Let's Serve

Christ encourages you, and his love comforts you. God’s Spirit unites you, and you are concerned for others. (Philippians 2:1) 

Most of us love to receive notice for the hard work we are doing - even if it is not "out loud", we want someone to actually recognize our accomplishments. I enjoy seeing someone take the work I have done and put it into use in their own particular situation. It gives me pleasure to see the work utilized. In our Christian walk, we want to be recognized, have our work serve some purpose, and know what we have done really makes a difference. We don't "do good deeds" simply because we desire the accolades, but we are "serving God" in our deeds, knowing he will receive the ultimate praise in the end.

In our daily walk, we receive some accolades from Jesus, and we give them right back. It is like he encourages us by giving us a high five or giving us a pat on the shoulder, as though we have done our job well. It may not be a "physical" thing, but when we have connected well with the purposes of God for our lives that day, we know at the end of the day the deep satisfaction of having "served well". This gives us encouragement for the new day, doesn't it? I think God's kids thrive in a world of encouragement - if not outwardly, at least internally! We need to know what we are doing matters - truly eternally.

Until three things are in alignment within our lives, we will not be serving as we should. Our service will be a little too self-centered or lacking in the sincerity required. These three things act as a balancing effect on the actions of our service. They are Christ's encouragement, his love, and the presence of his Spirit within. Encouragement is really this thing most of us associate with courage - the confidence to do something because we know the help of another who comes alongside. Confidence is "bolstered" when the words and actions of encouragement are spoken deep within the places of our spirit where we commune with God. Encouragement stimulates us within, allowing us to know our actions are approved - they are "on track" with what God wants for his kids.

We won't always do things "right" every time, will we? Sometimes we miss the mark no matter how hard we were trying. We need the comfort of knowing his grace transcends our "misses". Each and every time I miss the mark, I need reassurance I can get up, take the steps forward I need to take, and find the right way in it all. His love does this not only for me, but for you, as well. All manner of service is really just a conglomeration of various individuals putting their skills and talents into use - but when they are done "individually" without an over-arching purpose, they are merely nice talents on display. Put them together under the direction of the Spirit of God, innervating us within to move in the same direction (toward the same mark), and we have a symphony of talents. Unity is the force by which God's church becomes a beacon of hope to the lost and dying.

In our service, where there is encouragement and love, there will be unity. They go hand-in-hand. We cannot serve without encouragement. We will not continue to serve if there is no comfort when it seems like our service has not gone well. We will live lonely lives until we are united in one purpose. Over and above all our service is this one thought of serving not only God, but others in the grace and love of Christ - so they may be encouraged, comforted, and drawn into the unity Christ desires of his kids. Just sayin!

Stone upon stone

God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home. (Ephesians 2:20-22)

Irrespective of how we got here. Some of us got here by searching for something of significance in our lives, while others got here at the end of a long rope, just about to hang themselves out to dry. Regardless of 'how' we come into the family of God, we are a family and a family needs a place to dwell. We dwell in the presence of God - each of us making up 'one stone' in this great building. I used to think I could stand alone, but one stone does not make a building!

Built by God - not by human hands or schemes. This is important for us to recognize because our pride would want to make us think we were the ones doing the building. We think we are the ones doing the changing, coming into conformity to the principles taught by God. The truth is the lessons that lead to change in our lives are taught by him, but the 'practical lab' portion of the teaching is just us finding out he intends to give us the power to live by those same teachings.

All of us built into it - not one of us who calls upon the name of Jesus is left out of the building process. We have a place - we belong specifically where he places us. We may want to be the cornerstone, or even the stone that everyone sees first, but each stone is equally as important. I think this is a good lesson for us to learn - none of us stands out as 'more important' or of greater value than another. We are all equal in God's house - the thing God does in us make us all equal.

God is quite at home in this temple - how about you? Are you comfortable in what God is building? Have you settled into the place he has made for you? Are you secure in your placement? If you are, you find all the other stones around you are wondrous stones - each fulfilling their role in this great building. There is no more competition or need for 'one-upmanship' in this family. No middle child syndrome here! He is the firstborn - no one usurps that position. We are one of many - too numerous to count. Each perfectly joins with the other. We don't 'fit' because a few chips get knocked off here and there - we fit as we are. Just sayin!

Lego Lessons

So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books. (I Peter 1:5-8)

Don't lose a minute building - that is a pretty direct explanation about how we are to live our daily lives. We are to be engaged in this walk with Jesus - not just onlookers. We are to build and allow for there to be his building within. We are to allow one character trait he may focus on today become the launching point for where he may focus tomorrow. You may have heard it said, "Line upon line, precept upon precept". God's attributes are to be alive and active in our lives - not passive and dying off from stagnation!

