Day 36: I Was Made For Mission

You may build great cathedrals large or small

You may build skyscrapers grand and tall

You may have all the things that one could ask

But only what you do for Christ will last!

We used to sing that in the Gospel choir and have even sang it on the streets of Berlin, Germany. Ah, what memories! My life was changed as a young man of twenty two going on a ‘Short Term-Mission’ to Germany and other parts of Europe!

Mission is what we were made for. Sometimes though we can think that mission is only ‘short term’ for ‘short bursts’ or for ‘missionaries’.

I remember ‘missionaries’ coming to our church when I was a kid and they brought slide shows and stories that were hair raising and I really respected them, however their mission seemed very detached compared to what I could do.

The truth is that the mission field is the field of where you are. Jesus said that we are to be “his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth” Acts 1:8. Therefore it starts where we are in our local street, village or town and moves outwards.

I love what Scott Wilson said last week on the Great British Churches Tour. We can choose to have an impact or we can be an influence. Impact is short bursts and short term, influence is multi-layered and takes longer but has greater effect. That’s the role of the church. We are the church, made for a mission!

Let’s find out our assignment and be those missionaries for Jesus in our communities.

Day 35: God Works Best When I Admit my Weakness

I love the fact that God takes ordinary, even weak, insignificant people to work for Him and bring glory to His name.

Often we can disqualify ourselves from being used by God because we think that He only looks for the rich, the powerful, or the greatly talented to accomplish His purposes.

In fact, the opposite is true. 1 Corinthians 1:27 says ‘So you see that God chose those whom worldy people call foolish to have a wisdom greater than they possess. He chose those whom others call weak to have a greater power than human power’.

This means that not one of us is disqualified from being used by God.

If we think of Gideon in the Old Testament, he was filled with fear and low self esteem. In Judges 6:12 the angel of the Lord came to him and said ‘The Lord is with you mighty warrior!’  Gideon’s response in verse 15 was, ‘How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family’

God delights in taking those who recognise their own insufficiency to accomplish great victories for Him. God uses Gideon and his 30 soldiers to defeat the whole Midianite army.

Today, lets not concentrate on our own weakness or incapability, but instead look to the One who dwells within us and is able to do all things by His strength and power. Whether it’s in our finances, our job situation, a family problem or whatever, the God who is for us is far greater than all that can be against us.

Day 34: To Be a Servant I Must Think Like a Servant

Serving is thinking of others more than yourself. Jesus is our ultimate example of what it is to serve. Serving is not just in the doing but it is the being. I believe true serving comes from the heart. Jesus had a servant heart. He proved that when he said great things like “The son of man did not come to be served but to serve” and “I am here not to do my own thing but to do the will of the Father”

His serving came out of a love for his Father and for the people. He was focused on who he was doing it for.

In whatever capacity we are serving in, we have to realise that firstly it needs to be towards God. God deserves our best in our service to him and to others.

I think sometimes we can serve and forget why we are doing it and who we are doing it for. This can result in us serving with a wrong attitude. We can very easily see things as beneath us and think of ourselves more highly than we ought to. We can become frustrated if we are not receiving recognition and thanks. If that is our mindset then it has become about us and therefore we have missed the point.

To help keep us on the right track, we need to take a tip from the apostle Paul who said to the Philippians, ‘Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.’ As we live a life passionate to serve, I can guarantee we will see our lives rewarded both here on earth and in eternity [2 Corinthians 5:10]. God has given you breath to live and to make a difference wherever you place your foot. If we all serve as He wants us to, what a difference we will make.

Day 33: I Serve God By Serving Others

Servanthood is not a word commonly used in today’s society where ‘self’ is king and an ‘I’m alright Jack’ attitude is prevalent and considered acceptable.

As Christians we must recognise that serving others must be at the very core of everything we do. Why? Because serving was at the very heart of everything Jesus did – the ultimate example of a servant. If serving was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for us. Jesus specialised in menial tasks, nothing was beneath Him.

I can remember striving in my 20’s to be what society would deem successful, what job I had, how much money I was earning, how many people reported into me at work etc. However, the bible tells me that success has nothing to do with any of that! Success is measured by how many people I serve. Mark 10v43 in the Message says ‘Whoever wants to great must become a servant.’ John 13 v15 tells us that Jesus came to serve BECAUSE of his greatness, not in spite of it.

