Saturday October 23, 2010

Read Galatians 5:13-26. Romans 6

My heart broke as a fellow believer stood before me and declared that in Christ he is free to watch pornography and read similar magazines. He went on to talk about the judgement being averted in Christ and his complete lack of a guilty conscience in doing these things.  My heart broke because this believer, as you are well aware, had absolutely no idea what the freedom of Christ was about. I doubt that he had any freedom in Christ. I suspect he was chained to lusts of the flesh.

In Christ we are indeed free. We are freed from the mastery and slavery of sin. We are freed from the condemnation of the law. We are free to follow Jesus and to live lives worthy of our calling. We are not free to indulge our passions and to do as our sinful nature pleases. Indeed, we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer. We are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. We are beloved Children of God and spurning anything unrighteous or evil or wicked or contrary to the sound doctrine of our Lord should be a regular habit that we cultivate.

As you think about gathering for your church service tomorrow, realise that in Christ you are free to serve your brothers and sisters. How will you serve them tomorrow? How will you bless others in your congregation? How will you give of yourself so that others are edified? What can you do tomorrow to be building others up?

But notice the qualifier? We are called to serve in love, not in anger or bitterness or with a negative spirit.  We are to serve in love.

If anyone deserved to be bitter or angry in the midst of service, it was Christ Himself. As He was being tried and judged and nailed to the cross He could have been bitter. He could have been angry. He could have been exceedingly negative. It was grossly unfair. He had no sin that deserved punishment. He was there because you and I deserved that punishment. He was there to serve us, to bless us and to edify us. And yet we see no anger or bitterness. We see no negativity. But we do see love - as Jesus was being nailed to the cross, He prayed, ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing’. My Lord and Saviour has served me in love and wants me, urges me, beckons me to serve others in love as well.

And hallelujah. God not only calls me to serve in love, He equips me to serve in love. As I walk in step with the Holy Spirit, as I am led by Him, He strengthens me and allows me to kill or mortify the desires of the flesh. He allows me and equips me to put my needs on the bottom and to lovingly serve the needs of the others. Even more so, the Holy Spirit grows in me great and more abundant fruit that bears forth even greater heights of loving service.

Prayer:-

ÿ Ask God to give you a servant heart. Ask Him to bless you with a deep understanding and experience of the freedom in Christ to serve others in love. If you are negative, hurt or angry or bitter, ask God to forgive you and to heal you so that you can serve in love.

ÿ Pray that the work of Shiloh Church ministries in India will continue as they seek to love and serve orphans, widows and others displaced by the violence in Orissa state. Pray that God would bless them with the funds, materials and man power they need to continue serving.

Prayerfully consider one way that you can show loving service tomorrow to your congregational members. You can choose a particular individual or a group or the entire congregation.