"To Serve the Servant"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"To Serve the Servant"

    "No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high priest; but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee.  As He saith also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec" (Hebrews 5:4-6).

    "Though He was a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8).

    Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ look to our Master for the example of submission.  We serve a Servant.

    "If I then, your Lord and Master, washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet" (John 13:14).

    While equal to the Father in Divine substance and personhood, the Lord Jesus submits Himself to His Father in rank and authority.  "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28).  Becoming human enhanced the beauty of such humility in Christ.  "I do always those things that please Him" declared the Lord during His earthly lifetime (John 8:29).  Thus, we "look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" as we seek to overcome our native human tendencies to pride, self affirmation, and self determination.  "Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory, to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).

    Actually, we do more than simply look.  "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).  Salvation in the Lord Jesus constitutes His inhabiting our spirits with His own.  Thereby He works in us "both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).  Any desire in us to humble ourselves before God results from the indwelling character and nature of the Christ who lives in eternal submission to His Father's glory, will, and purpose.  Our Master's servant heart progressively changes our motivations, attitudes, actions, and words as we more and more discover who He is.  Again, we serve a Servant, and we rely upon His leading and enabling to devote ourselves to submission to the Father.  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).

    Believers will one day fall before the feet of our glorious Lord Jesus.  As we do, we will see the tangible marks of His devotion to the Father, and to us.  Nail-scarred Feet will proclaim the wonder of His humble heart, revealing His surpassing glory all the more.  In this day, we look into the pages of Scripture in order to behold the humility that progressively changes us into the same image.  No greater honor can God bestow upon a human heart than the calling to serve the Servant.  Wonder awaits as we humble ourselves to behold the Master who submits, who serves, and who leads us in the joy of His "meek and lowly" heart (Matthew 11:29).

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.  And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father."

(Philippians 2:5-11)

"Before honor is humility."

(Proverbs 15:33)

Weekly Memory Verse

    This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.

(Titus 3:8)