Discipleship - Stewardship

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My father will honour the one who saves me. John 12:26

God can use us to affect the lives of many people for good. But for this we need to be following Jesus, not following our own whims and preferences. We are to surrender our lives and ask the question ‘Lord, what do you want me to do with my life today’?

Jesus says here that ‘serving’ and ‘following’ him are the same thing. It is not for us to choose how or where to serve him. We must follow first and let him lead us to where he wants us to serve. A disciple cannot say, ‘I did it my way!’

Franklin Roosevelt's closest adviser during much of his presidency was a man named Harry Hopkins. During World War II, when his influence with Roosevelt was at its peak, Hopkins held no official Cabinet position. Moreover, Hopkins's closeness to Roosevelt caused many to regard him as a shadowy, sinister figure. As a result he was a major political liability to the President.

A political foe once asked Roosevelt, "Why do you keep Hopkins so close to you? You surely realise that people distrust him and resent his influence." Roosevelt replied, "Someday you may well be sitting here where I am now as President of the United States. And when you are, you'll be looking at that door over there and knowing that practically everybody who walks through it wants something out of you. You'll learn what a lonely job this is, and you'll discover the need for somebody like Harry Hopkins, who asks for nothing except to serve you."

Winston Churchill rated Hopkins as one of the half-dozen most powerful men in the world in the early 1940s. And the sole source of Hopkins's power was his willingness to serve.

Lord, grace me with the gift of letting go of all that I cling to. May I not block your Spirit moving in me. Work through me so that I may carry you to all those whose lives I touch.

Discipleship - Being Church

 

Jesus looked at them intently and said, ‘Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.’” (Matthew 19:26)

The church is not:
* An ark for the saving of a select few.
* A ferryboat to take effortless passengers to the shores of heaven.
* A life insurance company, with no obligation on policyholders accepts the payment of a small annual premium.
* A social set, welcoming certain people and excluding others from its fellowship.
* A Sunday pleasure club for the providing of pleasant occupation on the day of rest.

THE CHURCH IS:
* A lifeboat for the rescue of sin-wrecked and perishing souls.
* A family, in which love and service are expected from each member to each member.
* An organised community, with constant activities and continual growth and development.
* A company of believers who have found the one way of life and obey the one Lord of life.
* A union of those who love for the benefit of those who suffer.
* A centre of social worship, in which the spiritual life of each is helped by the spiritual life of his fellow.
• The representative, Ambassadors -- the "body" -- of Jesus Christ on the earth, reflecting his spirit and controlled by his will AND DOING HIS WORK!

Almighty and every loving God, who has built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head cornerstone: Grant that all who profess the name of Christ may be joined together in unity of spirit and faith, setting aside all doctrinal quibbling of our fallible human minds; that we may be a holy temple, a royal priesthood, acceptable to you, living in unity and Godly love as you have commanded us to do. Amen

Discipleship - Being Church

Galatians 6:9 “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give”

 A group was visiting a heavy-duty grease factory and was ushered into a large room, where a tour host introduced them to the company history and the number of employees at work producing the best machine lubricants in the world. They toured the noisy factory, with lots of machinery and wheels whirling, mixing, packaging—there was incredible activity.

As the tour ended, one of the visitors said, “I didn’t see a shipping department.” The guide responded, “Well, we don’t have a shipping department because it takes all the grease we make to lubricate our equipment and keep the wheels turning.”

The church is the best lubricated grease factory in all of history. What’s too often missing is the shipping department. The church does not exist for itself; it exists to bring others to a commitment to Jesus Christ.

In all that we do for your church, O God, whether we are in the spotlight or behind the scenes, help us to honour you and to discern how best to serve you. Increase your kingdom, Lord. In Christ, Amen.

Discipleship - Being Church

1 John 3:17 "But if someone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but refuses to help — how can the love of God dwell in a person like that?"

Today’s thoughts come from the pen of Fred Beuchner - “The visible church is all the people who get together from time to time in God's name. Anybody can find out who they are by going to church to look.

The invisible church is all the people God uses for his hands and feet in this world. Nobody can find out who they are except God.

Think of them as two circles. The optimist says they are concentric. The cynic says they don't even touch. The realist says they occasionally overlap.

