A CALL TO SERVICE

A CALL TO SERVE: By Stephen Abbott.
In his ministry, Jesus challenged all those around him.
He challenged the religious authorities who led a faith of empty ritual and mindless words to instead embrace an authentic faith of love and devotion.
He challenged the wealthy to give up the idol of money.
He challenged those who would exclude the weak, the poor, the “outcast” and the outsider to be fully inclusive, because God loves all people equally. (Luke 4:12-13)
And Jesus challenged average people to “come, follow me,” and change the world with their works of Righteousness. (Matt. 4:19)
Jesus’ teachings, when seen as the core of his ministry, challenge us today, as well.
In fact, the Good News that Jesus preached is nothing but a challenge to our comfortable lives. It challenges the lazy faith which is based on mere words and devoid of love of others or Good Works on their behalf.
It’s a challenge to us all, individually, to begin to reach our full potential, by living the way God wishes us to live – lives of selfless service and love.
The words, life, teachings and death of our Master, Jesus, challenge us to do, to act, to follow, to serve, to be better, to do more, to try harder, to be humble, yet Righteousness, to serve God not money, to lose ourselves, but gain eternity.
Jesus preached to challenge us, and calls us today to live as examples in his name. As God’s chosen Spokesman, Jesus authoritatively calls us to take up his challenge and to follow his example. (John 13:15; 14:12)
We are called by Jesus to seek and do Good, in order to advance God’s Kingdom on this earth.
Jesus lived, taught and died as a pure moral example for us, so that we should follow him and be made perfect in Righteousness. We do this with God’s help and a reliance on God’s holy Spirit.
And we are required, on this journey of Faith, to always seek God's forgiveness for our faults and failures as we strive towards the perfect expression of Righteousness God's Anointed Son, Jesus, has modeled for us.
We must seek to follow Jesus in ALL his teachings – because Jesus followed God in ALL things, and said we could do all that he had done. (John 8:29; 12:50; 13:15; 1 John 2:6)
We are called to show by our ACTS that we are heeding his call, and are taking up his challenge – not in a prideful way, but in a way that is pleasing to God.
Jesus clearly calls us to an active Faith - a Faith that Works. His teachings, his Gospel, is a challenge worth accepting and worth LIVING, because it leads directly to a spiritually complete life and, to eternal life with our Creator.
Jesus calls us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30.) That’s complete and total love, not just lip service or weak emotionalism.
Jesus calls us to love each other, our neighbors, with the same zeal with which we love God – a complete and total love. (Mark 12:31)
Jesus calls us to deny ourselves take up our cross and follow him. (Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23.) We are to be “other-centered,” not focused on Self.
Jesus calls on us to do the will of the Father – His God and our God, the Creator of all that is. (Matt. 12:50; John 5:30) Mere words and vain professions are NOT enough to ensure eternity with God (Matt. 7:21.)
Jesus calls on us to forgive others, and makes this duty a condition of being forgiven by God (Matt. 6:15-16.)
Jesus calls on us to let our Good Deeds shine like lights in this world, so that others will see by that light the goodness and love of our Father and Creator, which He has placed within us all. (Matt. 5:15-16)
And Jesus calls on us to “go the second mile” (Matthew 5:38–42) which is not a challenge to be lukewarm or partially committed to serving others.
When we encounter what is being claimed to be “the Gospel,” if it fails to challenge us to pursue Good Works, we know that it's a false and easy Faith we've encountered – a wide gate, rather than the Gospel preached from the very mouth of Jesus.
That Jesus challenges us with incredibly high goals is undeniable. That he believed we could achieve them is proven by his words. And because Jesus, a human being like us, has done this, we are assured that we, too, may accomplish God’s will for our lives.
So let’s take up the Good News of Jesus’ challenge in our lives and let it shine within us for all to see!

OVERCOMING THE FRESH, SIN, SATAN AND THE WORLD.

