Servanthood begins in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
In light of that, I have a question for you: How is your relationship with Jesus Christ? Please don’t misunderstand. Your involvement in our congregation is wonderful. It’s good that you’ve been baptized. Through Baptism, God has claimed you as a child of God. It’s good when you’ve been confirmed, received Holy Communion, and heard God’s Word. But significant and life-giving though these things are, it’s possible for people to treat them like religious hoops. Faith in Christ isn’t about hoops, though.
Jesus once told His disciples: “Whoever believes and is baptized is saved; whoever refuses to believe is damned” (Mark 16:16). Here, Jesus acknowledges the importance of Holy Baptism. It’s the entry way to life with Christ and with Christ’s holy community, the Church.
But this doesn’t alter our need for faith in Jesus Christ. It’s faith, or trust, in Christ that saves us. Jesus told a teacher named Nicodemus: "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.” (John 3:16-18)
Faith is a gift that God builds in the lives of all who are willing to believe (First Corinthians 12:3). But grasping, keeping, and growing in that gift requires a trusting reliance on God that is foreign to our nature and which only God can foster within us.
If you have any doubt about your relationship with Jesus Christ, stop right now and tell Him, “Lord: I surrender my life to You. Send Your Holy Spirit to help me believe as well as I can. I want to be Yours. I want to repudiate my sin. I want to live with You forever. Thank You, Lord, in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.” If you meant that prayer, you’re ready to walk the road of servanthood.
Servanthood begins in Jesus Christ!
Bible Passage to Ponder: “...anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins” (Second Corinthians 5:17-19)
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