The Cost of Service

Malachi 3:14

Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?


The hardest part of being a believer is realizing as you go along the journey your eyes are more open to your sin. You begin to view yourself in a G-dly lens and realize just how disgusting you are.

Praise be to Yah for the blood His precious Son shed on our behalf!

It is a free gift.

But it comes with a catch, the "cost" of this free gift is submission. We must daily align ourselves with the word of G-d and act accordingly. 

We must strive against sin and battle daily. 

This is where the devil gets crafty. We can easily get wary if we try to battle with our own will. However, if we battle infused with the Holy Spirit we can truly conquer mountains. 

Accepting Christ never meant an easy life. In fact, Christ himself warns again and again we will face tribulations if we decided to follow him. Yet time and time again we break down at the hint of crisis. 

Why is that at the beginning of a crises we run to another person when G-d has clearly said to seek Him first in all things?

This is why when I counsel I start with prayer. What if G-d has an immediate answer waiting for you if you simply seek Him first?

What if He desires you to be a witness to His faithfulness?

This is probably not good for my "business", but I seek to always give the truth. The cost of service is that I am poor to self and rich in Christ.

As I closed out the year I read the book of Malachi. I was struck by the above scripture. Surely no believer would say that serving G-d is worthless, but don't we do that by our very actions?

Greedy business practices, gossiping against a brother or sister, lying, causing dissensions, are these not little micro-aggressions against G-d that show him we don't value serving Him.

Do we not insult His very name, by claiming to be His, then attacking a fellow believer for some slight? I pray that this year we take steps to be wise in following Him. I pray that you consider carefully the cost of service.

As always I'm here to listen if you need me.

    ~The Good Counselor

The Lie of Individuality

Individuality separates and isolates.

Individuality demands one's right to oneself. It can not suffer to be misunderstood.

And yet, our heavenly Messiah could and often was misunderstood and suffered this indignity because He had abandoned all rights to Himself. He was so one with Yah the need to be understood was not necessary.

Even the quietest among us will spend an inordinate amount of time explaining our self in order to be perfectly understood. Is this a sin? No, but our right to self can cause just as much if not more damage to our walk of faith.

Individuality is created by G-d; however, it must be in submission in order to be in fellowship with G-d

The characteristics of individuality are independence and self-assertiveness. The world would say that these are extremely valuable attributes, but look closely. Where is G-d in those attributes?

He's careful and quietly edited out with the focus turned to our favorite idol: Our self. The lie of individuality idolizes the self and puts value in my own need to be completely understood at all times.  

The continual assertion of our individuality hinders y(our) spirituality. G-d desires oneness with Him, but our right to self is in the way. G-dly individuality recognizes the creator, seeks the creator first, and continually puts to death our fleshly nature that rebels against Him.

Deny your self to find your self in the Messiah.

As always I'm here to listen if you need me.

    ~The Good Counselor