Serving God

-
serving GodAfter serving the Lord for a few years, I gradually realize that none of my qualifications, whether it's integrity or skills, is worth anything in His eyes. According to Philippians 3:3, we must be ones who "serve by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh."

I experience an outward change in my service: instead of serving full-time, I will serve part-time with the campus ministry I've been involved with for the past five years. I don't know yet what I will do with the rest of my time, but the Lord has not required any less of my genuine service and worship to Him. I still belong to Him and He is still my God. I'm not certain of what the future holds, but one thing I know, the Lord Jesus will never let me go and will always demand a resurrection-ly living. And yes, I cannot attain the Lord's desire by myself but He can continue to be and do just that in me.

This morning I had a time with the Lord and was touched by several portions in my morning devotional (Holy Word for Morning Revival: The Recovery of the Priesthood for God's Building):

"Even though we have been regenerated, we may continue to live in our fallen nature, boast in what we do in the flesh, and have confidence in our natural qualifications... We need the Lord's light to shine on us concerning our nature, our deeds, and our confidence in the flesh. If we are enlightened by the Lord, we shall confess that although we have been regenerated to become children of God with the divine life and nature, we still live too much in the flesh."

"All services to the Lord must pass through death and resurrection before they will be acceptable to God. Resurrection means that everything is of God and not of us. As long as the natural strength remains, the power of resurrection has no ground for manifestation."

"Resurrection requires that we fall down, prostrate before God, and confess to Him, 'I can do nothing. I am nothing, and I have nothing. This is what I am. If I can give anything, it is because You have given it to me. If I can do anything, it is because You have done it through me.' Once we prostrate before the Lord in this way, everything we have will become God's work in us. Henceforth... we will realize that everything that is dead belongs to us and everything that is living belongs to God... A man must come to the end of himself before he will be convinced of his utter uselessness." 

"Throughout the centuries, all the living servants of the Lord have had this resurrected Christ living in them. We can testify that He lives in us, enabling us to do what we could never do in ourselves." 

So I believe that I can continue serving God and endeavor to render Him true worship in spirit and truthfulness. Jesus is God, everyone!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christians on Campus - The Reason I Went to College at UT Austin

-
Image
John 8:32 on the UT Tower in Austin, Texas About Christians on Campus For decades, members of Christians on Campus have endeavored to focus on Christ and Christ alone. In-depth Bible study, building up spiritual companions, and mutual fellowship in the homes are some among many highlights that characterize the club activities with Christians on Campus.  My Experience with the Club I'm not a paid marketer. I'm just a living testimony of how Christians on Campus has changed my human and spiritual life. I don't even know how to begin thanking the Lord for His mercy and sovereignty in placing me where I need to be, so that I can grow. This series of blog posts on Christians on Campus is just my personal testimony and experience as a young Christian in college, nothing more, nothing less. So let me begin here.  Christians on Campus was the reason I went to UT Austin. After I graduated from high school, I had to go abroad for college (I'm from
Read more

Summer 2012 Puerto Rico Blending Trip: The People

-
Image
Please read my previous post to find out more about the island of Puerto Rico . Without a doubt, Puerto Rico has it all:  nature and culture . Yet what I enjoyed the most was meeting Christians, young and old, and having a rich fellowship with them (despite the language barrier that we had since I don't really speak Spanish). I also met a lot of college students who were affiliated with Christians on Campus. Their endeavor to reach the young people on campus, to bring the gospel to them, to fellowship, and to dive into the Word of God was too precious!  From Puerto Rico with Love. I realized that even though we were so far apart geographically, we all, in Texas and in Puerto Rico, had been endeavoring to do the same thing: gaining young people for God . Furthermore, even though we didn't speak the same language and weren't brought up within the same culture, there was always a prevailing atmosphere of love and joy among us. At the end of
Read more

Crossing The River Jordan

-
Image
"And the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel was crossing over on dry ground, until all the nation had completely crossed over the Jordan." (Joshua 3:17) I attended a virtual crystallization-study of the Books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. Like always the in-depth trainings held by Living Stream Ministry have been landmarks in my Christian life, prompting me to come to the Lord Himself to dwell on the revelations unfolded in these sessions of spoken messages. I take them as messages spoken from the Lord Himself. This time I was struck by the record of the children of Israel crossing over the River Jordan to enter into the good land. The parting of the Red Sea is quite famous, where the children of Israel exited the world (Egypt) and the ruler of the world with his evil forces (Pharaoh and his army) were buried. In our Christian life, the crossing of the Red Sea is a picture of our baptis
Read more

Only Lovers Can Be Mighty

-
Continuing from my last post on our Christian mission in choosing to be part of the mighty ones  is another quote by R. Kangas, inspired by the divine romance portrayed in Song of Songs chapter 3: "We are not trained to be mighty ones merely by being sent to a barren place to pass through one hardship after another. Rather we are trained by maintaining and nurturing our love toward our Beloved. Our Beloved is the mighty One. His love prevails... We should not allow the enthusiasm of war or the thrill of victory to interfere with our steady, developing, ongoing romance with the Lord." The mighty ones are God's army, beautiful in the Lord's eyes and terrifying to the enemy ( Song of Songs 6:4 ). Yet what's so astonishing about this army is the fact that all these ones are firstly LOVERS! In a sense, to the mighty ones, they do not go to war to win, they go to war to "waste" their lives upon the One whom they have loved. To the mighty ones, this spiri
Read more

MVP: The Most Valuable Person in the Lord's Eyes

-
Image
Last week I wrote Only Lovers Can Be Mighty . Being a lover and a warrior are two sides of the same coin. This week though I was reminded of a fellowship I had with Mr. Danker, an older brother in the Lord, concerning: Who would be the most valuable person in the Lord's eyes? Previously I considered being a lover and being the most valuable person as pretty much identical. I mean if you're a lover to someone, then by default, aren't you the most valuable person in that someone's eyes? Our answer would, of course, be yes. Now let us consider together. If that lover of yours truly, deeply, fervently, crazily love you, but simultaneously strong in the sense of always insisting upon his/her ways, styles, concepts of values, standards, and opinions; is he/she still practically the most valuable person in your eyes? Tough question, isn't it? But I would say practically no. Please do not misunderstand me here. I have not defined the characteristics of a true lo
Read more