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My guess is millions saw at least a clip of this speech as it was broadcasted from Iowa last week. A few dozen in the room saw the intern.

My guess is this is not what the intern had in mind when he first signed up. Then again, maybe it was. Some people are willing to do whatever is needed for a cause bigger than themselves. Even if it involves hunkering below the camera line and holding a chair in an awkward yoga position for long periods of time.

All of which made me think of 1 Corinthians 12:21-25.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

Local churches desperately need faithful workers—men and women who will pitch in and do whatever they can whether the spotlights are on or off. Whether there are dozens of volunteers or they’re flying solo. Whether they eventually get recognized and praised or not. These men and women are indispensable to the health and growth of local bodies of believers.

If you are such a servant, thank you. Please keep up the good work and remember that “your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Mat 6:6).

Let’s all take the time to pray today for our indispensable, behind-the-scenes, no-recognition-necessary brothers and sisters in Christ.

Better yet, why not make the time to personally express your thanks to a special servant today?

"I Am … Nothing"

February 14, 2010 — Leave a comment

“I am royal, I am lordly, I am mighty, I am honored, I am exalted, I am glorified, I am powerful, I am all-powerful, I am brilliant, I am lion-brave, I am manly, I am supreme, I am noble.” (Adad-Nirari II, in Daniel David Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia [Chicago, 1926] I:110)

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.   And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-7)

ht: Ray Ortlund

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.   But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?   You observe days and months and seasons and years!   I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.   (Galatians 4:8-11)

There is a profound difference between knowing about someone and truly knowing them.   I know about Barack Obama, but I do not know him.   I know about many of the readers of this blog, but I do not really know them.   To “know” someone implies a personal relationship based on experience and interaction.

In the same way, millions know about God without knowing Him as described in His book.   The natural result of this vacuum in relation to the Creator?   Slavery to idols, dependence upon unstable philosophies, and construction on faulty foundations.   They do not know God and are not known by Him.   As a perfectly holy Being, He “gives them up” to their wickedness and rebellion (Romans 1:24-25).

But that doesn’t have to be the end of the story.   We can “come to know God” just as surely as the men and women throughout ancient Galatia did.   We must turn away from the “weak and worthless elementary principles of the world” and turn to “Jesus Christ the righteous.   He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.   And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.   Whoever says, “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.   By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:1-6).

You can be free from the bondage of sin.   You can become a “slave of righteousness” (Romans 6:16-18).   To be a faithful bondservant of God is to be known by Him.   To be known by Him is to be a son of God.   “And if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:6-7).   Miss that, and you will have missed it all.