{"id":1196,"date":"2022-01-30T13:52:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T03:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/?p=1196"},"modified":"2022-01-30T13:52:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T03:52:16","slug":"serving-others-is-serving-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/2022\/01\/30\/serving-others-is-serving-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Serving Others is Serving Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bible Reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matthew 25<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Devotional Thoughts:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCome, you who are blessed by my Father.\u201d What brought the blessing of the Father? Thinking of that picture of God being our Father, and as our Father, being the perfect parent, how does a child enjoy the blessing of their parents? It is most enjoyed when they are living in obedience. Now, a parent will not stop feeding the child, or loving the child when they disobey. But, life is much more enjoyable, and there are much more blessed, when they choose to live in obedience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this passage, how is Jesus challenging us to obey?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>From the story of the young women who came back too late to enter into the wedding feast, Jesus says, \u201cWatch out, then, because you do not know the day or the hour.\u201d My life should be ready for Jesus return at any moment.<\/li><li>When you did this for one of the least important of these followers of mine, you did it for me!&nbsp;Every time we help one of God\u2019s followers, we are doing it to Jesus. Think about it. The resurrected life of Jesus resides in each and every member of the body of Christ. So, literally, every time we serve a member of the body of Christ, we are serving Jesus Himself! (Matt 25:40) So also, any time we refuse to serve one another, or instead, serve ourselves, we are refusing to help Jesus (Matt 25:45)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Declarations: What truth is God challenging me to declare today?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Whenever I serve a member of God\u2019s body, I am serving Christ!<\/li><li>Whenever I fail to serve a member of God\u2019s body, or whenever I get tired of people\u2019s neediness, I am leaving Jesus hanging.<\/li><li>Life is more enjoyable, I will enjoy the blessings God promises, when I stay inside the circle of safety.<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bible Reading Matthew 25 Devotional Thoughts: \u201cCome, you who are blessed by my Father.\u201d What brought the blessing of the Father? Thinking of that picture of God being our Father, and as our Father, being the perfect parent, how does a child enjoy the blessing of their parents? It is most enjoyed when they are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[130596],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-declarations-of-truth","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}