I Am a Servant

I Am a Servant
By John Fischer

I am a servant; I am listening for my call…” Larry Norman

The Apostle Paul loved to call himself a slave of Christ. This is the highest form of servitude—one in which the servant has no rights but to do the will of the master. What made this unique was the fact that this position was held with great joy and privilege. This is hard for us to understand in a culture where slavery is such a bad word. But to be a slave of Christ is a whole different thing than to be a slave of a wicked taskmaster.

Paul is happy to be a slave of Christ for at least two reasons. 1) God is a loving God who treats him with dignity. This “slavery” is the opposite of demeaning; it is uplifting and places him as one who has been entrusted with the secret things of God (1 Corinthians 4:1). Even amidst the abuses of slavery in this country there were stories of privileged slaves who were treated with dignity and given responsibility over their master’s estate. Some of these chose to remain as servants even after being emancipated. This would be something of the position Paul is speaking of.

And 2) to serve Christ is the good and natural response to God’s forgiveness and grace. Once we realize all that we receive from God is a free gift—that God found us in our sin and picked us up, forgave us and gave us new life—serving God is the natural response of a heart and a life set free.

This spiritual servitude only has negative connotations in a culture that is obsessed with asserting the rights of the individual. Civil rights, human rights, gay rights, minority rights—we hear about this constantly. Instead of asserting our rights—even if we have the freedom to do so—we are choosing to set them aside for a greater thing: the opportunity to serve the living God. What are you setting aside in order to serve God?

In the end, we either serve God or try to be god by having everyone serve us. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

Down But Not Out

Down But Not Out

2 Corinthians 4:8–9
8We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

Before you were a Christian, when something sad or bad happened to you, you cried until you had no more tears left. Your heart simply broke into pieces, and you felt trapped, depressed and totally defeated.

But after you became a Christian, when something bad happens to you, you still cry, but you feel comforted inside. You are sad outwardly, but your heart isn’t heavy. You don’t understand why, but deep down inside you, there is something lifting you up. That something buoyant, which is rising from the inside of you, is the life of Christ in you!

You cannot be completely distressed because Christ in you is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) who says to you, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)

Yes, it is a bad situation and you are in a tight spot, but Christ in you is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), and He says to you, “It will all be all right. I will provide a way out for you.”

You know you are not defeated because Christ in you is your victory (1 Corinthians 15:57), and He says to you, “You are not fighting for victory, but fighting from victory, for you already have the victory in Me.”

In the past, before you knew Christ, when you were down, you were out. But now, when you are down, you are not out because Christ in you is the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27) “Hope” in the Bible means “a definite positive expectation of good”.

So Christ in you is the definite positive expectation of a glorious marriage! Christ in you is the definite positive expectation of a glorious family! Christ in you is the definite positive expectation of glorious health for the rest of your life! Christ in you is the definite positive expectation of a glorious life!

Christ in you is the definite positive expectation of all the glories of God revealed to you! Hallelujah

Greater than Jesus?

Greater than Jesus?
By John Fischer

Our significance is found in our service, and the less anyone knows about it, the better. How backwards is that?

I would normally think that my significance would be found in picking up the newspaper this morning and finding my name in it. Or that it would be significant to be honored by receiving an award in front of thousands of my peers with a viewing audience of millions.

But Jesus says that receiving the praise of men means nothing compared to receiving the praise of God, and those who receive the praise of God are those who lose themselves in the service of others—people who disappear in the serving. I bet there is going to be an awards ceremony in heaven to beat all ceremonies, and the people honored will have never been known on earth beyond the circle of those whose lives they touched.

One of Christ’s most surprising acts was the example He gave of washing His disciple’s feet. It was a deliberate visual aid. The big deal was not that the disciples’ feet were dirty; it was that Jesus had something He wanted to show them. This was a daily custom, since everyone wore sandals and the roads were dusty. We are not told who usually did this. It was the host’s responsibility (Luke 7:44), and probably performed by a no-name servant. But John said that in this one act, Jesus “showed the disciples the full extent of His love” (John 13:1). For this, He took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist, got down on His hands and knees and methodically, one by one, washed the disciples’ feet. Peter protested, but it didn’t do any good.

And when He was done, Jesus put His robe back on, sat down with them and told them to never forget what they had just seen. It was their responsibility to wash each other’s feet. “A servant is not greater than the master. Nor are messengers more important than the one who sends them” (John 13:16 NLT). And since Jesus was their master and the one who was sending them with a message, they could never rise above this example without positioning themselves as greater than He. Their significance was going to be in their service, not in their position or recognition.

