A blog by Adam W. Christman

Tag: Christian

  • Spiritual Disciplines: Service to Others

    “WANTED: Gifted volunteers for difficult service in the local expression of the kingdom of God. Motivation to serve should be obedience to God, gratitude, gladness, forgiveness, humility, and love. Service will rarely be glorious. Volunteers must be faithful in spite of long hours, little or no visible results, and possibly no recognition—except from God for all eternity.” -Donald S. Whitney

    The biblical witness regarding salvation is very simple. Believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. By believing, you will have life in his name (John 20:13). We are saved by grace through faith, not through works, so that nobody can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). That is, we are saved from the consequences of our sin, which is death (Romans 6:23). We are saved by grace, or in other words, by God’s free gift (also Romans 6:23). That grace is delivered to us through faith (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 10:4, 9-10).

    Many theologians and pastors have remarked that, in all the religions of the world, there are truly only two concepts for how people are saved from sin. One concept is the Christian concept, expressed to us clearly in the Scriptures, that we are saved through faith in Christ. The other concept is that people are saved by works. Some things can be true at the same time. When people ask who you are, you can tell them your name, but it is also accurate to tell them what you do for a living, or who you are in relation to your family. But a theology of salvation (soteriology) does not work like that. Only one can be true, and not the other.

    Why do I bring this up? Today we’re talking about service and I want to be sure to communicate that Christians serve BECAUSE we are saved from sin, NOT IN ORDER TO BE saved from sin. Christians do not trust in our own works to save us or make our presence in the future state palatable to a perfectly holy God. No. We trust in the work of Christ, whose work was to die on the cross and then to rise to resurrected life on the third day. A preacher I know recently preached a series of sermons called “SAVED TO SERVE.” I think that sums it up very well.

    Let’s talk about how we can learn about the spiritual discipline of service from the life of Jesus, starting with that most important part of it.

    Jesus’ purpose on this earth was to live a perfect life, die for us, and rise again. That is service! It is service on behalf of all who will believe. There are some elements to notice about this act of service from Jesus.

    1. This act of service cost Jesus personally. Notice, he did not send someone else. God himself died on the cross for our sins, not a man, angel, or animal.
    2. This act of service was for the benefit of others. You may rightfully point out that all service is for the benefit of others. But among sinful man, motives, means, and results can be debated endlessly. Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, however, concludes debates. He lives again on the other side of death. There can be no argument in the face of the King of Kings. His service was to the benefit of all who will believe. Our faith in him would mean nothing if he did not die and rise again (1 Corinthians 15).
    3. This act of service was motivated out of Jesus’ love and joy. Jesus’ twin motivations of love and joy for us is clearly seen in the Scriptures. Romans 5:8, “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Love was on display on the cross in the bloodied form of that Jewish rabbi. But look also to Hebrews 12:2b as it comments on Jesus’ motivation. “For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Reuniting us to himself gives Jesus joy just like the joy of the angels that Jesus himself described in Luke 15, verses 7 and 10. How could it be any less than that?
    4. This act of service was conducted not only out of righteous motivations, but also righteous means. Please don’t misunderstand me. The persecutions of the religious leaders, bloodthirsty crowds, and dangerously apathetic Romans were not righteous. What we see in Jesus’ sacrificial act of service on the cross is a man who did not sin at any point along the way. He was pierced because of our acts of rebellion against God (Is. 53:5), not his own. And when he suffered the betrayal, trials, and crucifixion, “he was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth” (Is. 53:7). The eyewitness Simon Peter, son of Jonah, declares in 1 Peter 2:22-24 about Jesus, “He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth; when he was insulted, he did not insult in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

    So much could be said about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, but the above paragraphs should suffice for our study on the spiritual disciplines. Let’s turn to the second clearest picture of Jesus and service with help from the Gospel of John.

    A look at John 13 allows us to move the camera from Jesus’ death and resurrection to the night just before Jesus’ betrayal by Judas. It’s been another long day, a day of walking and dust and sweat. Preparations had been made to borrow the upper room of somebody’s home. They were planning and expecting to observe the Passover. But there was no servant there to get them ready. These men needed to be ceremonially clean in order to engage in the observation of Passover! Even so, there was nobody to kneel down with a towel and basin of water in order to wash and dry their feet. This kind of job was a dirty job. It would have featured on one of Mike Rowe’s TV shows if they had existed back then. It was unenviable, time consuming, perhaps humiliating to wash the grime and potentially animal feces off the feet of whoever was coming to dinner. The washing of feet is a job for a servant.

