{"id":4273,"date":"2009-03-28T23:15:42","date_gmt":"2009-03-29T03:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/april2009\/?p=91"},"modified":"2009-03-28T23:15:42","modified_gmt":"2009-03-29T03:15:42","slug":"the-destitution-of-service-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/2009\/03\/28\/the-destitution-of-service-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DESTITUTION OF SERVICE"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be<br \/>\n     loved.<\/p>\n<p>     &#8212; 2 Corinthians 12:15<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Natural love expects some return, but Paul says &#8211; I do not care<br \/>\nwhether you love me or not, I am willing to destitute myself<br \/>\ncompletely, not merely for your sakes, but that I may get you to God.<br \/>\n&#8220;For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was<br \/>\nrich, yet for your sakes He became poor.&#8221; Paul&#8217;s idea of service is<br \/>\nexactly along that line &#8211; I do not care with what extravagance I<br \/>\nspend myself, and I will do it gladly. It was a joyful thing to Paul.<\/p>\n<p>The ecclesiastical idea of a servant of God is not Jesus Christ&#8217;s<br \/>\nidea. His idea is that we serve Him by being the servants of other<br \/>\nmen. Jesus Christ out-socialists the socialists. He says that in His<br \/>\nKingdom he that is greatest shall be the servant of all. The real<br \/>\ntest of the saint is not preaching the gospel, but washing disciples&#8217;<br \/>\nfeet, that is, doing the things that do not count in the actual<br \/>\nestimate of men but count everything in the estimate of God. Paul<br \/>\ndelighted to spend him self out for God&#8217;s interests in other people,<br \/>\nand he did not care what it cost. We come in with our economical<br \/>\nnotions &#8211; &#8220;Suppose God wants me to go there &#8211; what about the salary?<br \/>\nWhat about the climate? How shall I be looked after? A man must<br \/>\nconsider these things.&#8221; All that is an indication that we are serving<br \/>\nGod with a reserve. The apostle Paul had no reserve. Paul focuses<br \/>\nJesus Christ&#8217;s idea of a New Testament saint in his life, viz.: not<br \/>\none who proclaims the Gospel merely, but one who becomes broken bread<br \/>\nand poured out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for other lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. &#8212; 2 Corinthians 12:15 Natural love expects some return, but Paul says &#8211; I do not care whether you love me or not, I am willing to destitute myself completely, not merely for your sakes, but that I may get you to God&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}