Saturday, March 01, 2008

Making a Difference


“Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.” Romans 2:13, The Message

Rick Meyers is a friend of mine, and he has done an extraordinary thing. Several years ago he was employed as a machinist in Oregon, where he worked the night shift on an assembly line in a blue-collar, dead end job. “Wait a minute,” he said to himself one evening, “this isn’t working for me. I can’t do this for the rest of my life.”

He bought a computer and began teaching himself programming. He obviously had a knack for this, and doors began to open. He was hired by a company to help develop software that operated their equipment, which gave him the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to find and fix bugs in the programming modules. His abilities were increasing, as were his opportunities.

He began traveling the country conducting seminars and workshops, training others how to use the software he had developed. One of these trips brought him to Tennessee, where the doors opened for another job. He and family sensed this was a move they should make.

Once in Tennessee, settled in to his job and a healthy church, he found himself struggling with a popular Bible software program. “Wait a minute,” he thought to himself, “why don’t I just write my own study program?” And that’s what he did. He sent copies of it to a few pastors and friends, to get their input on what would make it even better; you know, more user-friendly. After a few tweaks, Rick launched his Bible software program online, offering it completely free of charge to anyone who wanted it.

That was in the year 2000. Right now, as of this writing, over 7 million downloads in 167 countries around the world have occurred. Just in one month the bandwidth use is an average of fifteen terabytes; that’s 15,000 gigabytes; and that’s a whole lot! You can download your own copy by going to www.e-sword.net.

It is indisputably the best Bible study tool available today. And it is free.

God has not only blessed the works of his hands, but the Lord has poured great blessings out upon Rick and his family. He found out what God had wired him to do, and he has done it with extraordinary success.

God alone knows the eternal effect that Rick’s decision has had in the lives of millions; but we can be sure of this one thing. Much would have been lost to this world had he settled for the night shift in Oregon.

What about you? What extraodinary thing can God do with your life?


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