    Jesus, the King of Creation, who has the Name Above All Names, the One who knew he would die in less than 24 hours, knelt, took up the towel, and did it himself. He washed the feet of the twelve disciples and, presumably, his own. Judas, then, the famous traitor who would hand Jesus over for thirty pieces of silver, was among this number. Can you imagine washing the feet of someone who betrayed you? Jesus did that. He did it before the betrayal, yes, but he did it knowing that the betrayal was coming. And don’t forget Peter’s betrayal! Peter would hang back from Jesus’ side as his master was brought before the kangaroo court we see in the Gospels. When pressed by the people nearby whether he was one of Jesus’ disciples, he cussed and insisted he did not know the man! Jesus knew Peter’s betrayal was coming and Jesus washed his feet anyway.

    In the context of another prophetic pronouncement of his coming betrayal and crucifixion, Jesus famously declared in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew’s account of that same moment reflects these words on Christians and service. Matt. 20:25-28, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant . . . even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.”

    “That’s all well and good for Jesus,” you might be thinking, “but that has nothing to do with me.” My friend, if that is what you think, you are mistaken. We are to follow Jesus, just as the first disciples were called to do (Matt. 4:19).

    John 13:14-15 record these words from Jesus, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” Some of you reading this may come from a congregation or a denomination that regularly holds foot washing services on an annual or more frequent basis. For those who are unfamiliar, some churches hold a service where they plan and then conduct a time where those in attendance have the opportunity to wash the feet of another person in attendance. It is a humbling experience. My point is not to argue that your church should have a service like this. The point is to show that Jesus’ life is characterized by personal service done on behalf of others and so ours should be characterized by the same.

    “In the Discipline of service there is also great liberty. Service enables us to say ‘no!’ to the worlds’ games of promotion and authority. It abolishes our need (and desire) for a ‘pecking order.’” -Richard Foster

    If Jesus’ acts of service were personal, ours need to be personal, as well. We live in a digital age. We live in the age of drive thru food, coffee shops, banks, and more. We live in a world that we have shaped in our own image.1 We have curated online church with music from this church, preaching from that church, inspirational videos from our favorite Christian influencers, and we call that the Christian life. Meanwhile, we lay back and are spiritually gluttonous. We feed and feed and feed on only the morsels we choose, neglecting those dynamics of the Christian life we prefer to avoid. We prefer not to put up with the bad smells of the bodies of other people. We prefer not to deal with their (in our opinion) bad driving or bad parking. We prefer not to use a public restroom. We prefer not to walk down the street, or drive a few minutes, or catch a bus in order to attend a worship service. “Online church” is not what God had in mind. We are embodied souls!2 We need to spend time in spaces with one another in times of singing, reading, praying, and, yes, service to others. We need to do it ourselves. We cannot outsource service to somebody else. We have to use our own hands to lift the fallen. We have to use our own feet to go to the outcast. We have to use our own voices to encourage the downcast. We have to use our own backs to bear the burdens of one another.

    If Jesus’ acts of service were for the benefit of others, ours need to be for the benefit of others, too. On social media, there is almost no content worth reading or viewing. Among all the fluff of wasted time are videos of people who feed the homeless or helping a family experiencing poverty. There are so many of those videos that now there are parody videos mocking them! We do not serve in order to be seen. Matthew 6:2, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven.” You may notice the Scripture address there and remember that it comes from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus also said this in the same sermon, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Mt. 5:16). We best serve when we do it in ways that causes people see the good works, not us, and give glory to the Father, not to us.

    We best serve when we do it in ways that causes people see the good works, not us, and give glory to the Father, not to us.

    If Jesus’ acts of service were motivated from love and joy for others, so ours need to be, as well. Do you remember the Greatest Commandments? They come into play with regards to everything we do, including our acts of service. Love God, love people (Luke 10:27-28). Love—real love, not the cheap, uncommitted, convenient kind of appreciation that so commonly passes for lovenowadays—and joy go together. Read your Bible, pray, and develop your love for God and others. Don’t hold back from service simply because you think you don’t love people enough, though! Sometimes, it is through our acts of service that we mature in our love for God and others. Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon titled Some Marks of God’s People. In it, he stated, “He who serves God, out of love to him, is the one who really and truly serves him. The Lord of love, the great King eternal, immortal, invisible, needs no slaves to grace his throne. He wants those to do his bidding who serve him with delight and pleasure.”