So keep this picture in your mind today and look for ways to quietly serve the needs of those around you. No horn blowing. No awards. Because in this is your greatness.

Pizza Evangelism

Pizza Evangelism
By John Fischer

I received an E-mail recently from a reader that had attached to it a fascinating rendering of his own spiritual journey. In it he related how his first encounter with someone who could speak personally about a real relationship with God came to him while serving in the US Navy. Apparently, one of his fellow recruits put out the word: “I’m getting out of the Navy tomorrow and I’ll give free pizza to anyone who’ll listen to me talk about Jesus.”

The reader responded, “I’ll listen to anything to get free pizza. Bring it over here!” He went on to relate how the pizza evangelist’s excitement and absolute belief in what he was saying had kept him spellbound from ten o’clock at night until two in the morning. “Pizza Evangelism! God was at work in bringing my senses into focus.”

Maybe the pizza evangelist is on to something here. Sure it was a “come-on,” but who cares? He didn’t bribe anyone without telling them what he was doing. He was up front with everything. “I’m going to talk to you about Jesus and I’m going to buy some of your time with a little pizza. How about it?” That’s a generous offer that respects a person’s time and motivation.

I think we’ve all been burned at one time or another by someone’s sales pitch disguised as something else—a freebie, a dinner out, or an invitation to meet a neighbor. As good as the product or service might have been, we still feel taken in some way. Duped. And a little dumb. At least I have.

But there’s nothing wrong with an offer. I like this pizza and Jesus guy. He went with a straight-across deal. I’ve got something really important to me that I’d like to share with you, and in order to do it, I’m willing to give you something for your time, so that even if you don’t like what I have to say, you’ll like the pizza. And the weight of the offer itself tells you that this Jesus story is really important to him—important enough to make sure he has one last chance to tell it.

What do you have that you can give for someone’s time? What can you exchange for a legitimate opportunity to share the gospel with someone?

Growing Pains

Growing Pains
By John Fischer

Often, as a child, when I complained about some ache or pain that had no clear physical explanation, the simple parental diagnosis was: “It’s just growing pains.” I used to imagine my muscles and bones actually hurting while they stretched and grew. While I know nothing about the scientific nature of this evaluation, I do know it has a spiritual application that is entirely accurate. It hurts to grow.

It hurts to grow because we have to die to old ways in order to live anew, and old ways die hard. We place a high premium in life on dying peacefully, but in reality dying almost always is accompanied by pain. We have dependencies with coping mechanisms that have enslaved us. It’s hard letting go of our security blankets.

In a touching scene from the romantic comedy, Mr. Mom, Michael Keaton has to coax his toddler’s “whoopee” blanket away from him. Upon rendering it up, the little boy asks for a moment to himself to grieve the loss and we can almost touch his pain. We would like similar moments to grieve our little daily deaths, but we have to learn to move on, because the pain of losing is followed by the greater joy of finding that God always meets us on the other side of our loss.

It hurts to grow because growing usually means facing some fear or weakness that has limited us. Though God saves us through no effort of our own, he asks for our cooperation when it comes to our spiritual growth. Real spiritual growth only happens when our effort to act upon God’s word meets the provision of the Holy Spirit in us.

Or as Paul teaches, “Put into action God’s saving work in your lives, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him” (Philippians 2:12-13 NLT).

This is always the spiritual principle of growth. We obey by stepping into our weakness or our fear, hoping in faith that because it is something He asks of us, He will meet us somewhere along the way with the power to do it. This is almost always a painful proposition because it requires a step into the unknown. What if God doesn’t show up? What if this is all a hoax? I suppose you can ask these questions, but you will never get them answered on this side of the pain. You have to take the step, believing that there is something there that you can’t see. And if that doesn’t hurt, it’s probably not faith.

So if what God asks you to do today hurts, remember what you’re feeling is just growing pains.

Complicate Your Life

Complicate Your Life
By John Fischer

Relationships are complicated. Have you ever thought about how much easier life would be without any people in it? How about it? A sure way to an uncomplicated life would be to remove everyone but you. Right?

When you stop and think about it there really are only two options: isolation or complication. You can hole up inside your own shell or come out and complicate your neat, orderly life with unpredictable relationships. Unfortunately, love has no other options.

