Key Bible Verse: So, my dear brothers, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless (1 Corinthians 15:58). Bonus Reading: Acts 9:10-19a

Years ago at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis they needed a Sunday school teacher for the junior high boys. No teacher had been able to control them. This class wasn't bad, just energetic.

They asked Ewald Chaldberg, a Swedish immigrant with a thick accent who worked as a masseur, to teach; he took the class. "Three weeks, and that'll be the end," many in the congregation predicted. But Ewald believed that God would overcome his human limitations. He kept on teaching boys through the years.

I was invited to come to that church to share in a service for the tenth anniversary of the death of Ewald Chaldberg. How do you like that—a church celebrating the tenth anniversary of the death of a Sunday school teacher!

At the celebration, they recounted that at least 40 men were in Christian service someplace in the world because Ewald Chaldberg taught boys, loved them, and watched over them as they grew.

During the service, 27 persons stood up to say, "We're going to be like Ewald Chaldberg in a small way." The obscure immigrant found significance because he trusted the Lord who said, "My idea is bigger than your idea."

—Gordon Johnson in Preaching Today

My Response: What essential but behind-the-scenes task might God be calling me to do?

Thought to Apply: Faithfulness is consecration in overalls.—Evelyn Underhill

Adapted from Preaching Today (82) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Help me, Lord, to so focus on Your promises that I'm no longer tempted to give up.

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