How do you serve?

It’s 3 am, Sunday morning.  This night my prayer before falling asleep could be summed up in this plea “Dear God, interfere with whatever I am doing, with whatever we are doing as the church, make Your Will known, stop us in our tracks if You have to, and show us what You want us to do; wake me up if you have to....”  So, I was up at 2 am, with a list of things I must do this week. 

And now I am reading the Sabbath School lesson.  Wow!  What a challenge: one can be a close associate of a spiritual person and not be converted!  One can even be in a position of apprenticeship, and yet have totally different set of priorities.  I could not help but reflect on our church situation.  We are not sure about our Common Vision, even though it was preached from the pulpit, written about in blogs and newsletters, taught at Board meetings, presented in details at elders meetings.  The reason is simple – each holds different priorities, and to give it up is a sacrifice many are not willing to make.

Sunday lesson makes a statement “Jesus said that the willingness to be a servant was a prerequisite for any leadership position in the church (Mark 9:35)”  Servanthood is not an option in God’s Kingdom!  Every member is a servant!  When we get baptised we promise to follow Jesus who came to serve.  When we come to the Communion we bend down to wash another’s feet, to place ourselves in a symbolic role of a servant.  Do we take this beyond symbolism?  Do we serve in real life?

It is a great privilege to be called into God’s service in any capacity.  Have you considered this privilege when the Nominating Committee member contacted you over the past couple of weeks asking to serve?  Last week I asked you if you are guest or a family.  This week as I interacted with few people I learned that not all read the bulletin!  Maybe we need to take an extra minute to draw everyone’s attention to the communication that is printed weekly for your benefit....How dare you!!!!J

As we approach the festive season, let’s remind ourselves that the reason for the season was God not willing that anyone would perish in their selfishness, but all would have life through His Son, who came to seek, save and serve, and then commissioned this service of reconciliation to those who would follow Him.

Every time I speak about spiritual gifts I bring up Hebrews 2:3-4 where Apostle says that our salvation is confirmed to us by spiritual giftedness we receive.  Consequently, to neglect our spiritual gifts, to fail using the deposit of Holy Spirit in our lives for service is to neglect our salvation.  How then shall we escape???

How do you serve?  Who do you serve? Where do you serve?  Why do you serve? WHEN WILL YOU SERVE, FOR REAL?