At the end of the romantic comedy, Six Days, Seven Nights, Harrison Ford decides to complicate his simple, controlled life with a love relationship, and we all think he has made a good choice, because we too have fallen for Anne Heche’s bright blue eyes. “Go for it,” we say to him at the predictable feel-good ending, “complicate the [heck] out of your life”—which is precisely what he says with a slight adjustment for the fact that this is a devotional.

Ever imagine how complicated God’s life got when He created us? “Now the Lord observed the extent of the people’s wickedness, and He saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry He had ever made them. It broke His heart” (Genesis 6:5-6). Hey, even God has His days.
Yes, God’s life got very complicated when He created us, and that complication culminated in a devastating crucifixion. It took that much for Him to straighten everything out. Yet that didn’t stop Him. So why should we stop at nothing less in order to love each other? Love is worth it.

Love is impossible in isolation. Isolation is a vacuum and love needs a relationship to breathe. Any relationship brings complications; so it’s your choice. Hey, someone made the right choice or you wouldn’t be here to make your own now.

Lest you think that others are the source of your complications, think again. Relationships merely show us who we really are. They are like mirrors into our own dysfunction, and that is actually part of our salvation, because we probably wouldn’t see it otherwise.

So think about all the complicated relationships in your life today, and thank God for what they show you about yourself. Ask God to heal you and then put your arms around those complications, because the overcoming power of God’s love is in them, waiting for you, and you wouldn’t want anything less.

Together Forever

Together Forever
By John Fischer

A friend of mine has written a tongue-in-cheek song about a certain reluctance to go home for Christmas due to the strained relationships that always seem to characterize these once-a-year family get-togethers. I have witnessed his performance of this song numerous times, and every time it receives a boisterous response from the audience. If the perfect family exists somewhere, I haven’t found it yet, and I would venture to guess you haven’t either. It stands to reason, therefore, that our spiritual families will be plagued by the same limitations that characterize our physical families. There is no perfect small group, no perfect church, no perfect community.

The issue for our fellowship, therefore, is not to be free of problems, but to be free of pretense. Conflict, disagreements or differences of opinion are not the enemy of good relationships—dishonesty is. We can go through anything together if we are committed to two things—the truth about ourselves, and the permanency of our relationships in the Body of Christ.

These two things are absolutely necessary for a good relationship: telling the truth, and a tenacious refusal to walk away. My wife and I have a joke about this. We tell people that we have simply decided that divorce is out of the question as a solution to our problems: “Murder maybe, but not divorce!”
Imagine if we had the same tenacity towards each other in the Body of Christ What would happen if the ending or the avoidance of any relationship in Christ were simply not an option.

If you think about it, even if we make it an option, it has to be only temporary, because we are all headed to our eternal home in heaven where all differences, factions and grudges will be erased forever. Like we used to say in the Jesus movement: We’re going to be together forever, so we might as well start getting used to each other now. There are no exit doors in the family of God.

Speak Blessings Over Your Family

Speak Blessings Over Your Family

Psalm 5:12
12For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; with favour You will surround him as with a shield.

What do you believe and say over yourself and your loved ones every day? On Friday evenings in the homes of every orthodox Jewish family, the father lays his hands on his children and pronounces God’s blessings over them. No wonder Jewish children grow up to be winners in the fight of life! They become some of the world’s greatest achievers, inventors, bankers, financiers, diamond exporters, musicians and entertainers.

Although a minority race, the Jews have produced the most number of Nobel Prize winners. I believe it is because they bless their children in the same way the patriarchs of the Old Testament did. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob released God’s blessings upon their children by laying hands on them and speaking forth the blessings. (Genesis 27:27–29, 38–40; 48:14–16)

In the New Testament, the apostles pronounced blessings over the churches they were preaching to. To the church in Philippi, Paul declared, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) John released a powerful blessing upon Gaius when he said, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” (3 John 1:2)

Even Jesus pronounced a blessing of deliverance on the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman — “go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter”. (Mark 7:29) This was a blessing of deliverance by proxy. The woman took it by faith and found that her daughter was well when she reached home. (Mark 7:30) Likewise, the centurion took the blessing by faith and healing came upon his servant back home. (Matthew 8:8–13)

The parents of a little girl did the same thing while worshipping in our church. Their daughter was in hospital in the final stages of cancer. When I pronounced the blessing of healing that Sunday, they received it and pronounced it over their daughter. She was soon discharged from the hospital, healed!

