I've spent most of my life trying to please God, working harder and studying more, beating myself up for my failings -- and only recently starting to find out what really does please him. It's much simpler than I used to think!
My wife, The Amazing Joanne, puts it this way: God can do anything he wants for fun, and he decided to adopt us! That's a paraphrase of Eph. 1:5, which says "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to
himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave
him great pleasure." (See Genesis 1:31, where God calls us, as part of his creation, "very good.") So in that broader sense, you have already pleased God, just by existing! But how do you know what to do after that?
Imagine you were an orphan living on the streets in the wrong part of town, hungry and dirty and sick and alone, sleeping in your rags at night. One day an incredibly rich family sees you, loves you that instant, and takes you home to their mansion, where you have more food, clothing and love that you ever imagined existed in the whole world together. How could you show that family appreciation for their love and generosity? Would you reject their gifts and insist on earning them first? You would be wise to decide that, since they've been so good to you, then you should learn their values and ways, and find how to be good to others also.
After describing who we are -- being securely "in Christ"-- in Ephesians 1-3, Paul finally gives us something to do in the latter chapters. He says in 5:1-2, "Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ." In verses 8-9, "For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true." And in verse 10, "Carefully determine what pleases the Lord." There are other commands and cautions in these verses too, but the core is this: we are God's children -- adopted through Jesus Christ -- so our new family values are love and generosity and light.
What pleases God? That, since we are "in Christ," we live by our new family values of light and love and acceptance, loving others as generously as we've been loved by God, and by following the Holy Spirit's lead, "carefully determine what pleases the Lord." That's enough to keep us fully occupied the rest of our lives until we see God -- when we will finally start to understand just how much he really loves us.
Showing posts with label serving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label serving. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Each One Teach One
The Wonderful Joanne and I were blessed by spending last weekend with a bunch of wonderful young people, helping them learn more about the good news of God's grace in Jesus Christ, and his desire to share that same good news with everyone on the planet. I was inspired by the love shown by all those young folks for their friends who don't yet believe and can't participate in the divine relationship we've been given (Eph. 2:6). And I was thrilled to see the older leaders bringing those young people into leadership.
Recently I was awed by the testimony of a young woman, about age 25, telling how she had been working in camp ministry for several years. She realized that it was time for her to step aside from the ministry she truly loves (and is very good at) in order to make room for teenagers who were showing leadership. She's transitioning from doing the work, to teaching multiple others to do it. They'll come up with ways to do it that she (or I) would never have thought of, and we pray they will also bring others into leadership.
Paul told Timothy to pass along what he had been taught, multiplying leaders four generations deep: "You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others." (2 Tim. 2:2) The job of every Christian servant is not simply to enjoy the work we get to do for Jesus, but always to be looking for others who can do it and who will pass it on to the next ones.
Water gets to the top leaf of tall trees because each water molecule bonds to the next one, creating a chain that pulls more molecules along, even against gravity. They move upward because the water at the top is being 'breathed out' by the leaves, and a water molecule evaporating from the leaf draws another one up. As servants of Jesus we should bond, like those water molecules, to someone who will slip seamlessly into our place when we move to whatever God has for us next. We may feel a sense of loss as we give up what we've enjoyed doing; but it's not really ours to keep anyway, it was only ours to pass on.
Whatever place of service you have, in church, or your home or outside of it, can you name someone you are bringing into service? If not, how about asking God for someone you can mentor, and asking him to show you how to do it? It may be the most rewarding thing you've ever done!
Recently I was awed by the testimony of a young woman, about age 25, telling how she had been working in camp ministry for several years. She realized that it was time for her to step aside from the ministry she truly loves (and is very good at) in order to make room for teenagers who were showing leadership. She's transitioning from doing the work, to teaching multiple others to do it. They'll come up with ways to do it that she (or I) would never have thought of, and we pray they will also bring others into leadership.
Paul told Timothy to pass along what he had been taught, multiplying leaders four generations deep: "You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others." (2 Tim. 2:2) The job of every Christian servant is not simply to enjoy the work we get to do for Jesus, but always to be looking for others who can do it and who will pass it on to the next ones.
