God Is the Center of Service
God Is the Center of Service
Service contains many things, but what is important is that God be in it — what is important is that God be the subject of the service, and the center of the service, and the goal of the service…
How do I prepare the lesson in service?
† My preparation for the lesson is my preparation of myself, so that God may dwell in me with me, and I may bring Him into the class, and into the hearts and ears…
We do not separate service from God. We do not say that we have, for example, thirty servants; rather, God is the One who performs the service through the servants. And if God is not in these servants, then they are nothing.
† The servant is a person “bearing God,” who has lived with God and tasted God, and presents this taste to the people: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).
Service is the indwelling of God in the word; this word, with all the power of God that is in it, passes from the servant to his hearers.
Service reminds me of a beautiful image in the Book of Revelation that gives an idea about service: the scene of Christ in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, which are the seven churches, and in His right hand seven stars, which are the angels of the seven churches.
The right hand of the Lord moves in service, and you as a servant are inside the right hand of the Lord.
Service is that you pour yourself out before God and ask Him to place a word in your mouth to deliver to the people.
Say to Him: O Lord, I do not know how to speak. Give a word from You. You are the One who can teach them, influence them, and lead them. Lead me, then, and lead them. Guide me and guide them… I and they are lambs in Your flock; shepherd me and shepherd them. I want to learn with them, from You…
Sin is not merely knowledge; it is power and life. And the mistake of Adam and Eve was that they sought the tree of knowledge and not the tree of life…
Service is a spiritual life that one person absorbs from another. It is fellowship with the Holy Spirit and fullness of the Spirit. It is love and self-giving; and the love that is in you is what serves.
If you do not have love, then you are not yet a servant…
Service is that you love people, love their souls, and love the Kingdom, which is the delight of people in God, and that you cooperate with the Spirit in building the Kingdom.
Consecration, then, is a complete longing to work with God. And he who has this longing will not be stopped by obstacles.
If consecration is a calling from God to you, then God who called you is able to solve all your problems and remove the obstacles.
God is the center, and He is the subject of service, and He is its goal, and He is the One working in it. Service is speaking about the sweet story of Christ, and manifesting the love of God to the people, and calling them to His love. Service is speaking to people about God who loved them and created them, loved them and redeemed them, and loved them and watched over their care, and went about among them doing good.
Speak about the beautiful attributes of God in the Scripture.
About what do you speak to people as a servant?
Is it about ethics? Or about spiritualities? Or about theology? At what level are you?
Ethics is merely talk about virtue, which any person may speak about. The Stoic philosophers wrote about ethics and were not believers. Spiritualities are a higher level, in which the work of the Spirit enters, not merely outward conduct. But theology includes God Himself. Thus, when we speak about purity, for example, we do not speak about outward righteousness like moralists, but we speak about the indwelling of God in the heart and the transformation of the person into the image of God.
It remains, then: how do you bring God into the teaching of every virtue? We leave this subject separately.
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