2 Corinthians 9:13 Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men;

In high school our chemistry lab was under the gymnasium. One reason for this design was because of the experiments run in those labs. The one in which Sulphur Dioxide was produced left a pungent stench in the hallway to the lock rooms on our way to gym class.

I took two years of chemistry in high school. It is a very precise science. If one element of the experiment was off by volume, density, time or temperature, your lab would fail. The experiment in releasing Sulphur Dioxide was immediately obvious as to success because of the liberal distribution. Other experiments were not so obvious to the passers-by in the hall. They were meaningful only to those is class.

So it is with our experiment of ministration of the subjection of the gospel. The liberal distribution to all who pass by is meant to signal what is going on within. Some things are meant only for those who are part of the class. But the lessons of the class are meant to teach us how all the elements work together to serve the will of God.

Now think about this grand experiment in this way; of what value are all the elements if they are kept on the shelf and never brought into use? No one, inside or out of the church would ever see any results if you do not follow the instructions and run the experiment.

James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 

Isaiah 5:4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?

Perhaps this should have been the closing verse, but would that accomplish what I need to point out? Notice how I used should and would? This is the last in the trilogy of shoulda, woulda, coulda.

The could is full of regret. It is the past seen thru the eyes of experience. It dwells in regret as if it were a live thing, but it is not, it is a dead thing. There is no dwelling on the past that changes anything about it.

Could have is the most dangerous of these three because it acknowledges the skill, talent, gift and ability of someone that never existed. It is the vanity or all vanities. It pulls at the present to stop that which is possible in the now.

When I repented of the life I had lived the Lord spoke into my mind and said, “What is stopping you now?” I knew the answer as soon as He asked. “Nothing.” That was true but hidden within the answer was a truth I would have to experience. I was my only obstacle. I had to get over myself.

It would take years for me to grasp the truth of Isaiah 5:4, that nothing I did or did not do changed the condition of the Vineyard. Yes it affected the world, yes it affected my family, yes it affected my friends, but I did not change the Vineyard. My life is not so important that I can frustrate the will of God.

Yet He loves me and wants to include me in His works.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

There’s that word “should” again.