1 Peter 2:11 (ESV)
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
There is a war going on within each of us, and many people are unaware of how intense the battle really is. Some are even completely unaware of the battle and go on living their lives each day as helpless victims of the onslaught that rages inside them. They don’t realize that they are losing the war because they are oblivious to the fact that it is happening at all. The Apostle Peter’s exhortation was for us to recognize the battle that is being waged inside us and to not sit idly by and lose the fight without even engaging the enemy.
The problem Peter is addressing is that if our passions. If they are left unopposed, they will rule us, causing us to serve them and do what they want us to do; for as Peter declares, whatever overcomes or has mastery over a person, to that they are enslaved (2 Pet. 2:19). Thus, if our passions are left unchallenged, they will be the dominant force in our lives and will cause us to act in whatever way they choose. We will simply become slaves to our desires and live according to the pleasures of our flesh, satisfying our bodily urges and every inclination of our minds.
Fight Like You Mean It
The war inside us is no small skirmish or temporary feud. It is a continual struggle that is being levied against us each and every day. In fact, we are caught in the crossfire every waking moment of our lives whether we like it or not. We are living in an active combat zone and there is no way out. The only option is to fight back.
Therefore, we must fight like our life depends on it. Because it surely does. Each spiritual battle we face inside ourselves is a battle for our hearts and will affect every aspect of our lives.
Regarding the battle being waged inside us, the Apostle Paul writes,
If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Rom. 8:11-13)
Each day our life hangs in the balance between doing what the spirit leads us to do, or what the passions of our flesh lead us to do. We will either choose to do what is good, honorable, and edifying, or we will choose what is bad, dishonorable, and destructive. Proverbs 14:12 says,
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” What we feel like doing (the passions of our flesh) might seem good because it feels good, but the end of that road is “death.”A youth who feels to throw any girl he sees on bed sees the pleasure of the moment. But beyond that may be HIV/AID, STI's, Out of wedlock child, family break-up, guilt, destroyed ministry prospects etc. It is the opposite to what Jesus offers—Jesus offers life! And not just a bland sort of life, he offers life to the fullest (John 10:10).
If we live according to our desires (i.e., our flesh), we will lead a life filled with unrest, dissatisfaction, and confusion, always trying to get what we want, and never having enough. However, Paul says, the alternative is to “put to death the deeds of the body.” If we defeat the passions of our flesh, we will find joy, contentment, and peace—LIFE.
Mark Twain once said, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” The intensity of our fleshly passions might seem daunting and we might feel like we can never conquer them, thinking “they are just too strong.” But the success or failure in the battle against our desires is not determined by the strength of our willpower. Willpower alone can never completely and definitively overthrow our passions. Thankfully, as Paul explains, we don’t have to rely on our own strength to defeat our flesh. By the spirit of God, we can win the battle.
But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Gal. 5:16-17)
Through the strength and power of God’s spirit within, each of us has the ability to live according to a different course of life. We can serve a different master other than our flesh. But this alternate way of living is not automatic and the war will always rage inside us. The difference is that we can be the aggressor and assailant against our passions rather than just the recipient of their attacks. We can launch our invasion against them to take back the ground they want. And by standing against our passions through the power of the spirit, we can yield our thoughts, words, feelings, and actions to the desires of a different "King."
None of us is immune to the passions of the flesh, and none of us has yet reached perfection where our desires are no longer at war within us against our soul. Even the Apostle Paul proclaimed, “Not that I have already obtained this [to know Christ and the power of his resurrection] or am already perfect, but I press on ...” (Phil. 3:12).
Our life is like a tree, and the fruit that we bear in our lives testifies to whether we are winning the battle with our flesh or losing it. If we will “walk by the spirit” (Gal. 5:16), then our life will produce good fruit and we will not succumb to our evil desires. But we must prepare ourselves for battle, we must expect the ambush of our flesh, and we must be ready to counter-attack. This is a war over our very being, and we must fight for it or else we will continue to fail at doing the things we “want to do.” We can be certain that our flesh will be on the battlefield, but are we going to show up? Will we fight for our lives? Will we overcome the fresh, sin, Satan and the world?
Reference: www dot Truth Or Tradition dot com - articles - Fight for your life.

THE DAILY LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN.

Jesus' ministry was a call to humanity to come back to God, our Creator. That’s not a minor thing, nor is it a call that can leave us unchanged.
In fact, while we may come to God “as we are,” we cannot remain unchanged after approaching our Heavenly Father, Who is our Creator.
God chose Jesus, anointed him, and sent him out to preach His Truth.
Jesus’ ministry calls us to make changes to our life, as well as to humbly approach God in repentance. Without action on our part, starting with repentance, we aren’t truly returning to God, but simply SAYING we are.
Jesus calls us to be better people. Mere belief is not enough, but is only the start of our Faith. If we say we love Jesus, we will keep his commands (John 14:15.)
Those who claim to know him, but don’t believe his commands are worth following, or are “irrelevant” or are superseded by another person’s teachings, are liars, and don’t really know Jesus at all (1 John 2:4.)
Here, then, are a few (not all) of the commands Jesus gives those who say they follow him:
1. Jesus calls us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30.) That’s complete and total love, not just lip service or emotionalism.
2. Jesus calls us to love each other, our neighbors, with the same zeal with which we love God – complete and total love (Mark 12:31.) And all people are our neighbors.
3. Jesus calls us to deny ourselves take up our cross and follow him. (Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23.) We are to be “other-centered,” not focused on Self.
4. Jesus calls on us to do the will of the Father – His God and our God, the Creator of all that is (Matt. 12:50; John 5:30.) Mere words and vain professions are NOT enough to ensure eternity with God (Matt. 7:21.)
5. Jesus calls on us to forgive others, and makes this duty a condition of being forgiven by God (Matt. 6:15-16.)
6. Jesus tells us we must repent of our sins. “Repent,” he says, “for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 4:17.) Repent means to feel sorry about our sins, and work to stop sinning.
7. Jesus calls on us to “go the second mile” (Matthew 5:38–42) which is not a challenge to be lukewarm or partially committed to serving others.
8. Jesus says we must lay up heavenly treasures, not earthly ones that don’t last (Matthew 5:44–46.) The race for wealth doesn’t last, but our rewards in Heaven do.
9. Jesus tells us to be a “light to the world” and that we must let our Good Works “shine” so that others may see God’s righteousness manifest in us (Matt. 5:14-16.)
10. Jesus calls on us to choose the “narrow gate” that leads to God and salvation, rather than the “wide gate” that leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13-14.) The popular way, the easy way of “faith alone” and the way that requires the least work isn’t the way Jesus calls us to approach God.
11. Jesus calls us to “do to others that which you would have done unto you” (Matt 7:12.) This “Golden Rule” has been ignored, demeaned and ridiculed by modern Christendom, but it’s at the core of Jesus’ preaching.
12. Jesus calls on us to follow him (Matt. 4:19.) Jesus sets for us a perfect example of how to live our lives (John 13:15.) We have the ability to serve God through Jesus’ moral commands (Matt. 5:48) strengthened always through God’s spirit and Jesus’ holy example.
Let us take up the challenge Jesus puts before us! By Stephen Abbott.