Small Acts With Great Significance

Have you ever wished for great wealth, great talents, and large opportunities to help others and serve the Lord? Maybe in doing so, we miss the small gifts, talents and opportunities that have great significance. Read this excerpt from An Extraordinary Skill for Ordinary Christians by Tim Challies:

...But I love what John Piper says: “Here is a vocation that will bring you more satisfaction than if you became a millionaire ten times over: Develop the extraordinary skill for detecting the burdens of others and devote yourself daily to making them lighter.” This is the extraordinary ministry for every ordinary Christian—bearing the burdens of others. What seems so mundane and so unspectacular, is actually bringing great glory and honor to God.

You know the passage in Matthew 25 that describes the sheep being separated from the goats at the final judgment (verses 31-46). You have read it a hundred times, but have you ever paused to considered the criteria? The believers are not separated from the unbelievers on the basis of extravagant and spectacular deeds that were seen and fêted by others. Far from it. At the final accounting, when we stand before the Lord, we will be shocked to realize that the most significant things are the smallest things—things so small we have forgotten all about them: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” But these small things stand as proof of our salvation, proof of our commitment to the good of others and the glory of God.

This is the ministry of burden-bearing. It is a vocation that will earn you very few accolades. It will gain you very few awards. The majority of what you do will be unnoticed by others and forgotten even by those who benefit most. You yourself will forget most of it. But every bit of it will matter. Every bit of it will do good to others and bring glory to God.

So look for those who are burdened. Develop the habit and the skill of spotting those burdens, and determine that you will meet them, one casserole or one hug or one visit or one prayer at a time.

Ordinary: A Review

A Review of Ordinary:How to Turn the World Upside Down, by Tony Merida

I had never heard of Tony Merida prior to seeing an advertisement for this book. Now that I have read it, I;m following the author on Twitter and am anxious to read everything he writes! Merida is the founding pastor of Imageo Dei Church in Raleigh, N.C. He also serves as Associate Professor of Preaching at Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, NC

The thesis for the book is taken from a sentence borrowed from Steve Timmis: "Ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality." Merida lists Timmis, David Platt, Tim Keller and Russell Moore as influences on his thought as expressed in this book. The book is about uniting (or better yet maintaining the existing Biblical unity) of gospel belief and proclamation with gospel inspired mercy and service. Each chapter discusses another aspect of kingdom mercy and service: (1) Neighbor Love, (2) Kingdom Hospitality, (3) Care for the Vulnerable, (4) Courageous Advocacy, and (5) God-Centered Humility. Every chapter has both exposition of relevant Scripture and multiple examples and testimonies of how to work the them out in practical ways.

I found the book to be easy to read ,with an argument and presentation that was easy to follow. I also found it very hard to put down, yet I kept pausing to think and ponder over what he was saying. To put it simply, it's a great book and I highly recommend it. I certainly read it more than once.

By the way, a good book to read as a companion to this one might be Tim Keller's Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes us Just.

(Full Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review purposes, but that does not influence my opinion. See my Policy on Book Reviews)

Servant Leaders

"Depending on the translation, at the very most, 'leader' is used only six times in the New Testament, while the word 'servant' can be found over two hundred times. We should be asking why those of us who have a calling to serve the church obsess so much more over leadership than servantship. Jesus said, 'I am among you as the one who serves" (Luke 22:27). If we honestly want to be like Jesus - if we honestly want to follow Jesus-  we will pursue servantship rather than leadership. We will work to become the greatest servants we can be."

      - Lance Ford, UnLeader: Reimagining Leadership...and Why We Must, page 69

Black Work Boots

Want to read a great story about service to the poor, availability even when tired, and God caring about a need for black work boots? Read this one by my friend Elysa at Musings From Graceland.

For more info about the ministry where she serves, check out the web page for We Wil Go. I spent some time with them last Saturday, and am always impressed by what Jesus is doing there in inner city Jackson, MS.

Thanks, Elysa! And BTW, you're much more loving than you think you are.

No Pay Back

"If we are not careful, serving can become a way we try to earn the love we've already received from God, to 'pay Jesus back' for His generous grace. While churches preaching the grace of god would never suggest that serving or volunteering contributes anything to a person's salvation, a subtle tendency among us leads us to believe that serving is a way to stay 'in good' with God.  therefore, unless serving is continually and unapologetically connected to the gospel, it can become a burden, a manipulator, a guilt reliever, or a back-handed method we employ to just keep serving ourselves...."

"...Serving as an attempt to pay God back for His grace is futile - not only because our best efforts would prove woefully inadequate in paying Him back- but because there is nothing to pay back. the gospel reminds us that the debt of our sin has already been paid in full..."

 -Matt Chandler, Creature of the Word: The Jesus Centered Church,  pages 68-69 (italics in the original)

How to Be "the Right Kind of Christian"

Love this quote.  This cannot be said to often!

