Living a Life of Service

            There is a woman I know and her name is Nancy, and to me, Nancy lives a life of service. Quietly working behind the scenes at her church, she helps clean up as one of the custodians. She does her job, usually during the week when no one is around. On Sundays, she can be found in the kitchen helping to clean up the coffee mugs. At home, she is a servant at heart. Helping her husband on the farm. Making meals. Taking care of her aging parents. Watching other people’s children. Very rarely do you hear Nancy speak up to complain about anything, if anything at all. Her life to me resembles a life of service.

            Last week we learned about the discipline of submission, how we are all to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Eph. 5:21) We learned that living a life of submission is lived in such a way that we are putting others and their needs before our very own. When it comes to living together, we put the needs of our spouses and children before our own, because we submit to them out of reverence for Christ. The discipline of submission leads us to the discipline of service.

            When you put the needs of others first by submitting to them, it leads to serving them in various ways. The Christian life is to be a life lived in submission and service to each other. Jesus himself demonstrated this in his life. He submitted himself to his disciples and lovingly served them by washing their feet, when no one else thought that they should do it, because it was such a menial task. As Christians, we live in service to God in all aspects of our life.

            It is really fitting that this coming Sunday we can not only learn about the discipline of service, but we also get to hear from the Serve Team that was able to go and serve others in California. The question that is always asked, “Do you have to go to California (Or Mexico, or Texas…etc.) to serve others? The answer is obviously no, but there are so many other things that come out of a serve trip that help to build community among the people who go. The reason we share in church is not to get recognition for what we have done, but as a way of thanking the church for their support and encouragement while on the trip.

            Now, there are many different ways of serving. One does not have to go all the way to California to serve. We can serve each other right here in Taber, right here in our own congregation. As Nancy above, you can serve in a variety of different ways throughout your life. There are a number of people within our congregation who serve in various ways in the church. Some are more public than others and others are all behind the scenes. We need each and every one in order to continue to be a church together. There are also many different ways in which people serve in our communities.

Here is where I would really like your help. I would really like to have people email me, or private message me on Facebook ways in which you serve, either at the church or in the community or at school…however you serve, I would love to have a list of ways in which people are living a life of service. Don’t worry, this is not going to be public, but I would love to include ways people are serving in my Sermon on Sunday. If you can help me out in this way, I would greatly appreciate it!

The Discipline of Submission

            Submission is something that in our society and culture would be considered counter-cultural. It goes against almost everything that we have ever been taught. We are taught to take care of ourselves. We are taught to be independent from a very young age. We are taught to look out for number one, and to put our own interests ahead of everyone else’s.

            When people think of submitting, almost immediately everyone thinks of something negative. In the wrestling world, submission is something that you force someone into, it is not something they want to do. Many people will point to how Men (mostly) have abused the idea of submission that is described to us in scripture.

            So for us today, when we think about submission, we think it is something negative. We get an image of being a doormat. We think that it means that we have to allow everyone to walk all over us.

            This week we will be looking at the act of submission as a spiritual discipline. It is a discipline, again, because it is something that does not come natural to us. Our human nature is to look out for number one! It is to look out for myself. But submission as a spiritual discipline is to put us more in line with who Christ is, and how he lived his live.

            Jesus’ whole life was a life lived out in Submission to the will of the Father. Philippians 2 says it this way,

“Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.”

           Jesus lived his life in submission to the will of the Father, and he displayed what humility and submission to others looked like while he was here on earth. When he was in front of Pilate, he could have asserted himself, but he submitted to his authority. He submitted himself to the point of death on a Cross, and he did all of this for us - Mark 8:34-38:

           

            Jesus modeled what it looks like to live a life of submission. Submitting himself to the will of the father, and he calls us to this life as well.

“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? ³⁷ Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

         Jesus calls us to deny ourselves – to be submissive – to the will of the Father. This is difficult for us to do. We want to be in control. We want to be number one. To submit to the will of the Father is putting our complete trust in him for everything. Not only are we to submit to the Father, but we are to submit to the authorities over us, we are to submit to each other in how we live. Submission is difficult, yet, Jesus modeled it for us, and calls us to a life of submission to one another.

Solitary Confinement

            Solitary confinement is a form of punishment that is used in prison systems around the world. Why is this? It is a form of punishment because as human beings we are not created to live in isolation from one another. As human beings we are created to be in relationship: relationship with each other, and relationship with our creator. When you force someone to spend time in solitary confinement, you are removing all sort of connections with other human beings, and it can be excruciating.

            So does that mean that all times of solitude and silence mean it has to be punishment? A short answer is No! In fact, Solitude and Silence are disciplines in which someone can use to help draw themselves closer to God. In fact, in Solitude and Silence, one is forced to deepen their connection with their creator, God. In Solitude and Silence we can put away all the distractions of everything around us and we can focus on God. When we pray, it doesn’t always have to be an audible prayer, we can pray in silence, in our thoughts.