    If Jesus’ acts of service were conducted by righteous means, then we need to do the same. Service must be done with a joyful, loving motivation, but also a joyful, loving means. Imagine a children’s ministry volunteer serving joyful preschool kids with a scowl on his face. (Depending on your church experiences, it might not be too hard to imagine!) Such things should not be. We conduct our acts of service with love, not lashes. Sometimes, we can serve in such a way that we never voice negative words, but our posture, demeanor, facial expression, and other elements communicate a bad attitude anyway. It is not the way of Jesus. James 1:20, “for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.” I am not telling you to force yourself to “feel like serving.” Nor am I saying to “only serve when you feel like it”. (You will soon come to a place where you NEVER feel like it, which is not the way of Jesus.) What I mean is, develop self-control, that flavor of the Fruit of the Spirit. Let God be in charge, and in submission to him take control of your face, body language, and any other element that communicates to people so that you can serve in such a way that they are blessed rather than more burdened.

    I want to close with some bite-size thoughts on practical service and even one of its benefits, followed by one more quote.

    Service does not care whether the task is large or small. Service is content to serve in hidden ways, not in the spotlight. Service is free not to calculate every result. Service is happy to minister to all, great or small, poor or rich, etc. Service ministers simply and faithfully, regardless of mood or feelings.3 Service is a pattern of life, not limited to one or two instances. Service builds community.

    “Therefore, the spiritual authority of Jesus is an authority not found in a position or a title, but in a towel,” Richard Foster.

    1. I would argue that this has resulted in a world twisted out of God’s own design, but that’s another subject. ↩︎
    2. Another subject worthy of its own series of posts. ↩︎
    3. I know I already made this point, but it is so important! ↩︎

  • Spiritual Disciplines: Prayer

    “It is not enough for the believer to begin to pray, nor to pray correctly; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray. We must patiently, believingly continue in prayer until we obtain an answer. Further, we have not only to continue in prayer until the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing. Those who are disciples of the Lord Jesus should labor with all their might in the work of God as if everything depended upon their own endeavors. Yet, having done so, they should not in the least trust in their labor and efforts, nor in the means that they use for the spread of the truth, but in God alone; and they should with all earnestness seek the blessing of God in persevering, patient, and believing prayer. Here is the great secret of success, my Christian reader. Work with all your might, but never trust in your work. Pray with all your might for the blessing in God, but work at the same time with all diligence, with all patience, with all perseverance. Pray, then, and work. Work and pray. And still again pray, and then work. And so on, all the days of your life. The result will surely be abundant blessing. Whether you see much fruit or little fruit, such kind of service will be blessed.” -George Muller, 1805-1898.

    Now that you are a Christian, what is the most important thing you can do? If you took a survey with that question, you might hear responses like “evangelism” or “worship.” I wonder how often you would hear “pray.”

    Prayer can feel very passive. Isolated. When you are new to the practice of prayer, or perhaps during some of the harder times of life, you can feel like you’re sending out signals into an unanswering universe. Jesus wants you to know that this perspective on prayer is not accurate and it is not what he intends for your life.

    In the post where I introduced the spiritual disciplines more broadly, I defined the disciplines as “those behaviors that augment our spiritual growth and enable us to grow to spiritual maturity.” I also offered that these disciplines are “following Jesus in the overall style of life he chose for himself.” Engaging in the spiritual disciplines is for the human soul what watering, pruning, and fertilizing is to a plant. It is the way Jesus modeled how to engage the process of human growth and, for us, transformation. Author Richard J. Foster said, “To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives.”

    I wrote deeper examinations of the spiritual disciplines of studying the Bible and solitude in recent weeks. Today, we move to the discipline of prayer. As with all the disciplines, much could be said. I will endeavor to stay focused on a study of Jesus’ life with regards to prayer. I have placed a bibliography on prayer for further reading at the very end of the post.

    Jesus chose a lifestyle of prayer. More specifically, he chose to pray in the morning, during the day, and at night. He chose to pray alone and in groups. He prayed while fasting and he assumed his followers would fast. He commanded his followers to pray. He modeled prayer and explicitly taught us how to pray. So we see he took a variety of approaches to prayer, rather than one, lone model of prayer. We also see that he both modeled and commanded prayer for us to engage.

    Jesus chose a lifestyle of prayer.