Water gets to the top leaf of tall trees because each water molecule bonds to the next one, creating a chain that pulls more molecules along, even against gravity. They move upward because the water at the top is being 'breathed out' by the leaves, and a water molecule evaporating from the leaf draws another one up. As servants of Jesus we should bond, like those water molecules, to someone who will slip seamlessly into our place when we move to whatever God has for us next. We may feel a sense of loss as we give up what we've enjoyed doing; but it's not really ours to keep anyway, it was only ours to pass on.
Whatever place of service you have, in church, or your home or outside of it, can you name someone you are bringing into service? If not, how about asking God for someone you can mentor, and asking him to show you how to do it? It may be the most rewarding thing you've ever done!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Not to Be Served But to Serve
I like to be taken care of -- who doesn't? A massage on a tight muscle, a great meal, and many other treats in life make me feel loved and cared for. I've learned to give those things away too, because they show love for someone else.
The core reason we celebrate Christmas is that God took on flesh, becoming Jesus, to be with us. But Jesus wasn't here to be waited on hand and foot. He corrected the disciples for their self-seeking attitudes in Matthew 20. He started the lesson by telling them (v. 17-19) that he himself was to die under the hand of the Jews and the Romans. He told them straight out that they weren't to act like the Gentile rulers, taking advantage of others (v. 25-27). He capped it off by reversing the normal order for big-wigs, in v. 28: "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many."
He'd been teaching this to the disciples for some time. In Matthew 14, Jesus heard about his cousin John, the baptizer, being killed by Herod, and tried to get away, but everyone followed him. Verse 14 says "Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick." Then (v. 15) "That evening the disciples came to him and said, 'This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.' " But Jesus wasn't going to let the disciples get away with turning others away! Through a miracle, he made them feed 5,000 men (plus women and children) with one person's dinner. (He multiplied the food, but they had to do the work of distributing it.)
Jesus is still doing miracles and providing for people today. He provides the resources, but he expects his disciples (yep, that would be you and me) to carry the stuff around. So, how do we do that? Some people I know feed the homeless, either directly or by contributing to a shelter. Others help take care of someone in their neighborhood who is in need. It can be simple, and not even expensive: baking cookies; visiting someone who is home-bound or stuck in the hospital; or providing warm clothing for a family in need.
In Luke 14:12-14, Jesus teaches on humble giving by saying we should provide for those who can't pay us back by giving something similar to us. So why don't you and I make a special effort this month to do something for someone less able? The message of the Gospel -- the love of God for people -- can begin with physical gifts that lead to spiritual breakthroughs. It takes figuring out what they need and then deciding to provide it. Just like Jesus did for you, and for me. Just like he's continuing to do, and wants us involved in, today. So let's get busy with Jesus!
The core reason we celebrate Christmas is that God took on flesh, becoming Jesus, to be with us. But Jesus wasn't here to be waited on hand and foot. He corrected the disciples for their self-seeking attitudes in Matthew 20. He started the lesson by telling them (v. 17-19) that he himself was to die under the hand of the Jews and the Romans. He told them straight out that they weren't to act like the Gentile rulers, taking advantage of others (v. 25-27). He capped it off by reversing the normal order for big-wigs, in v. 28: "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many."
He'd been teaching this to the disciples for some time. In Matthew 14, Jesus heard about his cousin John, the baptizer, being killed by Herod, and tried to get away, but everyone followed him. Verse 14 says "Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick." Then (v. 15) "That evening the disciples came to him and said, 'This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.' " But Jesus wasn't going to let the disciples get away with turning others away! Through a miracle, he made them feed 5,000 men (plus women and children) with one person's dinner. (He multiplied the food, but they had to do the work of distributing it.)
Jesus is still doing miracles and providing for people today. He provides the resources, but he expects his disciples (yep, that would be you and me) to carry the stuff around. So, how do we do that? Some people I know feed the homeless, either directly or by contributing to a shelter. Others help take care of someone in their neighborhood who is in need. It can be simple, and not even expensive: baking cookies; visiting someone who is home-bound or stuck in the hospital; or providing warm clothing for a family in need.
