“Whoever wants to be great among you must become the servant of all” (Matt. 20:26).
To partake of Jesus Christ’s ministry one must become a son or daughter by the adoption of the Spirit. Though we are heirs of God yet must we be subject to others in service. When it is necessary a servant that is yielded to God’s will and purpose will be the first to gird them self and bow down to wash the feet of others as Christ did His disciples. A Christ-like example and testimony is not about selfish ambitions, or look who I am and what I can do, or how I’m blessed, it’s about the Ministry of Jesus Christ and His working through adopted sons and daughters of God to bring the Good News of Salvation and Healing to the souls and lives of others.
Many are as we were before Christ washed us, they are overcome being the children of disobedience led about by the spirit of wickedness. (Eph 2:2) Strangers may be compelled to come to Christ by our sharing with them that same spirit and love Christ offers each one of us. Thru our love and service to those who are outside the Kingdom they too may be encouraged and desire to be part of God’s family and find rest from the debts owed for their sins also.
If one begins to think it’s beneath them as a brother, sister or minister of Jesus Christ to serve or wash the feet of others, or begins to think instead that they should be served and exalted, they probably are not qualified, nor deserving of the title to serve as Christ’s ambassador.
Many unintentionally exalt themselves by taking credit for work that Christ alone has done. One may exalt them self or discredit the character of Christ by seizing judgmental responsibility which belongs to Christ alone or by actions that are unbecoming of Christ. Those who behave in this manner may find themselves being used as a tool in the hand of an anti-Christ spirit hindering the propagation of Christ’s love for sinners and the gospel.
Those who are overcome by a disobedient spirit may judge selfishly so that they will in return be rewarded or appear especially favorable, leaning on cobwebs and reeds, these may find themselves building up worldly respect by carnal appearances, collecting stately and worldly assets, erecting monuments to a false image of God, and building a kingdom of wood, hay, and stubble which shall not endure the fiery trials to come.
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have the need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. (1 Jn 3:16-18)
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27)
Let us not think that we as born-again believers have ascended very far beyond the unrepentant while we tarry upon the earth. Our current state of salvation is challenged daily by an enemy who seeks to turn us away from the true path of righteousness unto a place that he may find the opportunity to kill, steal and destroy God’s plan for our lives.
Be glad if you have sinners within your fellowship or ranks because the benefits delivered to the Church of Jesus Christ belong to sinners. All that the Spirit shall call who gladly receive and obey the gospel of Christ are entitled to receive thru the new birth a magnificent transformation to become like Christ.
Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee.
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. (Luke 14:12-14)
Let us pray collectively as the body of Christ for a greater manifestation of Christ’s love in ourselves and toward our world by seeking deeper relationships with Him and maintaining a consistent life of prayer and study of God’s Word.
He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. (1 John 2:6)
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 Jn 3:2)
Many that fall into error blindly venture outside the word of God and the measurements and safety of the Holy City of God. Poor examples they become, estranged to the true love of Christ. They look unsympathetically upon the widows and fatherless, the poor, hungry and unredeemed. Blind they become to the Truth of Christ and the lies of the enemy and having neglected or robbed God’s children by strife and vain judgments they may find at the conclusion of their days to have missed the will of God and their true purpose and calling in the Kingdom of God.
We must Guard ourselves against the wiles of the enemy. Paul warns we should run our race not as if we are just beating the air but as if we are determined to have the 1st place award by investing ourselves with every movement and action of our being to secure our place as an overcomer that when we have run the course that is before us and finished the race we shall not be ashamed.
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air
But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1 Cr 9:27)
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