Mother Theresa said ‘God did not call me to be successful but to be faithful’ and I love that! Faithfulness is hard to find these days, but the bible says our faithfulness will be rewarded in eternity.

I’m sure all of us have at times in our lives, missed opportunities to serve one another in church and in the community. We may never get these opportunities back. So today I challenge you to open your eyes, see a need and meet it, don’t wait until tomorrow or Sunday. It doesn’t matter how little or meaningless it may seem, the most significant service is often the service that is unseen. Jesus said ‘If you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.’ What an amazing promise.

Day 32: God Deserves My Best

We’ve probably all enjoyed the scene when a small child puts on dad’s boots and comes walking into a room. The child feels bigger in dad’s boots as they proudly stumble along but inevitably fall over.

Imagine how silly it would be to let the child stumble around, trying to walk in those boots every day because they wanted to be just like dad. If we’re honest, we’ve probably tried or watched someone try to walk in someone else’s shoes and we know that it’s never a good idea. It never turns out well.

We are not supposed to fill someone else’s shoes. We are supposed to just fill our own!

Each of us needs to accept who we are in Christ and what our unique shape is.

You may be thinking… ‘If I only knew what my unique shape was’.

Well discovering your unique shape isn’t as hard as you may think. If you want to discover your shape… have a go at something! Yes, it is that simple.

Remember your mother saying ‘How do you know until you’ve tried it?’ when you refused to eat what was on your dinner plate. Well take your mothers advice and have a try at something. In my experience, it’s not until you actually get involved in serving that you find out what you’re good at (or not good at!) Try volunteering in a team, if you don’t already or get involved in organising an event or learn a new skill but whatever you do, do something. You’ll never discover what’s there, if it’s not first explored.

Once you find what you’re good at, keep doing it and keep doing it until you’re the best that you can be at it, no matter what it is. After all, to be an expert you only need to be very good at one thing.

God has deposited something unique in our life. It’s our responsibility to be a good stewardship of it.

Day 31: Nobody Else Can Be Me

Only you can be you. You have been shaped by God for service.

Your ATTRIBUTES are those natural talents you were born with. They come from God, to be used for His glory. It’s incredible to think that studies have revealed we each have between 500-700 different skills and abilities: words, writers, speaking well, creative art, painting, maths, science, mechanics, carpentry, cooking, looking after children, IT, admin, media, practical helps, cleaning, visiting people, listening well, sports, etc…..

If we are able to do something, then we need to think about how we can use that something to serve God.

Don’t fight your PERSONALITY, use it. We can have similarities but we are all different and that’s amazing. God loves variety. Introverts & extroverts, those who love routine or love variety, thinkers or feelers, otters or beavers.

The Bible puts it like this: ‘God works through different people in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves his purpose through them all’

The beauty of it all is that there is no right or wrong, There is just YOU. Don’t work against yourself, that will just annoy you. Go with the grain. Learn about yourself. Recognise your strengths and work with them. Plus there is no better feeling than doing what God made you to do.

Employ Your EXPERIENCES. Life shapes you, stuff happens. How wonderful it is that God can take any kind of experience, good or bad and use it to help others. God never wastes a hurt. Who better to help another than YOU, someone who has travelled the same or similar path & come out the other side.

 2 Corinthians 4:1 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us [NLT]

The only thing we must do is allow God to use us, whatever shape we are. What do you think you bring to the table?

Day 30: I Was Shaped For Serving God

Imagine if we all understood more fully the unique gifts and ‘shape’ that God has given us and then began to live freely from that understanding?

God has wired us uniquely and created us distinctively to fulfil his purposes! We are not a waste of space we have a unique SHAPE.

The unique gifts and heart beat he has given you, are for a unique assignment on the earth. To serve him is not an optional extra, however, he would not have given us an assignment without the gifts and tools to do the job.

The acrostic SHAPE helps us to understand who we are and our unique mix .

Spiritual Gifts are what they say. Gifts can’t be earned because they are gifts! Jjust like any other gift they need to be used to be effective. Their purpose is to help the entire church (1 Co 12:7). Each one of us has at least two spiritual gifts.

Let’s find out what they are and use them to make a difference…(you can study this by checking out spiritual gifts exercises on the internet, reading the Bible where it lists them and asking your trusted friends).

An unopened gift is worthless but a gift that is used is useful for purpose!

Heart. Just as you have a physical heartbeat, you also have an emotional heartbeat, one that ‘moves’ you towards certain areas, subjects and activities.

