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Resurrection Monday

If Christ Is Risen, Nothing Else Matters

SYNOPSIS: Jaroslav Pelikan put it profoundly, “If Christ is risen—nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.” What difference does resurrection make? When you take resurrection reality and power out of the church on Sunday and into your world on Monday, transforming faith, unshakeable hope and radical love will be released into your life. Count Bismarck said, “Without the hope of eternal life, this life is not worth the effort of getting dressed in the morning.” But the Bible promises that Jesus’ resurrection is God’s guarantee of your resurrection one day, and that’s something worth celebrating today—even on a proverbial Monday morning!

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // John 11:25-26

“Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.’”

The story is told of Martin Luther, who once spent three days in a deep depression over something that had gone wrong.  On the third day his wife, Katie, came downstairs dressed in mourning clothes. Luther asked, “Who’s dead?”

She replied, “God!”

Luther was offended, “What do you mean, God is dead? God cannot die.”

Kate replied, “Well, the way you’ve been acting I was sure He had!”

That was a wake-up call to the great reformer. Luther snapped out of his funk. And Jesus’ claim to being the resurrection and the life ought to snap us out of our funk, too. Jesus is alive, and because he lives, we will live—forever.  This business of resurrection isn’t just for Easter Sunday, it is for Easter Monday and every other day of the week as well. The resurrection is our living hope (I Peter 1:3)—Sunday through Saturday—and that’s all that matters. I love how historian Jaroslav Pelikan put it,

“If Christ is risen—nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.”

What difference does resurrection make? When you take resurrection reality and power out of the church on Sunday and into your world on Monday, transforming faith, unshakeable hope and radical love will be released into your life. Count Bismarck said, “Without the hope of eternal life, this life is not worth the effort of getting dressed in the morning.” But the Bible promises that Jesus’ resurrection is God’s guarantee of your resurrection one day, and that’s something worth celebrating today—even on a proverbial Monday morning!

Apparently in the Greek Orthodox tradition, the day after Easter is devoted to telling jokes. Why? They believe they’re imitating the cosmic joke God pulled on Satan in the resurrection. Satan thought he’d won, that he’d gotten the last word, or so he thought. But God raised Jesus from the dead, and salvation and eternal life became the last word.

When you make the resurrection the foundation of your faith, claim the Risen Savior as the basis of your hope, and invite the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead to be your overflowing source of radical love, come Monday you can laugh in Satan’s face when he throws all kinds of garbage at you. You see, no matter what he does, you win! That is the last word. You are living in the power of the resurrection and the hope of eternity!

Even on Monday morning!

Let every man and woman count himself immortal. Let him catch the revelation of Jesus in his resurrection. Let him say not merely, “Christ is risen,” but “I shall rise.” ~Phillips Brooks

Reflect & Apply: Charles Wesley wrote what is arguable the greatest resurrection hymn of all, Christ The Lord Is Risen Today.  If you know it, sing it every morning this week before you head out for the day. If you don’t know it, it would be a great one to memorize (look it up on your Internet search engine) along with the memory verse.

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God Loves His People

God’s Love Will Hold Me Fast Today

SYNOPSIS: In the midst of the reading of God’s law—which we in the modern world often think of as restrictive and onerous—Moses reminds us that “God loves his people,” and that “all his holy ones are in his hands.” Now understand that the love of God described in this verse, as well as throughout the whole Bible, is not simply an emotional love. As Moses pictures it in Deuteronomy 33:3, it is a practical love. His love for his people—“his holy ones,” Moses calls them—leads him to hold them in his hands. In other words, God’s love is a love that is tender and close, it is a love that protects and provides, it is a love the gives and guides, and it is a love that is constant and unrelenting. And don’t forget, it is a love that will hold you fast throughout this very day.

The Journey // Focus: Deuteronomy 33:3

Indeed, God loves his people; all his holy ones are in his hands.

God loves you and me! As many times as we have heard that, as much as we know that to be theologically true, sometimes we forget it. Sometimes the knowledge of our Creator’s indescribable love for us in our heads doesn’t travel to our hearts where it impacts us at the deepest part of our being. I hope today is not one of those “sometimes” for you; I think you need to hear this loud and clear today: God loves you!

John the Beloved, the Apostle of love, said it so simply yet profoundly in 1 John 3:1,

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!

