Loving Service

Loving Service

(Picture Credits at end of post)

 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. (John 14:15 – NASB)

I read of a man working in the forest who took his dog with him. Coming to a clearing he put his lunch pail down and commanded the dog to stay and watch the pail. So saying he went further into the forest to do his work.

While the man was away a forest fire swept over that region, right where the dog was. In perfect obedience to his master’s command, the dog stayed where he was. He loved his master and therefore obeyed him, even at the cost of his own life.

The dog’s obedience was not out of duty – it was out of love. The dog loved his master, and it was love that caused the obedience. Love should always be the fountain from which service to our Lord flows. It may be our duty to do certain things for God, but the moment we perform that duty out of love for Him, it changes from a duty into a delight.

If our service to God feels like drudgery in any way, perhaps it is time to re-examine our motivation for that service. Is it out of love for God, or is it out of mere duty.

Prophetic of Jesus Christ, Psalm 40 declares:

Then I said, “Behold, I come;

In the scroll of the book it is written of me.

I delight to do Your will, O my God;

Your Law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:7-8 – NASB)

Delight should always be a word synonymous with any service we perform for our Lord. The absence of delight always indicates the absence of love.

In His letter to the church in Ephesus Jesus commended them for all their wonderful deeds of service. Then He said: But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. (Revelation 2:4 – NASB)

We have great cause to love Him:

We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19 – KJV)

You loved me first, my God

And my love came far behind;

Before I saw the love You bore me,

Love within me could not be found.

But Thy love created love for Thee –

In me. – Christopher Shennan

Check out my books for sale at My website: http://www.christophershennan.ca
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CNShennan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherShennanAuthor

<a href=”” title=””> <abbr title=””> <acronym title=””> <b> <blockquote cite=””> <cite> <code> <del datetime=””> <em> <i> <q cite=””> <strike> <strong>

What it means to Obey

What it means to Obey

(Picture credits at end of post)

Reading: Mark 3:31-35

For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.” (Mark 3:31-35 – NKJV)

Jesus used every situation that presented itself as an opportunity to teach a lesson regarding the principles of the Kingdom of God.

Here he was surrounded by people eager to hear him, and those related to Him by blood found their access blocked. They could not get near Him because the house where he was teaching was jammed full with people.

So a message is passed from one to the other till it reaches Jesus” “Look, Your mother and your brothers are outside seeking You.”

Jesus responds with an apparent rejection of His mother and half-brothers. He seizes the moment and uses earthly relationships to instruct His hearers as to what constitutes family relationships from a Heavenly perspective.

Christ was not rejecting his mother and other blood relations; He was just establishing the basis upon which a relationship with Him is to be conducted – obedience to His Heavenly Father.

Now the moment the word “obedience” is mentioned the human mind interprets it as bondage. We think of it as being under obligation to do something we either do not want to do, or something we will find extremely difficult or well-nigh impossible to do.

We get into a state of mind in which all the joy is squeezed out of our Christian experience, and we come back under the bondage of the law. This is all due to a failure to understand the nature of obedience as it is revealed in the New Testament.

The apostle Paul calls faith itself an obedience (Romans 16:26):

In this context obedience to the will of God means to follow the Faith. It means to commit yourself to the Gospel of Christ and all that it implies. It means to commit yourself to a Gospel in which we are saved by faith, and not of works. It means to embrace the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as full payment for your sin and entrance into an everlasting Kingdom.

This kind of obedience is more like being given a cheque by a billionaire and told to go to the bank, withdraw ten million dollars from his account, and to deposit it in your own account. Who would consider obedience to the billionaire a burden and a bondage? Such obedience would be a delight to any reasonable soul.

True obedience is motivated by love, and Jesus said it was a delight to do His Father’s will.

Not a Dragon

© Sunday 21^st September 2014 – by Christopher Shennan

Obedience is not a dragon

Swooping down on all God’s people;

It’s not a dreaded judgment

Proclaimed from church and steeple

Obedience is a delight

Born of love and pure desire;

It’s a longing just to please,

That only God can inspire.

When you’re born into to God’s family,

His nature enters, too,

And a longing to obey

Is just – given to you.

You’re no longer under law,

Except for the law of love;

The power to obey

Comes down from Heaven above.

 Check out my books at: My website: http://www.christophershennan.ca
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CNShennan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherShennanAuthor

“Family <3,” copyright. Image uploaded from Flickr by Yjenith onto wikimedia.org. Used under the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) license. No changes were made to the photo. Photo found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Happy_family_%281%29.jpg.

A Listening Ear

A Listening Ear

 

Read: Luke 8: 16-18

And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.

²⁵ For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath. (Mark 4:24-25 – KJV)

Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. (Luke 8:18 – KJV)

Mark reports Jesus message as being careful what we hear, while Luke reports Him cautioning us to be careful how we hear.

Both what Mark reported and what Luke reported are vital maxims for followers of Christ. We have to be selective in what we allow ourselves to hear, and we have to be careful of the manner in which we hear what God has to say to us.

First we have to select what is worthy of our attention, as the apostle Paul urges in his letter to the Philippians:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8 – KJV)

Once we have decided what is worthy of our attention, we need to go one step further: We need to give attention to how we hear what we have decided is worth listening to. We must take it seriously; we must make sure it does not slip from our grasp.

The worthy things must be applied to our lives, or they become nothing more than sentimentality. We end up loving the words, but neglecting the work those words are designed to accomplish in our lives. We are deceived into imagining we are growing spiritually, when all that has happened, is that we have given mental assent to the words worthy of our attention.

If we are serious about following Christ, we need to do more than that; we need to ruthlessly apply the truth we hear to specific areas of our lives that need attention.

Give Me Ears to Hear

(© Tuesday 5^th May 2014 – by Christopher Shennan)

Give me ears to hear that filter

All of the worldly chatter out;

All of the vain philosophy

The world is excited about.

 

Give me ears that can discern

What is false and what is true,

So my heart can be directed

To the path that will lead to You.

 

Yet once I know what is worthy,

I need to know just one more thing;

Know just how to apply it, dear Lord,

To the path I am following.

 

I want the words I listen to;

Those that have been tried and are true,

To be the words that are changing,

And making me become like You.

Picture by Joanne Shennan

Check out my books at My website: http://www.christophershennan.ca
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CNShennan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherShennanAuthor