{"id":21421,"date":"2017-06-19T00:10:43","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T07:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=11023"},"modified":"2017-06-19T00:10:43","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T07:10:43","slug":"june-19-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/06\/19\/june-19-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"June 19, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cServants, do what you\u2019re told by your earthly masters. And don\u2019t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you\u2019ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you\u2019re serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being a follower of Jesus doesn\u2019t cover up bad work.\u201d<\/em> Colossians 3:23 (The Message)<\/span><\/p>\n

Jaded<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

My best friend and I had taken a spontaneous trip to Sacramento to visit her sister and her family. We had a fun day seeing the sights, and decided to go out for dinner. We were somewhere in the busy downtown area, and were kept busy helping to herd all of the children in our group as we wended our way through throngs of people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point, we passed a man standing on a box. He was preaching. Sort of. Really, he was more yelling at people, telling them they needed to know Jesus. As we passed him, he asked if we wanted to learn about Jesus. Happily, I told him that we all knew the Lord. I was taken aback when he said in an unfriendly tone, \u201cThat\u2019s what everyone<\/em> says!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, we really do!\u201d I replied, and tried to let him know that I wasn\u2019t just trying to get him off our backs. But no matter what I said, he kept repeating his original statement. I left him to his grumpiness, saddened that he had become so jaded that he couldn\u2019t even recognize a fellow believer. Clearly, he had become one who should not have been trying to be a street preacher.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have to wonder about some things as I look back on that memory. Did he start out with a heart that loved people? Or was he doing it out of obligation? Did he really<\/em> think that his method of trying to reach people was effective? I will never have the answer to these questions, but I do know this: I need to ask myself<\/em> the same questions regarding my attitude in work and ministry. Sometimes when I\u2019ve done something for a long time, I lose my focus on why I\u2019m doing it in the first place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A feeling of obligation, or that you\u2019re doing your part but no one else is, can make you jaded. Let\u2019s purpose to keep our focus on the Lord fresh, so that our ministry, no matter how big or small, will be as unto Him!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFather, may my service to You be because I love You and want to serve You, not because I feel obligated to do so. May my everyday, \u201cmundane\u201d work tasks be as unto You, no matter how big or how small. When my focus or purpose strays, bring me back to You. For Your Kingdom and Your glory, in Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cServants, do what you\u2019re told by your earthly masters. And don\u2019t just do the minimum that will get you by. […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5zv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}