Through Love Serve One Another

Upon reading my previous blogs I realized there is a topic dear to me, that I have not covered.  And that is, the area of serving. In Mark 9:35 Jesus told His followers something very profound, and very different from the world system in which we live.  He said, "If anyone desires to be first he (or she) shall be last of all and servant of all."   Worldly leaders, on the whole, do NOT have this mindset, but...in God's Kingdom it is so!
 Remember the night the Lord was betrayed it says in John 13 "...knowing that HE had come from God and was going to God...laid aside HIS garments...and began to wash the disciples' feet..."  What incredible, mind blowing humility!!  The God of the universe kneeling down and washing feet!! (and this also included the feet of Judas His betrayer.) He follows it up by saying, "...you should do as I have done to you."

So the question...what does this look like in my home? As a wife--do I have this attitude toward my husband--one of humbly serving his needs? "doing him good all the days of my life."  As a mother--am I willing to forego some of my pleasures to make sure the needs of the children are met?   How about as an older brother or sister?

As a sister in the Church--am I regularly serving in some practical way, however the Lord prompts me?  This could include so many various areas: phoning someone to encourage them or pray with them; visiting someone or having them come to my home to care for them; buying a gift; cleaning the Church building; helping organize an event which purposes to bless another in some way; purposing to pray for those who meet with us, or others the Lord lays on our heart; helping disciple a new believer by spending time in the Word with them regularly.   These are some of the ways the Lord continues to show me that I can be a vessel He will use to bless someone else.
 Galatians 5:13 says, "...do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another..."  
Truly, precious believer, this is part of our calling as His followers.  HE desires to use each of us as HIS vessel in many different manifested ways...and we will not; no we can not be fulfilled without this function!

Of Job, whom we read to be a man who suffered the loss of almost everything in his life, it is written in chapter 42: 10 "And the Lord restored Job's losses (turned his captivity, his prison) when he prayed for his friends."

What a wonderful remedy  to overturn the focus on self and all our problems!  What an antidote to a world that has become so very small!  What a marvellous way to release the flowing of those rivers deep within everyone of us as believers!
The mother of Jesus said it well, "Whatever He tells you to do, do it."  We were made for this!

So Thankful for Amazing Care

This past week I had a surgery which was more major than anything I had undergone before in the almost 69 years of my life.  I knew it had to be done, and there was no inner conflict about that, but it is a challenge to consider that I would be putting myself completely under the control of the surgeon, the nurses, and the anesthetist...a very vulnerable position indeed.   Now, as a former worker in the medical field I full well know that there are imperfections and errors that can happen in times like these.

One my dear sons texted me the verse, "Let not your heart be troubled. My peace I give to you."  And that was a sweet reminder...one I was able to share with another lady who was very frightened with the thought of the same operation.  I also knew that many others were praying, or had already prayed for me, and of course, so had I.  I was actually IN HIS HANDS.

I was so very impressed with the professional, caring way each of the staff members interacted with me...all but one decades younger than I! The nurses who introduced themselves and verified my information, the young man who started the intravenous, the young resident anesthetist and the older man who oversaw it all. And then of course my Dr who was to do the actual surgery, with her resident assistant. Really!  How encouraging to meet such alert, competent, caring people!  Even in the operating room, before being put 'under' I was impressed with the professionalism...and when I next woke up to consider they would be beginning...voila!  It was all done!
I'm not sure how to take the anesthetist's comment that I should never allow someone to give me a spinal through the centre of my vertebrae but only through the side as it would take a hammer to get a needle through the calcification there!  I guess that could mean that I am really getting to be "an old fossil?"

I am quite amazed again by the goodness of the Lord as I now relax at home, recovering.  My dear husband watching over me, family and friends texting and emailing and phoning...and several suppers being brought so I don't have to think about that for a couple of weeks.

Although I'm not saying I would like to be a patient any time soon again, I am so extremely thankful for HIS care through people--even when they may not yet know Him.  And--how wonderful when those who love the Lord take up these careers.  Truly  they do become "God with skin on!"