The Servant of the Lord

Isaiah 42:1-4

Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen One in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed, until He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.

Christian service is certainly an important and necessary aspect of living a balanced Christian life. Most growing Christians, however, are unbalanced in their approach to this vital area of Christian living. "Where should I serve?" and "What ministry is best for me?" are the usual questions that we ask about Christian service. Proper balance should also include questions such as: "Do I meet the qualifications of a good servant?" and "How do I become the kind of servant God uses?" In fact, these questions should really be considered before we move on to the where and what of Christian service.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect model Servant....

-David R. Reid

I don’t know if you guys remember my prayer at the Leadership retreat… My prayer was full of guilt and sincere repentance after hearing Kwijung’s testimony. Why? Because the first two questions above was my attitude joining the Leadership Committee. Rather than humbling before God for such privilege, I laid out terms and conditions. I only wanted to serve for perfectly structured committee. I only wanted to team up with talented and tolerable people. I wanted my talent and involvement to be center of attention.

Then, God used Kwijung’s testimony to help me realize that my attitude of servanthood was DANGEROUSLY wrong. Then I questioned “Do I have the right heart to be God’s servant?”

Ouch! Isaiah 42:1-4 is a perfect message for me….

Prist like Melchizedek

I feel very inadequate for so many many reasons posting on this blog. First this is my first blog post ever which seems enough but more importantly I've been asked to blog about the bible readings to a group of people who I feel are much more knowledgeable on the topic then myself.

So I decided to simply share how God has been working in my heart for the past weeks. I think many people know Lynn and I have been taking premarital classes at Moody for the past couple of months. I was approaching the class like a to-do task on a list to check off so we could go ahead and get married. In our last one on one session with the pastor running the class he said something to the effect of "get right with God and the marriage will take care of itself".

That didn't really hit me until the following week when I was listening to the pastor James sermon. I realized that I was approaching the marriage and my relationship with God all wrong.

• Go to church on Sunday
• Bible Study on Wednesday
• Talk about getting closer to God

I had been checking items off the list every week, talking a good game but I wasn't really living the life of a Christian. I needed to stop talking about it and go do it. "Get right with God" and let the rest of my life take care of itself. It's funny how God opens the paths and lead you to him, as that was the week pastor James told me of the daily bible readings and what better way to draw near to God then a daily QT reading the bible. All that to tie it to today's bible verse which says:

Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith

Jesus our ever present comfort

John Stott describes the threefold office of Christ, as prophet, king, and priest. I see these offices as corresponding to the past, future, and present ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the prophet of God, Christ is the final, last, and definitive voice of God (see Hebrews 1:1-2). And although Christ spoke God's final words 2000 years ago, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, he still speaks to us through the holy scriptures.

As for the office of kingship, Jesus is at the present time exalted and seated at the right hand of God the Father, until the Father brings all of his enemies under his feet (see Psalm 2). Then Jesus will return to the earth as King of all kings and Lord of all lords. This is a future reality, although at the present time, he reigns as King and Lord in the hearts of all who believe.

But the office of priesthood, in which Christ intercedes for us, is a present ministry of our Lord. Whatever inadequacies we may feel when we pray, we need to know that Christ intercedes for us before our heavenly Father. It is not the perfection or the legitimacy of our requests that is decisive, but that Jesus Christ knows our weakness and died to save us and therefore his intercessory ministry is an extension of his perfect love for us. This is very, very comforting, knowing that the Savior who died for my sins, is now defending and advocating for my good before the Father in heaven. So let us pray on and let us come boldly before the throne of grace holding true to the words of Jesus in John 16:23, "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name... Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."

Posted by Pastor James

Reflection

"A King Like David"
No one like Jesus

This reflection made me think of an interesting conversation I had with a close friend who is almost devoutly anti-Christian. I won't say atheist because she hasn't repudiated all faiths, just the one she grew up in and became disillusioned with, which happens to be Christianity.

The talk made me think of how I view Christianity and how I've also come to change and be changed by this view.

I grew up in a Christian family. Like my friend, I quickly became disenchanted with what I perceived to be a false world view used as a crutch by ignorant people to overcome their irrational fears of death and the unknown.

I naturally succumbed to many different modes of thought that I found satisfying as I "matured" from the faith. Darwin gave a new explanation of our origin. Freud explained why we think the way we do. Nietzsche offered a way to think critically of certain truth claims. Marx explained why the world was the way it was and how it could be changed.

All these, and so many others, helped to satisfy a part of a question that ached to be answered when I turned my back on Christianity. I felt smart, enlightened, justified, and rational.

