Who's on Your Throne?

I had people serve me these past two weeks.

For the followers of Christ who might be reading this post, it should be our highest goal to become more Christ-like every day. Referring to Jesus, John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."

I don't believe we are all supposed to look at each other and then kill ourselves so that we can get to Heaven and tell Jesus that we imitated him. I don't think he'd reward us for that.

But there is a much more difficult way to lay our lives down for each other that doesn't involve simply stepping into our next phase of life, that is, death.

I heard a message by Adrian Rodgers yesterday. I love something he said: "We will either place ourselves on the throne while Jesus dies on the cross, or we will place Jesus on the throne while we die to ourselves."

Serving other people is a sacrifice. It often involves our time and our money. And if I'm watching someone else's kids, it often requires my patience too!

Two times this month I made people cry. Here I was just going about my little life, deciding how I was going to intrude into someone else's life, and I ended up making them cry.

It probably took one lady a full minute on the phone of crying after I answered before she could get out the two words, "Thank you."

And then the favor was INCREDIBLY UNEXPECTEDLY returned to me!!... By two different people than the two mentioned above. Two people intruded into my life and decided they were going to help me when I hadn't asked for it, didn't expect it, and certainly didn't deserve it.

And now I have no words to say. I don't even know how to express my gratitude to them.

Americans live in a do-it-yourself kind of world. And yet, as Christians, I believe we are supposed to live life together. If one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers (1 Corinthians 12:26). If we all give the extra time, energy, wisdom, encouragement, and dare I say money to those who are lacking in the church, the whole body would have enough. And yet, we all live in our American homes while many members suffer. This shouldn't be.

What have you done lately to help bring up another part of the body of Christ? Was it a sacrifice for you? If we desire to be like Christ we should not only die to our sinful nature, but we should also practice laying our lives down for our friends. This will look different for everybody, and it will look different for every friend.

The American church is in great need because the majority of members do not serve one another.

Galatians 6:10 says, "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." (NIV emphasis added).

Uh oh.

Food banks are great and so are all the humanitarian projects most churches are involved in. But we should not take care of the poor before we take care of one another. Who is to be the hands and feet of Christ within our churches if our main focus is solely the care and convert of the unbelievers?

Who have you served this year? Your self? Your family? The unbelieving masses? I encourage you to find a person within your church. Get to know them and learn what some of their needs are, and if you're able, let God use you (your money, your stuff, or your time) to fulfill that need in that believer's life. You could be their answer to prayer while all your doing is taking care of your body.