Monday
Mark 10.44-5 “Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
There are various ways we can understand power. One of the words I struggle to accept today is “influencer”. To be called, or to call one’s self an ‘influencer’ as our goal in life, raises all kinds of questions about what kind of influence we have. Is it for good or ill, for self-promotion or the benefit of others? The only valid way a Christian can be called an influencer is if their life reflects the way of Jesus. Imagine being an influencer whose way of being and life is about serving others out of love for God!
Tuesday
Romans 12.6,7,11 “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if service, in our serving…Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord.”
Grace is given to all of us. We are each gifted by God with who we are, and what we are able to bring of blessing into the lives of others. Zeal is shorthand for motivation, emotional commitment, perseverance; being aglow with the Spirit is a visual image of energy and enthusiasm. Put them together and we have love, gratitude and obedience, a cluster of grace and responses that make it possible to “serve the Lord”.
Wednesday
1 Peter 4.10 “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
That last clause, “as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” Each of you is an inclusive you plural. It is the Christian community to which we belong which receives God’s grace in its various forms. Like a well-disciplined orchestra we are to be faithful stewards of our particular gift, skilled practitioners of whatever instrument we play, and alert and responsive to our part in the composer’s script. To be a faithful steward is to look after, take care, and perform well the gift God has given in creating, redeeming and commissioning us to perform in His service.
Thursday
2 Corinthians 4.6 “For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness”, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
God is Light. From the first day of Creation, God has commanded, “Let there be light!” From Creation to Calvary and beyond God has commanded, “Let light shine out of darkness.” The resurrection of Jesus was discovered ‘just as the sun was rising’. From that first discovery Christians have known the light of Christ blazing across creation and giving light and life into their own lives. In all our service to God we are merely enacting, performing, putting into practice, the light of Christ shining in our hearts, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God made visible in Christ.
Friday
Colossians 3.17 “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Paul quite often makes these sweeping statements, big generalisations that are all inclusive. Whatever you do, spoken or enacted, do it ALL as if you’re doing it for Jesus – because you are! There’s no wriggle room, no convincing excuse, no get out clause. If Paul’s stylus could dig deep into the papyrus with bold, italic, underline and upper case then that’s how he would have written ALL! As it is, he is encouraging an all-inclusive gratitude that finds ways of expressing itself in loving service to the Lord.
Saturday
Ephesians 1.22-23 “God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
Now and again we can do with being reminded that being a member of Christ’s church is a big deal! When Paul says, “You are the Body of Christ, and individually members of it”, he is describing the organic connection between our lives and the life of the risen Lord Jesus. To be in Christ, and to know Christ in us the hope of glory, is to be held within the living community which by the Spirit is filled with the fullness of God. All week we have been thinking about what it means to serve in the name of the Lord Jesus. This verse describes the majesty and authority of the One we serve, in whom is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Sunday
1 Peter 2.9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
What is the Church, and what is it for? This is as complete an answer as we need. Chosen is a call both to privilege and to service. Our purpose as the Church, and as individual Christians is to work out and speak out the good news of God’s love in Christ. Like stars in a dark universe, like a floodlit city, to make Christ known through the evidence of our service to God, doing all things to the glory of our Saviour.
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