Every Christian wants to serve the Lord Jesus and leave an imprint of His Presence everywhere they go and upon everyone they encounter. However, not every Christian is willing to pay the cost to do so. Many Christians are eager to be used and bear fruit for the Lord, but few are willing to go through the only path do so. The path to being a fruitful servant of the Lord in His harvest involves taking up a cross daily (willingness to suffer), denying oneself (refuse to be self-centered), and following Him (radical obedience to His Word). But something must occur in the life of a servant of Jesus before these three necessary elements for fruitfulness will be lived out in our lives. We must be broken of self-will, self-sufficiency, and self-interests. And that brokenness only comes from walking the same path of servitude Jesus did; a path of suffering.
Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ
Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ
Ministries
Proverbs 1:2-7 – To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth —
Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
As summer kicks into high gear and vacations unfold, it’s time for our seasonal book recommendation for your encouragement and growth in the Lord. This summer’s selection is titled LOVING JESUS MORE. It is a paperback consisting of 145 pages and includes a nice study guide for personal or group studies. The author is Phil…
Every person has mannerisms. One is found in how we walk. Take some time in a public place and notice the various gaits put forth from people. Some are fast-paced; others at a snail’s pace. Others may walk with a limp while others seem to just glide along. The word “walk” is used extensively in the New Testament to describe the life of a Christian. So, how’s our walk with the Lord today?
There are times, perhaps more than I want to admit, that I wish the Christian life would be easy and not so demanding. Let’s face it. We cannot honesty read the New Testament and come away with a description of following Christ as easy, requiring little effort and not demanding the surrender of our entire bearing to His Lordship. Yet, equally so throughout the New Testament we find the Christian life defined as spiritual freedom, liberty, delight, full of joy, and providing true contentment to the soul. I can see where a person may say, “Okay, which one is it?” The Bible teaches the Christian life is hard, yet, easy. The way to harmonize the two is found in the illustration Jesus uses in today’s scripture and that of the yoke.
Every Christian longs to please the Lord. We yearn to obey the Apostle Paul’s words, “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:1). Every day we should want to bring delight to the Lord in how we live, speak, and conduct ourselves in a godless world. And there are many ways we may do so. For today, I want us to focus on one of those ways. It is found in today’s scripture. We please the Lord and bring delight to His heart by living a life bathed in the spirit of thanksgiving.
The main character in today’s scripture (Hebrews 11:24-26) serves us well as a role model on how to not only live the Christian life, but to evaluate the quality of our Christian life. His name is Moses and he is included in the “Hall of Fame of Faith” chapter in our Bibles. When life gets tough and it will, look at Moses. Yet, there is something else about Moses leaving us a worthy model to follow. It happened before he became the great leader of Israel. This excellent quality in him is found in today’s scripture. It was his decisiveness when it came to living out his walk with God.