            Everyone in their lives needs to have times of solitude and silence. This may seem like this isn’t true for everyone, but it is essential. Even for myself, I am an extrovert, and I too need to have times of Solitude and Silence. As extroverts we get our energy from being around other people. But even the most extroverted extrovert needs to have some times of solitude and silence. Take last week as an example. Last week I had the privilege to be with 22 other people for the entire week. We lived in the same place. Ate at the same tables. We worked at the same places. We were around each other pretty much 24/7. As an extrovert, I feed off of that kind of environment. But yet, every night, I needed to take the time to withdraw a bit from the crowd and spend some time reading my book. So as much as we are all created to be in relationship with each other, we are also created in such a way that we need to have our own times of solitude and silence.

            Donald Whitney shares in his book a story about Susanna Wesley, the mother of John (founder of the Methodist movement) and Charles (prolific hymn writer). She raised a very large family, and in those years she found it virtually impossible to find times of physical isolation. So she took to taking her apron up over her head and then she would read her Bible and pray. When her apron was over her head, it was a signal to the rest of the family that it was her quiet time and they were not to bother her.

            There are many different ways in which we can practice the discipline of solitude and silence. It is a difficult thing to think about, because we are all too busy. As missionary martyr Jim Elliot knew of the struggle said, “I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, crowds…Satan is quite aware of the power of silence.” As technology increases, it is becoming harder and harder to find times of silence. We can carry with us hours and hours of music on tiny devices. We can turn on the radio or TV almost anywhere. We can look at the internet and find video after video. It is difficult to find time for quiet space.

            Yet, it’s important to do so. It is important as Jesus himself modeled it for us. Time after time Jesus would withdraw from people and crowds and go to a solitary place to focus on God. One study I read had 23 different accounts of Jesus going off to a solitary place to be with God. If Jesus, God himself, needed to withdraw to find time to be alone with God, how much more do we need to find time to be in solitude and silence with God our father?

A Hunger for God

             I felt hungry a lot today. I think one of the reasons why I felt so hungry was I was thinking a lot about fasting. The funny thing is, I wasn’t even fasting, I was thinking about fasting and the spiritual discipline of fasting. Even just thinking about fasting made me hungry.

            This coming Sunday we will be looking at the discipline of fasting. Fasting as a spiritual discipline is probably one of the most non-practiced disciplines of all the disciplines. Even myself, I will admit that I do not fast on a regular basis. I can probably count on one hand the amount of times that I have actually fasted as an act of spiritual discipline in my lifetime. I wonder why that is? Why is it that fasting is something we as Christians do not practice? Some may argue that biblically it isn’t talked about that much. But according to Donald Whitney in his book on spiritual disciplines, fasting is mentioned in the Bible more times than baptism is mentioned. (Whitney says fasting is mentioned 77 times, and baptism is mentioned 75.)

            A lot of us don’t practice fasting because we don’t necessarily see how it can help at all. Many of us don’t like the effects fasting has on us, headaches, hunger pains, grumpiness, irritability, etc. Yet, there are many times in our lives that we will forego a couple of meals within a particular day because we are too busy in the activities that we are doing: shopping, playing sports, running errands, etc. But to do it specifically for a spiritual purpose, we are afraid of trying it.

            Fasting as defined by Whitney is: “abstinence from food for spiritual purposes.” He goes on to argue that any fasting without a specific spiritual focus to it is not true Christian fasting. Fasting is abstinence from food for a spiritual purpose, how so? One way fasting can be a benefit to us in our relationship with Christ, is that fasting may sharpen our times of prayer. Whitney uses an example of fasting as a reminder to pray. If we have a purpose to our fasting, whenever we feel any hunger pains or any side effects of fasting, it will remind us of why we are fasting and the purpose of that fast.

            Whitney says, “For instance, if your purpose is to pray for your spouse, then every time your stomach growls or your head aches, your hunger reminds you that you’re fasting, which in turn reminds you that you’re fasting for the purpose of praying for your spouse – and then you pray.” Fasting can be used to help us with other disciplines, but it needs to have a purpose.

            Here are the ten biblical purposes that Whitney has come up with for the purpose of fasting:

                       1.      To strengthen prayer – Ezra 8:23

                       2.      To seek God’s guidance – Judges 20; Acts 14:23

                       3.      To express grief – Judges 20:26; 1 Samuel 31:13

                       4.      To seek deliverance or protection – 2 Chronicles 20:3-4

                       5.      To express repentance and the return to God – 1 Samuel 7:6; Jonah 3:5-8

                       6.      To humble oneself before God – 1 Kings 21:27-29; Psalm 35:13

                       7.      To express concern for the work of God – Nehemiah 1:3-4; Daniel 9:3

                       8.      To minister to the need of others – Isaiah 58

                       9.      To overcome temptation and dedicate yourself to God – Matthew 4:1-11

                       10.  To express love and worship to God – Luke 2:37

As with the other disciplines, fasting is not to become something that we become legalistic about or proud as the Pharisees were doing in Jesus day. (See Matthew 6) Fasting is to have a spiritual component, a “God centered purpose – not a self-centered purpose” says Whitney. As we fast, we realize that we can survive on more than bread alone, and that our savior, Jesus Christ, even describes himself as “the Bread of Life.” When we are physically hungry during a fast, we are reminded of our dependence on God as our only source of nourishment for our souls.