What a great verse! It is profoundly simple yet poetically beautiful and incomprehensibly grace-filled—and it is personally true: Indeed, God loves his people—that means you; you are held in his loving hands. Of course, John is also the author of the most well-known, well-loved verse in the entire Bible—John 3:16,

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16—someone has rightly said that John captured the whole Bible in just one verse. There is not a simpler, yet more profound truth in Scripture than this: God loved the whole world so much that he gave his Son to die for it. But let me remind you that even though the verse comes to us grammatically in the past tense, there’s nothing past tense about God’s love. God still loves the world! His love is present tense.

Likewise, let me remind you that even though the love of God described here is universal, it is also a profoundly personal love for you and me. Yes, God so loved the world, but he didn’t just look at it as one big mass of nameless faces. When the Father looked at the world and loved it, he was looking at you, his cherished child. St. Augustine, the 4th century North African Bishop, one of the most influential figures in church history, said it this way,

God loves each and every one of us as if there were only one of us.

Now understand that the love of God described in these verses, as well as throughout the whole Bible, is not simply an emotional love. As Moses pictures it in Deuteronomy 33:3, it is a practical love. His love for his people—“his holy ones,” Moses calls them—leads him to hold them in his hands. In other words, it is a love that is tender and close, it is a love that protects and provides, it is a love the gives and guides, and it is a love that is constant and unrelenting.

Notice also that God’s love is expressed in the midst of the giving of his law to guide his people. That means his love cannot be known in its breath and depth apart from walking in his ways and living according to his will. In that sense, there are conditions to his love: you and I can neither understand it nor experience it in any old way we want; we can only come into an experience of divine love through our obedience to God. And that, obviously, is why it is reserved for his holy ones—those who have responded to his call by lovingly surrendering their lives to him and have thus become his very own people. Yes, while God loves the world and sent Jesus to die in order to redeem it, the world will never know that love apart from the experience of redemption.

Now, back to God’s love for you. Did you realize that if you were the only person on this planet, God’s love for you would still have led him to send his Son to die for your sins? Just for you, there would still be a John 3:16. I hope that you will take that simple truth into the core of your being today, because at certain times on this day you will need to lean into it. Yes, God loves you!

Karl Barth was one of the most brilliant and complex intellectuals of the twentieth century. He wrote volume after massive volume on the meaning of life and faith. A reporter once asked Dr. Barth if he could summarize what he had said in all those volumes. Barth thought for a moment and then said,

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

Go with that today, and nothing much can go wrong for you!

Going Deeper: Write the words, “Jesus loves me this I know” on a 3×5 card and place it where you can see it throughout the day. Several times today, read the card out loud to yourself (or to anyone who may be listening if you like).

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Songology

If Is Doesn't Teach Theology, It's Best Not To Sing It

SYNOPSIS: The music of the faith is meant to teach us theology—songology, we might call it. Not so much systematically, but for sure, artistically, emotionally, and viscerally. Church music should be evaluated by this and this alone: what it teaches us about God and our relationship to him. If it doesn’t teach doctrine, inspire trust and lead us to obedience, then no matter how lovely the lyrics or moving the melody, perhaps the best thing we could do with it is to toss it in the “we’re done with it” bin.

The Journey // Focus: Deuteronomy 32:4,9

Moses recited this entire song publicly to the assembly of Israel: I will proclaim the name of the Lord; how glorious is our God! He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is! …For the people of Israel belong to the Lord; Jacob is his special possession.

I love church songs—hymns, simple choruses of the faith and modern worship music. But I’m a little bit weird; I don’t just love the music, it’s the lyrics that move me—or not. When a song teaches good theology, I’m a fan! Let’s call it songology. I think that is what the music of the faith is meant to do: teach us theology—not so much systematically, but artistically, emotionally and viscerally. If it doesn’t, no matter how lovely the lyrics and moving the melody, I am okay with tossing it into the “we’re done with it” bin. Don’t worry; it won’t be lonely. There is a great multitude of other church songs there.

Moses wrote a song for the Israelites toward the very end of his days as their leader. He was about to “go the way of all the earth.” That is code for, “I’m about to die.” He was passing the baton of leadership to Joshua, and in his final words to Israel—which went on for several chapters—he was rehearsing their history with God over the past forty years. His last will and testament was at times charming, profound, moving and tender, but then it would take a turn into deadly seriousness: Moses was not pulling his punches with their characteristic whiny and rebellious nature. He was also letting loose on what he feared most: that they would wander from God and end up in full on spiritual rebellion in the future, probably sooner than later, knowing them. Fearing that, he warned them in no uncertain terms of what the consequences would be for their unfaithfulness to God.

