This week will feature the messages of Michael. Today. he points out that there is plenty of pain in this world to go around. But, Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be off good cheer, for I have overcome the world.”
After leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land, Joshua said to the congregation, “Chose you this day whom ye shall serve, as for me and my house we shall serve the Lord.” Jesus Christ is the Lord of glory and Lord of lords. To serve the Lord is to be willfully useful for the Christ’s purposes. Ultimately it means to serve the Lord our God from a heart of love, respect, honor, and gratitude. The world thinks that a life of service is dishonorable and undignified. However, a heart of humility is the requirement to serve the Lord as a good and faithful servant.
A servant’s heart is guileless, pure, honorable, and valuable to his Master (a lord; a ruler; one who has supreme dominion and authority). Whom shall you serve? According to Romans 6:26, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are their slaves, whether slaves of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”
The first and great commandment is to love God above all (with all your heart, mind, soul and strength). Because God loved us, we have been freed from the bondage of sin by His grace through faith. Therefore, we have been called to liberty in Christ. Galatians 5 says, do not use liberty as an occasion to sin, but to serve one another in love. Love for Jesus commissions His people for service. Jesus himself was the ultimate servant of God. For God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. We were deserving of death, for the wages of sin is death. But because of Jesus’ sacrifice of His innocent blood in exchange for our guilty of sin, He who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Through the challenges and pressures of this life, God will teach us the meaning of His character in us. In the depth of the storm, the question is, “Lord what are you teaching me thorough this.” We will not know His quality in us unless it is tested and tempered through the storms of life. The spirit of the living God will teach us all things. When the student is ready the teacher will come. The Lord uses trials and tribulations as well as our brothers and sisters in Christ who reprove us to reveal His character in us. The Word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfectly furnished for all good works. To reprove means to convince of a fault, or to make it manifest, and proves over and over again God’s quality in us that persists through His refining fire.
God is love and in Him there is no darkness at all. To know God is to love him in adoration and glory. To know Him we must spend time in the presence of our Lord. Jesus said, “abide in me and I in you. I am the vine and you are the branches.” The life is in the vine. When you’re attached to the vine (Jesus Christ), you shall bear much fruit. We’re called to fill our hearts with His love and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. From a heart of that love, we can cast our cares upon Him, for He cares for us. Then in His strength, we can tend to the needs of those whom God has called us to serve – the needy. God placed us in the body of Christ to build up one another in the love of God. The Church is the gathering of the “called-out ones” to edify one another in love.
Let's continue Michael's message on Christian living in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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