Devotional
THANKFUL TO SERVE
I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day,
2 Timothy 1:3
Fourteen-year-old Tony Hicks shot and killed twenty-year-old Tariq Khamisa. Tariq’s father forgave Tony’s family, forgave Tony himself, and then started the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, through which he has spoken to over half a million young people about the true costs of violence. He is also trying to get Tony, who never had a father, released from his life-sentence conviction so he can come to work at the foundation named for the young man he killed—something Tony is eager to do. Tony says, “I had a man forgive me for taking the life of his son.”
Willing to serve as a result of being forgiven is not a strange scenario to Christians. The apostle Paul is our prime example: “I thank God, whom I serve.” He never got over the fact that the One he persecuted called him to be His chief apostle. Every Christian is in the same place: forgiven by God and called into His service. Our willingness to serve is a good indication of how much we value our forgiveness.
If you see an opportunity to serve, try looking at it as Paul did: as a grateful response to the God who has forgiven all your sins.
The most holy service that we can render to God is to be employed in praising His name.
JOHN CALVIN[1]
[1] David Jeremiah, Turning Points with God: 365 Daily Devotions (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2014), 334.
Pray This Prayer Until Resurrection Sunday Everyday
I pray Father in heaven thank you “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give me the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of my heart enlightened, that I may know what is the hope to which he has called me, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in me, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward me which I believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Ephesians 1:17-23 ESV as my daily prayer.
“For this reason I pray before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant me to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith—that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
In Jesus Name Amen
Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV
Vision
To develop people with the Word of God making them more like Christ.
To tear down the walls of misinformation in people lives, which will cause a change in their life and affect the people around them.
To create an environment of worship for all people.
To see God’s people live an overcoming abundant life.
Faith
Faith is a spiritual principle that taps into the creative power of God made available through man, so that man can transform conditions, circumstances and situations in the natural realm over which he has been given authority.
Great Commission
The most important missional conversation, the most compelling, the most invigorating, missional conversation, the one that our Lord Jesus Christ is the most interested in, is the missional conversation that you and I will have with those who don't know Him yet those who are lost, those who are last, those who are least, and those who are lonely.
Dedication
To love and serve the Lord with all of your heart, mind, strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.
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