Saturday 2 Aug 2014

August 2: 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 9:19
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more;

Devotion:
Being a missionary is hard work and don’t let anyone tell you that it is not! As a missionary you are by definition going into a different place and trying to open up the Gospel to the local people. That means that you start as being the outsider and you have to try to gain the trust of the people before they will listen to you properly. You may well get people saying they are listening to you and they turn up to go through the motions, but if you are not seeing the fruits of that listening then they are probably not listening!

The apostle is describing the missional position that he took in order to gain as many people into Christ’s kingdom as he could. In order to gain trust and be able to teach openly and freely he had to become more like the local people and less like himself without losing the identity that he had in Christ as an apostle. He held on firmly to the Gospel and Christ’s teaching whilst grasping as much of the local knowledge and ways of life as God would allow. He was not being restricted by the church, the legalistic hierarchy of the scribes and Pharisees, but was free to show people that he was as close to being one of them as he could.

We need to reach into our communities and show people that our church is not a legalistic society but a group of people who have one common goal and that is to glorify God and to bring more people to know Him. We have to join in with our communities bringing them the Gospel and showing them that Christ is the one who has set us free from any institution and wants us to have an eternal and righteous relationship with Him.

In order to do our best for God we have to be willing to take on the work that Christ shows us is required and not just the stuff that we are comfortable with or want to do ourselves. When God gives you a goal to reach He is going to continue opening doors for you to be able to get to that goal. If the doors start closing then you have wandered off in the wrong direction and He is trying to get you back on track. God will show you communities that are different to your own and He will open the doors as long as you are willing to go through them!

Points to Ponder:
Are you ready to go through the doors?

Will you go through God’s doors?