    Richard Foster wrote, “Of all the Spiritual Disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father.” Based on what I’ve read in the Bible and my own experiences, I assume that quote to be accurate for my life and for this post. Pastor and author H.B. Charles, Jr., defines prayer this way, “Prayer reflects our confidence in the heavenly Father to care for our needs.”1 Prayer is a method of spending time with God, of us communicating to him and him communicating to us. While it is a rare experience to hear an audible voice, God’s communication to us is real and discernible.

    In the rest of this week’s post, I will examine multiple passages from the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life to see the elements of Jesus’ various styles of prayer. Rather than list them all out as I did in the previous paragraph, they will occur together. I’m sure you will see the same thing I see in them.

    The Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, shows us several elements to Jesus’ prayer on a certain day. Jesus had just spent all day healing people and exorcising demons for “the whole town” (Mark 1:33), possibly into the night. Mark 1:35 then says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying.” I have noticed five elements in this verse. Do you see them, too?

    One element of Jesus’ prayer on this day is that it was early in the morning. The text makes this very plain. I am reminded of a famous quote from the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther, who said, “If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.” In other words, Luther’s habit was to start his day with two hours of prayer, but if he was especially busy, he devoted THREE hours to prayer instead. This choice seems backward to me as a busy, 21st century American. But the more I know the Lord and the more I know the use of prayer, the more I see the wisdom in it. Jesus likely spent signficant time in prayer (more on that in a moment). He knew he needed it. If GOD THE SON needed to pray before he started his day, how much more do you and I need to do the same?

    A second element of Jesus’ prayer on this day in Mark 1:35 is that he prayed by himself. Notice, it said “he” got up and went out. Not “they.” He was unaccompanied by his disciples or family members. Praying in groups is good and right and commanded in the New Testament. But you will benefit greatly from consistent, regular prayer where you are alone with God. He wants you to know him. He wants your heart aligned with his. And he wants to guide your steps. It is difficult in our busy schedules to find time to pray alone. It is tempting to get on our phones or do something else for dopamine. But consistent, regular prayer will result in rich times spent with God. I have experience this truth in my life. I know you can experience it, too. Luke 5:16 reports that this style of prayer was a regular occurrence for Jesus, “Yet he often withdrew to deserted places and prayed” (emphasis added).2

    A third element of Jesus’ prayer on this day is he prayed for a lengthy period of time. He was apparently gone so long, the disciples had to go look for him. We find this in Mark 1:36-37, the following verses. “Simon and his companions searched for him, and when they found him they said, ‘Everyone is looking for you.’” If everyone was looking for Jesus, then enough of the morning had passed that people were up, dressed, had eaten their breakfast, and possibly had done their morning chores in order to be freed up to go find this miracle worker who might do something amazing right before their eyes. As they were looking for Jesus, they probably came to the house that hosted Jesus and the disciples the night before. And so the disciples were motivated to get outside and find Jesus! They found him having spent a significant amount of time in prayer. That kind of behavior may not seem possible for you right now. But what if you chose the rest of prayer over the leisure of Netflix? Are there blocks of time you spend on things that either can wait or that you do not actually need? Could you not re-allocate some of that to a regular prayer time? Time spent in prayer is never time wasted.

    A fourth element of Jesus’ prayer on this day is that he chose prayer over ministry. We get this from the fuller passage, Mark 1:35-38. Here is verse 38: “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Let’s go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come’” (emphasis added). Jesus COULD have been performing acts of ministry already on this day. He knew that Capernaum had plenty of people in and around it. He knew there would be more people who were ill. The people of Capernaum were the reason the disciples went and found Jesus praying alone! We know from verse 37 that the disciples had just told Jesus that everyone was looking for him. So Jesus did not leave Capernaum due to an assumption that there was no longer any need in that town. We know, instead, that his primary mission was to preach the Gospel. Rather than spend every possible minute in acts of ministry, he chose to connect with God in prayer. You might even say he left ministry opportunities in order to go pray.

    The fifth element of Jesus’ prayer on this day is that he prayed before the difficult work of ministry. The following passage, in fact the next verse, Mark 1:39, says, “He went into all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.” He transitions from a lengthy time of solitary prayer into a period of ministry service that cost him time and energy. Mark 1:39 probably refers to a period of multiple days, if not weeks. Do you jump into acts of ministry without praying beforehand? My friend, don’t do this to yourself. You could be so much more encouraged, invigorated, strengthened, and ready for the task at hand if you would pray first.

    “Prayer—secret, fervent, believing prayer—lies at the root of all personal godliness.” -William Carey, 1761-1834.

    Let us turn to a few more passages from the life of Jesus to see how he handled prayer.

    While Jesus did pray alone many times, he also prayed with others. We see this in a variety of passages, including the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6) and the Last Supper (e.g., Luke 22:17, 19).

    Jesus modeled prayer. He showed how to pray at his baptism in Luke 3:21. He laid his hands on children and prayed for them in front of the disciples in Matthew 19:13. He prayed privately, but his disciples were with him during his individual prayer time in Luke 9:18. He told the disciples of his prayers for them. The Lord tells Peter, for example, of his prayers for him in Luke 22:32. John 17 is a prayer for his disciples and is prayed in their hearing.

    He modeled prayer, but he also gave explicit instructions on how to pray. He taught us how to pray in terms of content in Matthew 6:9-13. That prayer is popularly known as “the Lord’s Prayer,” but some (myself included) have taken to calling it “the Model Prayer.” It is a prayer that WE, the disciples of Jesus, are to pray. Jesus has no debts or need for forgiveness. Those elements in the Model Prayer show that it is really a prayer for us to pray, not his prayer to pray. Directly before the Model Prayer, however, Jesus also taught us the posture of prayer we are to have in Matthew 6:5-8. As you read that passage, you will notice that the posture is not so much whether our bodies are lying down, sitting down, standing up, etc. The posture of prayer is one of sincerity, if I can use a simple term to sum up his teaching in those verses.

    Jesus modeled and assumed his disciples would fast. Matthew 4 famously reports the temptations of Christ by the devil at the end of a forty day period where Jesus modeled fasting and solitude. The Sermon on the Mount shows us that Jesus assumes we will fast when he says, “Whenever you fast…” He does not say “if.” He assumes that we will take up the practice of occasional denial for the purpose of dwelling on the truth that God is always and only our source of provision.3

    Jesus commanded us to pray. This fact makes prayer nonnegotiable for Christians. The joy of it is, though, that prayer is no begrudging duty. It is a powerful privilege to enter the presence of God, knowingly. God told Moses, “No one may see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). But now we have Jesus, Immanuel, God With Us. At the end of prayer we walk away unscathed, but not unchanged.

    He commanded us to pray in such strong terms that he even told us to love and pray for our enemies in Matthew 5:43-44.

    At the end of prayer we walk away unscathed, but not unchanged.

    Prayer changes us. Aligns our hearts with God’s heart as we spend time with him. Prayer is our walkie talkie as soldiers in the field reaching out to our commanding officer for orders. And prayer changes things (e.g., James 1:5). I hope you see the need for daily—or more accurately, constant (1 Thess. 5:17)—prayer.

    I want to close with a story I read in H.B. Charles Jr.’s book.

    A father and his son were riding their bikes together one day. As they rode down the trail, the father eyed a large branch that had fallen in the path ahead. Instead of riding around it, the father decided to use this as an opportunity to teach his son an important lesson. They pulled over, and the father instructed his son to move the branch out of the way.

    The boy pushed and pulled, but was unable to move the branch. “I can’t do it,” he said, exhausted. “Sure you can, Son,” replied the father. “Be sure to use all your strength.” The boy tried harder. But he could not move the branch.

    Near tears, he said again, “I can’t do it.”

    “Did you use all of your strength?” The father asked.

    “Yes,” the boy answered.

    “No you didn’t,” the father replied. “You didn’t ask me to help you.”

    For Further Reading:

    • Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline.
    • H.B. Charles, Jr. It Happens After Prayer: Biblical Motivation for Believing Prayer.
    • Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines.
    • Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy.
    • Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.
    1. H.B. Charles, Jr. It Happens After Prayer: Biblical Motivation for Believing Prayer. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2013. ↩︎
    2. Luke 6:12 also reports another example of solitary prayer, “During those days he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God.” ↩︎
    3. You may have dietary or other health complications that may change, limit, or prohibit your ability to engage in traditional fasting from food. If you think this may describe you, ask your physician if there is a form of fasting from food or drink that you CAN engage. If you cannot engage in fasting from food or drink in any way due to your dietary or health needs, leave a comment here or otherwise contact me and I’ll be happy to make some suggestions that do not impact your diet or health in a negative way. You can, for example, change a habit. Instead of watching TV for the last hour of your day, you can give that time to God by spending it reading or more intensely studying the Bible. ↩︎