Changes through Ministry II

ByPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes

Welcome, dear friends!

Mercy and peace of God, Father and our Lord, Jesus Christ be with you!

Yesterday we began to discuss the meaning of ministry and what influence it has on your life. As we clarified, that ministry is a practical way to show God’s love to the people around me. We can serve people with everything the Lord has blessed us with, e.g. finances, time, prayers, experience of life, etc. However, it’s important to remember that all these things must be based on love. Giving is the main quality of such love. The Bible says “God is love”.

 

« He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love ». (1st John 4:8).

 

If God is love it’s vitally important to know and understand how Love behaves.

 

« For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life ». (John 3:16).

 

This verse from Scripture says God gave His one and only Son for the salvation of the whole mankind not as an act of feat but because He loves people.

«For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son …» – God proved His love to us through His giving.

 

« But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ». (Romans 5:8).

 

We were dead in our sins, and desperately needed freedom from the slavery of sin and the power of satan. Regardless of our sinful status God came to help us and serve us. He sent His one and only Son to die for our freedom’s sake. Giving (His life) is the exact prove of love. That’s why God calls us to follow Him as His children. Taking into consideration that God is love in what area should we as His children follow Him first? Surely love is the first thing!

 

« Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance ». (Ephesians 5:1-2).

 

By living in love we offer ourselves as a sacrifice to God for the benefit of the other people around us.

 

« By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart of compassion against him, how does the love of God remain in him? My little children, let’s not love in word only, neither with the tongue only, but in deed and truth ». (1st John 3:16-18).

 

Love always gives! We share our property or skills to meet the needs of people God sends on our way. It’s also possible to help other people, even sacrifice yourself, meet all people needs but have no love for them. This is what Paul’s letter to Corinthians tells us:

 

« If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing. If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing ». (1st Corinthians 13:1-3).

 

If our deeds are driven by different motives instead of love, it’s not a ministry in Biblical sense. The bible says, there is no profit for a man whose deeds are done without love. Such ministries or sacrifices do not please our God. So ministry presumes we use every blessing God has given to us to meet the needs of people around us, by expressing the love the Holy Spirit has poured into our hearts.

 

« and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us ». (Romans 5:5).

 

Thus, true ministry starts with discovery of the gifts and assets I possess. After a person has determined what he has, he or she should look around in order to find the people with whom he can share his gifts and assets with. Living this way our life will be filled with joy and satisfaction because of the privilege we have to serve or help somebody else.

Let God pour His love and mercy on you to serve other people!

See you tomorrow.

Rufus Ajiboye, pastor

Similar Posts

  • Prayer is submitting to the will of God

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    When we pray we place ourselves in submission to God’s will for our lives. The very fact that you come to God in prayer is the proof of your submission to God.The Bible tells us to pray always; it is the command of the Lord. That is why when I come to God in prayer then the very act of praying places me in the position of submission to this command. In other words, if I don’t pray, thus I demonstrate the lack of submission to the will of God; because praying is the command of God.

    When we pray we place ourselves in submission to God’s will for our lives. The very fact that you come to God in...

  • The seed contains tremendous potential

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    Our attitude towards God’s Word is very important. God sends His Word into our lives so that His Word would bring to us that which we need. In order for the seed of God’s Word to grow in our hearts, the condition of our hearts is particularly important. «For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing which I sent it.» (Isaiah 55:10-11).

    Our attitude towards God’s Word is very important. God sends His Word into our lives so that His Word would bring...

  • God changing us through discipline

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    I believe that discipline is one of God’s tools that help us to change and achieve effectiveness in our personal lives and ministry. Every one of us has a dream or a goal for our lives. But however good or grand these plans or desires are, discipline is a necessary prerequisite for these things to come to pass. Many ideas and desires never come true because people lack discipline.

    I believe that discipline is one of God’s tools that help us to change and achieve effectiveness in our personal...

  • Your surrounding has an impact on you, it determines whether you enter the destiny God has prepared for you or you don´t II

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes
    Jesus as our Model made friends based on his or her willingness to do God´s will. His never chose friends just because a certain person was a relative or a stranger, poor or rich, a law teacher or a sinner. Those who desired to do God´s will were “a brother, a sister and a mother” to Him. In opposite case Jesus only tried to help such person to understand the purpose of his life and unite him or her with the Creator while those who wanted to do God´s will in their life became His best friends.

    Jesus as our Model made friends based on his or her willingness to do God´s will. His never chose friends just...

  • God reveals His secrets to those who „stand their watch”

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes
    «I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampant, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the LORD answered me and said …» (Habakkuk, 2:1-2).

    «I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampant, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will...

  • God is the only one who knows the true meaning of human life

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    We are saved by Jesus Christ not by our deeds, to be followed by good deeds God has determined for us. Once we realise that He created us, we understand that our life on this Earth is absolutely meaningless without Him, without relationship and collaboration with God. Without Him we would resemble those who lack brain, wandering in the desert, having no certain way to go. Therefore, such people walk in the dark without light, staggering like a drunken man.«He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, And causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.» (Job 12:24-25).

    We are saved by Jesus Christ not by our deeds, to be followed by good deeds God has determined for us. Once we...