My friend, bless your loved ones and declare over them, “The Lord blesses you and surrounds you with His favour as with a shield.” Speak forth your own blessings by declaring aloud, “Thank You Lord, You prosper me and I am in excellent health!”

Antidote to apathy

Antidote to apathy
By John Fischer

What is the best antidote to apathy? Is it a motivational seminar? A weekend retreat? A new book that will change your life? These kinds of programs may bring temporary relief, but they are more like changing the channel when we are already overweight couch Christians. No, the best antidote to apathy is service.

Evangelicals often put being saved and going to heaven in the same sentence, as if heaven were the only goal of our salvation. But the truth is we are saved to serve. Heaven is important, but heaven can wait. God saves us because He has a job for us to do in His kingdom here on earth. If heaven is the whole point of our salvation, then what do we do while we wait?

It’s amazing how many of our own problems dissipate when we begin caring about other people’s problems instead of focusing on our own. We’ve picked up some very bad habits from our culture. We have a tendency to be preoccupied with our own needs and constantly trying to fulfill them. Advertising plays into this self-indulgence, promising that one more product will be the thing that will finally satisfy us. The truth of the matter is that “getting” will never come close to the satisfaction that “giving” affords.

Think of someone you know who is truly happy and I venture to guess you will find someone busy serving others. The supreme example of Mother Theresa comes to mind. If, in fact, our troubles will never go away (and I don’t believe they ever will in this life), then to focus on them and try to solve them is going to be nothing but a broken record. Make one problem go away, and watch another one crop up immediately. To give yourself to the task of helping with the problems of those around you may not make your own problems go away, but it will make them less of a drag in your life. Focusing on our own problems can lead to anxiety, frustration and even depression. Focusing on other people’s problems leads to usefulness and a greater sense of health.

So today, when you are tempted to look inwardly to your own needs, look out, instead, to the needs of those around you and watch your own needs diminish by comparison. You may even forget yourself in the process.

Jesus hung on a cross and thought of those who put him there and pleaded their case before His Father because He knew they didn’t realize the full impact of what they were doing. Can you imagine having even a fleeting thought about someone else if you were in that much pain yourself? But that’s just the thing about Jesus: He was always thinking of someone else.

What You Give Him Will Be Multiplied Back To You

What You Give Him Will Be Multiplied Back To You

Hebrews 11:6
6But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

It pleases God when we believe that He is the giver, the blesser and that “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”.

Such was the faith of Ruth the Moabitess. When she decided to make the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob her God, she found Him to be her rewarder, who lovingly provided for her, divinely guided her, jealously protected her, gloriously redeemed her from her hopeless situation and richly restored her life.

This same God says to you too that He is your rewarder. And when He is involved in your life, you will be amply rewarded. Peter, the fisherman, would testify to that. His fishing boat, which represented his life, caught nothing the whole night. But in the morning, when the boat was returned to him after he had loaned it to Jesus, it was no longer the same boat. It was anointed, blessed and so magnetised that a great number of fish was attracted into its net. In fact, Peter received a net-breaking, boat-sinking load of fish! (Luke 5:1–11)

Beloved, because God is your rewarder, if He borrows your “boat” even for a while, be assured that He will surely return it to you with a supernatural increase. Even if what you give Him is little, when placed in His hands, it will return to you blessed, anointed and multiplied.

This happened to the little boy who gave Jesus his lunch of five barley loaves and two fish. It must have thrilled the boy to see his small lunch supernaturally multiplied and satisfying not just him, but 5,000 men, not counting the women and children, and even leaving behind 12 basketfuls of leftovers. (John 6:1–13)

Beloved, believe that God is a rewarder. When you give to God your finances, time, possessions, abilities and even your life, know for sure that He will return them to you blessed, anointed and multiplied!

As He sees it

As He sees it
By John Fischer

What is the best antidote to apathy? Is it a motivational seminar? A weekend retreat? A new book that will change your life? These kinds of programs may bring temporary relief, but they are more like changing the channel when we are already overweight couch Christians. No, the best antidote to apathy is service.

Evangelicals often put being saved and going to heaven in the same sentence, as if heaven were the only goal of our salvation. But the truth is we are saved to serve. Heaven is important, but heaven can wait. God saves us because He has a job for us to do in His kingdom here on earth. If heaven is the whole point of our salvation, then what do we do while we wait?

