by donfinto | Jan 15, 2020 | The Good Report
Serving and Being Served
“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.” Matthew 20:28
Jesus came not to be served but to serve. Biblical authority is from the bottom up, not from the top down. The one who leads is on the bottom serving those over him, not on top demanding that others serve him.
Jesus made this quite clear when He heard the disciples arguing about who was to be the greatest in His kingdom.
It seems that James and John were standing aside while their mother was asking the Lord that one of them should be “Prime Minister” and the other “Secretary of State” (“these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom” – Matthew 20:21) in His kingdom.
Jesus caught on quickly and explained that they had missed the whole point of who is to be the greatest in His kingdom: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (vv. 25-28).
Yes, we have authority and we are to walk in that authority. But we are not to “exercise authority over” others. For example, Paul tells wives to submit to their husbands, but that word comes immediately following his admonition that husband and wife should submit to one another. Any time a husband says to his wife, “You are supposed to submit to me!” he has just moved away from the spirit of Jesus.
Jesus does not force us to submit, though He could do that, but He loves us into submission, voluntary submission, joyous submission.
Enjoy life! Walk as a servant to those around you.
Even if you are the “chief leader.” Emulate the Master.
And you will be continually filled with His joy.
by donfinto | Jan 9, 2020 | The Good Report
The Voice of the Lord
“Those who belong to God hear what God says.”
John 8:47
God has always desired an intimate relationship with us.
When Adam and Eve were in Eden after the fall, they “heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden…” (Genesis
3:8). God was wanting to be with His
children, but their sin and shame were keeping them apart.
In eternity, God’s desire will be culminated when “the dwelling of God is with men, and He will
live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and
be their God” (Revelation 21:3).
Jesus came to be among us and to restore us to the Father.
In the closing days of His time among us, He told His friends, “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come
to you.” (John 14:18). “I will ask
the Father and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you
forever – the Spirit of truth” (v. 16).
Prayer is intended to be a two-way conversation with the
Father – talking to Him and listening for Him. The next time you are in prayer,
pause and listen. And when you hear something that is so Godly, in no way
ungodly, maybe even very creatively beyond you, something that would not have
been your own thinking, you will know that you are hearing from Him. When that
happens, just ask Him for the energy to follow whatever He desires.
His will for you is always good.
Have a good week.
by donfinto | Dec 25, 2019 | The Good Report
“The Word was God”
John 1:1
By the time the apostle John wrote his account of Jesus’
life, he not only had experienced the years of walking beside Jesus, but the horror
of watching him tortured and killed. Though Jesus had often told His disciples
that He would be killed and resurrected, no one seemed to understand that He
was speaking of a literal return. John would always remember the resurrection
morning when the women returned from the tomb and told the troubled disciples
that the body was no longer in the grave. John and Peter immediately ran to the
grave. John himself reports that when he saw the empty grave clothes, he believed
(John 20:8-9).
He believed. Believed. Not only did he believe in the
resurrection, but also in the fullness of Him who had walked among us.
John would have later thought back through the times when
Jesus was seen after his resurrection, his ascension and the angels’ assurance
that he would return “in the same way you
have seen him go into heaven.” As John thought back on all that had
happened, he must have often thought back to the words of Isaiah, who had seen
it all prophetically, but how impossible it was to believe until everything happened:
“To us a child is born,
to us a son is given…. He will be called… Mighty God, Everlasting Father.” The
son born would be God, would be the Everlasting Father! (9:6-7)
“The virgin will be
with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel” (7:14).
Immanuel: God with us (Matthew 1:23). God had walked among us.
”He was despised and
rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from
whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not…. he was led
like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so
he did not open his mouth… he was cut off from the land of the living…He was
assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death…After the
suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied….he bore
the sin of many.” (Isaiah 53)
That He would be rejected, that He would be silent before
His accusers, that He would die, that His death would be with the wicked, but
somehow also with the rich, that He would come back to life, and that He would
carry our sins – it was all predicted through Isaiah, but never comprehended
until it happened.
So John, pen in hand, began to write his own account of this
God/man:
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.”
As we celebrate Christmas this year, may Jesus, God with
us/God in human form/God born to a virgin from Nazareth, God who now lives
within His followers through the Holy Spirit – may this Jesus surround us and
be the ever-present Guest among us.
The best is still ahead. Have a blessed year in Jesus.