To put the exclamation mark on his words, he wrote this song that comprises Deuteronomy 32. The song is not just a happy little ditty from their happy old granddaddy. No, much of the song is a foreboding alert—again, he is putting into writing that which will stand as a prophetic testimony against them when they have sunk into rebellion and are experiencing the nasty consequences.

You can listen to the song for yourself. Make sure you read the entire score because while it is often harsh, it reminds us of some very important theology—the doctrine of God that should be heard again in our generation and passed on to the next. But for time’s sake, let me just mention a few bits and pieces of this songology that stuck out to me:

  • The Doctrine of God: He is our strength, just and fair, perfect in all his ways and utterly righteous. This is especially critical to grasp as you read of the punishment he will unleash on the persistently rebellious. If you read only the imprecatory portions of God’s warning, you will think of him only as an angry Deity. He is not at all. And he would be none of the things God should be if he didn’t do what he warned he would do.

He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is! (Deuteronomy 32:4)

  • The Reality of Sin: Sin is not simply a mistake, nor is it merely satisfying our preferences. Sin is not God’s children exercising their freedom; it is full on rebellion against the just and righteous Creator. In fact, to persistently live in rebellion against God should call into question the legitimacy of their spiritual heritage.

But they have acted corruptly toward him; when they act so perversely, are they really his children? They are a deceitful and twisted generation. (Deuteronomy 32:5)

  • The Rule of God: Perhaps forgetting that God is our Father, our Maker, and the One who established us on the planet is the fundamental reason we sin against God. If we kept in mind that our lives are not our own, we would never ask, “what do I want?” but “what does my Owner desire from me?” God has supreme right and authority of rulership over us.

Isn’t he your Father who created you? Has he not made you and established you? … He established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number in his heavenly court. For the people of Israel belong to the Lord; Jacob is his special possession. (Deuteronomy 32:6, 8-9)

  • The Sovereignty of God: God’s self-existence, his supreme authority, his authorship of salvation, his Fatherhood over all mankind are not just lofty doctrine that only the theologians grasp and appreciate; this is practical and meaningful theology for our everyday lives. Theology serves as a continual reminder that we must never allow the goodness of life to lull us into independence from the very One who gives us our life, supplies our every breath, and deserves our moment-by-moment loyalty.

But Israel soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed! Then they abandoned the God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation. …You neglected the Rock who had fathered you; you forgot the God who had given you birth. (Deuteronomy 32:15,18)

  • The Praiseworthiness of God: the obvious implication of all this theology is that our response of worship, now and as the ceaseless activity of our lives, is only right and fitting. The sovereign, life-giving, just, fair and righteous God alone is worthy to be praised.

I myself am he! There is no other god but me! I am the one who kills and gives life; I am the one who wounds and heals; no one can be rescued from my powerful hand! …Rejoice with him, you heavens, and let all of God’s angels worship him. Rejoice with his people, you Gentiles, and let all the angels be strengthened in him. (Deuteronomy 32:39,43)

Yep, there’s good songology in Moses’ hymn. And while we don’t know if the music that accompanied it was moving, if the band was hot, if he had backup singers and dancers (which I kind of doubt) or if it hit the Billboard Top Ten Chart, we do know that the words of the song were literally inspired by the Holy Spirit for our benefit. In fact, Moses himself said as post-commentary on the song,

These instructions are not empty words—they are your life! By obeying them you will enjoy a long life in the land you will occupy when you cross the Jordan River. (Deuteronomy 32:47)

If that is literally true—which it is, by the way—then we had better start singing.

Going Deeper: Take a few minutes today and pour over this song. Then pull out your own bits and pieces of the theology contained in it. Write it down, and add your own commentary. It will be a meaningful exercise in worship.

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Help Wanted—Help Received

The Throne of Grace

SYNOPSIS: What a difference in life it makes just knowing you have someone in high authority who has your back! You live more confidently, act more courageously, risk faith more often, let go of your failures more easily, seek forgiveness more readily, sleep more peacefully, worry a whole lot less and wake up ready to face the day with more energy than you’ve ever known before. That’s the privilege Christ-followers enjoy—or should—and that includes you!

