Mr Bello's Dog. (An Illustration of the Need to Serve the Purpose of God)
In Acts 13:36, it is said of King David that he “served God's purposes in his own time, and then he died, was buried with his ancestors, and his body rotted in the grave.” (GNB) What a verdict! If you would love a similar verdict for yourself at the end of it all, you need to read this story and the comments that follow!
At 8am on Saturday morning in a village in central Nigeria, a well known man in the village named Bello was leading a dog across the market place with a leash. He was hurrying toward a section of the market where unwanted dogs were usually sold off. The buyers were strange looking women who came from a distant place. They would buy these dogs and lock them up in metal cages, and at the close of business, they would take the dogs away in pick up vans.
No one knew for sure what they did with the dogs, but the story was that the dogs were taken to a particular part of the country where dog meat was a delicacy. It seemed obvious to everyone that the fate of Mr. Bello’s dog was tied to somebody’s meals.
Mr. Bello had considered the option of selling the dog to someone in the village. That option would not have been difficult except that in such a small village, it would be impossible for a dog to change ownership like that. It would simply find its way back to Mr. Bello’s house. After all, it was already used to wandering around the village and coming back home whenever it needed to eat.
Mr. Bello’s dog, Bingo, was a darling of everybody’s in the small village. It was a rather famous dog in the village. All the kids loved it. It was their favorite play mate. Bingo was cute, playful and smart. Everyone loved Bingo except its owner who began to simply tolerate it after possessing it for six months. Indeed, some kids wept when news filtered to the villagers that the dog would be sold off. Many offers were made to buy it, but Mr. Bello did not want to see the dog again. What on earth could make the owner of such a lovely dog hate it so much?
The story began about six months earlier when Mr. Bello got fed up with the way people were violating the ‘territorial integrity’ of his plot. He was a loner who did not want to be disturbed, but since he moved to his home village, he had struggled to adapt to the communal life in the village with little success. People would walk across his plot to get to the one behind his. Children would pick the oranges and tangerines from his trees, and neighbors’ goats would stroll around his plot and leave their droppings behind.
Mr. Bello thought of what to do and came up with the idea of buying a dog to be trained as a guard dog. The dog, he thought, would help to do the dirty work of chasing people away. Mr. Bello had some experience in dog training. He once worked for security firm that had dog training operations. Mr. Bello bought a puppy, making sure it was the specie he knew would do the job, and commenced the training immediately. But the more he trained the dog to be hostile and mean, the more it opted to be a pet that loved to play with everybody. Indeed, the cute playful dog caused more children to come around the house.
So, while the village loved the dog, Mr. Bello soon gave up the training, and decided to get rid of the dog. IT DID NOT SERVE HIS PURPOSE!
Just like Bingo, people who fail to serve God’s purpose are a disappointment to Him regardless of the success and fame they achieve in life. The essence of living is, according to scripture, to “Have reverence for God, and obey his commands, because this is all that we were created for.”(Ecc.12:13). Friends, cheers and adulations from people can mean so much to us, but it is possible for those cheers to go on while the verdict of heaven may be different. The only way to ensure that you get a verdict similar to that of David is to find God’s reasons for putting you here and to press vigorously into it.
Beyond the general matter of having a fellowship with the Lord, you need to discover your precise call. Now, how would you do that? There is so much to this that it would not be possible to explain all here. But note this: you must be a seeker of his will. To whet your appetite, just read what God told Jeremiah in Jer.1:4-5.“The LORD said to me, I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations." Wonderful! The man was made for prophetic work. What if he missed it and became a successful merchant? Think about it.
In case you think this kind of predetermined life was unique to Jeremiah, read Eph. 2:10: “God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.” Have you discovered the details of what the Lord has already prepared for you to do? You need to be close to God and seek for a step by step revelation of his will for your life. For details of how to achieve this, I am recommending that you urgently find Mike Murdock’s book The Assignment and read it diligently. You may check it out and/or purchase it via this link: http://www.amazon.com/Assignment-Powerful-Secrets-Discovering-Destiny/dp/1880089947. God Bless.
At 8am on Saturday morning in a village in central Nigeria, a well known man in the village named Bello was leading a dog across the market place with a leash. He was hurrying toward a section of the market where unwanted dogs were usually sold off. The buyers were strange looking women who came from a distant place. They would buy these dogs and lock them up in metal cages, and at the close of business, they would take the dogs away in pick up vans.
No one knew for sure what they did with the dogs, but the story was that the dogs were taken to a particular part of the country where dog meat was a delicacy. It seemed obvious to everyone that the fate of Mr. Bello’s dog was tied to somebody’s meals.
Mr. Bello had considered the option of selling the dog to someone in the village. That option would not have been difficult except that in such a small village, it would be impossible for a dog to change ownership like that. It would simply find its way back to Mr. Bello’s house. After all, it was already used to wandering around the village and coming back home whenever it needed to eat.
Mr. Bello’s dog, Bingo, was a darling of everybody’s in the small village. It was a rather famous dog in the village. All the kids loved it. It was their favorite play mate. Bingo was cute, playful and smart. Everyone loved Bingo except its owner who began to simply tolerate it after possessing it for six months. Indeed, some kids wept when news filtered to the villagers that the dog would be sold off. Many offers were made to buy it, but Mr. Bello did not want to see the dog again. What on earth could make the owner of such a lovely dog hate it so much?
The story began about six months earlier when Mr. Bello got fed up with the way people were violating the ‘territorial integrity’ of his plot. He was a loner who did not want to be disturbed, but since he moved to his home village, he had struggled to adapt to the communal life in the village with little success. People would walk across his plot to get to the one behind his. Children would pick the oranges and tangerines from his trees, and neighbors’ goats would stroll around his plot and leave their droppings behind.
Mr. Bello thought of what to do and came up with the idea of buying a dog to be trained as a guard dog. The dog, he thought, would help to do the dirty work of chasing people away. Mr. Bello had some experience in dog training. He once worked for security firm that had dog training operations. Mr. Bello bought a puppy, making sure it was the specie he knew would do the job, and commenced the training immediately. But the more he trained the dog to be hostile and mean, the more it opted to be a pet that loved to play with everybody. Indeed, the cute playful dog caused more children to come around the house.
So, while the village loved the dog, Mr. Bello soon gave up the training, and decided to get rid of the dog. IT DID NOT SERVE HIS PURPOSE!
Just like Bingo, people who fail to serve God’s purpose are a disappointment to Him regardless of the success and fame they achieve in life. The essence of living is, according to scripture, to “Have reverence for God, and obey his commands, because this is all that we were created for.”(Ecc.12:13). Friends, cheers and adulations from people can mean so much to us, but it is possible for those cheers to go on while the verdict of heaven may be different. The only way to ensure that you get a verdict similar to that of David is to find God’s reasons for putting you here and to press vigorously into it.
Beyond the general matter of having a fellowship with the Lord, you need to discover your precise call. Now, how would you do that? There is so much to this that it would not be possible to explain all here. But note this: you must be a seeker of his will. To whet your appetite, just read what God told Jeremiah in Jer.1:4-5.“The LORD said to me, I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations." Wonderful! The man was made for prophetic work. What if he missed it and became a successful merchant? Think about it.
In case you think this kind of predetermined life was unique to Jeremiah, read Eph. 2:10: “God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.” Have you discovered the details of what the Lord has already prepared for you to do? You need to be close to God and seek for a step by step revelation of his will for your life. For details of how to achieve this, I am recommending that you urgently find Mike Murdock’s book The Assignment and read it diligently. You may check it out and/or purchase it via this link: http://www.amazon.com/Assignment-Powerful-Secrets-Discovering-Destiny/dp/1880089947. God Bless.
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