LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 40

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40 DOCTRINAL-DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS

a peculiar treasure unto Me.” But more than that, “Ye
shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and an holy na-
tion.” Priests have more than titles, they have functions
to perform. Note well, the entire nation is to be com-
posed of naught but priests. The whole nation would
share in the functions of a holy priesthood. They would
be the carriers of His promises. They would be His
spokesmen to the family of nations. They would be His
messengers.

' They would receive a special message to transmit,
the message of the coming of the Anointed of the Lord,
the Messiah. ’Tis true, special messengers would be
called by God in the course of time to emphasize this
message — the prophets. They would receive the first
messages from God which were to be recorded for pos-
terity, and He would equip them for their special tasks
as His spokesmen and penmen. But the nation itself
was chosen by God to be His priests, His communicators,
His messengers. That is Israel’s glory.

Has He not selected us by His grace in these latter
days for a like purpose? He has selected us, His re-
deemed people, to be His priests, His prophets, His
messengers. Peter says it. “Ye also, as lively stones,
are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood”
(1 Peter 2:5). The selection was His alone and not
ours. “We love Him because He first loved us,” says
John. We have but one function, to carry the message
of His love by word and deed to the ends of the earth.

The purpose of it all, the purpose of our selection,
was that all our brothers and sisters everywhere hear
the message of man’s origin and man’s destiny. Back in
eternity God planned man’s glorious origin, and in
eternity, too, He planned man’s glorious destiny. Be-
tween the eternity of the past and the eternity of the
future lies the universe with its recorded and unrecorded
history. But all history is only His story. In that story
I find my own place. Between the uninhabited eternity
of yesterday and the inhabited eternity of tomorrow
there lies my own little day. Who am 1? What am I?
God would tell me, “You are My peculiar treasure, you
are My priest, you are My messenger, you are My stew-
ard.”

The Sender Selects the Equipment

A steward I am. Stewards need equipment with
which to work. A messenger I am. Messengers need to
be equipped for their tasks. Our Lord is omniscient and
He knows what equipment we need for our work better
than we do. “All the earth is Mine,” says the Lord. Out
of His limitless resources He will select the equipment
necessary for all our work. The equipment He selects
is both physical and spiritual.

Physical Equipment
First of all God has equipped me physically. It is
God who has given me my life. Every breath I breathe
is His gift, a part of the equipment He gave me. Un-
fortunately I appreciate the breath God gave only when
I become asthmatic. God equipped me with eyes and

ears, eyes to see the luster of the King and ears to be
attuned to His wave length. He equipped me with eyes
to see people. He equipped me with ears to hear the cry
of the needy. He equipped me with a mouth so that
I may “give an answer to every man that asketh me a
reason of the hope that is in me” (1 Peter 3:15). He
gave me feet to “bring good tidings of good, that publish
salvation” (Isaiah 52:7). Every Christian is a mes-
senger, a steward, who one day must give an account
of how he has used God’s gifts. Some day we shall have
to answer the question, What have I done with my life?
Let each delegate answer now, right here in Cobo Hall,
What am I doing with my life? Our physical equipment
comes from the Sender of messengers. That equipment
is functional.
Spiritual Equipment

Secondly, God has equipped me spiritually. He has
given me faith and love. My faith is not my own crea-
tion. My faith comes from Him who said: “Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom.
10:17). The great remodeling job on my heart was God’s
work through His Holy Spirit. I did nothing. I con-
tributed nothing, I cooperated not one whit. My heart
belongs to Him because He overcame my opposition and
took complete possession. This faith of ours is the
equipment by which we shall “overcome the world.”
Who selected this equipment? Not I but God.

Love is the result of this faith. That, too, is a part
of the equipment. Only God’s messengers understand
the true nature of love. This love is the acid test of
Christianity. Not love for the lovely but love for our
enemies, love for the loveless; not love to those who give
to us but love to those who take away from us; not love
for the deserving but love for the undeserving; not love
for the high and mighty but love for the lowly; not love
for friend but love for foe. This is the omniscient Lord’s
selection of equipment for His messengers.

The Stewardship of the Messengers

It is customary among us that, when men are as-
signed to positions of trust, they report in some form
to their superiors. An ambassador will report to the
head of his government. A plant superintendent will
give an account of his work to the head of the firm.
A manager of a fleet of trucks will report to the owner
of that fleet. Do you think God expects less of us? We
are His messengers, His stewards, and the day when
the report is due is fast approaching. We shall have to
give an account of our stewardship.

The Stewardship of Equipment

God will want a report on our stewardship of equip-
ment. He will want to know what we did with the tools
He placed into our hands. This body does not belong to
me. It is His tool. Some day He will want it back with
a report attached. “How did you use that body? Just
for your own enjoyment, or did you use it for My
glory?” God will ask this, and we had better have our
report ready.