I really enjoy Chinese food. My favorite restaurant is located in a nondescript building along the highway in Pratt, Kansas. A couple has been operating it for years; he works the wok in back, and she works at the front of the house welcoming diners with a hearty estimate of the number in your party. She remembers what you had to drink the last time you stopped in and sometimes which dish is your favorite. After most visits, I give thanks to the Lord for teaching them to cook this way because I enjoyed it so much.
There’s something even better than Chinese food: Doing God’s will and carrying out the work He has given us. I have resisted and even avoided God’s will enough (I’m not proud to admit) to realize how unsatisfying and unpleasant it can be. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth! Ah, but God’s will—delectable!
Satisfying!
Jesus once explained to His disciples,
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor” (John 5:34-37).
Obedience to Christ is the deep, soul satisfaction we crave—we just don’t realize it. We try to fill the hunger with entertainment, leisure, or other distractions…even doing our own thing. But they are like marshmallows and potato chips—they don’t fill us. The hunger within is satisfied only when we make the commitment to do His will and finish the work He gives us. Our work is to proclaim Him so that others may also believe in Him and be saved.
My work isn’t finished as long as I am breathing. Your work isn’t complete either. Continue to make hearty announcements that Jesus is here! Offer the water of life freely. You and I may not know how many come to faith in Christ because we welcomed them to come and dine with Him.
Jason K. Allen quoted David Mathis in Letters to My Students: On Preaching,
“God wants men who want to do the work, not men who do it simply out of a sense of duty. He grabs pastors by the heart; He doesn’t twist them by the arm” (p. 5, 6).
Nobody makes me stop at that Chinese restaurant. I’ve tasted the food many times. I’m always satisfied. I look forward to it, and so I return again and again.
“…(Jesus) is your Prophet, your Shepherd, your Bishop, your Priest in the midst of you, to open to you, to sanctify you, and to feed you with Life, and to quicken you with life” (Seth B. Hinshaw. The Spoken Ministry Among Friends, p. 12).
ABOUT
Jeff Blackburn has been proclaiming Christ for over 43 years. He served Friends congregations in Indiana and Kansas. His most recent pastoral assignment was with Greensburg Mennonite Church, Greensburg, Kansas, where he enjoyed nearly 30 years of ministry before being called to coordinate the Friends Preaching Initiative in 2024. He works with aspiring preachers and ministry students on campus, often preaches in churches in the region. He developed three new courses for a preaching certificate offered through Barclay College, and he created a preaching lab for Barclay students to work on their communication skills.
Jeff grew up in small-town Indiana, attending Quaker Haven Camp every summer before counseling and directing camps. He is a graduate of Barclay College and Huntington University. He wrote for Adult Friend and The Fruit of the Vine (Barclay Press, Newberg, Oregon) for many years. Jeff enjoys music and singing, although he can’t read music very well. He continues to serve as the moderator for local schools’ spelling bees.
Jeff has written one book, Light at the End of the Funnel (Amazon, 2017) recounting the experience of surviving an EF5 tornado that devastated his town in 2007. He and his wife live in Greensburg where they are near enough to play with their grandchildren on a regular basis. The Lord put it in his heart to help train the next wave of preachers and to encourage active ministers to “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2).