. When the seizure had passed, the man gently helped his friend back to his seat.

Well, when it was all over, the man turned to Campolo’s friend and said, “Mister, please forgive us. Sometimes this happens two or three times a day.”

He explained, “My buddy and I were in Vietnam together, and we were both wounded. I had bullets in both my legs and he had one in his shoulder. The helicopter that was supposed to come for us never came to pick us up.”

He went on, “My friend picked me up, mister, and he carried me for three-and-a-half days out of that jungle. The Viet Cong were sniping at us the whole way. He was in more agony than I was. I begged him to drop me and save himself, but he wouldn’t let me go. He got me out of that jungle, mister. He saved my life. I don’t know how he did it -- and I don’t know why he did it. Four years ago, I found that he had this epileptic condition, – so I sold my house in New York, took what money I had, and came over here to take care of him.”

Then, glancing over at his buddy, the man said, “You see, mister, after what he did for me, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him.” What that man did was an act of “faithfulness,” and it is a quality we are desperately looking for in our lives and the lives of the people around us.

Jesus says in Matthew 25:23, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will put you in charge of many things.” Why is faithfulness such a tasty fruit on the lips of God? I believe it is because God himself is FAITHFUL! Now the word, “faithful” and “faithfulness” is translated with the same Greek word, – “pistis.” There are over 90 references to “faithfulness” in the Bible. Did you know that the one of the most frequently occurring words on the SAT college exam is the word “indifferent?” That word does not appear in the Bible. In the Christian life, “indifference” is not going to cut it. And so, go out and be faithful, because God has

certainly always been faithful to us.

Pastor John