Every head turns to the light when a birthday cake enters the room. Whether it’s a family room with all the lights out or a group of strangers in the corner booth of a restaurant, we all start to smile when we see the crown of candles bobbing toward the table. When a person is born again, she becomes another candle in Jesus’s birthday cake. No one, especially Jesus, lights a light to hide it.
He came not to be served but to serve us up as little candle-lit slices of cake to a hungry and darkened world.
Matthew 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on His right hand,’Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him and ask, ‘Lord, when did we do these things?’ And the King will answer, ‘Assuredly, in as much as you did it to the least of these My brethren,you did it to Me.’
Serving in a food line at a Rescue Mission, or volunteering to bring the Gospel to inmates are positions we tend to reserve for the ‘especially unselfish’ people. We admit its a wonderful ministry, for someone else, but take a pass on getting involved because we say we’re not ‘called’. We’re not? Take another look at the passage in Matthew.
We’ve all driven by the pithy church front highway signs saying, ‘God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.’ I believe we leave ourselves out of the big picture of being called because we’re prisoners of pride, or as it’s more commonly expressed, we’re too embarrassed to be seen as one of those ‘do-gooders’ because we know we’re really not all that good and have no business doing Kingdom work.
It might help to consider that when we sign up to build the Kingdom, it’s Jesus’s skill set, not ours, that nails things together. He was a carpenter’s son, let the wood He carried carry you.
Let’s go back to the birthday party. Would you embarrass your hostess and refuse a piece of birthday cake because you didn’t feel qualified to eat it? Even if you were dieting you’d take a small bite.
My wish is that you bite off a wee bit more than you think you can chew at the scariest edge of your local church’s community outreach program. You can have your cake and be a light to this world because it is Jesus Himself who is born again into each one of us and His candle never goes out.
This was a very convicting post, Will. Thank you so much. Really spoke to me.
Will, that’s the best thing you’ve written. It rings true for all of us.
Good post, Will. Good message. I have found that my back sliding is alays in direct proportion to how much free time I have. Ministry is a way to stay sharp and usable for the Kingdom. I’ve also been learning that while existing ministries need help, I need to ask God what MY calling is. I can work on others’ callings, but He made me to do the work He has for me to do, and it will always need to be service motivated by love!
Good stuff, Will. Would that we reached for a piece of this cake with the delight with which we reach for temporal sweets!
Amen, Will! Great post.