Basic Prerequisite of Giving an Acceptable Service to our God.

Each day I thank God for granting me strength, wisdom and life and most of all salvation so I can “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace …” (Hebrews 4:16).

As I read the book of Hebrews I came across Hebrews 12:28 “Therefore, since we receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.” To show our gratitude for God we are called to offer an acceptable service.

When I read the word “acceptable”, another verse came to my mind.  Romans 12:1 “

I URGE you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship”.  The word acceptable can be pleasing.  So how can we give a pleasing/acceptable service to God?

The basic requirement for giving an acceptable/pleasing service to God is to have a clean conscience.

In Titus 1:15 “To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and conscience are defiled.”  When Adam fell, our consciences are darkened or defiled but thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ, his blood not on cleansed our sins but all “restored” our conscience.  Hebrews 9:14 tells us “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” 

Also in Hebrews 10:22 “let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water”

When we received Jesus into our heart not only is our sins forgiven, our conscience is restored and  thus we are able to offer acceptable/pleasing service to God.

The 3 roles of a Christian.

After we have received Christ we are considered righteous (sinless) in God’s eye – “Justification by faith” which is mentioned in Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Being a Christian, we inherited 3 different roles:

• Children of God
• Trainee of God
• Servant of God

Most people will say we are king, priest and prophet after we received Christ in which I totally agree.  I am just trying to look at this at a different angle.

Children of God

Romans 8: 16-17 “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  These 2 verses clearly stated that we are children of God.  This is why we call other Christians brothers and sisters.  This is great honor that we can call the Almighty God – heavenly Father.

Trainee of God

“For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints,  do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might” (Eph 1: 15 – 19)

Romans 8 17 stated that we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.  We are to inherit the Kingdom of God.  Ephesians 1: 15 – 19, Paul prayed earnestly that the eyes of the Christians in Ephesus be enlightened that they may see the riches of the glory of God’s inheritances. 

We are to reign with Christ in God’s Kingdom.  We are to be trained to know how to rule with Jesus.

Servant of God

This is the main idea that I would like to share with you.  Living in America, it is not so easy to understand what a servant is.  Often times we don’t really understand what is the role of a servant.  It is different from an employee.

Jesus die on the cross for us and we are bought with a very high price. In 1 Cor 6:20 “

For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body”.

Like it or not we are a servant of God.  We are to serve our Master.  A servant will pick up trash for the Master.  A servant will clean the toilet of the Master.  No question asked.  Just do it.  

At church are you willing to pick up the trash for Jesus? At church are you willing to clean up the dog shit in front of the worship center.  This is the basic job of a servant. 

Also as a servant we are to be humble before our fellow Christians.  In Philippians 2: 3 "

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves"

We need to have a servant’s heart.

Had anyone asked you - "Does God has a name"?

A name represent a person.  Parents name their children according to their expectation to the kids.  Most people live up to their names.

In Exodus, God asked Moses to lead the Israelite out of slavery in Egypt and go to the Promised Land.  Moses asked God saying – “Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”

So what is God’s name?

Exodus 3:14 “And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM; and He said, Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, “I AM” has sent me to you”

God’s name is “I AM”.  This is how God called Himself.  When we say His name we will say “HE IS”.

O.K. so what? 

In Exodus 3:15: God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.

We know God is love, God is righteous and even Jehovah Shalom (LORD is Peace).  But why “I AM” or “HE IS”?

It means God is EVERYTHING.  Jehovah Shalom is only one aspect of God.  It cannot truly describe God.

This has special meaning to me.  God is EVERYTHING that he can be my coach, teacher, counselor ….

Do you have such faith to trust that God is EVERYTHING?

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

We must have faith to please God.  Well faith in what?  The faith is that we believe that his name is “He is”.  Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”.

As a person experience, I like Chinese Kung Fu/Martial Arts and I can even say I have a passion on Kung Fu.  I have to say I am a peaceful man.  I like Kung Fu as a sport and it is amazing to see how the Kung Fu master issue the force to expel people a few feet away.  Well, I never have a chance to find a master to learn Kung Fu from.  15 years ago I have a good opportunity to learn from a Master but the class was in Sunday morning.  I have to worship God on Sunday morning so I passed out this opportunity.   

But then I ask God to be my Kung Fu master.   

And sure enough God had honored me since I have honored Him to forsake my personal interest so that I can worship Him on Sunday.  God show me insights on various aspect of Kung Fu and I can say I have certain “knowledge” on Kung Fu. 

God is EVERYTHING.  I encourage you to explore this aspect of God.

I did not realized until today that you mean so much to me.

Today is the first day of another church year.

One of the building is also done with renovation and we are able to use it for our Sunday School Class.

I have to be at church early in the morning and before worship starts I have some time to spare so I went into the renovated building and take a look.

I do not realize that I have such a feeling with this building until this morning.  The "you" in the title of this blog is this building.

Why will this be?

Due to renovation, I have not been into this building for almost one year.  When I walked in, I noticed the layout of the building had changed.

