Is Jesus Still The Reason?

My Utmost For His Highest

…do you love Me?…Tend My sheep. —John 21:16

“Jesus did not say to make converts to your way of thinking, but He said to look after His sheep, to see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Him. We consider what we do in the way of Christian work as service, yet Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. […] Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. […] Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people— the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a “doormat.” The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness.” CHAMBERS

It is so easy to lose sight of the reason we are what we are and we do what we do.  We become like the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2.  We do good things, but we lose the reason why we do those good things.  I can serve in Haiti at great personal cost, but if I am merely “helping” and Christ, the One who called me here,  is not at the center, I have missed the point … we don’t serve then offer Jesus … we serve because of Jesus.  There are many humanitarian organizations in the world.  In fact there are many humanitarian organizations that have Christian roots, but, over time, they left their first love.  I can stand next to someone without Jesus and give bread to the hungry.  We are doing the same thing .. so what is the difference?  The difference is that we bring the presence of God … each of us bears the mark .. is indwelled by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).  There is an unseen spiritual dynamic at work … but of course, that is only true if Jesus is at the center of who we are and what we do. How important is it to maintain an intimate relationship with the Lord? If you are doing what you do on your own, you might as well pack it in.  In Matthew 22:37-39, the first and greatest commandment is to love God … it starts there … and out of that love … the second is fulfilled, we love others … if we don’t have Jesus to offer people, we really have nothing to offer … Something to think about … ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)