I’ve known a lot of Christians in my life. I’ve known them to pursue many different courses. Sadly, I’ve known too many who diverged from the narrow way.

I’ve known Christians who went seeking for spiritual gifts, but they lost their focus on Jesus and fell into error.

I’ve known Christians who went seeking for spiritual experiences, but they failed to test their experiences against the Scriptures and drifted away from truth.

I’ve known Christians who went seeking for spiritual authority, but they thought too much of themselves and became prideful and unteachable.

I’ve known Christians who went seeking for spiritual service, but in their busyness, they forgot whom they were serving, and their actions went for nothing.

On the other hand…

I’ve known Christians who went seeking for Jesus above all, and they not only found Him in abundance, but they received spiritual gifts, experiences, authority, and direction for service.

If Jesus is our all, He is faithful to make all of what is His ours.

From Christians I Have Known–And How to Be the Right Kind | Cerulean Sanctum by Dan Edelen

Right on, Dan, right on!

Seek Not to Be Attractive

"A Church that seeks to be particularly attractive is already on the wrong path, because the Church does not work for her own ends, she does not work to increase numbers and thus power. The Church is at the service of another … she serves to make the proclamation of Jesus Christ accessible." – Pope Benedict XVI

Hat tip: The Boar's Head Tavern

Two Christs: We've Got It Backwards

We need to preach the resurrected, triumphant, and reigning Christ, and then live like the humble, incarnate, serving Christ. Ministry should be done with a towel and wash basin.

Too many Christian ministries today seem to preach Christ as servant (Jesus my butler, who serves me and meets my needs) while the preachers live like kings. Ministry should not be done from mansions and private jets.

I think we've got it backwards.

Gospel Obedience

This is from Zach Nielsen at Take Your Vitamin Z, , quoting Dan Cruver on the proper interpretation of James 1:27, which says:

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

Cruver's comments were :

The world tells us that our fundamental identity is determined by our performance not by the performance of another (i.e., Jesus). It seduces us to believing (often unknowingly) that our main sense of significance is found in what we do or in what we’re involved in.

It might look like this: “God is pleased with me because I have given my life to caring for the least of these.” Now, does God smile at us when we care for orphans? Yes, but if the main way we sense his smile is by our efforts to care for orphans, then the chances are that we’ve become stained by the world.

If our primary sense of God’s smile upon us comes from our involvement in caring for the least of these, then it’s highly likely that to some extent our lives are performance-based rather than grace-based. In other words, it may be that my functional paradigm of Christian living is: “I share God’s heart for the orphans; therefore, God is pleased with me,” rather than “God is pleased with me because of Jesus; therefore, I am freed to care for the orphan.” There is a massive difference between these two ways of thinking. To think the first way is to be stained by the world. To think the second way is to be unstained by the world.

I found this to be a good exposition of what Gospel Obedience - Gospel Spirituality - is all about. As I have said before, Gospel Spirituality is always response to God's grace, never a human initiative to obtain Gods' favor or blessing. Cruver is right; these are two distinct ways of thinking and believing. Only the second one is fully compatible with the Gospel.

Serving Christ in a Time of Plague

In these times of scares over Swine Flu, and before that Avian Flu, we should remember that Chrisitians in the past were known for serving the sick in times of plaque and disease, even at the risk of their lives. Ligonier Ministrieis had this quote about the ministry of John Calvin Serving Christ in a Time of Plague

During Calvin's ministry, Geneva was terrorized by the plague on five occasions. During the first outbreak, in 1542, Calvin personally led visitations into plague-infected homes. Knowing that this effort likely carried a death sentence, the city fathers intervened to stop him because of their conviction that his leadership was indispensable. The pastors continued this heroic effort under Calvin's guidance, and they recounted the joy of multiple conversions. Many pastors lost their lives in this cause. Unknown to many, Calvin privately continued his own pastoral care in Geneva and other cities where the plague raged. Calvin's pastoral heart, already evidenced by the provision of hospitals for both citizens and immigrants, was further revealed as he collected the necessary resources to establish a separate hospital for plague victims. When believers died, he preached poignant funeral homilies with passion and personal concern. (John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Discipleship, ed. Burk Parsons [Lake Mary, Fla.: Reformation Trust, 2008], 65)

In the days of the early church believers were known for caring for plaque victims.

When a devastating plague swept across the ancient world in the third century, Christians were the only ones who cared for the sick, which they did at the risk of contracting the plague themselves. Meanwhile, pagans were throwing infected members of their own families into the streets even before they died, in order to protect themselves from the disease.

How many Christians would be willing to act so now, if an epidemic occurred today? Would I? Would we hide in our homes afraid of the disease, or go forth to serve as Jesus would?

Something to think about.

Related item : The Greatest Pandemic in History at Between Two Worlds