You’re worth it
God gave Jesus for all of mankind. He had and has infinite worth to God. What does that say about the worth of each individual? About your worth to Him?
Infinite worth, divided by any number of people on Earth, results in every person always having infinite worth (though I believe that Christ’s life paid fully for each one of us). This means that to God each person on Earth has infinite worth.
John 3:16 speaks of God so loving us that He gave His Son for us. To Him, you’re worth it. He knows everything about you, knew what you’d do before you did it, and loves you. His opinion is more important than any, and He thinks you’re worth paying/giving the life of His Son, Jesus. That means you’re worth it.
Keywords: Love, God wants to relate, you’re worth it
How much does God love you and me?
He loves you so much it’s difficult to properly describe. The Bible gives us great help in seeing that love. Psalm 22 contains a prophetic description of Jesus on the cross. In part of it, Jesus looks forward to telling his brothers and sisters about the salvation that they can have. Yes, He was looking forward to being with us and was talking to us while He was on the cross.
Hebrews 12:2 (WEB) says:
looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Please note the phrase, “for the joy that was set before him.“ That was not about taking up His eternal position again – He had already had that and would not have gone through everything He did to simply regain what He already had. He was wanting to gain, and that gain was you and me. His entire effort was to make a way for your salvation. His joy, then, must have been and must still be the people that He loves.
That is How much He loves you. You are so special to Him that even when He was on the cross He looked forward to being with you. You brought Him so much joy that He could endure the horror of the cross itself — the physical pain — and of becoming sin — the spiritual pain. He did all of that so that He could spend eternity with you and others. He loves each of us fully, as well as fully loving His entire church. The extent of that love for us is further shown in John 17, in which Jesus is intent upon asking that He could be in those that He loves. He, the perfect One, chose to give up everything and endure the most excruciating pain while thinking of you and me He chose to make his dwelling place inside those who believe and fully yield to Him (who follow Him as Lord and Savior). That is how close He wants to be to you and me. All of the things above show how special you are to Him and how much He loves you.
Keywords: God’s love for us, God in us, cross, crucifixion, God wants to relate
A key for MBB (and all Christian) leadership success
Christians are called to love God and others, as well as seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness. To do this, Christians should love as Jesus did – by serving others for their benefit. For an MBB leader, and all Christian leaders, the outworking of your calling often involves magnifying God by building up others.
A key understanding to leading this way is that the kingdom is not yours, but God’s. Though you lead, your leadership is a stewardship of service rather than seeking your own glory or position. A true leader serves others for their sake and for the sake of God’s kingdom.
Jesus did this with His disciples. They had no track record of leadership success in the church. There was no church. He saw what was in them, and led them by investing time and effort in them. He taught them truths that developed their giftings and callings. He did not wait for them to succeed and then side with them. He led them by siding with them, encouraging them, equipping them and then releasing them into ministry when few if any believed they could lead anything.
Potential MBB leaders are often in geographical areas where there is very little of the church nearby. Because of the great need for leaders, those that lead potential MBB leaders often must commit to those potential leaders before seeing success. The process of selection must be led by the Holy Spirit, and should be free of the perversion of self-reference.
As indicated above, leaders are most effective when operating with a motive of serving another for the benefit of the one served. The leader can be derailed if they serve self-referentially, often asking, “What does that do for me or to me?” That attitude is a form of pride. It can manifest in many ways, including not fully training someone for fear that they might surpass the trainer; withholding support or blessing; preventing someone from operating in their calling; or not supporting someone until that person is fully established as a leader. The last one indicates that you are not really leading — you are simply jumping on bandwagons. All of the listed manifestations lack the hallmark of love — serving for another’s benefit.
Leaders, if you lead self-referentially, you do not have to stop leading. Repent of your sin, ask for God’s grace, change your motive, and lead in a way that encourages others to find their giftings and callings, support them actively, and release them into ministry. You do not need to protect your position nor seek your own advancement — God is the sole giver of both position and advancement.
In a sense, leaders, the way you choose to lead — serving or self-referentially — will bring spiritual life or death to others. Those you lead will either flourish in God’s kingdom or be restricted by your selfishness, leading to a loss in their ministry and thereby in God’s kingdom. God holds you to account for the way that you lead. Please pay close attention to your motives and actions when leading, ensuring that you are serving others without self-reference and for their benefit.
Keywords: leadership, MBB, love, self-referential
I don’t like them, so I’m not called to minister to them, right?
The motivation for calling and ministry is love. Love does things for the benefit of another/others. We love because He loved us first, and should love the way He does.
Love:
- Sees
- Cares
- Provides
- Equips
- Strengthens
- Follows-up
- Replenishes
Love doesn’t:
- Seek its own
- Just feel good thoughts and not act
- Protect its position
- Thwart others
- Destroy others
- Ignore the needs of those it’s called to bless
“But what if I don’t like them or they scare me?” For Christians, the command to love comes in the context of Christ’s love, a love that caused Him to give to those that hated Him and had acted against Him. He said that truly loving meant loving those that would not love us back and even loving our enemies. He implied that the love that we have been given would meet the needs of their hearts and lives. He would give them that love through us as we obediently loved them.
The answer to the question of whether you have a calling to those you don’t like has nothing to do with whether you like them. The answer must be found elsewhere. As you seek Him for that answer, please know that you will have grace given to you as you step forward in faith — grace usually does not follow your feelings, but rather accompanies and enables obedience. As you seek God’s help, you will be able to love even the unlovely — those who do terrible things to others. The unlovely need a savior too.
Keywords: Christian, love, enemy, unlovely, calling