Glamorless

The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.

Nehemiah 3:5

Serving the Lord is not always glamorous. In fact, it rarely is. Don't let the TV preachers fool you. It's not about sequined jackets or puffy hairdos. The Bible talks about feeding widows, caring for orphans, healing lepers, protecting the foreigner and the stranger, and showing hospitality to those who need a place to stay. Jesus Himself walked the dusty roads of Palestine for three and a half years, healing and loving on the dregs of his society. He "put his shoulder to the work" of the cross, carrying it to the place of His crucifixion (John 19:17). He did not think it below Him to take your sin and your punishment upon Himself but "took on the nature of a servant" and "humbled himself" even to the point of  "death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7-8).

The Apostle Paul also gives us an example to follow. The great missionary financed his journeys at times by working as a tent maker during the day and preaching when he could (Acts 18:3-4, I Thess 2:9, II Thess 3:7-10). Paul never thought of himself as too good to do the Lord's work. Paul saw himself as he truly was...a vile sinner saved by grace. Redeemed out of slavery to sin, Paul had become a slave of God...a willing servant who "put his shoulder to the work" willingly with a grateful heart. He once wrote of the church as a great body in which the different members are asked to do different jobs. Just like the human body cannot be all mouth or all foot, the church cannot be all prophet or all teacher. Paul notes that "the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it" (I Cor 12:23-24).

Jesus Himself said to His disciples, "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’” (Luke 17:10). So maybe God has been asking you to do something that you thought was below you or maybe it was just something you didn't want to do. Refusing to obey God is never a good idea. (See the story of Jonah for a refresher on how that works out!) So choose today to do whatever God has called you to do and whatever the Bible commands you to do with a cheerful heart as a thanks offering unto your Lord Himself. 

For further reading...

• I Cor 12:12-31- Which part of the body are you?
• Luke 17:7-10- A hard word on the true nature of servitude.
• Jonah- Trying to run from God's command?

Repent...day-by-day

Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits...They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Mark 6:7, 12-13

The disciples choose their message wisely. They are preaching on the cusp of the coming of the kingdom of God, so fittingly their message is one of preparation to receive what God is about to do in Jesus. And what is the preparation they admonish? Repentance. We stand on the other side of the cross looking back over two thousand years at the content of their preaching and yet their message stills rings true. Even now repentance is required of those who would receive the Lord Jesus. Turning to a new life in Jesus is inextricably linked to turning away from your old life apart from Him. Asking Jesus for forgiveness cannot be done apart from an acknowledgement that you are a sinner who has sinned not in a general sense but against God Himself and are therefore in need of His forgiveness. Rejoicing in the righteous standing you now have before the Father in Christ does not happen apart from mourning over the depraved condition you were in prior to Christ. There is no salvation apart from repentance! (Isaiah 30:15, Jeremiah 18:8, Ezekiel 18:32, Ezekiel 33:12, Acts 2:37-39, II Corinthians 7:10, et al) It has always been and even now remains the necessary preparation for right standing with God.

Is this all there is to repentance though? Is it merely a moment of grief prior to salvation that is then left on the trash heap of forgotten spiritual gleanings for the rest of the Christian life? Certainly not. Repentance is a necessary part of the everyday life of Christians which we must persist in if we are to be conformed into the image of Christ. It is repentance day-by-day in the life of the believer which opens the door to freedom from sin and victory over the enemy.

Few are the men and women who have repented of alcoholism a single time and upon setting down the bottle never pick it up again. The same could be said of many sins, because the habitual practice of sin and the power which it gives sin over our lives is rarely overcome in a moment. Although there are times when the Lord provides us with a supernatural leap forward in our process of sanctification, more often than not we win the war against the sin in our lives one day at a time, one battle at a time. The Christian woman does not miraculously learn to take every thought captive unless she first realizes that she has allowed the enemy into her head, repents and begins to fight her sin in the mighty power of the Spirit. The Christian man does not stand victorious over the power of lust, pornography and masturbation in his life unless he first perceives the exceeding sinfulness of his sin and weeps over it, then upon repenting of it seeks God's power which is more than capable of setting him free. 

Each day there must be a rejection of the love you have for that sin. Each day the faithful believer must take the shame that weighs him down and the thoughts of helplessness and inadequacy and unburden himself of these at the foot of the cross. We must remind ourselves that our sin has been paid for. The charges against us were nailed to that cross and no longer have any merit (Colossians 2:13-15). And then...oh how important this next step is and how often we forget it...then we must remember the resurrection. We must remind ourselves daily that Jesus beat the power of sin when He conquered death.  And because we know that it was by the mighty Spirit of God that Jesus was raised from the dead, and because we know that this same Spirit now dwells in us who believe, we then have every confidence that no sin, no shame, no condemnation, no force (supernatural or otherwise) can claim ultimate power over us. By the power of the Spirit, sin no longer has power over me any longer! I still need to learn how to walk in the freedom of the Spirit, but every sin and every addiction that I struggle with has already been beaten at the cross; I am already victorious in Christ. I must simply learn to apply that freedom to my life and walk in that victory over my sin here and now.

For further reading...

• Matthew 3:1-2- John the Baptist preached the same message.
• Matthew 4:17- Jesus did too!
• Acts 2:37-39- Repentance was fundamental in the sermon preached at Pentecost.
• Acts 11:18- This is a "repentance that leads to life."
• Revelation 2- Consider how many times Jesus admonishes the seven churches to repent in his letters to them.