I realize now that I was never really convinced. All the clever ideologies, causes, and movements started by human beings were equivalent to fool's gold and it was bankrupting my soul.

When God brought me back- I was able to witness not only what Jesus offered or promised, but what He already gave on the cross.

My complete surrender has been difficult, I'll admit it now. But I cannot deny the real sense of fulfillment and joy that I've found in what can most truly be described as the "bread of life" and "living water."

There's been a lot of questions these days that pop up as my life is being rocked to its core. I think P. James can definitely attest to this. I bombarded him with these questions when we ate over omelette's at Denny's.

But what I find amazing is that the same God who was faithful to the ancient people of the biblical text is the same God who is faithful to us. The God that delivered the Israelites from captivity and redeemed the whole world is the same God patient enough to love us and answer the deep questions of our hearts.

To be sure, there is still a deep mystery but not the kind where we are uncertain. It is a calm and profound mystery that is also personal and life changing.

This leads me to my final point of reflection related to the Stott devotional and Bible text. Inasmuch as Christianity can be described as vibrant, intellectual, logical, dynamic, fulfilling, personal, and relational, I think it is also important to see the great adventure behind our faith.

It is a thrilling adventure that does not exclude us. We are connected to the ancient past from the formation of the earth and we are involved in this epic until the ends of the world, right into eternity.

We were redeemed in love by the one true Messiah who fulfilled ancient prophesies and struck down an ever present enemy. We were woven into the redemption story that ties in all those who believe throughout the history of the whole world. Even with an outcome that is assured, God invites us to take part in the adventure by affording us real opportunities to make a true and lasting impact on the Kingdom.

As a wannabe spartan warrior, it doesn't get better than this

Genesis 1:26, 28

As I was meditating on the word today, I was reminded of our responsibility and obligation as a human being to take care of God's creation. We often seclude ourselves from the bigger world and leave the environmental concerns and problems to the activists and politicians. I am very guilty of that..... Perhaps we are overwhelmed and even paralyzed by the fact that the problems are too big for us to solve and, in result we ignore or neglect the problems we see.

However, according to His Word, God created the universe and commended us to rule over it. Ruling God's creation does not mean that we can do whatever we want with it. But we should be responsible to take care of it and maintain it well so that ,from generation to generation, people will enjoy His creation and praise Him for who He is.

When we pick up a empty bottle laying on a street and throw it in a garbage can, we are actually giving God the glory by obeying His Word. " So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the Glory of God." 1Corinthians 10: 31

We are grateful that we serve God who pays attention on little things that we do for him and others and return with abundant blessings. Let's look outside of our houses today. Let's praise Him for this beautiful snow that He created cover up branches of our trees and our yard so beautifully Let's lift a little prayer to ask God to give us a deeper appreciation on the beauty of his work and conviction to take a good care of it.

Light a match

What I love about reading the Bible is the fountain of questions and ideas that scream for attention when you really entrench yourself in a passage. Somewhat like a Fourth of July sparkler, I suffer from a bit of mental A.D.D. where a question, objection, random thought fires off one after the other leaving little time to tackle one at a time.

Unfortunately for you, this blog is a great prescription to help me rein this all in and regurgitate it for all of you 2x a month!

I'll just let it fly:

Gal 3:16 - "It does not say, 'And to offsprings' referring to many, but referring to one.'"
Hmmmm...is Paul stretching it here? Going back to Genesis 15-17, I counted 9 occurrences of the term "offspring" all of which were used in the plural form based on the context of the verse. Luckily, I'm not the only heretic to ask the question as I did find some reasonable explanations for his interpretation. And I'm sure Paul's command of Greek is reason enough to trust he knew what he was saying.

Gal 3:17 - "...the law, which came 430 years afterward..."
Love the "430 years" reference. Paul draws a line in the sand and says, yes these things actually happened.

Gen 12:3b - "...and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Besides the obvious blessing for whom we celebrate most fanatically this month, can't help but ask if there is another "blessing" implied here, especially given God's descriptive promises to Israel about being a "chosen people" inheriting a land "flowing with milk and honey." Why is that narrow strip one of the most volatile regions of the earth today? I found one explanation suggesting that God intended for Israel to be strategically located at the crossroads of civilization, i.e. between Mesopotamia, Egypt, coastal trade routes of the Mediterranean, where they would have the best opportunity to influence the known world. Unfortunately, instead of influencing it, they succumbed to it and missed the opportunity.

Paul describes us as "Abraham's offspring", the new Israel "grafted in", and "heirs to the promise." God's strategically positioned us, at this specific time, at more accessible crossroads, to influence this world through our testimony. We're not immune from Israel's history, but we're free not to repeat it!

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."