Saved to Serve, Part II

Essay #1

Money cannot buy you everything. That is a reality that must be reckoned with. Money cannot buy me joy or peace. Those things depend on my attitude and surrendering to the will of God. It cannot buy me love, although it can be a sign that I love or am loved. It cannot buy me salvation. As a Christian, I believe that the Bible is true when God says "every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills" (Psalm 50:10). If anyone would have had enough money to save me, it would've been God. But nothing that belongs to Him is worth enough to pay for my salvation except the blood of His Son. Without sacrifice, there is no reconciliation. There had to be sweat, blood and tears on my behalf. That was the example we were given as Christians. That is the example I must follow.

If I die to self, if I offer up myself as a living sacrifice, God is able to use me to show the beauty of reconciliation between humanity and the Creator. There are many wonderful organizations that can do amazing things with my donations, but the donation of a living sacrifice will always go beyond the value of the dollar. All the money in the world would do no good to help the poor if there was not a human being to put that money to the right use. And when I serve, I am served. That is the perfection of the process: God asks me to go out on a limb for His glory and then He forms my character in that process so I can become more like Him. Even then I can only have the slightest understanding of Christianity when I give of myself and not just my money. It is a win-win situation when I serve in a direct way. Jesus knew there was the potential for many win-win situations upon walking this earth. Not only would the person He served be saved, but He would eventually be able to secure their company in Heaven with Him.

As a Christian, and having wrestled with the concept of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, I have come to the conclusion that my life is about service. In my junior year of college I responded to a call to go as a student missionary with the understanding that I should give God a year of my life. At least that is what I gathered from many of the appeals related to missions. In my time as a student missionary in Austria, I realized that the Great Commission never spoke about serving Jesus for one year of my life or even a few years of my choice. The gospel has always been about complete surrender from Adam to Armageddon. Abraham was asked to surrender the son of his promise while the woman at the well was asked to surrender her five previous lovers and her distorted perspective of love to drink from the Well that never runs dry.

Jesus is the best example of surrender I have experienced although He was perfect while on this earth. One might think that He had nothing He needed to surrender, but even Jesus “grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” He experienced character development while humbly working around the carpenter shop. His ministry was not primarily about giving money to causes because He had very little money and what He had was under Judas’ care. Even the money He paid for taxes to Caesar was taken out of a fish’s mouth. If someone needed healing, He did not give them money to go to a doctor because He was the highest rated Doctor in town. If Jesus is my example, then the playing field has been leveled out when I call myself a Christian. I am to give of myself and if I happen to have money, I can give of that, too. And perhaps I will be happier if I do, trusting that God will provide for me. What a joy it would be to find out in Heaven that someone there was saved because I served, not just with my money, but with all my means.