Scripture Passage:  “Verily, verily, I say unto you,  The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.  If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.”    John 13: 16-17

 

Dear Friends,

 

     Many people are searching for the key to happiness.  It is often said that happiness is dependent upon circumstances while joy is based upon relationships.  Jesus says we can find happiness in our service to others.  He had just girded himself with a towel and washed his disciple’s feet.  This was the menial task a slave performed for his master when he entered a personal dwelling.  Jesus had humbled himself and taken on the form of a servant.  Jesus said he had given us an example to live by, and if we would follow the example shown us, we would be happy.  I have thought a lot about this and want to share the story of one of the giants of our faith named George Mueller.

 

 

     Mueller was of German descent but spent the majority of his life in Bristol, England.  At a young age he felt the call of God upon his life to preach and serve others.  He pastored a church and started schools for Bible training but the thing he is most known for is his work with orphans. He started several orphanages for children who had lost both parents and were living destitute on the streets of England.  Nearly ten thousand children were serving time in jail for petty crimes and because they had no other place to put them.  Mueller started these orphanages and funded them without ever asking for, or pleading for, help from the public.  He also never went into debt.  He believed God would provide for their needs for their good and His glory.  He would publish reports disclosing the actual cost of operation and how God had miraculously provided and used these reports as a means of making the public aware of their needs.  In the final years, he never took a salary either.  George lived and experienced successes and disappointments as well as tragic events in his life, but he believed everything that happened was according to the sovereign will of God in his life.  It was the belief in the sovereignty of God that brought Mueller peace.  Four years into his ministry he became sick with an illness that forced him to the town of Teignmouth for a time of recovery.  While there, he attended the little chapel of Ebenezer where he lived with a nameless man who changed his life forever.  It was during this time he embraced the doctrines of grace.  Here is his own testimony concerning his experience.

 

     “But when it pleased God to reveal these truths to me, and my heart was brought to such a state that I could say, “I am not only content simply to be a hammer, an axe, or a saw, in God’s hands; but I shall count it an honor to be taken up and used by Him in any way; and if sinners are converted through my instrumentality from my inmost soul I will give him all the glory”; the Lord gave me to see fruit; the Lord gave me to see fruit in abundance; sinners were converted by scores; and ever since God has used me in one way or other in His service.”

 

     I came across a quote from him concerning happiness and I want to share that with you also.

 

     “According to my judgment the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord.  Other things may press upon you, the Lord’s work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God himself!  Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life.”

 

In Christ,

Pastor Johnny