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Hebrews 10:15-16

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

What a difference it makes just knowing you have someone in high authority who has your back! You live more confidently, act more courageously, risk faith more often, let go of your failures more easily, seek forgiveness more readily, sleep more peacefully, worry a whole lot less and wake up ready to face the day with more energy than you’ve ever known before.

That’s the privilege Christ-followers enjoy—or should—and that includes you! After paying the price for your sins by dying on the cross, Jesus entered eternity to begin his heavenly ministry as your very own personal high priest. Now, he stands before the Father night and day to represent you. He intercedes on your behalf. He is praying for you. He is rooting you on. He is ready to help!

He understands your fears—he faced some pretty overwhelming stuff when he was here. He understands your temptations—all of them. He faced them, too. He knows your weaknesses—he had to overcome them one by one. He knows what it is like to be rejected, disappointed, persecuted, to go without, to have no place to call home and to be misunderstood. He even knows the heaviest weight a human being carries—the reality of one’s own death. Jesus has been there, done that.

But he did all that for you! That’s why he is a faithful, empathetic high priest. And that is why you can come into the very throne room of Father God with complete confidence, walk right up to that throne and ask him for what you need: Help, provision, healing, forgiveness—whatever.

You can do that because of what Jesus has already done—he paid the price for you to do that. That is now your right, your privilege, and your responsibility. You can also do that because of what Jesus is doing right now—he is standing alongside you with his arm around your shoulder before the Father bringing your case before the only One who has the power and authority to do anything about it.

With Jesus standing by your side, you will be glad to know that help wanted means help received. Now that ought to make a difference in how you approach life today.

If you took the love of all the best mothers and fathers who ever lived—all the goodness, kindness, patience, fidelity, wisdom, tenderness, strength and love—and united all those virtues in one person, that person would only be a faint shadow of the love and mercy in the heart of God for you and me. ~Brennan Manning

Reflect & Apply: Try offering this prayer: “Father, I stand before you in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and ask you to meet all of my needs today.  I pray that you would keep me pure, give me power, ensure my success, and make me useful to your kingdom. Work in me and through me today, and when I lay my head down on the pillow tonight, may I know the joy of having been totally pleasing to you.”

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Way Out In Front Of You

Let Go of What You Know and Follow God

SYNOPSIS: Faith never plays it safe, never settles for the comfort zone, and never rejects the unknown. Following God means letting go of what you know and what you see for the risky adventure of pursuing what only God knows and sees. God said to Abraham, the father of our faith, “leave your land and go to one I will show you.” That wasn’t the last time God said that to a person of faith. If God said it to the father, he says it to the children—he is saying it to you: “Go!” And remember that where you go, God is already there.

The Journey // Focus: Deuteronomy 31:6

So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.

Not only does God have your back, he’s got your front! In fact, he is way ahead of you. If you are his child, wherever he is leading you, literally, he is leading you. That means he is out ahead of you, which is what “leading” means. What that also means is that God already is where he is calling you to go.

Now I don’t know about you, but that gives me great comfort in my own journey of faith. And I need that because letting go of what I know and what I see for the risky adventure of pursuing what only God knows and sees requires courage, in large doses.

To be sure, faith is an investment of trust! God said to Abraham, the father of our faith, “leave your land and go to one I will show you.” That wasn’t the last time God said that to a person of faith. If God said it to the father, he says it to the children, and since you are a spiritual child of Abraham, God is probably saying that to you right now. So if you are going to obey God’s call to steps of faith, you will have to risk your trust.

Moses had led the Israelites to the edge of their Promised Land. He had proven himself formidable, fearless and skillful as their leader. They had come to rely on him as the voice and arm of God. But he could go no further; they would have to go on without him. And while God had graciously selected Moses’ associate, Joshua, to now lead them into battle ahead, the people were nervous. This was a new thing; Joshua was not proven as a leader to the same degree as Moses. That is why God reminded them that no matter who their human leader would be, it was God himself who would be way out in front of them.

Now think of what that implies for your steps of faith. When you are a God-follower, you are led only to where God already is. You cannot take a step that God has not already secured. Sure, you may not see where you are stepping with your natural eyes, but faith calls you to see what God has promised as firm reality. And firm reality means that where God already resides is the guarantee of your victory. That is precisely why God exhorts you to be bold and courageous.