While I was walking around, memories of things that happened many years ago came to my mind.  I remember the room where I ask a girl out for lunch and now she became my wife.  I remember having fellowship meetings when I was in college.  How I spend a lots of time cooking for the seniors at our church.  It goes on and on.  It might be similar to when Jesus comes again and we have to appear before Him.  All the things (whether good or bad) that happened in our lives will be shown one after another.

It came to me that I grew up in this church and I also grew up in this building.  Touring this renovated building is just like visiting my home town of my childhood after having moved away for many years.

With the memories of what happened in this building coming back to me, I cannot help but to thank God in putting me in this church.

Last time I talked about being a good and faithful servant for God is my life goal.  Having the desire is one thing and being able to do it is another thing.

I believe 2 things helped me to stay focus and to stay on track. The first thing is a persistent prayer life and the second is the love of God's word.

I don't have time to explain in detail today but I would like to share with you 2 Bible verses that shaped my life and to allow me to live a rich and peaceful life.

The first Bible verse is Luke 18: 8b "... when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”


The context of Luke 18: 1-8 is the Parable of Prayer.  There is a widow who demand justice from a wicked Judge and eventually because of the persistence of the widow the Judge is able to grant her justice.  In Luke 18:1, it said " Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart"  When Jesus come can we find such faith?  What kind of faith?  It is the faith that prayer can move mountains.  We need to have a persistent prayer life knowing that we should pray for all things and not to lose heart.

The second Bible verse is I Cor 2:4 "My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God". 

It said our faith should rest on the power of God and how can we have our faith rest in God?  It is through the study of God's word.  We need to get "rhema" (a Greek word that refers to spoken word) from the Bible.  We should let the Bible verse along with the conviction of the Holy Spirit to talk to us. 

Perspective affect our daily life - priority and decision making

Flashback to December 1983, one month after I have received Jesus into my life, I went to a 5 day conference. 

I don’t remember the exact theme of the conference.  It may be “More than Conquers”.

I remember having a difficult time finding a ride to get home. As much as I like to eat I don’t remember how the food was.  I did not make any new friends. I was pretty much by myself. One funny thing that I can remember is that I was in a Bible study and somehow the topic of “Morning Star” came up.  My Bible study group knew that I came from the same church as the main speaker of the conference so they ask me to explain what “Morning Star” was.  They thought by the fact I came from the same church as the main speaker that I would automatically know the answer.  Little did they know that I have only been “enlightened”/accepted Christ for only a month. I think it is natural that they thought that way.  The church that I go to is very strong in Bible teaching and has a good Sunday School Infrastructure with lots of dedicated Sunday School Teachers.

 

Well, these things were not so important.  The most important thing is that this conference pretty much set the tone of how I live and grow in my walk with Jesus until today.

I remember well that in the conference, I have decided that I will be a Good (best) and Faithful servant of God.  This thought being a good and faithful servant is still my life goal even today.  This is manly from the Parable of the Talents in Matt 25:14-30. 

Why is this so important to me and how has this affects me?

The perspective of a person will dictate the person’s behavior and reaction to different things.   

My perspective and goal in life is to be a Good and Faithful servant of God.  Being a servant there are things that I will and will not do.  For me God’s work is always the most important and will have my highest priority.  Take for example, there was one time that I can sit for a certification exam without being required to take a "What's new" class if I can do that before a deadline.  This was a very difficult test.  The deadline was on a Wednesday.  3 Days before the exam I remember that I have to write a teaching outline for Sunday School.  As I have stated before to be a faithful servant I see God’s work as more important than my own work. I stopped my study and worked on that teaching outline.  Before I could finish the teaching outline I would not study. If I did not pass before the Wednesday deadline I will have to have to take a class which would cause me $500.  It is natural for a servant to finish his Master's work first even it that would cause me $500 (well plus the exam fee).  When I honored God he helped me to finish the teaching outline in 5 hours and I was able to resumed my study and was able to pass that difficult test.

(Note: Please be aware that being a child of God, He did not promise that everything that happened in my life will be easy and good.  All Christians will have to face difficult times just as others.  The only difference is that when we are in difficult times, we have the peace of God and His guidance.)

Another perspective is that I will have as well as my life goal is to hold fast until the end. I do not remember exactly if this was also the result of the conference that I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Once I received Christ into my heart I am a child of God and I will be able to reign with Him eternally.  To me this is an extraordinary thing that can happen to a person.   

Often time people will say if you believe in Jesus you can go to heaven.  This is good but what are we going to do in heaven?  We are to reign/rule with Jesus.  One more thing that amazes me is that in Revelations 3:21 it said – “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”   What is an overcomer is still being debated by theologians.  At least I can say for sure is that to hold fast until the end to my faith is an element of being an overcomer.

Where are we sitting according to Revelation 3:21?  We are to sit with Jesus on His throne.  We get to sit at Jesus throne and not just some throne make for us humans.  It is just like we are to sit at the head table of a banquet and not a separate table.

It is just way too amazing.

So all these years, every day when I wake up I know I am a servant of God and that I need to hold fast to my faith.  My perspective affects how I deal with other people as well as taking priorities and making decisions in my life.

This is just one of the many things that happened in my life and how it affects my day to day living.  Stay tune for more as how I walk with Jesus and to live a rich and peaceful life.