Gifts of Service
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Jesus said "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34
When you think about it, that's a tall order. To love like Christ loved and gave himself up for us! But it's an essential part of our faith walk.
Though he was creator and Lord of all of us, Jesus served: he washed the disciples feet... he healed the sick and hurting...he fed the hungry...he forgave sinners...he loved the "unloved"...he mentored others... and he went to the cross to make sure his Children would live with Him in eternity.
Jesus specifically instructed us to serve others too: Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Mt. 5:16
GIFT believes that to live as a true Christian, we need to commit to a life of love and service.
While Ephesians 2: 8-9 conveys, "it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." The very next verse, Ephesians 2:10, goes on to explain, "For, we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
The Bible further says, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3: 16-18
What's the best way to put our love into action?
Many of us have been gifted with a personal knowledge of Christ's love and resources that really are tremendous - our health, our phone systems, our schooling, our jobs, our life experiences and more.
We need to re-invest these gifts in serving others. GIFT encourages all of us Christians to adopt a service role in our communities and to share from the many GIFTs we've received in our life.
The following are just some quick ideas of how we can impact our community with Christ's love. You may want to brainstorm your own ideas and make a plan to fulfill them -- and know God will reward your love for Him and others.
- Adopt a fire station, police station, ambulance operation or hospital emergency room, and bless those incredible servants by bringing them sandwiches, flowers, fruit baskets or other small gifts of love
- Or, volunteer to serve in one of these institutions yourself
- Offer a young couple without relatives a night of free babysitting, so they can enjoy a time of peace and refreshment
- Adopt an elderly person, widow, or widower, offer to take them to the store, shop for them and bring in their groceries, share an occasional pizza with them, mow their lawn, etc
- Adopt a homeless shelter or retirement home and visit there regularly
- Do the above with a church teen group or Sunday school class
- Make it known through churches, schools and community centers that you are willing to mentor a young person to help them sort through their education and career choices based on the experiences and networks you've acquired
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