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Are You Ready to Serve God? Yes, this means you!
Discussion Thought of the Day:
14 “Now then,” Joshua continued, “honor the LORD and serve him sincerely and faithfully. Get rid of the gods which your ancestors used to worship in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve only the LORD. 15 If you are not willing to serve him, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors worshiped in Mesopotamia or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living. As for my family and me, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:14-15 (TEV)
364 Ah, if you would only resolve to serve God seriously, with the same earnestness that you put into serving your ambitions, your vanities, your sensuality … (1)
Over the years, I’ve heard part of the Bible passage quoted above used to call people to faith, to challenge those who do not believe, to believe.
It has always bothered me a bit because when you look at the entire context, you see that Joshua isn’t challenging the people who are not yet in a relationship with God. He is challenging those who are in covenant, who have known God’s promises and have been blessed because God is faithful.
He is challenging us, my fellow believers!
Imagine what would happen if the church were as dedicated to serving God as they are to television? If they were as dedicated to prayer as they were to playing Candy Crush Saga or whatever version of Farmville exists? What would happen if we heard Joshua’s call and began to take seriously the call to look out for others, to love and care for them?
What if we were willing to embrace the call to correct in love those whose disobedience drove them apart form God?
What if we were so committed to God that His passion overrode our passion?
I can continue to ask all the “What if’s”, they are good to use to see we need to do more like Christ, to be more like Jesus. If we are to live like those who are baptized believers.
But that won’t cause us to be. We can’t “decide” to do this, and be successful at it. What we are choosing is more than to do stuff, though as we are transformed, we will find ourselves sacrificing our very lives (see Romans 1:1-10)
What we are called to do is more than serve. It is to serve the Lord. TO walk with Him, to be in a relationship with Him, to so know and trust Him that all He is is revealed to be who we are. We are remade in His image and are called to imitate Him, transformed into His image!
Choosing this day to serve Him is a call to discipleship, to prayer, to sacrifice, to witness, to put aside our own vision, our own passion, everything we are. It is time to live with Him.
It is a high calling, but it is your calling, and the calling to which you are tasked to share and encourage others to take up, as they come to know Him.
Let’s walk with Jesus… it is time to hear His call.
Lord, have mercy upon us!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 927-928). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Today is God’s “take your kid to work day”
Discussion/Devotional thought of the day:
Back in the day, there was a song on Christian radio that had the following lyrics
“it may be the Devil, and it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody!”
Yesterday I wrote a little about priorities, then during the day, I started looking at all the demands for my time this fall. I’ll have to head to St Louis at the end of the month, then Palm Springs for a three day meeting in September, then another one day meeting in October, plus all the normal meetings, all the normal stresses, balancing in the needs of my church (writing a new Adult Sunday School class ) with my family, and with other obligations. The comes Advent and Christmas, and planning for those. Some even say I should make sure I have time for myself, and too look after my health.
It’s easy for me to start evaluating the schedule demands, and list this event as more important than that event, these people not as important as those. Now my evaluations are more intuitive than analytically, that’s how I operate. Yet even as I do these things, my blog from yesterday keeps simmering, and I wonder, am I listening to God in these evaluations? Am I considering His priorities, His desires, His needs. Will my calendar reveal where my heart lies, and is it with Him? Or am I acting more like a manager who doesn’t have a close relationship with God, if any?
How we set our priorities both on a daily basis and on a larger scale reveals who we serve, and is it God, or is it some other god? Do we dare question our own analysis – do we question our own motives, and ask God to use us, whereever He would lead us? Do we recognize that our schedule is one that is God’s as well, as He walks with us throughout our day?
Ultimately, our schedules may not change when we make God our first priority, when we realize that our day is one long appointment with Him. We will still have the same people to deal with, the same schedule demands, the same hard decisions, the same vocations and occupations. Yet if we see the day as one we spend with Him, in all those places, with all those people, we will look at the day differently…each appointment a divine appointment, each block of time has a divine significance.
It’s not so much using our time wisely, for personally I don’t have enough wisdom to do that. But I can let God’s wisdom prevail – and walk with Him as a son shadows his dad on “take your kid to work day”
We cry out “Lord Have Mercy” then step back in awe as He does!
