Service

THIS WEEK I'm celebrating one year of blogging! One year ago yesterday I started this blog, and I haven't missed a Sunday since. This week I also finished filling up my first Bible Study journal, which now contains my Bible Study notes between July 6 and December 14, 2010. I started another journal on the 15th.

This week I am also celebrating answered prayers. A lot of important things were due at school this week, so I prayed believing that I would be victorious over this week and that would not become overwhelmed. My prayers have been answered, and I'm celebrating God's faithfulness. I have been filled with joy just to belong to Him, just to be heard by Him, just to know that He will always be there. Whether the mountain is as big as a heartbreak or as small as a pile of homework, He promises to guide us over it and never leave.

This blog is one of the ways I like to try to serve God. What's been on my mind this week is the concept of "service." What does is mean to serve? And how does one best go about serving God?

This has been on my mind lately because I've been praying about whether I should go on a mission trip, and where, and when. I understand that not everybody has been called to the mission field. In addition to these prayers I have been trying to understand what the call of the Spirit is in my life, since we can only serve God if we are obedient to Him.

On Tuesday my friend Arun brought 1 Corinthians 12 to Bible Study, and I learned a lot from it. This is the chapter which describes all Christians as being the body of Christ, unified by Him as a set of members which each serve a specific purpose. This means that everyone is necessary, but not everyone has the same gifts. v. 4-7 "[4] There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. [5] There are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord. [6] And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. [7] But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each of for the profit of all." And v. 30-31 "[30] Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? [31] But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way."

I love this because it tells me something about serving God. He has given us each gifts to use for serving Him, and when we use them we benefit the rest of the body of Christ. It's okay that some people speak in tongues and others do not. If God wants to give somebody that gift, or any gift, then He will. What gifts has He given you? What are you good at doing? Whatever it is, God can use it for the glory of His name.

1 Corinthians 10:31 "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." This means that all of our actions should be directed toward lifting Him up. That is how a servant and child of God is called to live.

I feel that He has given me gifts in art, in writing, in understanding and in explaining things. He has given all kinds of gifts to all parts of the body of Christ, just as He gives a heart the ability to pump blood, the ears the ability to hear, etc. But not every part is meant to do everything. We serve God by doing what He has made us to do, not just whatever looks good to us. After all, our bodies would be a mess if our feet decided to be hands and our kidneys decided to be stomachs. The important thing is to be willing to obey Him and to do things for His glory rather than for own.

Having begun to learn about service already by Tuesday, I sat down with my Youth group on Wednesday and listened to Pastor Ryan telling us about the meaning of 'service'. I learned that service is not just an action, but it requires a heart that seeks God's glory. Even a pastor or a singer in the choir can only serve God if his heart is for praising our praiseworthy Savior rather than for being seen. Jesus had many problems with the attitudes of the scribes and Pharisees during the time when He walked the earth. They were the religious leaders who had an appearance of great spirituality but were full of vanity and greed. They announced their charitable deeds so that people would glorify them, and as a result, Jesus said, their reward would not be from heaven but from humans.

In Matthew 6:3-4 He tells us how to act instead. "[3] But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, [4] that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly." I admit that I have trouble with this myself, and I'm working on it. From Jesus' words I learn that it is important to watch who we're worshipping when we do good. To be safe, better to just keep it a secret as much as possible. And when we use our talents, better to honor God with them than to desire to have people watching us.

Jesus Himself gives us the perfect example of the heart of a servant in the way He treated His disciples. In John 13 He washed their feet, and in John 19 He died to save the world. What is service, then? It is putting oneself aside out of love for another, to lift someone else up. Philippians 2:8 "And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." He did this for the glory of God and for our salvation, and at Christmas we celebrate this gift of salvation to the world.

At the end of the Youth service I learned that there is to be a mission trip to Peru in June. It is planned to be a week or two right after I graduate high school! I have been praying that the Holy Spirit will tell me whether I should go on a mission trip, and now I am praying to know whether this is something He wants me to do.

This week I read the story of the man who was possessed by many demons, which collectively called themselves "Legion." In Mark 5 Jesus casts these demons into a herd of swine, which then proceeded to run off the edge of a cliff. The people of the region begged Him to leave when they heard about it, but the man whom Jesus had healed wanted to come with Jesus as He left.

v. 18-20 "[18] And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. [19] However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, 'Go home to you friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.' [20] And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled."

I always wondered why Jesus didn't want him to come. He told other people to come and follow Him, so why not this man? Now I understand that this man was following Him by being obedient, which is a demonstration of love and respect. This man served where he already was by telling everybody what God had done. Whatever Jesus' reasons may have been for wanting this particular fellow to stay rather than come along, it is clear that He still wanted him to serve by glorifying God.

No amount of activity, even religious activity, can be called 'serving God' if it is not done for God's glory. It has to be what He wants us to do, and it has to be done out of a desire to glorify Him. Let's be like the Lord Jesus in character and serve by showing love, by humbling ourselves, by benefitting the body of Christ and by putting God's glory first. That is what we have been made to do.