Encounter God, Grow in Faith, Serve the World
Posted on Jun 22, 2014 by David Whetter
Shared by Meghan Harmison
Matthew 10: 24-39
Every time we encounter God we change
When we change, we grow
As we grow we desire to serve.
We have to be uncomfortable in order to change
It requires vulnerability to encounter God. When we are in our most vulnerable states we encounter God and all He has to offer. When we are vulnerable we are required to trust. When we trust, we grow in our faith. As we become more vulnerable and trust more we desire to serve. Take up the cross – lose our life in Him and we will find life – eternal life.
We are fed when we encounter God. As we are fed we grow in our faith and trust. Then we are called to feed. Give back – be the encounter for others.
Encounter God. Grow in Faith. Serve the World.
8 words, not that many when you think about it. Kind of rolls of the tongue as you say it. But, when you really stop to think about it and really take in the words that you are saying, the immensity of it is a bit overwhelming. But, taking up the cross and finding our lives in Christ is an overwhelming task. One we are equipped to do however, when we decide to lose our lives in Him and not lose our lives in this world. Jesus is asking for our unwavering trust in Him that if we acknowledge Him, tell others about Him and lose our life in Him we are doing His ministry.
If we go back to Salem’s mission statement, Encounter God, grow in faith and serve the world, we are acknowledging Him, telling others about him and losing our life in Him. If we live out this mission statement as a body of Christ we are doing His ministry. Have you asked yourself recently how you are encountering God? I am definitely guilty of not asking myself that enough. Sometimes I think I don’t have time to encounter God. Then I stop, rephrase and I need to ask myself am I allowing the room in my life to encounter God? That’s a very different question than just simply saying I don’t have time. How much time a day do you actually spend in silence? For someone who talks with people for a living, I can say moments of silence are few and far between. And let’s be honest if you know me at all you know I’m not the silent type. But, we have this technique in counseling titled “therapeutic silence.” With this technique the counselor may have said something or the client may have said something that needs to settle a bit. We need to give the client time to really process the information or sit in the emotion. It requires vulnerability to sit in silence. You have to trust that the person is holding your information and your emotions with compassion. I sometimes think I need to engage in “therapeutic silence” with God. If I don’t allow God to have a chance to talk to me, how am I ever going to encounter Him? I mean if I’m talking all day and not listening to anyone else how am I going to learn. Sometimes we have to take time be silent and allow God to cut through the noise of our everyday lives in order for us to encounter Him. That requires so much vulnerability to really stop the commotion and encounter God. We can also encounter Him in other people. Have you ever had an experience with someone else where you thought to yourself that was God speaking to me that very moment, not that person? It could be a family member, friend, or even a stranger. God has all kinds of ways of speaking to us, but we have to slow down to listen. And when I do take the time to listen, I am almost invariably changed by that experience. And it requires vulnerability to change. In a conversation with my roommate about 5 years ago I have no doubt it was God speaking through her. In that conversation she gave me the courage to go back and get my Master’s, change my career path and take a risk. I was vulnerable with her when I told her I wasn’t happy and that I hadn’t been listening to that unhappiness. I had been too busy to listen to what God had been telling me about why I wasn’t happy with my work, but when I took the time to sit and really listen my life changed. Everytime we encounter God, we change. By encountering God we are also fed. Whether we encounter him in the presence of others or in our solitude we are fed.
When we are fed and when we change, we grow in our faith. As we encounter God we develop our trust. And again, it requires vulnerability to trust. We have to truly trust that we are deepening our faith as we are encountering God through silence, worship, fellowship or service. I think sometimes we confuse growing in our faith as learning more about the Bible and becoming more knowledgeable about the Word. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great to learn more about God’s word and dive in to it. But just knowing it isn’t going to change us. We grow in our faith and we change as we live out the word. To live out the word is so vulnerable. We are opening ourselves up to the evil things of this world in order to be Christ’s light in that world.
And to be Christ’s light means to serve the world. Although our mission statement seems like 8 simple words, it is a huge undertaking. And part of that undertaking is to serve others and be changed by others. Service can mean so many different things. It can mean service within our congregation, service in our workplace, service through fellowship and service to those we may not even know yet. I talked about being changed as we encounter God, but we can also change by serving. When we open ourselves up to those around us, we open ourselves up to be changed by those people. Often times we think we are changing someone’s life by serving them, which may very well be true. But more often than not, I find when I’m doing service I am completely changed by those I’m serving. The clients that I work with everyday change me. From the outside it looks like I’m getting paid to help change them, or help them make changes for themselves. But, at the end of the day they have changed me. They have changed my heart and changed how I view the world. As we serve the world, I believe we encounter God. Then the mission of Salem comes full circle. When we are serving the world, we are encountering God and as we are serving we are growing in our faith. So it seems to me these are not three separate statements, but a lifestyle choice that continues to work itself full circle.