Came not to be served but to serve (or how not understanding this will drive you to loopy leave)

I am often amazed by how much we miss the small but central truths that are found in scripture, how we are directed by our culture, or worse... our Christian culture!
this verse: "The son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" I have read this verse so many times but it was only recently that I came to fully understand what this verse actually means. Jesus is the one who serves us, not the other way around! I often think that I need to keep serving Jesus by doing different ministries, whatever they are, but in doing that I become strikingly similar to the man who leaves food out for his idol. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we should never serve Jesus by doing ministries, rather that primarily: Jesus serves us... you... me! Jesus is the one who does the ministry to you! Christianity is not about serving Jesus, it’s about Jesus serving you, for Jesus didn't come that you could serve him by doing x, y or z ministry, rather he came to serve you - minister to your needs! Came not to be served but to serve! How much does this change everything! You can go completely loopy/mad/bitter/frustrated/burnt out (take your pick) trying to serve Jesus, trying to be a good and faithful servant, thinking that Jesus is really great and you can please him by serving him! No he came to; he wanted to; he did serve you.
We live in a Christian culture that celebrates and adorns busyness. The Christian who is doing the most ministries = Christian that is serving Jesus the most = best Christian right? Wrong. It is striking how often we make this one little HUGE mistake, that service = ministry. We want to serve Jesus because that’s what we are told to do and so we do more ministries, we become spread too thin and we burn out. We can become bitter and frustrated about service and about God. We must first remember that the son of man came not to be served, but to serve!

What a strange religion we have.

Sermon series branding!

I have always wanted to be artistically talented... but then again so has everyone else!

Drawing is really hard, painting is messy and I simply don't understand how people sculpt from one piece of wood/stone/ice and create something that actually resembles something! So I thought I would take the easy way out and do it electronically.

I was inspired by a blog I read where the person was discussing 'branding' of sermon series, that is, creating a graphic that goes with your church's current sermon series that you can post on your web page and use to invite people etc, to make it look cooler essentially.

So I thought this was a way that I could be artistic and not need to draw, be able to paint, know how to sculpt or have any artistic gifts! Perfect!

These are the ones that I have come up with:

If you know what castle I used for the Sermon on the Mount one you will get a prize!!

Micaiah.

Micaiah is an extremely interesting fellow.

Sadly we know very little about him, he is only mentioned in 1 Kings 22 where he plays the central part of a quirky story.

The Kingdom of Israel has split into two kingdoms: Judah and Israel, and these two kingdoms decide to go to war together against Aram. Jehoshaphat king of Judah was way keen but the king of Israel, Ahab, had his reservations, he wanted to double check with God via the nations prophets.

So they get four hundred prophets together and ask them, and simply wanting to please the two kings by telling them what they want to hear the prophets all say "go"!

Jehoshaphat isn't convinced and asks if there is anyone who is a true prophet of the LORD! Ahab of Israel knows one... here is where Micaiah comes in

"The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, There is still one man through whom we can enquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah."

So Micaiah enters the scene. Before coming to the kings he is warned by a messenger to say what the kings want to hear, to which he replies, "as surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what the LORD tells me"

So the kings ask him to prophesy about whether they should go to war; standing in front of them Micaiah mocks them by repeating word for word what the other prophets had said, "Attack and be victorious, for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."

Ahab gets that this is not genuine and rebukes Micaiah, "how many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?" So Micaiah tells Ahab the truth: "I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, 'These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.'"

on hearing this Ahab turns to Jehoshaphat and says, "Didn't I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?"

Ahab then did what kings always do to unpopular prophets, he threw him in prison and went out to fight Aram anyway! Yet before he did this, Micaiah called out, "if you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me. Mark my words, all you people!"

We never hear of Micaiah again, perhaps he perished in prison, we don't know. However we do knos what happened to Ahab, he is killed in the battle and the people of Israel are scattered just as Micaiah prophesies!

The point is obvious: God, the true God speaks truth, truth that people hate to hear and usually ignore! Yet wisdom and life come from hearing the hard words of God and following them!

There are many people like Micaiah, people who aren't liked because they speak the truth, people who are placed in prison because they speak the truth, people who are waiting to be vindicated by the future as the truth becomes a clear undisputed reality.