Fit For Service

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Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

 

Do you ever get overwhelmed during the course of your day?  Does caos push you towards your Savior or away from your Him?  When you are consumed with the failures of your life and your can’t feel good about yourself in the moment, how do you become fit for service? Physical fitness is a great metaphor for spiritual fitness. They both require a consistent daily commitment to working out.  You get fit for Service when you “work out your own salvation” with a daily commitment to stay yoked up with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His yoke is easy and his burdens are light. We realize just how sufficient His grace and mercy is to us when we are willing to stay fit spiritually to serve Him.

Yoke
Yoke (Photo credit: Ludie Cochrane)

The answer to these questions is found in Jesus’ directive to the Hebrews in the text above.  It is helpful to know that Jesus was giving them an alternative to the traditionalism and ceremonialism associated with the legalistic platforms of the Hebrew elders at the time of His earthly ministry. The rites associated with legalism among them were burdening them to the point where they were in yokes of bondage that were detrimental to their service to Him. The bondage of legalism – a human response to sin sickness – categorized them as sinners in need of becoming fit for service. The Hebrews did not have the gift of God living in their individual spirits at the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry like we do today.

 

They were  “overwhelmed” with the consciousness of their transgressions, the constant external and internal berating over their sinful past and their unrealized spiritual condition being dead in their tresspasses and sins. At the point in the text they were trembling at the peril of the  dangers of sin, and seeking deliverance. Why? The death of John the Baptist signified the rejection of the preaching of the Kingdom to the Jews and was forecasting  the rejection of the Son of man which would result in His crucifixion.  The killing of John the Baptist was a demonstration of Israel once again being fit with the yoke of bondage described in Lev. 28:13 where they were under the lash of bondage and servitude to the evil associated with the Egyptians. You can be fit for service to render evil if you are not fit for Godly service. Human beings are predisposed to serve the sinful conditions of their hearts. This is why Jesus is opening the window of opportunity for them to come to Him and become fit for His service by taking on his yoke.  Today, when His yoke is secured over your life, you too can walk upright and experience the Conqueror lifestyle.

 

Leviticus 26:13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

 

Thanks be to our God now that we all have the opportunity to come boldly before Him in our prayer lives and committed time in His Word. We can experience spiritual fitness for His service because of the finished work at the cross and His powerful resurrection which validates His worthiness to come to Him just as you are with a heart that is willing to trust in Him for all your spiritual needs. Jesus told the Jews – as an alternative to the elders religiosity and the Pagan rituals – to take His yoke upon one’s self and carry what has been raised up.  He was laying the foundation for the culmination of His death, burial and resurrection being available to them and us all. The yoke symbolizes being brought together with Him and under the authority of God’s Mighty Hand on a daily basis. Ultimately, His yoke – being a bond servant to him and carrying the message of salvation- is easier and the burdens are far better in Him.

 

Hebrews 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

 

 

 

 

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A Choice To Serve

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Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Choices
Choices (Photo credit: Sky Noir)

Every day you realize you are awake and able to live another day, you have a choice to make.  In addition to the choices about what you will wear, what you will eat and what you will do first as you survey your list of options, you are responsible for an even greater choice. If you are not willing to make this choice, your decision is made for you. You can thank Adam for that. Whether you are God‘s child, or not, the life you live will always present opportunities for you to become willing to make a choice to serve the God who created the Heavens and the Earth or the gods of this world.

The choice is found in who you will serve –  who you will work for through the service of your life.  We all are destined to be used by God – goodness and evil are all manifested by God’s Sovereignty. Many of you seperate good from evil and designate good as being of God and evil exclusively being from Satan.  We need to consider Psalm 24:1 A Psalm of David and I Corinthians 10:26 An Epistle of Paul’s – “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” – EVERYTHING THAT IS HERE AND EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS HERE IS BECAUSE OF THE LORD’S SOVEREIGNTY. If you fail to accept this truth then your choice will always be manipulated by your own ideas.  Even the evil that manifests through you is under the authority of Christ today. 