It’s amazing how many of our own problems dissipate when we begin caring about other people’s problems instead of focusing on our own. We’ve picked up some very bad habits from our culture. We have a tendency to be preoccupied with our own needs and constantly trying to fulfill them. Advertising plays into this self-indulgence, promising that one more product will be the thing that will finally satisfy us. The truth of the matter is that “getting” will never come close to the satisfaction that “giving” affords.

Think of someone you know who is truly happy and I venture to guess you will find someone busy serving others. The supreme example of Mother Theresa comes to mind. If, in fact, our troubles will never go away (and I don’t believe they ever will in this life), then to focus on them and try to solve them is going to be nothing but a broken record. Make one problem go away, and watch another one crop up immediately. To give yourself to the task of helping with the problems of those around you may not make your own problems go away, but it will make them less of a drag in your life. Focusing on our own problems can lead to anxiety, frustration and even depression. Focusing on other people’s problems leads to usefulness and a greater sense of health.

So today, when you are tempted to look inwardly to your own needs, look out, instead, to the needs of those around you and watch your own needs diminish by comparison. You may even forget yourself in the process.

Jesus hung on a cross and thought of those who put him there and pleaded their case before His Father because He knew they didn’t realize the full impact of what they were doing. Can you imagine having even a fleeting thought about someone else if you were in that much pain yourself? But that’s just the thing about Jesus: He was always thinking of someone else.

It's not about me

It's not about me
By John Fischer

If your life is not purpose driven, it will be normal and natural to seek the most comfortable alternatives when faced with important decisions or turning points. Without an overall purpose, only self-seeking makes any sense. Which might explain why so many people today are self-seeking and why they feel justified in being so. Without a higher motivation or calling, there is no compelling reason to deny one’s self anything.

Former generations had more reasons than current ones to deny the self. Two world wars and a great depression demanded much from people in order to serve the cause of country and family. But in an age of relative ease and materialistic affluence, the pursuit of happiness eclipses everything. And this pursuit is constantly fed by advertising and modeled by the entertainment world, so that it becomes normal to assume you deserve, if not a break, at least a better life. Spend a few minutes in an electronics gift store and consider the “creature comforts” that seem normal, even necessary to us today, but would have appeared distasteful to former generations sacrificing their sons and daughters for the cause of freedom.

Enter the purpose driven life and suddenly you have another way to look at life. Instead of comfort there is character. Instead of self there are others to serve. Instead of being all about me, it’s all about God. Instead of individuality there is my place in a family. Instead of personal achievement there is a mission. Without someone or something higher that myself, everything sinks back down to me, and how boring is that? I don’t know about you but I’m tired of myself, and if I am, I’m sure you are too. I am reminded of that classic Bette Midler line in the movie “Beaches,” “So I’ve talked enough about me, what do you think about me?”

Jesus said you won’t find your life until you lose it; you won’t have something until you are willing to give it away; you won’t be first until you are last. It all works backwards to the natural order, but then again this isn’t natural selection. This is learning to live according to God’s great purposes for us and finding out that real joy and fulfillment in life is all about living for a God who is higher and better than anything this world has to offer.

God delights in us

God delights in us
By John Fischer

If you’re anything like me, you are really good at beating yourself up on a regular basis. Most of us live with a lot of guilt. We are never good enough. Everything is our fault. This is because all our lives, we have learned acceptance based on performance. If we behave properly, we will be loved and accepted, but one mess-up and love is withdrawn. We are expected to do well, so we only hear about it when we don’t.

God loves us on a wholly different basis. With God, we begin with love and acceptance and we move out from there.

When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, a voice was heard from heaven as he came up out of the water, “This is my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with him” (Matthew 3:17). At this point in his ministry, Jesus had done nothing to prove himself or earn his Father’s approval. No healings. No teachings. No disciples. His baptism signaled the beginning of his ministry, and yet we find God fully pleased with him. It was a given.

It is the same thing with us. God delights in us just as we are. You are pleasing to God already. Or to put it another way: God likes you. This may be hard to believe but it is true. You bring pleasure to God right now as you read this.
God’s love is extended freely through Christ’s death on the cross. It’s what Christ did that brings us into fellowship with God, not anything we do.

Think about it. The things you do today will not cause God to like you any more or less than he already does. That means your actions can spring from knowing you already bring God pleasure instead of trying to be worthy of it.

