gladitudes

So, this morning in my quiet time I read 1 Thessalonians 1-2. I found this passage and really liked what it communicated about Paul + co.’s hearts as they were reaching out to and sharing with the Thessalonians. It says,

“For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.” (1 Thes. 2:3-8, ESV)

The things I thought were really cool are how, first, any appeal made to people for God should always only come out of love for God and a desire to please Him. It’s easy for me to get the focus on myself and end up “serving God” in a really self-serving way. That’s wrong.

Secondly, it is never okay to use any sort of deceit or trickery to convince people of the truth, nor is it okay to have ulterior motives in trying to communicate it. The gospel is powerful enough on it’s own, God’s spirit is powerful enough to communicate it without us twisting it.

Finally, the thing that is going to work in helping people understand God’s love, is simply being motivated by it ourselves. We need to be willing to, as the verse says, share the Gospel and even our entire lives with people so that they can know the love of Christ.

Here is something that challenged me last night…

The following is a quote from A. W. Tozer from an essay he wrote entitled, “We Need Men of God Again” (You can find the whole thing here if you are interested.):

“We languish for men who feel themselves expendable in the warfare of the soul, who cannot be frightened by threats of death because they have already died to the allurements of this world. Such men will be free from the compulsions that control weaker men. They will not be forced to do things by the squeeze of circumstances; their only compulsion will come from within–or from above.” (Emphasis mine.)

There is sort of a lot there and if you read the whole essay, which is good, there’s probably more too. So, I won’t go into very much detail, but one thing that really gripped me was the idea of considering my life to be “expendable in the warfare of the soul”. I am not exactly sure the best way to explain what I’m thinking but, basically, I do not consider my life expendable at all. I often view my time as important, my skills as unique, and my presence with people as a blessing that is mine to give. While this is disgusting to recognize–this level of pride in me–it’s for sure true.

We are called in Philippians 2 to take an attitude the same as Christ, who being God, didn’t consider that something to be grasped, but instead became a servant. This is mind-blowing to me, because in the history of human existence, Christ is the only one who could have rightly demanded to be respected, honored, valued, etc, but he was the first one to truly love and the one who has taught all other true lovers how to love truly.

The reason this passage caught my attention, though, initially, is because I have been reading and hearing Romans 12:1 a lot recently. There’s been sort of a struggle for me in figuring out what does it mean to present my body as a living sacrifice? That means a lot of things for sure, but to me trying to begin considering my life to be expendable for the cause of Christ seems to be a helpful starting point. When I can let go of thinking of MY life, MY time, and MY ability and just have open eyes to what will advance God’s kingdom, I think that is when I start to get used in big ways by God.

Love you, Andrew