A few months ago we moved to a new, smaller, house, closer to our family. We moved in January at the height of the Australian summer and on several days the house was uncomfortably hot and it was necessary to leave doors and windows open to obtain relief. The house is at a fairly high altitude so, as well as being hot in summer, it can be very cold in winter. We rarely get snow here but already this winter we have had frosts that would make your hair curl - chilly in the house at night and much too cold to get out of bed early in the morning.

Action was necessary. An inspection of the attic indicated that ceiling insulation would solve the problem. So a few hundred dollars and three days work later our house is warm in winter and cool in summer. To achieve this two things were necessary - a decision, followed by action. We have now created a comfort zone and the house is a pleasant place in which to live, to work and to relax.

The only difficulty with comfort zones in life, as apart from the place in which we live, is that there is little incentive to either make decisions or take action. Only last Sunday, as we attended a service at our local church, it occured to me just how many of us are living in comfort zones. We are comfortable about going to church once a week and putting in an occasional appearance at church activities; we are comfortable in our pews as we listen to the minister expounding the virtues of making decisions and taking action in the name of Jesus; and we are comfortable on returning to our homes, sure in the knowledge that all the promises of God surround us and our future with Him is secure. We are, in short, very comfortable, but not rating too highly on the decision and action chart.

Obviously, action must be tempered by the barriers of age, experience and physical ability, but there is so much that we can and should do. Everywhere there are churches that have closed because the congregations were so comfortable that nothing happened and they just withered away. I know of Sunday schools that have closed because people were so comfortable in their pews on Sundays that no one wanted to make the effort and teach the kids. Prayer meetings that few attended; bible study groups on cold nights - brrrr; church meetings that lacked a quorum; missionaries who desperately needed support. The list goes on, and in our comfort zones we can tick the list of things we should have supported - things that required our decision and our action.

Two thousand years ago, a relatively small band of people made the effort to follow the Great Commission and took the Good News of Jesus to the four corners of the world, as they knew it. It was their untiring efforts, in conditions that defy description, that have made the Christian world as we know it today. It was their decisions and their actions that affected the poor, the unsaved, the children, the widows and orphans, the lost, and made their lot in life a better one. What will the Christian world say of us in the years ahead.

Have a good, and productive, week. Pastor Ron.

Optional Bible readings: Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 2:1-4.

This is one of a series of weekly messages of encouragement originating from the Derwent Valley, near Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. A companion Bible study page is available each week. To subscribe email <> with the words 'subscribe word (or) word and study' Enquire about our weekly e-mail newsletter for young people.

Pastor Ron Clarke (Mark 16:15)
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