And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”

• Joshua 24:24

“All of us sense the need for purpose and direction in our lives. Yet conflicts of interest can become great pitfalls for many a Christian. He wants to be a disciple of Jesus, but not completely. He wants to be pure and holy and good, but not just yet. He wants to listen to God’s voice, but not too much nor too often.
“These are the feelings of separation, apartness and vacillation. Where God is concerned, there can be no conflict of interest. You must either choose to serve God or Mammon; you cannot do both.
“Once we come to a realization of our relationship with Christ Jesus, we completely forget self. Our life will have purpose and direction, for when God calls and receives, there is power and blessing in abundance. We will be completely filled with the desire to serve.”

• Roy Z. Kemp, Measure for Living

Boilerplate

In this new mini-series, I found an old book of mine in my wife’s things.  I did not know that she had it, but she loved collecting inspirational poems.  She had a knack for skimming over the subject matter that the Sunday school class would discuss.  Then she would thumb through the poetry and devotional books on the shelf and seemingly pick one at random.  Then she would open the book to a seemingly random page and read a prayer or two.  Then she would nod her head and place a bookmark at what she had found.  Then after the Sunday school class had wandered around the subject, going down various rabbit holes along the way, she would end the class with the poem and a short prayer.  And the poem seemed to summarize what we had talked about, even the side trails down rabbit holes.  It fit so perfectly every time.

I do not think she ever quoted this book, but it was a keepsake.  I had never read it.  The inscription in the front of the book states, “It has been a joy to have had you this year.  It has been a friendship I will cherish.”  It was signed by the woman who lived next door to my mother’s mother.  She taught piano and organ.  I took organ lessons.

Do not ask me to play anything on the piano.  I learned by gently gliding over the keys, not by striking them.  And after 55+ years of not practicing, I would be lost after a few bars of Swingin’ Shepherd Blues.

Discussion

There is a great difference in the service minded secular world today and the service of a Christian, although some Christians are social Christians and do not see the difference.

For the world today, it is a great thing to serve other people.  You get brownie points with your peers and bosses.  You get your name and photo in the paper.  And you get those wonderful endorphins that push your internal happy button until it goes “TILT”.

In other words, anything that you do, you do it for self, just as the quote above states.

But then, with Christ in your heart and the Holy Spirit in every pore of your body, you become so filled with Love that it leaks out.  As the quote above states, you lose all thought of self and you want to love others around you.

This leaking out of love might just be smiling at everyone that you meet.  Lately I have been purposefully focusing on making eye contact.  I guess that I must look goofy.  Of every ten people that I make eye contact with, six or seven people smile, and half of those actually give a silent little chuckle.  Did you know that a smile and eye contact could do that?  I am shooting for ten out of ten. Six or seven is just the average, but I do not think I have ever had ten for ten.

Too many people, including well-intentioned Christians, mail in donations to charities around the world.  Those charities need the money, but we should not stop there.  There are food banks that need volunteers.  Most churches that I know need Sunday school teachers and Vacation Bible School (VBS) volunteers in the summer.  I have heard of some people claiming valet parking to be their calling.  Our church has an overflow parking area, and if you are elderly, it’s a long walk and the last fifty yards (meters) is uphill, not steep but it gets the heart racing.  Then again, we have people at our early service that pick up handicapped people and drop them off at the entrance that is next to the elevator.  Writing out a check rarely gets your hands dirty.

There are many ways to serve.  You do not have to create a boys’ charity that houses boys from troubled homes.  I grew up in Mississippi not far from such a home that had a nationwide reputation, and their own school (K-12).  The church that I attend now supports such a foundation in the Pittsburgh area.  But you can start anywhere.  The point is that the love that God gives us bubbles out of us in different ways for different reasons.

Find what makes the love inside of you grow the most.

And do it all for God’s glory.

Closing Prayer

“Just let me be a candle
That God has set below,
To give a little added light
On roads that others go.
Oh, may my weak and tiny flame –
My faint and feeble spark-
Help light the pathway of someone
Who stumbles in the dark!”

• Roy Z. Kemp, Measure for Living (Wish for Service)

“Father, guide me.  Help me feel the poetry.  You are the Light unto this world.  Let us be a candle.  Let us shine Your Light through us.  May we Glorify Your Name and shrink away from accolades.  Let us put the needy before ourselves and show Your Love to all we meet.  In Thy Name I pray.
“Amen”

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.