Serving

"nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing."
(2 Samuel 24:24)
There is a cost to serving.  Serving, by it's very nature, is not easy nor is it free.  It is an easy thing to say, "I will take care of you", but a very different thing to remain faithful to that pledge.  Serving others is the crucible of self-centeredness.  Our basic attitude, our nature is one of "serve me."  To serve others is not natural with mankind but when done in love brings blessing to the one serving as well as the one being served.  Of course the greatest example of serving was Jesus and His demonstration of serving others during His earthly life, ministry and death.  While Jesus knew what He was doing and why, His humbling Himself to become a servant (Phil.2) was not always approved by others and at times He was actually rebuked for it.  Our humble service can be misunderstood and even despised because it can bring guilt when displayed.  Then there is what serving does within us.  The act of serving others is tapping the well of the compassion of Jesus within us and we get to be refreshed by that spring.  One day I was watching a person who was near death.  They were requiring more and more care as their strength lessened and their death approached.  Yet, death didn't come quickly.  More and more was being required of the loved ones.  While talking with a friend I said, "I don't really understand why the Lord doesn't just take the struggling older saint."  He said, "often it is because those serving them needs to serve them!"  That was one of those moments of revelation for me.  The one needing the service was actually providing a service to the one doing the serving.  Jesus said that when we were serving, even the "least of these", we are serving Him.  May we all have a fresh grace today to engage every opportunity to serve when we see the need and realize what a powerful ministry we are honored by Jesus to perform.  

• The Power To Choose

• Joshua 24:15 (NKJV)

  And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Today it seems that rather than seeing our decisions and life choices as choices, society sees them as uncontrollable circumstances to which we fall victim.  Possibly our greatest God-given ability is the ability to choose.  Mankind has always tried to deny his personal responsibility to choose because the ability to choose comes with the personal responsibility for the results of that decision.  When Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain with the Law of God, Aaron and the congregation made a golden calf that they could worship.  When Moses confronted Aaron about his decision Aaron said the calf just jumped out of the fire!  Amazing!  

It is interesting to observe the wording in Joshua's challenge to Israel.  He talked about their choices before them.  Would they choose to serve the gods of their fathers on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites.  Would they choose the comfort of the false gods of their fathers?  They were familiar with the past it represented their heritage.  Would they choose the gods of the Amorites which represented the current, the contemporary "in vogue" god of the now.   The decision to serve the True and Living God must be a current living decision.  To compare to our day we could ask, "will you choose to serve where God once was moving and working?  Will we choose the god of doctrines of reason.  The things that seem right to the intellect?  It makes sense to move away from the old outdated verses that have been preached and taught for over 2,000 years.  The battle cry of the new generation of "the enlightened" is "Would a loving God...?"  Many of the things that are today being dictated by our culture and even the highest court in the land just makes sense.  Yet faith requires obedience the His Word.  There are lines we dare not cross for any reason and especially to appease people.  As in Joshua's day we, the people of God have difficult and costly decisions to make.  May God give us courage and steadfastness to choose rightly and declare, "we will serve the Lord!"

The Word of God, The Moral Compass of the Believer.

The phrase, "I believe" sounds strong and sincere but it can lead to disaster.  In our "enlightened" age, it seems that taking the Word of God as it is by faith has become looked upon as a sign of intellectual weakness.  Only the uneducated, the simpleton would make a decision to believe without scientific evidence.  Of course for the "believer" in the Lord, that is exactly what true faith requires.  The very definition of faith is, "the evidence of things not seen."  From the beginning of time, faith has never caused problems.  "Reason" is the culprit. Satan's original temptation that led away from God was the simple question, "has God said?"  Are you sure that God really said that?  Do you think He really meant that?  Would a loving God really do that?  The questions continue to this day.  Daily we hear such things as, "would a loving God allow people to go to hell?"  Reason has become and altar and understanding a false god.  It seems most people walk in faith only as far as their understanding will allow.  If they can't understand, they won't believe.  Yet, true faith says, "I will obey even if I don't understand."  Well then, "what is to keep us from doing evil in the name of faith?"  After all people kill people and say that God told them to do it.  The balance here is a knowledge of Scripture.  Faith and obedience to the voice of God is always within the framework of the Bible.  We never believe, think or act outside of Scripture.  Our moral compass, that invisible part of us that tells us what is right and wrong is not a feeling or even accumulated knowledge.  It is the renewed mind brought about by a regeneration of the mind.  Our old mind and our old thinking that was based upon experience and reason is now established by, and upon, God's Word.  Our new regenerated mind is in fact God's mind.  The "mind of Christ." Our regenerated moral compass is not my opinion or the opinion of the ever changing mentality of this world but true north established by God almighty.  Scientific evidence is always changing and resetting to new standards.  God's Word, His parameters of love for His children have always been and will always be the same.