Shepherds Outpost

By Pastor Ron Gardner

“Fear the Lord, and serve Him with all your heart; 

for consider what great things He has done for you.”

1 Samuel 12:24

Indeed a good verse for all of us to take to heart. We ought to revere Him, stand in awe of Him, give our adoration solely to Him, for He alone is worthy of such. Then what naturally follows is a heart that longs to serve Him. But what does it mean to serve the Lord? The Hebrew word for serve has several meanings which are appropriate based on the text. The first meaning would be to work for Him, sharing our faith toward Him. The second meaning is to be of service to Him, and finally, to be a worshiper of Him.

In Romans 12:1  Paul writes, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service.”  Not only reasonable, but desirable when you, as our verse states: “consider what great things He has done for us.”   Perhaps some may be saying, “He hasn’t done such great things for me.”  Could it be that you have never really grasped the depth and meaning of the cross of Christ?  Maybe you’ve been going to church for some time, but you just don’t have that love toward God that everyone else seems to.  Or maybe you have friends who tell you about Jesus but you say, “What’s the big deal anyway?  After all, there have been many a great leader and Jesus is just one of many.”  May I say to you He was indisputably, infinitely so much more than any great leader who has ever been since the beginning of time. And may I further challenge you to open your heart and mind, and to allow His Spirit to come alongside of you and show you the great things He has done for you.

Notice in 1 Corinthians 6:20, “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Peter also encourages us in
2 Peter 1:10-11, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  And because we know that through Him and Him alone we find ourselves free of punishment for our sins, and we are able to obtain salvation, therefore we can easily embrace the apostle Paul’s words in 
1 Thessalonians 5:9, “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ…”

Yes, truly the Lord has done great things for you and for me. Though at times we all find ourselves in various trials which attempt to pull our focus onto the negative, we must refocus our attention on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And to be ever mindful of the fact that we have for us written in the Bible, the final scene of this thing called life. And the “good news” for those of us who call Jesus Christ Lord and Savior is this: 
We win! 1 Corinthians 1:18  tells us, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 

Allow me to suggest, for all of us, that we once again find ourselves taking spiritual inventory, and may we once again find ourselves in the presence of our first love. For He truly is the initiator of such love. 1 John 4:19  “We love Him, because He first loved us”.