From the human view of things, steps of faith are risky, uncomfortable and stretching. No doubt about that! You well know that if you are processing a faith decision right now. And if you are, as you are processing what faith requires of you, let me encourage you to listen to those that have already gone before you on a journey of faith—Moses, Joshua, the Israelites and everybody else in the Great Cloud of Witnesses. (Hebrews 12:1) They will say that while you may think you are going where no man has gone, the reality is God is already there. They would know—they went there, too. And they will assure you that wherever you go in response to faith is where God already is, and as you go to where God already is, you cannot lose.

God is way out in front of you; he has personally gone ahead of you. Therefore be strong and courageous!

Going Deeper: Where is God calling you to greater steps of faith? Perhaps he is prompting you to witness to a co-worker. It could be that he is speaking to you about giving of your finances. Maybe he is asking you to serve in a ministry. Possibly he is even calling you to make a major life change in order to follow him. Wherever he is calling you, he is leading you. And wherever he leads you he is already there with your victory in his hand. So be courageous and go for it.

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Behold the Kindness and Severity of God

God of Justice - God of Mercy

SYNOPSIS: Those who think of the Old Testament God as an angry, punishing deity are wrong. There is not one God of justice in the Old and another God of grace in the New; there is only a God who loves his children beyond description, patiently endures their rebellion, punishes the sin when they persist, but looks for ways to restore them to his favor as soon as he can. As the Apostle Paul exclaims, “Behold the kindness and severity of God.”

The Journey // Focus: Deuteronomy 30:1-4

In the future, when you experience all these blessings and curses I have listed for you, and when you are living among the nations to which the Lord your God has exiled you, take to heart all these instructions. If at that time you and your children return to the Lord your God, and if you obey with all your heart and all your soul all the commands I have given you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and gather you back from all the nations where he has scattered you. Even though you are banished to the ends of the earth, the Lord your God will gather you from there and bring you back again.

I would argue that one of the disservices to the reader of our modern Bible translations is the addition of chapter and verse numbers. Of course, these were added to help us find our way around God’s Word. It would be quite difficult to find Psalm 119:64 when your pastor asks you to turn there during the sermon without a point of reference. So yes, chapter and verse numbers are helpful. I am not voting to get rid of them.

However, they were not there when these letters and books were originally penned. To that point, Moses didn’t divide Deuteronomy into sections: there were no chapters 28, 29 and 30; the blessings and the curses and the restoration from the curses were not seen as separate. It was one seamless sermon. That is critical to understanding God’s loving heart when he is warning the Israelites of the very bad things that will happen to them when they backslide into spiritual rebellion. If all you read about is the dark side of God’s punishment, you will fail to see the loving heart in which it is rooted.

The Apostle Paul’s word in Romans 11:22 perfectly describes the blessings/curses section of Deuteronomy: “Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.” The kindness and severity of God—that is it. God is both loving and just. He would not be one if he were not the other. If he is not just, then he is not loving. If he is not loving, then he cannot be just.

Furthermore, you cannot truly grasp the severity of God’s justice if you do not understand the longing of his heart to redeem the punished from their punishment. Again, take note of Moses’ seamless proclamation of the blessings and curses—and the restoration of the Israelites when they have been exiled for their persistent rebellion. Even in their punishment, God looks for repentant hearts so he can restore them to the promised blessing:

If at that time you and your children return to the Lord your God, and if you obey with all your heart and all your soul all the commands I have given you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes…. The Lord your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and so you may live!” (Deuteronomy 30:2-3,6)

Those who think of the Old Testament God as an angry, punishing deity are wrong. There is not one God of justice in the Old and another God of grace in the New; there is only a God who loves his children beyond description, patiently endures their rebellion, punishes their sin when they persist, but looks for ways to restore them to his favor as soon as he can. In an example that falls far short, God is like a loving parent who warns his children about their misbehavior, sends them to time out when they cross the line, but does not leave them there forever. In fact, that parent counts down the time when pardon is possible.

That is the Lord our God—the One who longs to forgive and restore. That is why the prophet Joel offered this plea:

“Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead,” says the Lord. Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse.

An angry God—not in the least!

