Servanthood (1 Sammuel 25, pt. 2)

       Samuel died a loved man because of his service (notice in the chapter all of Israel’s mourning). That keeps hitting me. You are “a great man/woman” in the eyes of others when you become a servant to others. When it becomes about others and not yourself, life is good and full of purpose. Jesus taught the exact same thing.....

 "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.  If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.  For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.  I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

 -John 13:14-20

We are to “wash others feet.” Not necessarily literally but to be a servant. That is who we should be. The result is love and do for others, loving one another. It keeps hitting me that God originally designed us for togetherness and love but sin messed that all up. Sin results in a breakdown of husband and wife (the primary unity designed), family (the second unity system designed) and then, the community. We find the first recreation of this unity in Acts 2:42:47, and Acts 4:32-37. This is the kind of community God designed us for. Servanthood is the beginning of this, well, it really began with Christ’s sacrifice and servanthood. He established us an avenue through with to follow. We can’t do it alone. I learned that a long time ago.  We can only do this through the Holy Spirit by the foundation Christ set for us in His death and resurrection from the dead. He is our life.

-Matthew

(preparing to wash my feet for pt. 1)

Servanthood (John 13:1-20 pt. 1)

   After work, every evening when I get home, my feet are always extremely dirty. There is always a black film glossing over my feet.

    I decided to take a shower to get off the grime. I remembered the story of Jesus at the last supper taking off His “outer garment” and beginning to wash the feet of His disciples. Think about it, these 12 had been through some amazing, amazing things. Water walking, the transfiguration, the feeding of a bunch of people and numerous healings of many different kinds of things, you name the illness. It was quite an amazing 3 years. They knew He was the messiah, the Christ, a king in the line of David in an earthly sense but now the King in a heavenly universal sense too! The God who made the earth , the seasons, little atoms was now washing their feet? What kind of God is this? What kind of humility? Doing the job of a servant? And now they are to be servants to each other as well as the world?

     It’s the Christmas season now, I look again at Jesus, the baby. God Himself made Himself into a man to come close to us, to be a servant? If you think about it, we can’t move forward with humanity if we focus on self. It’s really the best way to relate to other people. For example, to make conversation happen, a good strategy I actually learned from my dad is to ask other people questions. Where do you live? Do you like it? What do you like about it? People like to tell you. It also makes them feel like they had a good talk. Servanthood is a way to increase love to others, in turn that increases unity. God is all about unity, He always has been from the beginning. He’s taking us in incremental steps to this unity. Eventually His unity will be perfect. He always makes His way, in the end.

      -Matthew

(My actual photo of feet after work)

David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17)

I love David’s boldness as he confronts Goliath. His boldness isn’t his own will power, he spends a lot of time with God, alone, tending sheep. His confidence began when he found his strength in God. When men run in fear, David knows the truth. That’s the difference. David knows the truth. God is here for us. God is there for His people. He will conquer the giants in our lives. He is stronger than those issues. We can be confident to move forward when we truly know who our Father really is….I have some advice, decide to get to know your true Father. 

Good Mood?

    I realized God gave me a good strategy for dealing with tough issues. Why have a bad mood? How can that benefit to sulk?

    Everyday I remember God is good. Take a look outside yourself, it doesn’t matter if things are hard, if you die, God always has a hold of you when we trust on Him. Remember we have a choices to trust Him or not. You’re in His hands, He will provide for you no matter what happens. It doesn’t matter if you are forced to work hard, there is no benefit from being lazy, so why not give it your all? No matter what happens in life and death, He loves you and has ahold of you. Just rest in that.

  

That doesn’t mean, “don’t work or don’t work at things” He gave us work, so do your work and rest in the peace that our Father will always provide.

Matthew 11:29-30, Matthew 6:25-34, Luke 12:22-34, Ecclesiastes 9:10

Humble like a Lamb

      I've debated ALOT of people in my experience with trying to let people see what God did for us. One day I was thinking about people and my frustration. I thought, "why can't they see what God did for us. There is so much evidence scientifically, historically, socially and logically."
      I had since my 20's, gave up trying to convince people with logic. People can't initially believe with their minds. I'm not saying, "you can't think." I'm just saying our preconceived notions, our pride, and fear get in the way like a blockade.
      Jesus is brilliant. He said, "they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven (mark 4:12). This is not a sad verse. God isn't preventing people from hearing and seeing. Jesus was just stating a fact. If "they" (people in general) humble themselves they can see and hear! We don't know anything about the spiritual world everybody. That is the truth. We've never seen it, I hope none of us are dead yet.
      I was recently thinking about my frustration with an individual, I thought, "It's like they're blind, how can I even show them Jesus? They'll die if I fail! They won't go to heaven!" Then God brought to my mind, "come as a little child (Matthew 18:3)." I realized God used stories to relate salvation to people and said, we need to humble ourselves and become like little children (to enter heaven)! What do little children do? They trust the one with authority and are humble. That doesn't mean, "never learn anything." He gave us brains to think. Our brains allow us to realize who He is, then we can turn and be amazed at the One who is all. At the start of knowing God, we need to come with our eyes and ears as a child. We aren't that cool. The Lord is perfect. He is our King, He is our ultimate provider, He is love, and our peace when the waters are out of control around us.
      Knowing the truth of who He is, is true humility.

He Forever Calls To Us (psalms 46)

                    What should we do now? When we have no money? When our family is losing it? When we lose our job? When earth is shaking? When the sky caves in? When I have nothing to stand on? Where will I go? What can I do? What can people say?

           My Father is the Lord God who made everything. He promises to hold on to me! He says to be calm in the storm, He was even asleep inside the chaos (Matthew 8:23-27)! To sleep, you can’t be worried. That my friends, is a fact. Be calm , He commands us in Psalms 46:10 to “Be still and know that I am God,” calmly. He fights for you if you would “be still, and know….” That doesn’t make sense! Neither does any faith in anyone, unless you know that person. Sooo, our God and Father says, “Come(to me) Matthew 11:28-29.” He is our rest! He is our peace.

“wisdom cries aloud in the streets,

She raises her voice; at the head of

The noisy streets she cries out.”

-Proverbs 1:20-21a

       To trust Him, learn about your father. Spend time with Him. I can’t tell you who He is. We can’t really know it or believe it unless we discover it for ourselves through experience. 

gods.... (Judges 17)

         In those days, Israel didn’t have much focus. “Micah” an Israelite, returned 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. His mother was thankful and had an imaged carved. Micah kept the image in his home with the collection of “house gods” that he had. He then made his own son a priest! Everything in the bible aren't prescribed teachings of what to do that is right. Sometimes the bible is just reporting the state of things at given moments at certain locations. The people of Israel did what they thought was right. So they did things like make their own sons priests.... I think the fascination with gods wasn’t really the worship of something they didn’t understand. I think it’s really an exterior worship of “self.” They were able to make their own rules, their own religion and no bounds. No one could tell them different. They could do what they wanted. They could form the personality of that image how they saw fit. They would be god.

    It’s kind of the same thing with us today. We aren’t more “evolved,” The only difference is we don’t use idols anymore. We’re more blunt, we don’t hide our worship of other things. We make certain “things” in our lives more important than they should be. We forget about God and make our own rules. Then it works out because we’re able to worship ourselves. That really doesn’t fill us. It just satisfies us for a temporary time.