Slaves of God

I started reading a book called "Slave" the other day. It has been a great reminder to me of a great teaching in the Bible. While many of us read the words "A servant of God" or "A servant of Christ" in the Bible, a better way to translate this would be slave instead of servant. God wants us to understand this picture. We belong to Him. He owns us. After all, He did pay for us! And the slave's greatest task is to obey and please His master in everything. But being God's slave is not a bad thing. It is an awesome thing. One reason is because if we were not God's slaves we would be slaves to sin. Now that we belong to Him we are free from our slavery to sin.
Whoever we are slaves to defines who we are. Thus, if we are God's slaves, our identity is found completely in Him. And the wonder of it all is that, while we are the slaves of God, He also calls us His friends. So, I say with Paul, "I am a slave of Jesus Christ!"

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

"he is with you" by Mandisa - Ecc 3:1-8

There's a time to live
And a time to die
There's a time to laugh
And a time to cry

There's a time for war
And a time for peace
There's a hand to hold
In the worst of things
In the worst of things

He is with you when your faith is dead
And you can't even get out of bed
Or your husband doesn't kiss you anymore
He is with you when your baby's gone
And your house is still
And your hearts are stone
Crying "God what'd you do that for?"
He is with you

There's a time for yes
And a time for no
There's a time to be angry
And a time to let it go
There's a time to run
And a time to face it
There's love to seek
In all of this
Through all of this

He is with you in the conference room
When the world is coming down on you
And your wife and kids don't know you anymore
And He is with you in the ICU when the doctors don't know what to do
And it scares you to the core
He is with you

We may weep for a time but joy will come in the morning
The morning light

He is with you when your kids are grown
When there's too much space and you feel alone
And your worried if you got it right or wrong
Yes He is with you when you've given up on ever finding your true love
Someone who feels like home
He is with you

When nothing else is left and you take your final breath
He is with you

He is with you
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Be encouraged to listen to this song, and be encouraged that life has trials. But no matter what trials are present, God IS with you. and that he never gives us more than we can handle ( I Corinthians 10:13).
Remember God during trials, but remember him when life is good. Because that's when the praise matters most. When "God isn't needed" but you still praise him in the good times.

In my Father's house.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to accompany my friends to a conference about an hour from our home. It was called the Fellowship Conference, and it was comprised of a number of preachers from across the world.
One of my favorite speakers was a pastor named Jose. These are some of the things that especially encouraged me in his message:
Christ had to prepare a place for us in heaven. He took our sin to prepare that place. There is only one house in heaven and Christ is making room for us there right now. "In my Father's house, there are many rooms"... many rooms means that we will be close to each other. And we will be close to Christ. All of the saints will gather in one place, and that is the place where Christ will be.
Why are we serving Christ? Are we serving Him to get a place in heaven? We should be serving Him because we love Him. We should want to serve Him for all eternity.
Ephesians 2:9 - "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." We are, right now, no longer strangers to God. We are members of HIS household.
But we can't enjoy our place in the House of God till we know what He did for us.
John 17:24: in our daily walks we should see Christ.
2nd Corinthians 3:18: the glory of Christ never ends.
Heaven is a prepared place, for us, already. Christ is ready for us now. We bring NOTHING, but we enjoy EVERYTHING in Christ (2nd Sam. 9:7-8).
We have access to the Kingdom of God. We have access to the King of the Universe (through prayer and faith). Do we use that access? Do we take advantage of that access?
We have access to the King's table.
John 6:48: "I am the bread of life." He is the bread of life. Bread does us no good if we don't have it where it belongs. If we don't make it our own. 
Ephesians 1:3 and 7: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." 
"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace."
We have access to Him, but we must desire Him. Never be dissatisfied with what you have now, because the Lord has more. The fullness of God is lavished on us. 

And our response should be in love, in humility and in faith. All of the things we receive from Christ are not from our own self-pride, but for our own humility.
Romans 12:1: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."