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Pastor's Blog July 30, 2020
"The Work and Life II"
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I always have a few Christians approach me and say, "I love Jesus, but I don't feel like I have a strong faith or a vibrant Christian life. If I love Jesus so much, why do I feel like nothing spiritually powerful happens in my life or in my church?" It's a good question, because it identifies a problem believers too often allow themselves to fall into: a lack of service and mission for others. In "Steps to Christ," Ellen tells us, "Those who endeavor to maintain Christian life by passively accepting the blessings that come through the means of grace, and doing nothing for Christ, are simply trying to live by eating without working. And in the spiritual as in the natural world, this always results in degeneration and decay" (55; 1977 edition).
She even goes on to say two sentences later, "Thus the Christian who will not exercise his God-given powers not only fails to grow up into Christ, but he loses the strength that he already had" (55). You see, friends, it's not enough for us to embrace Jesus as everything to us, to accept the salvation Jesus offers us and acknowledge that only Jesus can save us, or to confess that Jesus loves us and that love for Jesus must animate our hearts. A love for Jesus that overflows in genuine love and concern for others - that seeks to work WITH Jesus and do things FOR him as we, in love, fix our focus exclusively on Jesus as our Friend and Beloved Savior and Master - is the only love that can truly be called "love."
"The spirit of unselfish labor for others gives depth, stability, and Christlike loveliness to the character, and brings peace and happiness to its possessor" (54). Unselfish labor for others only deepens and stabilizes what is supposed to already be in our hearts and lives: Jesus' likeness, into which Jesus himself is transforming us.
If you will work with Jesus to serve others and tell them about him, you will find you need and want to spend more time with Jesus so that you will be equal to the task (54). But you can only work for others and serve them if you have Jesus' love in your hearts; "evangelism" in your own strength will never generate in your heart a relationship with Jesus, and will only result in your failure and frustration to live a vibrant life with God (54-55). If you work with Jesus for others and follow his lead, yours will be a vibrant Christian life.
(*) Steps to Christ, Chapter 9— The Work and Life, 1977 edition
God Bless.
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
