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| As we seek to be the Church that God desires,
I was reminded of something that Oswald Chambers said in his book, “My
Utmost For His Highest”. He said, “It is arduous work to keep the
master ambition in front. It means holding one’s self to the high
ideal year in and year out, not being ambitious to win souls or to establish
churches or to have revivals, but being ambitious only to be ‘accepted
of Him’” . That is a hard saying for us to hear as we think
those are the things God wants. Of course, they are all things God
wants. What Chambers is saying is that the “soul” purpose of a Christian
is to glorify God in everything we say and do. That is the guiding
principal by which all ministry of the church should be focused.
Will what we are doing glorify God? It is our motive that God sees.
Do we do what we do in the church to bring glory to God or to bring glory
to our church?
Only when we present Jesus Christ to people will they truly see their need for salvation. Only when the Holy Spirit leads the church will true Revival break out and people will come to Christ and salvation. It will not be any program we offer, it will be Jesus Christ. This will happen only as we make Him our utmost priority. Jesus’ first obedience was to do the will of His Father and to bring Him glory. Because of that, Jesus went to the cross and bore our sins and makes it possible for us to have a relationship with God. Our first obedience and priority is to do the will of God and bring glory to Him. What does this look like at Ebenezer? It begins with repentance. Repenting of the fact that we have tried to do things our way instead of God’s way all the time. We must then become students of the Bible. Only through the study of the Bible can we know what will bring God glory. We must become more fervent in our prayers and make those prayers in line with God’s heart. It means we seek to do God’s will every day of the week, not just on Sunday. It means we might have to sacrifice some time to do ministry, not more church committees but true ministry where we bring Christ to someone who is hurting. It means we must love others as Jesus loves them. It means we take God out of the nice little box we sometimes put Him in and set Him free in our lives to lead us and strengthen us to serve Him and in turn we serve others. Let’s not worry about what others think, or whether they are being pleased, let’s please God. If we do, He will see that others’ needs are met. |
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