Friday, July 2, 2010

The Family's Joy in Serving the Lord

ISSUES OF LIFE: The Family's Joy in Serving the Lord

as for me and my house we will serve the Lord

      It seems like it was just yesterday that my husband and I, even our daughter, received Jesus into our life, but in reality, it was almost 12 years ago. The fire that is in me is still burning, excited to receive a message from His Word, always ready to follow and apply His Word into my life, grateful for all His blessings, fervent to express my praise and worship to Him. This is how I describe my joy in serving the Lord and my own definition of what serving the Lord is about. You don't have to be a preacher or a pastor or a priest; simply, love Him, walk in His ways, and fulfill the purpose and calling He assigned for your life.
   
    Joshua, who led the Israelites to the promised land after Moses died, declared "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15), expressing his firm decision or choice for his entire family to serve God. It is the father-of -the-house's responsibility to "command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord"  (Genesis 18:19) and it is the mother's responsibility to implement this and teach these to her children. As the saying goes, "The family that prays together, stays together", because the blessings of God's love and peace are with them and in them. By this, we show that we "love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind", which is the first and great commandment according to Jesus (Matthew 22: 37).

Here is a sample of a Bible study group, photo of which I got from photobucket. 
Next time I'll take pics of our Bible study group which I'll post next time.

     
     But there is a second commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself". This is where we go out and share the love of Jesus to others, starting with our own relatives, then with our neighbors and friends, perhaps even to those we do not know. My husband and I have joined the Music ministry of our church--my husband plays electric guitar and I belong to the choir. We love to sing praises to God and to help usher in His presence into the sanctuary whenever there is a service. We also teach and share God's word  (a Bible study) to a group  of families in a home in one of the subdivisions in Las Piñas through our church's Care Group ministry. We know that these are God's callings for us and we do it not because we are obligated to but because we enjoy doing it. But not everyone is called to the same things that we do; there are other people whom God have given the call to give to the needy, to go out into missions, to become businessmen to influence the business world, and others, simply, to pray for other people. My daughter is a clicker (she clicks the computer for the power point presentation of praise and worship lyrics or of the verses that the pastor uses) every 4pm service in her church. To her, there is a sense of fulfillment as she does this work every Sunday. 
     Jesus said that no longer does He call us 'servants' but we are now called His friends (John 15:15). Unlike a servant, friends serve or help out their friends without being told, willingly and from the heart because they love their friends. But in the end, these are the words that we will hear from Him (Matthew 25:23): "Well done, good and faithful servant...Enter into the joy of your Lord".

4 comments:

Josie said...

I'm so happy for you that you found the Lord in your heart.

Chubskulit Rose said...

Thanks for the inspiring post ate, have a nice weekend!

Mylene said...

All the work done for the the Lord will be counted, small or great. As long as we do it the best you can. Your daughter shall surely have her rewards in heaven.

God bless.

Mylene said...

btw, Mommy, You are one of the recipeint of the Blog with Substance award. Please feel free to grab it when you have time :)

I also followed you using Networked Blogs, I hope you can do the same *wink*

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