In a fit of high inspiration, the author of the book of Revelation states that there is no temple in the New Jerusalem, thus squelching once and for all the tedious quip that since heaven is an endless church service, anybody with two wits to rub together would prefer hell.

The reason for there being no temple in the New Jerusalem is presumably the same as the reason for Noah's leaving the ark behind when he finally makes it to Mt. Ararat.”

Dear Jesus, thank you for making us your church. Keep building us to praise and honour you always. In your name, Amen.

Discipleship - Being Church

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. Ephesians 2:19-20

Whether we like it or not, the moment we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, that is, from the time we become a Christian, we are at the same time a member of the Christian church … Our membership in the church is a corollary of our faith in Christ.  We can no more be a Christian and have nothing to do with the church than we can be a person and not be in a family. 

Membership in the church is a basic spiritual fact for those who confess Christ as Lord.  It is not an option for those Christians who happen by nature to be more gregarious than others.  It is part of the fabric of redemption. There are Christians, of course, who never put their names down on a membership list; there are Christians who refuse to respond to the call to worship each Sunday; there are Christians who say, “I love God but I hate the church.”

But they are members all the same, whether they like it or not, whether they acknowledge it or not.  For God never makes private, secret salvation deals with people.  His relationships with us are personal, true; intimate, yes; but private, no.  We are a family in Christ.  When we become Christians, we are among brothers and sisters in faith.  No Christian is an only child.

Thank you, Lord, for inviting us to become part of your everlasting family by trusting in Jesus as our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Discipleship - Being Church

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:18-20

”William Temple once said that “The church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members.”

A man went out on a starry night and shook his fist at the heavens yelling, "Oh, God, what a lousy, rotten world you’ve made. I could have done much better." Then a voice boomed from the clouds saying, "That’s why I put you there. Get busy." In these verses  Jesus puts us in charge of his mission and of his work, promising to be always with us. Prayer can also be a time of asking and discovering where each of us can work in this world.

Yet here’s a further complication: the church is not an entity outside of me. I do not stand on the outside looking in. I am as much part of the church as (in the words of Paul) a hand is a part of a body. And when we see this truth we also see God’s power because, in this body of Christ, we find a place where we can be gloriously and devastatingly human. We find a place where we can fail and repent and grow and receive grace and be made as we see our part in God’s mission.

The name of God at our baptism is the name of love: the Trinity exists in a community of love. Such love has brought us into being, has introduced us into the community of Jesus in the church, and love in Jesus Christ is with us all our days, and with God's world until the end of time.

Lord, you are with me whenever I speak of you to others. Give me the courage to be church to others. Amen

Discipleship - Being Church

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 1 Corinthians 3:16 

A little boy said, “Dad, did Grandpa make you go to Sunday school when you were my age?”

His father said, “He sure did. We went every Sunday.”

The boy said sadly, “Well, I bet it won’t do me any good either.”

It is not enough to just go to church. We must apply the Bible to our everyday lives.

Listening challenges us as we are asked to give the attention to another. Hearing the message invites a response, an inner change, not just an outer one. Putting God’s word into practice provides a solid foundation in life that can stand against any challenge. Failure to do that leads to short-term decisions the results of which crumble easily.

This is our life; listening to the word of God and doing it. We are building up the Church, the Body of Christ, founded on the rock of Peter.

Only one who does the will of my Father” - what is that will? That we are filled with the spirit of the Kingdom and work to make this a reality in our world which involves constant outreach beyond ourselves. We have to go to God by finding him present in the world around us and helping others to be aware of that loving presence also. We will not do that by piously calling on God’s name while ignoring the needs of our brothers and sisters. To do that is to build our house on sand.

I can ask myself – how does my relationship with the Lord influence my decisions and ask for the Lord’s help with it? I am invited to listen to the Lord and the different ways the Lord speaks to me. The message is – speak, Lord your servant is listening, not listen Lord, your servant is speaking. I pray for the freedom to listen and to respond as the Lord desires.

The “houses” in this narrative are people’s lives. Nobody else can build our life for us. It is we who must choose what kind of foundations we will use – the shifting sands or the solid rock. If the houses represent our lives, then the Bible makes clear what the rock is: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress”.

Lord, grant that I may build my life securely on your unchanging, immutable Word, that no storm can shake, no floods overwhelm, no vicissitudes destroy.