Another First

Friday evening during our Good Friday worship service, I had another first, and probably a first for many in the congregation. For our Good Friday service, we had communion, which followed the message at the beginning of the service. Following communion, we had a Tenebrae style of service, where we had a "Service of Shadows" - Scripture reading, followed by a song and the lights getting turned off one by one.

We had lined up enough people to do all the scripture readings, so I wouldnt have to lead that part of the service. I went and sat down by my wife. As I came to sit down, I noticed the nursery attendant came and got her to get our daughter. I guess she was crying inconsolably. Lately at night she is only consolable by mom, so Brenda had to go get her. She came back into the sanctuary with baby in hand. This is okay for a while, but Brenda had to sing a couple of times during the service.

When she got up to go sing, I took our daughter and thought this will be okay, she is good with me a lot. Well, the second, Brenda left, she started to fuss, I tried to get her to stop, but to no avail, she got louder. So, I walked out of church with her to calm her down. I think that is a first time people have seen their minister leave the service with his child. But, I didnt have to do anything during that part of the service. I had a couple of offers to take her for me, but I said it would be okay. She was pretty good as I walked around with her.

It worked out perfectly, Brenda sang a song, a verse of a hymn was sung, and then the Benediction, so after Brenda finished, she came to the back, the congregation was standing singing the final song and I could walk up to give the Benediction! It was like we planned it for this reason!

Awesome Experience

I know I havent blogged for a while, but I will get back to it soon, I have some ideas written down, so hopefully soon....

This past week I had to opportunity to go to BC to Panorama to ski. For the end of March, the conditions were pretty good. Most of the time, I would let my wife and her mom go out first thing and I would stay back with the baby. They would come back around 11 sometime and I would then go out, either by myself or with my mother-in-law. The first day I was feeling pretty good about what I had accomplished. I was feeling like I was getting the hang of it. The one green run that I went down is one of the highest ones I have been on. The second day, I didnt do as well. I mentally froze while going down a green run, I eventually chickened out and took my skis off and walked through the woods to get down the steep part. (Steep for me at least!). I almost got to the end, and it looked even steeper, so we took a different way. Later that day we realized that the last section is a BLACK! So, I was glad we avoided it! The third day I felt really good again about my skiing. I even went down 3/4 of a blue run. So, I felt pretty good about my skiing this year. I didnt get to go out as much, but that is how life goes sometimes.

It was so warm on Wednesday that the snow was melting pretty fast. When we were in the hot tob, I noticed the groomer was moving a LOT of snow to the base of the hill. I wanted to see what he had to do, so after supper I walked over to the base of the lift and saw what he had done. I noticed he was coming down the hill. I am very interested in watching machinery, especially big machinery like the cats that groom the ski hills. He came down, and backed right next to where I was standing on the stairs, and he opened the door and he said: "Hey, you want to ride?"

I said, "Are you serious?"

He replied, "Yeah, come on in, there is a door on the other side."

I was like, "Sweet!" So I ran around and hopped in. He took me straight up the side of the mountain and showed me how the thing works. He is in charge of the terrain park and so we even backed up to the edge of a few jumps. We drove straight up the side of the mountain, then we turned around and drove straight back down the mountain! It was such an awesome experience. I dont know anyone who has been able to ride in the Grooming Cat like that! I was so excited I had to run back and tell my wife and mother-in-law. They were surprised I was able to do that! I thought that it would be cool if he would ask me, but didnt think he actually would. That was probably the highlight of the trip!

Looking the Part, Pt. 2

Well, I have had some interesting comments from people over on facebook with regards to my last post. I dont want people to think that I have a complex worrying about whether or not I look like a pastor. That is not the reason why I posted it. It was just an interesting thought, at least in my mind to think about. I appreciate the feedback I received on that post.

But thinking about that yesterday, got me to think back to my last catechism class I had. My class is rather small, 2 students, which has its challenges, but also its strengths. One of the questions that we were looking at was rather intriguing to me as well, and it dovetails the question I had raised yesterday.

The question that was asked then is something like this, "How can you tell if someone is a Christian? What do you look for?" So, I am wondering, can you tell if someone is a Christian? If so, how can you tell? What are some things that tell you that htey are a Christian? Is it by how they dress? Act? Live? Talk?

Another question might be, should we be able to see that someone is a Christian? Anyway, just some more things to think about and again, I would love any feedback! Thanks!