Sometimes there is no formal sermon at church, and yesterday was one of those times. Instead we heard living testimonies from two individuals. These folks had taken the words of Jesus literally and gone and done what He said. Those messages are always a challenge to me because they make me consider why I do what I do, and who is it for.
As an example, one young lady talked about going to Haiti where she used her nurses training to help those people down there. She used the verses from Matthew 25 as her focal point:
"Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me."
As I listened to her speak, I thought back to the times I had served in prison. How many times had I gone in and interacted with those men without even thinking why. Oh sure, I knew that we were going in to give them hope, to show them that they were not forgotten, but were human beings, not just a number locked up away from society. I could even tell you the passage, written a few lines above the one quoted above which said:
" I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me."
How many times did I actually see that I was serving Jesus? Did I see Him in the faces of those men? Did I realize that my words and actions were to Him, not just those persons in front of me?
Not for Jesus, to Jesus!
The thing I need to do now is to unpack all of that last statement that I wrote. What does the use of those two prepositions mean? How do I get my mind around that question?
PS: for those who want to hear what the young lady said, and also the gentleman who gave his testimony go to:
http://www.livestream.com/sscc/video?clipId=pla_f3f5bc3c-1c51-4741-8402-521e1872d5a8&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb
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