PAY IT FORWARD; A PROMISE FROM GOD?
I send you greetings in the name of Jesus:
Everyone knows that pay it forward is a movie about a 12-year-olds plan to make a difference in the world. He was motivated by a teacher at his school, and so he invites a homeless man to sleep in his garage. Unaware of this arrangement, his mother awakens one evening to find the man working on her truck. Holding him at gunpoint, she asked him to explain himself. He shows her that he has successfully repaired her truck and tells her about her son's kindness. He says," I'm just trying to pay it forward."
I can't help but think that this is what Jesus had in mind and one of his conversations with his disciples. He wanted to show them the full extent of his love. So before their last meal together, he took off his outer garments, wrapped a towel around his waist, and begin to wash his disciple's feet. This whole idea was shocking because only slaves washed feet. It was an active servanthood and it was a symbol that pointed to Jesus personal sacrifice, passion, and humiliation on the cross. Jesus made only one request of his disciples it was: "if I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. John 13:14,( in other words) Jesus requested that they pay it forward.
Today there are many different ideas about how we should pay it forward, but in the long run it was the actions that Jesus showed his disciples that made the greatest impact. He actually demonstrated what it was like to pay something forward through becoming a servant first before he became a king. There are several other instances where Jesus made reference to this concept. One was when the disciples were arguing among one another about who was going to be greatest in the kingdom. The question who would set on the right and the left of Jesus in his kingdom, and he said those positions were not even up to him, but they were decisions made by the father. Jesus then referred once again to their service to one another and to others as being their first duty. In Matthew 24: Jesus tells us again about the tremendous effect that service to everyone is effectually service to Christ himself.
I think its time for us to return to those attitudes of service to one another instead of seeking any kind of self-justification, or reaching any kind of goal for self. The Holy Spirit brought me back to a word I found in Hebrews 4:12 which says"for the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to dividing asunder the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.(The reading goes on to say in verse 13 "neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do". This tells me there is no way that we can hide the intent of our heart from God in anything that we do. There are so many Christians today who are trying to manipulate God's Spirit to profit themselves in some way either through positioning themselves within the church are making some kind of networking relationship with others in the church that they can use to profit by, but that is not at all what Jesus meant by being a servant.
As I had said in my last blog we should consider ourselves to be tools that are used through the power of the Holy Spirit to reach out to others. We have no greater value to God than to be used in this way because when we try to think for ourselves and solve problems that arise on our own we simply get into the way of God's Spirit doing his work within us. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UBWORTHY SERVANT
Everyone knows that pay it forward is a movie about a 12-year-olds plan to make a difference in the world. He was motivated by a teacher at his school, and so he invites a homeless man to sleep in his garage. Unaware of this arrangement, his mother awakens one evening to find the man working on her truck. Holding him at gunpoint, she asked him to explain himself. He shows her that he has successfully repaired her truck and tells her about her son's kindness. He says," I'm just trying to pay it forward."
I can't help but think that this is what Jesus had in mind and one of his conversations with his disciples. He wanted to show them the full extent of his love. So before their last meal together, he took off his outer garments, wrapped a towel around his waist, and begin to wash his disciple's feet. This whole idea was shocking because only slaves washed feet. It was an active servanthood and it was a symbol that pointed to Jesus personal sacrifice, passion, and humiliation on the cross. Jesus made only one request of his disciples it was: "if I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. John 13:14,( in other words) Jesus requested that they pay it forward.
Today there are many different ideas about how we should pay it forward, but in the long run it was the actions that Jesus showed his disciples that made the greatest impact. He actually demonstrated what it was like to pay something forward through becoming a servant first before he became a king. There are several other instances where Jesus made reference to this concept. One was when the disciples were arguing among one another about who was going to be greatest in the kingdom. The question who would set on the right and the left of Jesus in his kingdom, and he said those positions were not even up to him, but they were decisions made by the father. Jesus then referred once again to their service to one another and to others as being their first duty. In Matthew 24: Jesus tells us again about the tremendous effect that service to everyone is effectually service to Christ himself.
I think its time for us to return to those attitudes of service to one another instead of seeking any kind of self-justification, or reaching any kind of goal for self. The Holy Spirit brought me back to a word I found in Hebrews 4:12 which says"for the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to dividing asunder the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.(The reading goes on to say in verse 13 "neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do". This tells me there is no way that we can hide the intent of our heart from God in anything that we do. There are so many Christians today who are trying to manipulate God's Spirit to profit themselves in some way either through positioning themselves within the church are making some kind of networking relationship with others in the church that they can use to profit by, but that is not at all what Jesus meant by being a servant.
As I had said in my last blog we should consider ourselves to be tools that are used through the power of the Holy Spirit to reach out to others. We have no greater value to God than to be used in this way because when we try to think for ourselves and solve problems that arise on our own we simply get into the way of God's Spirit doing his work within us. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UBWORTHY SERVANT
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