CONNECTING HEARTS with HOPE
NORTHRIDGE BAPTIST CHURCH
323 West 23rd Avenue, Mitchell, SD 57301 605-996-4937
Matt 22:39 - Great Commandment - "Love your neighbor as yourself"
Acts 2:45 - All Service is the opportunity to give back or give away what has been given to us.
We are to look to the needs of others. To be involved in ministry is a blessing to the one serving.
We are to minister to people, putting God’s love into action and taking our head knowledge and transferring it to our hands and feet.
Unfortunately, there are too many " unexercised" Christians who have not put their faith into action through service. There are also a number of Christians who are overworked because they do too much service. Again. we need balance in our Christian walk.
Questions to Consider:
1) Are we keeping Service in balance at Northridge?
2) Have we committed an equal amount of volunteer help, time, energy, prayer and finances to Service?
3) What is holding us back from fulfilling this purpose of Service?
We need equal elements of all five in our life and in our church.
There was a college student who was struggling in many areas of his life. He spent a great deal of time feeling angry and frustrated. When he could stand it no longer, he went to the dim and seldom used chapel on campus. He paced up and down the aisles, slapping the back of empty pews. He yelled, cried, and raged at God.
"God you created the world...what could you possibly have been thinking? Look at the problems people face. Look at the pain, suffering and hunger. Look at the neglect, the waste, the abuse. Everywhere I look, I see messed up people, hurting people, lonely people." The young man ranted and raved on and on.
Finally, exhausted, he sat in the front pew and looked hopelessly at the cross. "It’s all such a mess. This world you created is nothing but a terrible mess. Why, even I could make this a better world." And then it seemed as if he heard God respond to him and say, "And that is exactly what I want you to do."
The church is to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our world. My prayer is that God will help us be what he desires and carry out the purposes he has entrusted to us.