This week’s news plus “Serving vs. Loving Jesus”
IT’S NEWS TO ME
5 Reasons Kidnapping of Pakistani Activists Matters to You
Demonstrators demanding the recovery of missing activist Salman Haider outside the Karachi Press Club. (Photo: © Twitter)
Andrew Napolitano: Attorney General Loretta Lynch and a parting shot at personal freedom (MUST READ)
How American Charities Fund Terrorism
HOLDER COMPLAINS REPUBLICANS WON BY RIGGING THE SYSTEM
Women Scared as Suburban France Becomes Radicalized
The Duplicity of Turkey: Thumbs Up to ISIS
UK refuses to sign Paris declaration, warns summit may harden Palestinian positions
Britain denounced for defending Israel in international forums
Muslim Students Gain Group Prayer Rights in Canadian Schools
Students at Toronto’s Valley Park Middle School pray in the cafeteria every Friday during class hours — boys in front, girls behind them and a barrier, and menstruating girls at the very back to watch but not participate. (Photo: courtesy of John Goddard)
How CNN and ABC are fudging the poll numbers to tank Trump’s favorability
Judge: FBI Release is “Smoking Gun” Against Hillary Clinton
VIDEO: TRUMP ADVISOR ROGER STONE POISONED
God Shows His Hand in Gospel-Resistant Turkey
Indigenous missionaries are encouraged that the Lord is working even where nationalist sentiment has long blocked gospel advance.
U.S.’s Largest Muslim Civil Rights Group Tells Trump to Drop Franklin Graham from Inauguration
As Obama Moves Out of the White House, People Noticed His Collection of “Fine Art”
SETTING OUR MINDS ON THINGS ABOVE
Satisfaction Guaranteed
As we follow events around the world, we would like to be a part of making things better. If we just knew what to do, we would do it. We’re concerned for our world. It needs help, and we’re ready to do our part, for us and future generations.
Sooner or later, we are reminded that the battles are really of a spiritual nature and to be a part of the solution, we must get our spiritual acts together. We are inclined at ask God what He wants us to do. We are convinced that if we are obedient to Him, surely we will be maximizing our efforts. We look for ways we can do something for God to help advance His kingdom.
This is where things usually start falling apart because we are still learning that God isn’t interested in our best efforts. He doesn’t want or need our help. He wants us to join Him in what He is already doing. That way, satisfaction is guaranteed because what He sets out to do will get done. How does He put feet to His plans? By using our feet. His desire is that we would join Him so He could accomplish His will by working through us.
This is a far cry from thinking up something to do for God and asking Him to bless it. A successful outcome using this approach is not seen anywhere in the Bible. David thought it would be a good idea to take a census of the people. Read 2 Sam. 24 to see how that worked out.
So, what are we supposed to do? How are we to change our approach? I believe the answer lies in how we answer this question:
Which are we more devoted to, our service to Jesus or Jesus Himself?
Are we serving Jesus at the expense of loving Him? You may say that your service is simply an expression of your love for Him. This may be true, and I hope it is, because this is our Lord wants.
This is how it should be.
The truth, however, is that most of us focus more on our service to Jesus than our devotion to Him. In a sense, service is easier. We can do something, mentally check it off our list, and feel good for what we did. Too often, we fail to consider whether Jesus has been satisfied by our efforts.
We’re usually so busy asking Jesus to satisfy us and meet our needs and requests that we fail to consider that if we really love Him, our greater desire would be to satisfy Him. I believe that if we turned our focus to satisfying Jesus, our whole approach to life would change. Isn’t this what we’re called to do anyway? Isn’t the purpose of a servant to satisfy his master?
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