serving the living God

At church on the last Sunday of the Month we hold a separate communion service before the usual 11am start. Now that in itself is not the point of this blog, but rather what was said by Adrian one of the leaders at church during his message. He was sharing some thoughts with us from the book of Hebrews.

He then though out a comment as he read out verse 14 of chapter 9. It reads like this in the NIV...How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

The general content of his comment and thought is summed up in what follows...why is it that as Christian's that we can serve God? Because of the work of Christ on the cross enabling us to do so through the indwelling Spirit cleansing us from acts with separate and lead to death and stop us from serving Him. Why did Christ do this so that we may serve the living God who is the giver of life! Adrian said something along these lines; why is it so many of us do the minimum and see it as a hardship to serve God, when the writer of Hebrews saw it as a great privilege to serve the living God (he pointed to the fact that the NIV punctuates this phrase with an exclamation mark).

Instead of asking questions like how little can i get away with or stating that someone else will do it. Ask how far can i go? How much can i give to the living God who gave it all for me, so that I could serve Him.

Maybe we need to capture the great honour it is to live and serve and give for Jesus...

P.S I am not advocating salvation by works (Romans 3:28; Ephesians 2:8, 9; Phil 3:9 plus countless others if you wish to search them out)!!! Salvation is only found in the Christ through his atoning sacrifice. What I am advocating is a works or service BECAUSE we are saved or better being saved.