Joshua was nearly at the end of his life when he delivered this sermon in Joshua 24. It gives attention to doctrine and application.  The doctrine is represented by all of the deeds in which the Lord God Almighty provided for His people. From the calling of Abraham, the birth of Isaac, the deliverance out of Egypt and through the Red Sea and their warring victories into the Promised Land, God proved His determined will and put it on display for the world to know. The Hebrews were recipients of the consistent manifestation of God’s Sovereign Power.  They had proof to know that no other god is comparable to the God of the Heavens and the Earth.  But it is the application of the sermon where we find the purpose of the choice to serve.

Your acquaintance with good and evil notwithstanding, it is a fundamental Biblical truth that when your flesh is controlled by sin you can not please God. You sow seeds of sin through all types of lifestyle choices.  Every decision you make is based on your pursuit to manifest and fulfill the desires of the flesh.  Joshua was reminded of Moses who declared the importance to choose life with a heart that loves the Lord, His Word all with a willingness to serve Him daily. Read Deuteronomy 30:11-20.  You can offset any affinity towards sin when you make a choice to serve God by praying for the knowledge of His will and the power to be all that He has created you to be. You can be of maximum service to God, realize the Conqueror Lifestyle  and serve Him and others effectively, when His power is working in you and through you conforming you to the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But you can make this choice to serve God only because of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ which gives you access into His grace.

Others realize your choice by every word that comes out of your mouth, every deed of your hands and every direction that your feet move towards. The heart decides which choice is to be made.  A heart that is willing to freely surrender to God’s Sovereignty is a direct result of a quickened spirit connected to the power of the resurrection at work in you. It’s not hard at all to make Jesus your choice when you accept all that He has freely done for you.  You willingly desire to serve Him because of how effectively He serves you.  Stop trying to be your best you independent of God’s spiritual blessings at work in you. You will know true service as He manifests His good works in your life when you make the choice to depend on and serve Him in all that you say and do. Agree with me and Joshua and make your choice THE LORD.

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Simple, Spiritual Self-Service

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1.Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (NASB)
Self-service kiosk
Self-service kiosk (Photo credit: melitroncorp)

Self service is a common part of human services that we realize throughout the course of every day. Whether it is at the ATM, airport, gas station, supermarket, workplace, etc., there is always some type of self service facility where you can serve yourself.  It has become the basic standard of service that we as Americans have come to expect. It is a simple, time and cost effective service tool which provides us with a new level of independence.  You can go, choose what you want and quickly keep it moving. It’s that simple!

 

The key to spiritual self-service is the acceptance of Christ’s unconditional service to humans, through His birth, life, Earthly ministry, death and resurrection, thereby establishing and fulfilling a Divine plan of redemption through the forgiveness of sin.  His Service to us At the Cross was unconditional work because He was born to provide us with the means of spiritual salvation  that we all can benefit from Eternally.  Whether we choose to believe in Him or not, His service to us is forever established. When we surrender our bodies to our Heavenly Father because we need forgiveness of our sins on a daily basis, we begin the process of spiritual self-service. True holiness is realized through your own personal identity with your need for forgiveness.  Spiritual self-service is that simple!!

 

There is Spiritual power of unknown proportions available to you when you are willing to present your body to God on a daily basis, totally surrendered to His Sovereignty over your life. His Power is revealed in your walk, your talk and your manner of life. Through every opportunity that makes up your day, you can experience the spiritual freedom of the conqueror lifestyle.  You see, when you choose to start your day, or in some cases re-start your day, by surrendering yourself under God’s authority, you are securing His leadership over every aspect of your day.  However, if you go through your day without this simple, spiritual self-service,  you are living a life that is solely reliant on your own abilities. Every idea, desire, motive and goal is born out of a spirit that is quenched by a soul that is sickened by unconfessed sin. Your body becomes a host for evil rather than God’s goodness. Unconfessed sin is a breeding ground for a swarm of complications that are designed to continue to distract you from His goodness as the world’s appeal demands your attention.

 

Your life can greatly benefit from the simple, spiritual self-service of surrendering to the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ daily.  The reasonable service begins with a mindset to pray without ceasing, having a thankful heart and mind willing to submit your body, mind i.e soul and spirit to Him all reliant on His will for your life from day to day.  A healthy prayer life and daily attachment to His Word completes the simple, spiritual process. It is a simple process that can humbly begin every time you wake up from rest you are blessed to realize. It gets you going spiritually!

 

Find out how I was trained to realize the importance of this self-service model in my new book     “A Conqueror In Training“

 

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