Gifts are a signpost to your destiny. Passion are pointers to your purpose.

When we are passionate about something, it drives us to excel because we care. When we love what we do, there is an energy for it. Let’s do things with enthusiasm. The word literally means ‘en theos’ ’in God’. God created us to be enthusiastic about certain things that make us uniquely us!

Where do you care? Answer these questions and it will help you to discover who you are.   When we serve the Lord with all our heart we are including the whole of our life in our service to our king.

Remember the difference between an ordinary day and an extraordinary day is who you do it for!

Day 29: Service is Not Optional

Occasionally I jokingly sing, “It’s all about me Jesus” because of course, it’s not. I mean, sometimes it is [we all have times when we need someone to stand with us] but mostly it isn’t and that’s hard. It’s hard to die to yourself, to kill the flesh, but many times we have to.

At times, I’m tired, I don’t want to have 100 children to deal with but I just have to suck it up because God has given me a chance to sow a seed, to make a contribution that could affect eternity and really, on the scale of eternity, what matters most? I have a contribution to make.

We don’t always want to be contributors. We would rather be consumers because that’s the world we live in. Open up a magazine, tear out every advert, tell me what you have left – I’ve done this before – there’ll be very little.

Every Christian is called to a life of Christian Service but unfortunately many Christians live a life of “Serve-Us”. When we serve others we are serving Him and at the end of time this is how we will be judged [Matthew 25]

Trust me, your service is NEEDED in local church [join Planetkids!] but it is not something we slot into our spare time or do as an afterthought, it has to be our way of life.

“Your attitude must be like my own, for I, the Messiah, did not come to be served but to serve and to give my life.” Jesus proclaimed Isaiah 61 as his mission statement, all of which is outward facing. I reckon if it’s good enough for Jesus then it is good enough for us.

Next month in Planetkids we’re learning about ‘Agents of Change’, men or women of faith who stood up and were counted for their acts of service and influence in changing their world: Mother Teresa, William Wilberforce, William Booth etc.

I want to be counted too in serving my world and making a change in the lives of others around me. Abraham was old, Jacob was insecure, Joseph was abused, Moses stammered, Gideon was poor, Elijah was suicidal, Rahab was immoral….

What is your excuse? God uses us all. I’m not saying ‘volunteer at church!’ I am saying let’s look at our lives. Are we fulfilling our purpose? Are we intentionally serving others? We’re all sowing something….what are you sowing?

Day 28: There Are No Shortcuts to Maturity

Growth takes time, unfortunately. Wouldn’t you love it if as soon as you became a Christian you got an instant download of everything you needed to know, an instant transformation, a quick trip to ‘fullness in Christ’?

As it is in the natural so it is with God. He has chosen to develop us over time. There is no shortcut to maturity. The development of Christlike character in our lives cannot be rushed. I have learnt to enjoy the journey, do all I can to keep learning and allow God to mould and shape me into the person He needs me to be.

Being mature is about taking responsibility. It’s about having a willingness to unlearn some stuff and replace it with some new habits. It’s about change.

Be ready to search out insights and life lessons at every opportunity. Read. Make notes. Be patient. Stay faithful. Know that God is always working on you. Keep listening. Take the pain, it will be worth it in the end. Don’t be in a hurry.

Know that He isn’t finished with you yet but that ‘He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion’.

Day 27: There is Always a Way Out

Oscar Wilde said, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.” Jesus took a much more radical approach. He recommended to his disciples that if their eye caused them to stumble to gouge it out.

Jesus is well qualified to comment on the subject of temptation. No one will ever understand the depth of the torment he endured under temptation in the wilderness and in Gethsemane, for God will not allow us to be assaulted by such extremes of temptation. Yet our eternal destiny hinged completely on the outcome. The temptation he faced was to follow his own will rather than accept the will of God, which for Jesus involved going to the cross to carry the weight of our sins. He overcame by accepting his mission.

How does this help us today in our struggles? Firstly, we have a Saviour who is able to empathize completely with our struggles. He has been tempted in every way that is common to us. But there is much more than empathy available to us. His victory over temptation demonstrates that he has a power that is greater than the darkest confusions of our minds. And that power is available to us. We don’t have to be victims of the philosophy of Oscar Wilde.

So how do we overcome? We are all in this together, and God will always bring people into our world who can help. Lay aside pride and confide in them. Then unleash the Word of God, for the Devil trembles at the truth of God. So consider who you can share you struggles with?