Do it anyway!

Have you ever noticed that serving is never convenient. The opportunity comes along either at a time when you had something else planned or conditions were not the best.

Let's take a look at the most famous servant of all, God, to see how to handle serving when other things were planned or when the conditions were not the best.

Matthew 14: 13 Now when Jesus heard it, (about the death of John the Baptist), He withdrew from there in a boat, to a lonely place by Himself; and when the multitudes heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities.

14 And when He went ashore, He saw a great multitude, and felt compassion for them, and healed their sick.

15 And when it was evening, the disciples came to Him, saying, "The place is desolate, and the time is already past; so send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves."

{Now when first reading this we get the picture that the disciples had compassion for the people too. That they wanted the best for the people. It was probably more like, "We are tired and hungry so let's send the mob back to the city."} The time was not a convenient time and they had a short vacation planned.

16 But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!"

17 And they said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." {They thought that surely with that little food Jesus would agree to send them back to the city.}

18 And He said, "Bring them her to Me."

We know the rest of the story He had them sit, thanked the Father for what was provided, then fed the five thousand.

Let's look at one more time when it was inconvenient for the Master to serve. It is found in John 13.

John 13: 3-5 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God, rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

Consider for a moment these two examples of serving:

In the first, the disciples had just returned from having been sent out by Jesus and were in need of rest (a vacation). Jesus had just heard of the beheading of John and had a heavy heart. It was not a convenient time for five thousand needy people to show up.

In the second, Jesus knew that He was going to face a long night of pain and suffering with the crucifixion following. Certainly the conditions were not best for taking a bowl of water and a towel to wash the feet of his weak disciples.

Here is what I get from these two examples: The creator of everything saw it more important to serve than to be served even at times it was not convenient and conditions were not best.

When I think of these two examples and I look at the opportunities that God brings into my life to serve others the timing is often inconvenient and the conditions are rarely perfect.


I encourage you when faced with inconvenience and bad timing at an opportunity to serve to go a head and do it. I know that God will make the inconvenience and bad timing easy to bear because you will see the joy it brings to the one being served. More than that your actions will bring glory to God.

Become a Slave to Gain Your Freedom

Slavery is a word that stirs deep passions in people. When we think of slavery in the United States we think of the injustice our ancestors did, both black and white, during the younger years of our nation. We think of the civil war that brought about the freedom of the slaves in our country. We think of the long struggle of blacks to earn the right to vote.

A side note here is these events where brought about by the efforts of Christian men and women. A good movie to watch on this subject is Amazing Grace the story about William Wilberforce.

Let's look at the definition of Slave from Dictionary.com
1. a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant.
2. a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person.

Back to the title of this post. Are you willing to become a slave to gain your freedom?

Before we tackle that question let's look at the history of slavery.

From Wikipedia

Slavery is not a new to the world it has been around since the dawn of time. Slavery traces back to the earliest records, such as the Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1760 BCE), which refers to it as an established institution.^[1] Slavery in ancient cultures was known to occur in civilizations as old as Sumer, and it was found in every civilization, including Ancient Egypt, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Ancient Greece, Ancient Persia,^[28] Rome and parts of its empire, and the Islamic Caliphate. Such institutions were a mixture of debt-slavery, punishment for crime, the enslavement of prisoners of war, child abandonment, and the birth of slave children to slaves.^[29] Records of slavery in Ancient Greece go as far back as Mycenaean Greece. It is often said that the Greeks as well as philosophers such as Aristotle accepted the theory of natural slavery i.e. that some men are slaves by nature.

According to Wikipedia
Some argue that the Bible condones slavery in Ancient Israelite society by failing to condemn the widespread existing practice present in other cultures.^[73] It also explicitly states that under certain circumstances, slavery is morally acceptable.^{[74][75][unreliable source?]} The Bible emphasises often however, that slaves are to be treated fairly by their masters.[NKJV Bible, Ephesians 6:5-9, Colossians 3:22-4:1] There are also scholars who argue that Islam condones slavery,^{[76][unreliable source?]} although the institution of slavery has largely been outlawed in the Muslim world.

