II Timothy 2:24 - And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach patient.
My wife and I have a monogramed towel that was given to us upon our ordination into the ministry. It contains our names, the date of the service, and the word Ordination. It is a beautiful towel and will hopefully be a treasure to remind us of that special night for many years to come. However, it is not just a beautiful keepsake. The bishop performing our service told us that the towel had been chosen to remind us of one thing: we are servants.
The word servant is not a word we like to use in our society. It goes against the grain to think of truly having to serve someone else. In fact, the United States was founded upon the principle that all men are created equal. Though it took many years for that privilege to be extended to everyone, today all of us have civil rights. For this I am truly thankful.
The Apostle Paul started several of his New Testament letters by introducing himself as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ or a servant of God. Few of us today would be comfortable being called a servant to anyone. Yet all of us truly are called to be servants of God. And as his servants, we are called on to serve our fellow man as well. Like any service, it is not always pleasant. What servant likes to wash his masters feet? Yet there is a joy found in service that can be found nowhere else. The knowledge that we have made life better for someone else is worth more than all the money in the world.
I think the reason we don't like to think of ourselves as servants is because the word service is often taken as a synonym for weakness. This is not true. To be a servant does not mean one has to allow himself to be walked on. Jesus Christ was our perfect example and we see him showing great strength.Once he even braided a whip and drove the money changers from the temple. This does not speak to me of weakness or someone who could be easily manipulated.
I like to think of the spirit of a servant like this: it is when we have yielded the strength that we know we have to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We are meek when he says to be meek and we are fierce when he says to be fierce. Sure there are times to stand up for our rights. There are times we must be bold and protect ourselves and fight for what is ours.
But a fighting spirit must not be our way of life. We should do everything possible to life a peaceful life. Paul's motto was "if it be possible, live at peace with all men." Some people just make it impossible to live at peace with the. But they are the exception. As a servant of Jesus Christ I must be fully yielded to him. If he calls me to fight, I will fight. But nine times out of ten he will call me to serve. I must be willing to serve with the same passion I would fight with.
Jesus told a parable about a servant that came in from working in the field and served his master's dinner before eating himself. He then said that the servant shouldn't be thanked but had done what was right because he was a servant. Lord, help me to remember that I am your servant. You bought me with the price of your blood on Calvary. I belong to you. When you call me to a task, it is my duty to obey. Help me to obey with a heart of love and not with a spirit of ingratitude. I truly want to be your servant. If this means I must serve my fellow man, so be it.
God Bless,
Sullivan Jones
5/8/13
5/7/13
I Want to Change the World
One of my favorite authors is Judith Bentley. Mrs. Bentley is an educator and a pastor's wife. She and her husband Robert, also in the educational field, spent ten years in the former Soviet Union (now the Commonwealth of Independent States) as Christian schoolteachers. She has written several books about this wonderful time in their lives. I have read them all several times and rotated between laughing, crying and not knowing what to think. Most of all, I feel and identify with her love for children.
In her book Red September Mrs. Bentley tells about her challenges learning to pronounce and memorize the names of her school children when she taught in an international school. This school was made up of children not only from Russia but around the world. Her first morning she was confronted with names like Nashra Rahman, Toyin Ajewole, Nomazula Gateseni, and so forth. Despite this she remembered why she had become a teacher to begin with; however naïve it may have seemed, she wanted to change the world. Her trouble with culture shock and other minor inconveniences never diminished her love for the children.
For the past two years I have been working with public Head Start. I have come to love the people I work with and the children I serve. But there are also daily challenges. How do I relate to children that come from a different culture than I do? How do I help their parents overcome challenges I know nothing of? How do I overcome my own prejudices that at one time I would have denied I had? When I feel overwhelmed I just remind myself, I still want to change the world. Yes it may seem naïve. But I'm convinced naïve is not always a bad thing.
I too love the children I work with. And I have the same desire Mrs. Bentley had. I love the education field because I know that teachers do change lives. However naïve it may seem, I too want to change the world. I remind myself of this when I'm confronted with names like Nyairreo, Jorvit and Joharri. Or when I don't know if Nery is a boy or a girl's name.
Lord, help me to see beyond Tivarius, Jamarious, and Tylajha. Help me to see a child that needs your love. I believe that by God's grace we can change the world, one small child at a time.
For the Children of the World,
Sullivan Jones
In her book Red September Mrs. Bentley tells about her challenges learning to pronounce and memorize the names of her school children when she taught in an international school. This school was made up of children not only from Russia but around the world. Her first morning she was confronted with names like Nashra Rahman, Toyin Ajewole, Nomazula Gateseni, and so forth. Despite this she remembered why she had become a teacher to begin with; however naïve it may have seemed, she wanted to change the world. Her trouble with culture shock and other minor inconveniences never diminished her love for the children.
For the past two years I have been working with public Head Start. I have come to love the people I work with and the children I serve. But there are also daily challenges. How do I relate to children that come from a different culture than I do? How do I help their parents overcome challenges I know nothing of? How do I overcome my own prejudices that at one time I would have denied I had? When I feel overwhelmed I just remind myself, I still want to change the world. Yes it may seem naïve. But I'm convinced naïve is not always a bad thing.