I haven't really met many people who don't have some 'goal' for their day. There might be grocery shopping that needs to be done, a trip to the bank in order to deposit or withdraw monies, laundry to be washed and folded, or a hard conversation to be had with someone you love or admire. Regardless of the 'goal', there is a desired outcome. We could order those groceries delivered, saving the trip to the grocer, but we still need to put them all away. We could snap a photo of the check for deposit through the banking institution's app and be done with the deposit, but we still had to make some effort to accomplish this small task. Nothing is accomplished without goals.

God put it this way - if the people have no vision, they will perish. The writer of Proverbs reminds us: If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed. (Proverbs 29:18) We can go through life stumbling all over ourselves, but in the end, we will have accomplished very little compared to what we may have been able to accomplish with a clear vision (goal). God is doing something within each of us, and in turn, he does something through each of us. Embrace the goals God has for you today - allowing him to build upon what he accomplished yesterday and preparing you for what he desires for you tomorrow. You may just find today's goals aren't all that hard to embrace when you see them in light of being building blocks that 'fit together' in the end. Just sayin!

Are you a 'last chapter' kind of Christian?

This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that’s reading the story backward. He is our faith father.  (Romans 4:16)

If you are anything like me, there are going to be times when we feel like nothing good is coming out of our actions. WE try hard - but WE don't see much good fruit from all our trying. If you have not heard this before, grace is not based on what WE do, but on what GOD does in us. Try as we might - we cannot fix the problem of sin in our lives. Try as we might - we cannot "figure out" everything that goes wrong or doesn't measure up to our expectations. We need a power stronger than ours, a wisdom better than our own, and a perspective higher than ours. Heritage in the natural sense does not guarantee "right-standing" with God, or some guarantee of never facing the harder stuff in life. The Jewish believers Paul is writing to in our passage had the idea their heritage of being of their "Father Abraham" made them better than the newer believers from the Gentile community who were joining the church. Is it possible we might have encountered this in our own communities at one time or another? One group saying to the other group, "We are better because...."  While it happens far too often, it is silliness - pure and simple. No one gets "better treatment" from God just because they are of a particular "denomination" or "heritage"! God employs grace EQUALLY upon all who seek it!

God makes all kinds of promises. It is not what we do, but what HE does, which makes the fulfillment of those promises possible. For example, the promise to never leave us or forsake us is based on HIS faithfulness, not ours! Isn't that good news? Knowing he is in control of the "never leaving" and "always keeping" part of our lives is a whole lot of comfort to this gal who struggles with consistency in her life! Our part is in the trusting. First, we trust God. Then we trust what it is he does and how he does it - his ways. How do we discover his "ways"? In scripture! We have been given the "play-book" of sorts, so we can get to know how he structures the best defense and offense in our lives! Trust is based on obedience, is it not? When we trust someone, we do what they instruct. Maybe God asks us to do things we think might actually "hurt", but in doing them, we find he "catches" us every time, keeping us from "hurting ourselves"! We learn obedience is built on trust and trust is built in obedience. Equating the two is often the best lesson we can learn!

We have to embrace God, then what he is doing. We often want to go about this backward - embracing what God is doing without fully embracing him. Let me tell you, I would not jump out of an airplane alone if I knew I could do it a couple of times in tandem with another experienced jumper! I would choose the closeness of an experienced skydiver simply because I would feel "held close". Maybe there is a lesson there for us as it applies to obedience. God asks us to embrace him - giving ALL to him in this embrace. In so doing, he is holding us close enough to take whatever "leap" he wants us to take - all while we are held in his arms. We do our best "leaping" when we are in tandem with God - not by just jumping out on our own! We need to guard against "reading the story backward". Ever flip to the last chapter of a book to find out how it ends? If you have, you might just know the end of the book, but you don't know what led up to the ending! God remind us of the importance of "precepts". A precept is a "direction" given as a means of action. We build upon this precept with another until we get the "context" of actions which lead up to the "right stuff" in our lives. We cannot just skip from the beginning to the end without all the "precepts" in place. If we do, we might "feel like" we got to the end unscathed and ahead of planned arrival, but we realize we still have all our issues in tow! Sometimes we need to take time to drop a few of these issues along the way - by understanding a new precept or two and acting on them. We call this obedience! Just sayin!