Going Deeper: Is God warning you about your sin? Repent, for he longs to keep you in his favor. Is he punishing you for rebellion in your life? Turn to him, for he longs to restore you to the blessings. Do you see him as an angry, vindictive Deity? Let go of that picture once and for all, for he is a loving and compassionate Father who loves you with an everlasting love.

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Hilariously Happy

Designed and Built To Serve

SYNOPSIS: It may sound harsh to say we are commanded to serve, but it is what we were created, and recreated, to do. Christians serve! Like fish swim and birds fly, Christians serve. Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God shaped us to serve him. God was there at the moment you and I were conceived, even before, deliberately engineering us to fulfill that purpose. And when we do, his joy will flow into our souls. We will be hilariously happy.

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Acts 20:35

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Jesus was a different kind of leader than the world had ever known.   Instead of taking, he gave—even giving up his very life. Instead of seeking power, fortune and fame, he came to glorify the Father. Instead of insisting his rights as the Son of God, he came to incarnate a God who touched lepers, ate with sinners and healed on the Sabbath. Instead of being served, his very purpose in coming to earth was to serve.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

So when Jesus—or his apostles who led the early church and formulated the New Testament theology by which we now order our lives—calls us to serve and to give our lives away, we are not being asked to do anything that wasn’t authentically modeled for us. Paul writes in Philippians 2:5-7, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God…took on the very nature of a servant.”

Jesus did that—now he asks us to do the same. We are called to serve, and quite frankly, the call is even stronger than that: it is a command. Jesus said, “I have set an example for you…now do as I have done.” (John 13:13-17)  Paul commanded in Galatians 5:13, “Serve one another in love.”

Now it may sound a little harsh to say we are commanded to serve, but it is what we were created, and recreated, to do. Christians serve! Like fish swim and birds fly, Christians serve! Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God shaped us to serve him. God was there at the moment you and I were conceived, even before, deliberately engineering us to fulfill his purposes.

Now there are a couple of very important results that occur when we begin to serve our God-shaped purpose. First, we will begin to capture the world’s attention.  Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:16, NLT) Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this will all men know that you are my disciples: That you have love for one another.”  By our authentic servanthood and sacrificial giving, we become living proof of a loving God to a lost world.

Roy Hattersley, a columnist for the Guardian (U.K.) and an outspoken atheist, laments, “It ought to be possible to live a Christian life without being a Christian.” But after watching the Salvation Army lead several other faith-based organizations in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, he wrote,

“Notable by their absence were teams from rationalist societies, free thinkers’ clubs, and atheists’ associations—the sort of people who scoff at religion’s intellectual absurdity… [Christians] are the people most likely to take the risks and make the sacrifices involved in helping others.  Civilized people do not believe that drug addiction and male prostitution offend against divine ordinance. But those who do are the men and women most willing to change the fetid bandages, replace the sodden sleeping bags, and—probably most difficult of all—argue, without a trace of impatience, that the time has come for some serious medical treatment.  The only possible conclusion is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make [Christians] morally superior to atheists like me.”

The truth is, the spotlight never shines more brightly on Jesus than when Christians serve.  “By this, all will know…”

Second, when we begin to serve our God-shaped purpose, happiness is produced in our soul. When we serve we find it is indeed more blessed to give than receive. The word “blessed” here means “hilariously happy.” We are really serving ourselves when we serve others, because health and happiness gets produced in our inner core. You see, there is just something ennobling about serving others—and therefore joy-producing.

Karl Menninger, founder of the famed psychiatric clinic in Topeka, Kansas that bears his name, was once asked, “what would you do if you thought you were going crazy?” Without even having to think about it, he said, “I’d go out and find someone less fortunate to serve.”

Jesus said, “I’ve washed your feet…now go do that for one another.”  Did he mean that literally?  Probably not.  Washing someone’s “barking dogs” back then was akin to getting treated to a hour-long massage in our day. It is the spirit of the foot-washing that Jesus is wanting us to capture. He is wanting us to follow his lead, take the posture of a servant, give our lives away and allow his love to flow to others by doing so.

In return, his joy will flow into our souls.  And we will be hilariously happy.

“Serve God by doing common actions in a heavenly spirit, and then, if your daily calling only leaves you cracks and crevices of time, fill them up with holy service.” ~Charles Spurgeon

Reflect & Apply: Christians serve! Do you? If you want to experience the “hilarious happiness” that Jesus spoke about, find a need and serve in his spirit and in his name.