The Bible mentions several reasons people find themselves in slavery. When nations were conquered by another nation they usually either killed all of the males and made the women their slaves or they killed the warriors and made the rest of the people slaves. They formed a Suzerian-Vassal Treaty which is not a treaty between equals, but between a lord and a servant. It required complete loyalty and obedience from the servant who benefited from the provisions and protection of the lord.

According to Wikipedia
Suzerainty (pronounced /ˈsjuːzərənti/RP or /ˈsjuːzəreɪnti/RP) (/ˈsuːzərənti/ GA) is a situation in which a region or people is a tributary to a more powerful entity which allows the tributary some limited domestic autonomy to control its foreign affairs. The more powerful entity in the suzerainty relationship, or the head of state of that more powerful entity, is called a suzerain. The term suzerainty was originally used to describe the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and its surrounding regions. It differs from sovereignty in that the tributary has some (limited) self-rule. A suzerain can also mean a feudal lord, to whom vassals must pay tribute.

Slaves in the Middle East were often consider to be part of the family and were well cared for. Many slaves became slaves because they could not afford to pay off their debts and became enslaved to the one they owed to pay off the debt.

The Africans who became slaves in Europe and America were sold to the white men by other Africans who had either defeated them in battle or raided their village and hauled off the young men.

Today in America we still have slaves and here is a short list of those caught up in slavery:
Drug addicts
Alcoholics
Porn Addicts
Greed
Welfare - For info on this read Star Parker's article Moving back to Uncle Sam's plantation
Pride
Power
Sex Addicts
Workaholics

These people are in bondage to their addiction and cannot break away without the help of a friend and the power of the Holy Spirit. You might be surprised by the real solution to their becoming free from being enslaved to whatever they are in bondage to.

In order for them to truly be free of their addiction they will have to surrender everything to the Creator God and become a slave to Him and others. It is much like the Suzerian-Vassal Treaty of the old ages. If we will submit to our conquering King and Lord then He will provide all that we need.

Matthew 20: 25-28 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

2 Corinthians 3: 5-6 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

1 Timothy 4: 6 in pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have bee following.

My question is: "Are you willing to become Christ's slave in order for you to truly be free of the bondage you are under?" If so your King and Lord will fight along side of you and take back the ground that has been taken by the evil forces of this world. You can choose to have your King fight for you and deliver you from bondage or you can choose to fight by yourself and win a battle now and then as you continue to loose the war.

I want to encourage you to become a slave of Jesus Christ which will require complete surrender and you will, through the Spirit of the Lord, gain your freedom.

What type of leader are you?

Are you a leader? If you are what type of leader are you? There are several leadership styles but only two types of leaders. You either lead by telling others what to do or you lead by showing others what to do by serving them.

As I drove into Overland Park I was listening to a Talk Radio program and during the discussion the following phrase was used: "A rising tide lifts all boats" and so I decided to share it with you.

The aphorism "a rising tide lifts all boats" is associated with the idea that improvements in the general economy will benefit all participants in that economy, and that economic policy, particularly government economic policy, should therefore focus on the general macroeconomic environment first and foremost. The phrase is said to have been coined by Seán Lemass, the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in 1959–1966.^{[1] [2]} Lemass himself attributed the phrase to John F. Kennedy.^[3] Kennedy employed the expression to combat criticisms that his tax cuts would benefit mostly wealthy individuals.^[4][5][6]

The expression also applies to free-market policies, in that comparative-advantage production and subsequent trade would theoretically increase incomes for all participating entities. It is a favorite proverb of former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

I believe we can also apply this to leadership. In an environment where the leader trains, empowers and releases people to service others all involved are lifted like a boat on a tide.

Jesus gave us instructions on how to be a godly leader and we find it in Mark 10:42-45 (The Message)

41-45 When the other ten heard of this conversation, they lost their tempers with James and John. Jesus got them together to settle things down. "You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around," he said, "and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads. It's not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage."