My friend and ministry partner (our husbands are pastors together here at our church), Julie, is one of the most creative people I know. She is a photographer and took our family pics for Christmas. She made a collection of 3 of the photos for us on a board with Joshua 24:15, in part, printed on it: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We used that verse in our Judges study on one of the first 2 weeks of the study. That has everything to do with the book of Judges. When Joshua said those words to the people of Israel, they replied, "Oh yeah, us too. Forbid it that we would ever serve false gods." (My interpretation, obviously) Yet, there they were time and again, serving those false gods.
I looked up the word serve in my Lexical Aids this morning. The original word is Avadh and it has these meanings: "to serve, be made to serve, be served...(other similar words)...to worship, cause to worship." There's a few sentences giving examples of the word used in Scripture then this sentence, "Service to God is an exhilarating experience which does not seem like bondage at all."
an exhilarating experience which does not seem like bondage at all...
The Apostle Paul repeatedly referred to himself as "a bond-servant of Christ." (see Romans 1:1, for example) Paul made a willing choice to give up his own rights, desires, and will in order to serve the Lord. I wonder if, for Paul, it was an exhilarating experience that did not seem like bondage at all. We know by reading his letters that he definitely suffered hardship. He stuck with it. He didn't give up. In what was likely his last letter, Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:17-18, "But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me...The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever." (NASB)
We will serve the Lord is about more than going to church and attending Bible study. I actually love going to church. I love being with a community of believers and I love corporate worship. I am a church girl. No doubt about it. But, that's not where my service is. And that cannot be the sum total of my worship. I worship privately at home. I worship by serving others. I serve God by serving others. To the glory of His great name.
And, it is an exhilarating experience which does not seem like bondage at all.
Serving the King,
Jeanette
I looked up the word serve in my Lexical Aids this morning. The original word is Avadh and it has these meanings: "to serve, be made to serve, be served...(other similar words)...to worship, cause to worship." There's a few sentences giving examples of the word used in Scripture then this sentence, "Service to God is an exhilarating experience which does not seem like bondage at all."
an exhilarating experience which does not seem like bondage at all...
The Apostle Paul repeatedly referred to himself as "a bond-servant of Christ." (see Romans 1:1, for example) Paul made a willing choice to give up his own rights, desires, and will in order to serve the Lord. I wonder if, for Paul, it was an exhilarating experience that did not seem like bondage at all. We know by reading his letters that he definitely suffered hardship. He stuck with it. He didn't give up. In what was likely his last letter, Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:17-18, "But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me...The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever." (NASB)
We will serve the Lord is about more than going to church and attending Bible study. I actually love going to church. I love being with a community of believers and I love corporate worship. I am a church girl. No doubt about it. But, that's not where my service is. And that cannot be the sum total of my worship. I worship privately at home. I worship by serving others. I serve God by serving others. To the glory of His great name.
And, it is an exhilarating experience which does not seem like bondage at all.
Serving the King,
Jeanette
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