WHO IS MY MASTER?
By Gary Culbreath
A few weeks ago, we had our 23rd Annual Lithia Springs Youth Lectureship. Brother Jeff Phillips, along with his family and dogs, was here. Boy did he do a great job! He used his trained dogs to teach some powerful lessons on who our master is. His dogs listened to his every command and obeyed without question. Did they make some mistakes? Sure they did, but due to the love of Brother Jeff for his dogs, and their love for him, the mistakes were forgiven, corrected and forgotten.
His dogs knew who their master was and when he was talking to them. They would not pay any attention to outside influences, nor would they obey others who tried to lead them down a different path. Brother Jeff left us some wonderful lessons to apply to our lives.
We have to ask ourselves, “WHO IS MY MASTER”? If we are not careful we’ll find ourselves letting this world and the things in it be our master. When we do that, it is very easy for us to be led astray and find ourselves lost. We also have a Master that loves us and when we make mistakes God is there to forgive us. Brother Jeff’s dogs had to correct their mistakes and learn from them. I want to tell you the story of a very dear friend of mine. I cannot think of a better example of “WHO IS MY MASTER”.
My parent’s best friends were faithful Christian parents of two girls, Sharon and Carol. My brother and I grew up with the girls, because our parents were always doing things together. Sharon’s mom once told me that because I was older than Sharon, I was her big brother and that I should look out for her, but most of the time it was Sharon looking out for me.There was a girls’ club at school. To be member of the club you had to have sex with more than one of the football players. The girls in the club were always asking Sharon to be a member of their club. One day at lunch, one of the girls asked Sharon, “Don’t you want to be like us?” Sharon answered her with this statement, “At any time I can be just like you, but you can never again be just like me.” God was Sharon’s Master and there was no way that anyone or anything was going to lead her away from her Master. Sharon was in the 10th grade when she made that statement, but she had the spiritual wisdom of a mature Christian.
The question today for each one of us is, “WHO IS MY MASTER?”