Above and beyond

There's a cool story in the bible found in the book of Genesis (check it out) where Abraham sends his most senior servant to find a bride for his son Issac.

The servant prays to God and asks, “ Whichever girl at the well offers me a drink, and offers to water my camels as well, let her be the one youve chosen for Isaac.

Honestly, what was this guy thinking?  What girl, in her right mind, is going to draw water, by hand, for TEN thirsty CAMELS?

Did you know that a thirsty camel can drink 30 gallons (thats 113 litres) in less than 10 minutes??  Times that by 10 and thats 300 gallons or 1130 litres of water!!!  If you were there on Sunday, you got a sense of the amount of water we're talking about.

In Genesis 24 we find out that there was such a girl and her name was Rebekah. Imagine her schlepping all that water to the trough just to have it sucked up instantaneously by those parched camels. It would have taken her hours.  What a woman!

What Rebekah did was go above and beyond.  Why? Did she do it because the old man was in need?  Sure.  But, I think she did it for another reason. Rebekah went above and beyond because she was serving the old man as if she was serving the God she loved. 

On Sunday we were talking about employees and bosses.  In Ephesians 6: 7 it says, Serve whole-heartedly as if you were serving the Lord, not people because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do.” And that's exactly what Rebekah did.

Excellent people exceed expectations, dont they?  Like Rebekah they dont settle to do just what is expected. They go above and beyond.

Heres the thing. Excellence doesnt necessarily mean we dont make mistakes, but it does mean the presence of faith and determination. To be excellent at whatever God has called us to do, we have to ask for Gods strength and endurance to accomplish the task.

I believe we are called to strive for excellence in all that we do and in the doing we become the best testimony for the Lord that we can be.

 So heres a tough question:  if people were to describe your work, would excellence come to mind or simply mediocrity?

 This week we are preparing for VBC (Vacation Bible Camp) and when you come into the sanctuary on Sunday morning you will see the place transformed into 'Everest!'  It is quite a thing.

 What has been simply amazing is that as I have been writing  about “going above and beyond”, that is exactly what has been going on just outside my office door. The good people of Amberlea are going above and beyond, not for accolades - but for God!  If you want to see it first hand join us any morning next week, and watch excellence in action.

We are completing our series on Ephesians and you won't want to miss this one.  Be sure to be there and like always, bring a friend!