I agree with Joey. Service = Obedience. How you know you're obeying God is a bit more complex. How do you know what God wants you to do? Maybe you can't know for sure, but I think you can make some good guesses.
Henry Blackaby & Claude King got it pretty close I think in Experiencing God some years back. The short version is: look around you and figure out where God is already at work, when you find it, go there and get busy helping. (And, by the way, you probably will have to make some personal changes in order to help.)
I think we make it too difficult sometimes by agonizing over finding God's will for our lives. It's often sitting there right in front of us, but we don't want to do it.
I was going to say cheerful obedience, but I don't think that captures what I'm thinking very well. Obedience motivated by love, does better, so I guess I'm just parroting Joey.
Regarding how we know that we are obeying God, that's a more difficult question. If I had to simply rely on my own ability to distinguish the Holy Spirit's voice and discern God's will on the proper interpretation of Scripture, I'm sure I'd be way out in left field.
The stories you tell about your Grandpa ring true for me. Faithfulness in the little things. Too often I have these grandiose ideas to impact the church/world for Christ, and then I realize how much time it would take away from my family and wonder if it is really what I should be doing. Billy Sunday converted many drunks and sinners, but lost his own sons (one to a drunken accident) and rued it til his dying day.
But then how do I reconcile that attitude with verses like Luke 14:26. Ouch. So far, I've just dismissed the passages by saying to myself, "Surely, Jesus didn't mean for me to take that literally." The Catholic understanding of vocations seems (to me) that God calls most people to serve God and their families first and then to serve the rest of humanity, unless they are called to the celibate vocation which frees them to serve the rest of humanity and God first without the encumberance of family life. I would be dishonest, though, if I said there didn't seem to be a tension between Paul and the Catholic understanding of vocations (I Cor. 7:32-35) on one hand and Jesus' teachings on the other. Paul seems to try and reconcile his teaching with Jesus in v. 29-31, but I gotta admit that I don't see how that can work. It seems even more obscure and less doable than Jesus' teachings to love one's enemies.
5 comments:
To obey Him. It might sound harsh, mean or whatever, but that is it. You can love someone all you want but not obey. To obey is to serve.
"Love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself". I can see why he would want us to obey that.
Great answer Joey. But how do you know that you are obeying Him?
I agree with Joey. Service = Obedience. How you know you're obeying God is a bit more complex. How do you know what God wants you to do? Maybe you can't know for sure, but I think you can make some good guesses.
Henry Blackaby & Claude King got it pretty close I think in Experiencing God some years back. The short version is: look around you and figure out where God is already at work, when you find it, go there and get busy helping. (And, by the way, you probably will have to make some personal changes in order to help.)
I think we make it too difficult sometimes by agonizing over finding God's will for our lives. It's often sitting there right in front of us, but we don't want to do it.
I'm way late on this, but that can't be helped.
I was going to say cheerful obedience, but I don't think that captures what I'm thinking very well. Obedience motivated by love, does better, so I guess I'm just parroting Joey.
Regarding how we know that we are obeying God, that's a more difficult question. If I had to simply rely on my own ability to distinguish the Holy Spirit's voice and discern God's will on the proper interpretation of Scripture, I'm sure I'd be way out in left field.
The stories you tell about your Grandpa ring true for me. Faithfulness in the little things. Too often I have these grandiose ideas to impact the church/world for Christ, and then I realize how much time it would take away from my family and wonder if it is really what I should be doing. Billy Sunday converted many drunks and sinners, but lost his own sons (one to a drunken accident) and rued it til his dying day.
But then how do I reconcile that attitude with verses like Luke 14:26. Ouch. So far, I've just dismissed the passages by saying to myself, "Surely, Jesus didn't mean for me to take that literally." The Catholic understanding of vocations seems (to me) that God calls most people to serve God and their families first and then to serve the rest of humanity, unless they are called to the celibate vocation which frees them to serve the rest of humanity and God first without the encumberance of family life. I would be dishonest, though, if I said there didn't seem to be a tension between Paul and the Catholic understanding of vocations (I Cor. 7:32-35) on one hand and Jesus' teachings on the other. Paul seems to try and reconcile his teaching with Jesus in v. 29-31, but I gotta admit that I don't see how that can work. It seems even more obscure and less doable than Jesus' teachings to love one's enemies.
Doug
To love Him with as much passion as He loves you.
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