There are 2 passages of scripture that have haunted me over the past several months. It wasn’t until today that I realized how intertwined these two passages had become in my life. Over the past year I decided that I was going to live according to what the word of God says rather than what I’ve always believed, been taught, or assumed. I decided to start looking at the word like I would imagine a new believer in the middle east to look at it… obediently. I realized that the whole old testament was written to show me this incredible love that God h.as for me and to lead me to a place where I could realize that there was nothing else to do except give every ounce of my life to Him I got that part, as a girl it was really easy for me to look at God as someone who pursued and loved me, it was basically every romance movie I had ever seen, scripted just for me. It was a dream come true. But then I started to read the New Testament. I started to read it as if every story I read was brand new. I started to dig deep and come to conclusions that I would follow the word no matter what. To put it very plainly, that didn’t leave a warm fuzzy feeling like the Old Testament. You see if you sit down and talk to anyone who is a Christian and you describe to them how much God loves you and how much He does for you, most of them get it. You’ll probably even end up with a few “amens” along the way. But I’ve found if you sit down with most Christians and tell them that you know God is calling you to live uncomfortably and to deny what you’ve “always thought” for what His word says, people start to object. When you start to tell them you believe God wants you to witness to everyone you encounter they may praise you for being “called” or “gifted” to do that, but that's not their "calling". When you tell them you think as a Christian we are instructed to help orphans, widows, and homeless they may question why or try and setup ramifications for what that “really means”. And when you tell them you think God has called you to sell some of your possessions and possibly move somewhere else… honestly, most of them look at you like you just grew two heads.
It’s been a hard process but such a humbling one. Over the past two years God has pressed on my heart that He calls every Christian in some way, shape, or form to reach out to three groups of people (orphans, widows, and homeless). It’s a subject addressed all throughout old and new testament. First God reveals His own love for these people then He decides to thrown in verses like James 1:27 about pure and undefiled religion helping such as these. It’s pretty unquestionable that He commands in that verse what to do and honestly I really battled with this. I didn’t know how to help and no one had ever even told me I needed to help. So I began to pray and ask God for ways I could help others eyes be opened to this same issue. Then I started teaching a new group of girls in my college class, girls that had a heart for orphans and girls that wanted to go on a mission trip to help them. We began a bi-weekly bible study going through every verse in the bible that dealt with orphans and fatherless, and they too were convicted. However, many of them faced the same questioning gazes I also have faced when trying to explain this to other Christians.
This is where the two passages come in. The first passage I felt God really told me to cling to was Philippians 3:7-21 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
This passage so convicted me to hold on to His word only. To compare everything that I’ve been told, I’ve thought, I’ve been taught or I’ve questioned to the word of God. To be someone who so thinks and acts like Christ that you could literally suggest to others to “follow you as you follow Christ”. That was challenging. That meant I couldn’t settle for someone else’s faith or someone else’s rules I had to figure out Christ’s and hold to them as my own. However, this meant that when people would bring up areas that weren’t in line with the word of God that I was put in an awkward position. Most of the time I can hold my tongue or realize it’s not an issue worth discussing but what do you do when they are asking your position? Or what do you do when you are asked to do something you feel is against what the word says? What do you do when these people are people that are Christians?
God then showed me my second convicting passage Galatians 1:10 “Am I trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ”. This is a verse so convicting I keep it taped to my computer so I’m always thinking of it. That’s really the answer to my questions. Who am I serving? That’s a challenge. It’s hard. It sometimes means your reputation with others. But in the end what does it really mean? On the day I die I will stand before no one but Christ. I can’t blame something I did or did not do on what anyone else did or did not tell me. I have an instruction manual in front of me daily and I’m held to it. When I stand before Him I will have no excuses except to answer who I was really serving. Over the past few days God has also shown me this applies to other areas besides orphans, widows and needy. It's funny that I've always heard "If you can be trusted with little you will be trusted with much." Somehow I thought orphans, widows and needy were much, but I'm finding out they are just the beginning. I think constantly during my life I will be brought back to the question "who do I serve". I hope that I can look back on every decision that was made, every path I took, and every questioning gaze I faced and know that I consistently served God not man. I hope that challenges you also to look at every area of your life to see who you are following .
