Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
As leaders, we aren’t called to merely lead Christian ministry. We aren’t merely called to lead Christian works. We are called to lead the family of God in relationships. First, and foremost, we are called to lead people in knowing God. We cannot teach them to know God, but we can inspire them to know God through the example of our own lives. Our intimacy with God, and our reliance upon Him in all things, will inspire those we lead to live their lives in the same way. I believe that this is most important.
As leaders, we are also called to lead others in relationships with one another. We are not merely believers in Christ. We are believers of Christ and our believing Him inspires us to live together as His family. He is our Father, and we are His sons and daughters who live for His glory in all things.
Our commission is not to do Christian works. Our commission is to make disciples of nations. Jesus made disciples by living with a few, revealing a life of connection to God His Father. That connection was demonstrated with works of ministry and supernatural testimonies of God’s power, but His goal was not ministry or power. His goal was to reconnect us all to God as our Father. When we are connected to God our Father, we will manifest His works of love. We will manifest His supernatural power of life. That power of life is not life that can die, but resurrection life that cannot be killed. It is a testimony of triumphant love made known by our Father’s supernatural abilities.
I believe that we fall short of who we are meant to be when we make ministry or works our goal. When we make ministry or works our goal, it is easy to become offended in our relationships. I believe our goal must be intimacy with God and with one another. This will be demonstrated though our willingness to minister to one another. We will do works of ministry, but those works will demonstrate that we live for the well-being of others.
1 Corinthians 10:23-24 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.
Leaders present their bodies for the testimony of the body of Christ. They give their all as an example to be followed. Leaders inspire body members to do the same. God’s mercy has justified us to be joined to God and to one another in Christ, for His glory in our world.
Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
We are being changed in our thinking. We don’t live for ourselves. We live for God and for one another. Each of us are perfect in who we are and who we are is only found in Christ for the purpose of Christ in all things. We never need to be jealous of someone else. We don’t seek to be competitive, but submissive one to another for God’s purposes.
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
We each do our share, not to demonstrate ministry, but to be a witness of connection to God and to one another by the life of God’s Spirit. Love is the bond, but that love is God’s love and not love that is connected to our own self-seeking desires.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
