Greatness in serving

Everyone seem to want to chase greatness. People want to get famous, to gather trophies, acquire titles, be influential, command power. And the world says you can get these by being aggressive, decisive, cunning. Some would even go to great lengths such as trading values for personal gain, compromising health for material wealth, replacing important relationships with worldly partnerships. Just to get ahead. Just to advance personal agenda. The Christian life demands otherwise.

For a Christian, there is more to being great than just having a good name and great wealth and power. Greatness is having your life impact eternity. There is true greatness in serving. Jesus Christ affirmed that service is the mark of true greatness. If I desire to be great, I must be willing to offer myself in service to others. Jesus gave us a standard to follow: greatness means to serve!

God demonstrated service and sacrifice through His Son Jesus Christ. He is my best example of compassion, humility, and selflessness. In a world that is self-absorbed, self-centered, self-exalted, God is calling me to a life of selflessness, and self-abandon. I must be willing to pay the price of true greatness.

In Matthew 20, Jesus demonstrated a life of service. He asked the blind men the very thing they want, and He willingly gave it to them. He has a compassionate heart turned towards those who are desperate for Him. In the same way, I must continue to have a desperation for God not only for the things He can do for me, but most specially for the things He can do through me.

Dreaming big

A warrior dreams big, and acts big to achieve his dreams. Like a vision for something great, a warrior's dream is not only a passing thought or wishful thinking, but it is a road by which he is willing to take no matter how long and difficult. His dreams are part of who he is, fulfilling it is part of his destiny.

Forever Faithful

Disillusioned at best and with no cause to fight for, You have met me in the middle of nowhere to pacify the tensions in my heart and pick me up one more time. One more fight, You said. I took hold of that. Years later, here I am, still fighting strong. All because of grace.

It is still a long way ahead in this journey of faith. But I promise to remain steadfast, to remain faithful, to be true to all that I know about You. And let it be said of me at the end of the day, "well done, my good and faithful servant", because that's who I am. A servant of the one true Master and King.

Will you pay the cost?

You might have heard the often used cliche about being a Christian: Jesus calls you to be a follower not a fan. Yet oftentimes, we don't really know about the cost of following Christ, or we're just ignoring it. Many would just like to become a part of the mob of "Jesus freaks", not really taking it to heart that Christianity is about commitment. And more.

Following Christ has a great cost. I must not dilute God's demands by thinking that it's easy following Christ, like taking a carefree walk in a park. The truth is following Christ will cost me everything: my comfort, my own personal ambitions, my resources. But I must also realize that until I make a decision that He is the greatest treasure I can have and He is all worth it, I cannot truly be a disciple of Christ. One word: SURRENDER.

Following Christ has great rewards. Lest I be mistaken as a fire and brimstone fundamentalist, I must also say that following Christ leads to great blessings. God is not a cosmic killjoy as some already said. God is not unfair; He demands greatly because He loves and rewards greatly. In God's holiness and justice, He cannot allow us to conform to this world in any way we want and compromise the "full and satisfying life" He wants for us. But He won't just easily give it while we keep on enjoying the things that violate His holiness and justice. I must commit to conform to His will and ways. That's the only way I can be able to enter the Kingdom of God.

Following Christ leads to great possibilities. God said in Matthew 19:26, "what is impossible with men is possible with God." Following God means being empowered by God, only if I allow Him to do with me what He intends, and by surrender and love for Him I'd willingly submit. It is by God, for God and through God that everything is possible.

Will you pay this cost?

Remorseful or repentant?

After Judas betrayed Jesus in exchange for thirty pieces of silver, we can read in Matthew 27:3 that he was "seized with remorse" (NIV), "remorseful" (NKJV), and "regretted what had happened" (ISV). That's an interesting word right there--remorse! Dictionaries define remorse as a feeling of deep regret or guilt. When taken into spiritual context, remorse does not necessarily reflect a "repentant heart" (Psalm 51:17), and "godly sorrow" (2 Corinthians 7:10). That's why remorse was not enough to spare Judas from his sorrows that led him to take away his own life. And why do we even talk about a traitor and regret his decisions?

You see, many of the disciples of Jesus at the time of His crucifixion betrayed Him. One by one they started to disassociate themselves with Jesus at the moment of His arrest. The most famous "traitor" of them all aside from Judas is of course, Peter, one of His most trusted and closest disciples. Peter denied His Lord three times, at different instances, with increasing intensity. He also consciously and deliberately denied his Rabbi. But unlike Judas, Peter was not only regretful, he was repentant. He was overcome with godly sorrow and wept bitterly (Matthew 26:75).

The rest of the disciples also was seemingly absent during the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. They were not there to fight for and stand with Jesus. They were overcome with fear for their own life. Just like Judas they had personal concerns when matters came to worst. But again, unlike Judas, all of them later repented as testified by their willingness to stay in one place even before the resurrection day. At the time of resurrection, Jesus sought to restore Peter and the rest of the disciples who remained. Jesus was there to extend His grace and redemption despite their betrayal.

How about Judas? Well, he was not restored simply because he wasn't there anymore. In fact, he too, had the opportunity to be restored upon seeing that he had made a mistake by betraying 'innocent blood". He had the chance to return to the disciples and repent over what was done, but he did not. He went his way and took matters in his own hands...and into the grave.

The bottomline? Repent, don't just regret! "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." (2 Corinthians 7:10)