In Luke 14:12-14, Jesus teaches on humble giving by saying we should provide for those who can't pay us back by giving something similar to us. So why don't you and I make a special effort this month to do something for someone less able? The message of the Gospel -- the love of God for people -- can begin with physical gifts that lead to spiritual breakthroughs. It takes figuring out what they need and then deciding to provide it. Just like Jesus did for you, and for me. Just like he's continuing to do, and wants us involved in, today. So let's get busy with Jesus!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Marriage
I've decided I love my wife.
I hope that is no surprise to The Amazing Joanne, but of course like all married men, I sometimes don't act like I love her, and often I don't appreciate her as I should. Proverbs 18:22 says "The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord." So according to that verse, I've got a treasure and have received favor from God. I agree! I don't deserve her love, and I am blessed more than I can measure to have a life partner, friend and the amazing ministry partner she is, in my life.
Paul says in Ephesians 5:25 that husbands should "love" their wives. In society of that time, marriage was a social convenience for raising heirs to the man's family, and love was often given to the man's mistress instead. As he often did, Paul turns this human idea on its head and says that the man should love his wife "just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her." Men tend to be a tad more selfish than that. Sometimes if we're being heroic we give up our lives for a cause, but not for our wives. But Paul instructs us that, as the Messiah sacrificed himself for the sake of the church, husbands should give up our own agendas and desires and priorities in order to serve our wives.
Marriage experts will tell you that a wife will feel nurtured and cherished by this behavior by a husband, and respond by loving him; but Paul doesn't talk about whether a wife will respond, he merely says this is our duty. Her response, if any, is secondary and we aren't to serve in anticipation of a return, but because God says we must. (Loving in order to get a response that we want isn't really loving anyway.) Still, it shouldn't be drudgery; in verse 28, he says "In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself."
A man who will love his wife this way, whether he feels like it or not or thinks she deserves it or not, learns some of the love that Jesus himself has for his church (a church that is, by all accounts, not perfect nor sometimes seems loveable). He may learn some humility as he reflects on how our Savior loves the church in spite of itself, and so loves him in spite of himself; and that might encourage him to love his wife with true selflessness. I'm working on that one and will be for some time to come. But still grateful for the treasure and favor God has given me in Joanne.
I hope that is no surprise to The Amazing Joanne, but of course like all married men, I sometimes don't act like I love her, and often I don't appreciate her as I should. Proverbs 18:22 says "The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord." So according to that verse, I've got a treasure and have received favor from God. I agree! I don't deserve her love, and I am blessed more than I can measure to have a life partner, friend and the amazing ministry partner she is, in my life.
Paul says in Ephesians 5:25 that husbands should "love" their wives. In society of that time, marriage was a social convenience for raising heirs to the man's family, and love was often given to the man's mistress instead. As he often did, Paul turns this human idea on its head and says that the man should love his wife "just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her." Men tend to be a tad more selfish than that. Sometimes if we're being heroic we give up our lives for a cause, but not for our wives. But Paul instructs us that, as the Messiah sacrificed himself for the sake of the church, husbands should give up our own agendas and desires and priorities in order to serve our wives.
Marriage experts will tell you that a wife will feel nurtured and cherished by this behavior by a husband, and respond by loving him; but Paul doesn't talk about whether a wife will respond, he merely says this is our duty. Her response, if any, is secondary and we aren't to serve in anticipation of a return, but because God says we must. (Loving in order to get a response that we want isn't really loving anyway.) Still, it shouldn't be drudgery; in verse 28, he says "In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself."
A man who will love his wife this way, whether he feels like it or not or thinks she deserves it or not, learns some of the love that Jesus himself has for his church (a church that is, by all accounts, not perfect nor sometimes seems loveable). He may learn some humility as he reflects on how our Savior loves the church in spite of itself, and so loves him in spite of himself; and that might encourage him to love his wife with true selflessness. I'm working on that one and will be for some time to come. But still grateful for the treasure and favor God has given me in Joanne.
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