I too love the children I work with. And I have the same desire Mrs. Bentley had. I love the education field because I know that teachers do change lives. However naïve it may seem, I too want to change the world. I remind myself of this when I'm confronted with names like Nyairreo, Jorvit and Joharri. Or when I don't know if Nery is a boy or a girl's name.
Lord, help me to see beyond Tivarius, Jamarious, and Tylajha. Help me to see a child that needs your love. I believe that by God's grace we can change the world, one small child at a time.
For the Children of the World,
Sullivan Jones
5/3/13
Speaking in Tongues
I have a book on my desk entitled "Around the World with 80 Words". It professes to give the 80 most important words in 25 of the world's most spoken languages. For a self proclaimed linguist like me the book is a dream come true. I actually keep an additional copy in my bookshelf at home. Now and then I find myself flipping through it just for fun. The knowledge actually came in handy one time when I ran into a Romanian family at a church where I was speaking.
Words are fascinating things. We use them to describe things, to order food, for singing, for romance, and the list goes on. Some even find pleasure in making up new words. Sometimes when I can't think of the right word in English I can describe in better in Spanish and vice versa. There is a word for almost everything in some language or another.
Yet sometimes our human words are not enough. We need to express something that we can't quite articulate. Perhaps our prayers need to go to a higher level than human thought can convey. We need to reach beyond the natural and communicate with a God who is supernatural. For such times, God gives us the gift of tongues.
The word tongues in this context means languages. For those times when we don't know how to pray, God prays through us in a language we can't understand. He speaks things into existence that we would never know to speak. He may be reversing the course of a disease or rearranging our future, who knows? What we do know is that the God who knows all and sees all is speaking his will into existence through a vessel that is yielded to him.
The supernatural gift of speaking in tongues is, without a doubt, one of the most misunderstood things in the Bible. Because of lack of understanding, many have simply tried to dismiss it as irrelevant or not available for us today. Yet speaking in tongues is certainly real. Those who have experienced it know just how real it is.
I recently had a man try to convince why tongues was not real. His basic premise was that speaking in tongues is just babble or incoherent nonsense. I know the difference, however, between a true language and psychobabble when I hear it. In times of prayer I have heard other people speak in some of the most beautiful languages imaginable. I once heard a man praying in fluent Hebrew and another man praying in a Chinese dialect. Another time I saw two people who spoke only English speak intelligibly to one another in a language that neither knew for several hours after a time of prayer. They both later testified that during this time they could neither speak nor think in English.
There have been many reports of someone praying in an unknown language without realizing that a visitor who stood by understood them to speak in his or her native language. The words they spoke, when translated, were either an explanation of the gospel message, how real God is, or something similar.
Yes it is a mystery. The Apostle Paul confirms this when he says that "the Spirit speaks mysteries through us." (I Corinthians 14:2 -paraphrased) But oh how wonderful the experience! There is nothing greater than being filled with God's spirit. The experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues is real, relevant, and available to all who would desire it.
Still skeptical? Why not ask God to prove himself to you today? Tell him that if the Holy Spirit baptism if for you today, you want it. I promise you will not be disappointed.
Respectfully Yours,
Sullivan Jones
Words are fascinating things. We use them to describe things, to order food, for singing, for romance, and the list goes on. Some even find pleasure in making up new words. Sometimes when I can't think of the right word in English I can describe in better in Spanish and vice versa. There is a word for almost everything in some language or another.
Yet sometimes our human words are not enough. We need to express something that we can't quite articulate. Perhaps our prayers need to go to a higher level than human thought can convey. We need to reach beyond the natural and communicate with a God who is supernatural. For such times, God gives us the gift of tongues.
The word tongues in this context means languages. For those times when we don't know how to pray, God prays through us in a language we can't understand. He speaks things into existence that we would never know to speak. He may be reversing the course of a disease or rearranging our future, who knows? What we do know is that the God who knows all and sees all is speaking his will into existence through a vessel that is yielded to him.
The supernatural gift of speaking in tongues is, without a doubt, one of the most misunderstood things in the Bible. Because of lack of understanding, many have simply tried to dismiss it as irrelevant or not available for us today. Yet speaking in tongues is certainly real. Those who have experienced it know just how real it is.
I recently had a man try to convince why tongues was not real. His basic premise was that speaking in tongues is just babble or incoherent nonsense. I know the difference, however, between a true language and psychobabble when I hear it. In times of prayer I have heard other people speak in some of the most beautiful languages imaginable. I once heard a man praying in fluent Hebrew and another man praying in a Chinese dialect. Another time I saw two people who spoke only English speak intelligibly to one another in a language that neither knew for several hours after a time of prayer. They both later testified that during this time they could neither speak nor think in English.
There have been many reports of someone praying in an unknown language without realizing that a visitor who stood by understood them to speak in his or her native language. The words they spoke, when translated, were either an explanation of the gospel message, how real God is, or something similar.
Yes it is a mystery. The Apostle Paul confirms this when he says that "the Spirit speaks mysteries through us." (I Corinthians 14:2 -paraphrased) But oh how wonderful the experience! There is nothing greater than being filled with God's spirit. The experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues is real, relevant, and available to all who would desire it.
Still skeptical? Why not ask God to prove himself to you today? Tell him that if the Holy Spirit baptism if for you today, you want it. I promise you will not be disappointed.
Respectfully Yours,
Sullivan Jones
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