So take it. Bask in it. Yes, right now, without lifting a finger, God is pleased with you. He made you for this. He made you to delight in you, and you are entering into this purpose by acknowledging him in your life. This is where we start.

You were made for God

You were made for God
By John Fischer

Think about this: “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since He is Lord of heaven and earth, He doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve His needs—for He has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and He satisfies every need there is” (Acts 17:24-25).

God is providing you with the air to breathe today as you read this. This will continue to be the case after your click off your computer and go on with your business. Paul later said, “In Him we live and move and exist.” That’s a pretty big involvement on God’s part, and I have long considered it ironic to think how involved God is with our lives compared to how little we are involved in His. But this inequity doesn’t seem to make any difference to Him. He’s in our lives regardless.

And then Paul paints a picture of us as those who are feeling our way toward God “though He is not far from any one of us” (17:27). What an image that is! We are groping for Him, as in the dark, and He is whispering in our ears. Why not turn around and embrace Him? All this groping is unnecessary.

This, in fact, is what we do when we worship God. We are acknowledging the simple truth that He has been there all along. We are not calling God down from some lofty place; nor are we getting ourselves to some lofty place to reach Him. We are simply turning around and embracing the one who has been right there from the beginning. We are agreeing with a truth that may have been self-evident to others (it’s been right here in scripture all along) but not to us. Worship should be the obvious thing to do. The fact that it is not shows how blind we can be to the truth.

You are no longer blind. Turn around. Acknowledge His presence in your life. Worship by opening your eyes to the obvious truth. As Francis Schaeffer used to say, “God is there and He is not silent.”

Pray this prayer today: “God, I recognize that You have been with me all along, even in the very air I breathe. I admit that I was wrong to think I could be autonomous—that I could control my own destiny and operate without any knowledge of You. I realize now how important You are to me, but what amazes me is the fact that I might be important to You. Open my eyes to see You today, and to realize my place in Your kingdom.”

You Ask Why?

You Ask Why?

You ask why I follow this Jesus?
Why I love Him the way I do?
When the world's turned away from His teachings
And the people who serve Him are few.

It's not the rewards I'm after
Or gifts that I hope to receive
It's the Presence that calls for commitment
It's the Spirit I trust and believe.

The Lord doesn't shelter His faithful
Or spare them all suffering and pain,
Like everyone else I have burdens,
And walk through my share of rain.

Yet He gives me a plan and a purpose,
And that joy only Christians have known,
I never know what comes tomorrow,
But I do know I'm never alone.

It's the love always there when you need it;
It's the words that redeem and inspire,
It's the longing to ever be with Him
That burns in my heart like a fire.

So you ask why I love my Lord Jesus?
Well, friend, that's so easy to see,
But the one thing that fills me with wonder is
Why Jesus loves someone like me.
- Author Unknown

Cloud Nine

Cloud Nine
By John Fischer

You have a place in the Body of Christ—a place only you can fill. This is true for all of us so that together, we all fit into a very big plan for what God is doing in the world. That He would incorporate us into this plan is a part of His amazing grace. He not only saves us; He gives us a job to do, and equips us to do it.

Jesus spoke often about rewarding those who have been faithful in their earthly responsibilities (what He calls the “little things”) with big responsibilities in the kingdom of heaven. That would mean there is no task too small for the Christian, even by earthly standards. What we do now in service to others is setting us up for eternity where we will take on much bigger responsibilities. Now we may be dealing with setting up chairs, teaching Sunday school, or volunteering at the local soup kitchen. In the future we may be dealing with running galaxies, maintaining governments, and representing God’s will in the universe. And you thought heaven was all about sitting around on clouds playing harps!

I believe that God doesn’t waste any of our time or our experiences. Everything we are discovering now as servants in His church is preparing us for an eternity of service in His eternal kingdom. Yes, you read that right: we will be serving throughout eternity. I personally believe we can blow our minds imagining what eternity will be like and not get even the half of it.
Think about it. Does it seem like God would weave the need for a purpose into the core of our being and then have that purpose realized only by playing 2nd harp on cloud nine ad infinitum? Whoever came up with that harp thing missed this admonition where Jesus said that those who are faithful in the little things He puts in charge of all His possessions. And what are all His possessions if not worlds and galaxies and heavens upon heavens?

So the next time you are struggling with the apparent meaninglessness of some small task, think about what God might be preparing you for and make it your goal to be found as a faithful servant with what He has given you for now.