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

  • Not knowing the purpose of things leads to their abuse and then to suffering and pain

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes
    In order to live right and to make right decisions we need to obtain knowledge and understanding. When a person’s life is filled with knowledge it is like the sun shining in the darkness.Ignorance gives birth to lust, and lust causes suffering.

  • Discipline is one of the ways how God transforms His children into the image of Jesus Christ

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes
    We can miss many important and useful opportunities in life if we underestimate what is going on in our lives. God’s discipline is one of these opportunities. Believers have a tendency to despise the discipline of their Heavenly Father. Yet in the Epistle to Hebrews The Lord is calling us to resist the wrong attitude of some believers towards God’s discipline. It says in the Bible: « My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him» (Hebrews, 12:5). The believers that are focused on comfort usually are indifferent towards the truth of God disciplining them. Some of them aren’t even bothered by their sins or irresponsibility. People like that want to be blessed by God, yet they despise God’s discipline. The Bible also tells us that punishment is profitable for us and not God.

  • Calling forth convincing and irrefutable proof! II

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 3 minutes
    “The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles”(Psalm 34:17). God hears you when you cry out to Him and not when you sink in our despair and misery, when you grumble and ‘have pity parties’. There is a cry of faith, which God always hears, because He finds a call for help and intervention in it. In this prayer cry God sees faith in Righteous, Just, Loving and Almighty God.

  • Value God’s Word!

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 3 minutes
    Today God wants to tell us the same thing. The Word of God is life to us. When God sends us His Word, He offers us life. Rejecting the Word of God we reject life itself. Moses says about God’s Word: «For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life…»It is extremely important for us to appreciate the Word of God and not to treat it as something futile, – it is not like a song that we have listened to and then gone to do our own will. It should be to us like the greatest treasure. We have to value God’s Word, to hide it in our hearts, to appreciate it because it is life to us. God says that through the Word and through our right attitude towards it we can extend or prolong our days. Our attitude toward the Word determines whether we will extend our life or shorten it.

  • The lordship of Jesus Christ V

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    «All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…» (Mathew, 28:18-19).Jesus told us to walk through this life, being armed with the understanding that all God’s authority is behind us. The will of God for us contains prosperity, health, salvation (both for us personally and for our families), peace and harmony; the will of God is for all people to come to salvation and knowledge of truth. But too often we see discrepancies in many areas of our life. Those areas where the will of God is not fulfilled are actually ruled by the devil; somehow we have given him a place and control over these areas.

  • Find someone you can trust fully and without holding back and confess to them!

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes
    When that happens, you will experience tremendous freedom!Freedom comes when we walk in the light; it is not just how long we pray. When we do the right things that are based on God’s Word, the Son of God sets us free and we are free indeed:«Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free» (John, 8:31-32).