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Turn,
Serve, Wait... |
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What
do you think of when you here the words turn, serve and wait?
Personally, I think of tennis.
When
I was young, around the time that I went from single digits to double digits, I
used to back my self as a bit of a tennis player.
I would turn on the court with precision, I would serve like
a champion, and then I would wait for my opponent to get back up off the
ground! I remember thinking at one
stage that I would have been in the top 1000 tennis players in the world.
I now realise that I would have been extremely lucky to have even made
the top 10 million!
In
a letter written to a church in Thessalonica, Paul suggests that to turn,
serve & wait is actually to become a Christian.
[9]
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you,
and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true
God, [10] and to wait for his
Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the
wrath to come.
1
Thessalonians 1:9-10 (ESV)
Turn
>>>
These
Christians spoken about have turned to God from idols.
They once served all types of different pagan idols, but now they have
turned from them and have turned to God. For
you it might not be some weird religion. For
me, when I became a Christian I turned from soccer.
That was my idol. Soccer came
first and I spent my life following it. Maybe
the idol that you may be serving is yourself.
That’s the case with many people in our world today, they put
themselves before others and especially before God.
To become a Christian you have to deny yourself and turn to God.
Serve
>>>
Now
that these Christians aren’t serving their idols they serve the living and
true God. No longer do they
serve themselves or their idols, but they serve God and trust in him.
Christians will serve God.
Wait
>>>
The
third thing is waiting for Jesus to return.
Everything that a Christian does will be shaped by what happened in the
past and what will happen in the future. In
the past, Jesus died on the cross & rose from the dead to deliver
(rescue) us from God’s wrath (anger) in the future.
Knowing this will change everything about us.
We will know that we are forgiven because Jesus has taken our punishment,
we will long for Jesus to return and to be with him and while we wait we will
tell others how they too can be rescued.
Have
you turned
to
God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for
Jesus?
http://www.christianity.net.au
©
davidnmiers april2003
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