My Kids: Let Mercy Lead

There are some artists and some songs that are timeless.  Their message is pure and it’s central to the heart of God.  One song that I was listening to last night that fits into this category is a song by Rich Mullins called Let Mercy Lead. 

As a parent we want to teach, train and equip our children for life.  We want to give them every mean necessary for success.  We want to look back and know they we gave our children our all and we didnt’ hold back.  I realized something last night, no matter how much of myself I give my children, it will never be enough.  Why?  Because I’m flawed.  I have my own issues and my own problems and if I gave them 100% I would just be passing down the good and the bad, and I don’t want this for my children.  I want to give them more than that. 

And that’s where Rich Mullin”s song comes in. 

Me and your mom
And all the love we have
We can only take you so far
As far as we can
But you’ll need something more to guide your heart
As you grow into a man

My kids need more than my love to help them grow into the adults God wants them to be.  They need Mercy.  And Jesus Christ is Mercy.  And I need to give them the one thing that can fill all their needs, give them peace that surpasses all understanding, and allow my children to use their gifts to the fullest.  That one thing is Christ!

Let mercy lead
Let love be the strength in your legs
And in every footprint that you leave
There’ll be a drop of grace

I want Christ to be the strength in their legs, and grace to ooze out of every action, every thought, and every word.  I want to let Mercy lead in my life that it may be one thing I pass to my children.

Thanksgiving and Sickness

The last couple of days have been full of sickness at the Hope house.  In the last 9 days we have been to the doctor’s office 4 times, 2 sets of x-rays at Newton Medical, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta once, and filled 5 different prescriptions.  All 3 kids have been sick but Jackson has had the worse of it.

In the midst of sickness, medical bills, and struggling to get everything ready for Thanksgiving I have found an overflowing abundance of things to be thankful for.  The key to remaining thankful in times of trial is not looking at what you could have had or what should be, but rather focusing on what God has already given.  All my kids may be sick, but they are wonderful kids!  Not only that I have an amazing wife, a roof over my head, great friends,  a loving church family and many other blessings that would be too numerous to list here.

So today is a day of being thankful.  Forgive those who need forgiveness, share with all who are in need and above all give thanks to God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!

Being a Servant: From Toilets to Servants

One of my favorite commercials on TV right now is one title “Ode to the Commode”.  The commercial consists a series of 25 different shots oft toilets each with a different nickname.  It’s humorous to me how creative our culture is when coming up with nicknames for our toilets.  Who would have thought we could come up with some many names for such a simple device.  When we here the phrase, “I need to go to the John,” we immediately know what the other person is saying they need to do.

Even though we know all the nicknames for our favorite seat in the house, terms like ministry, service and deacon can be harder to define.  Each denomination and even different churches within a denomination had different views on what it means to be a deacon or a ministry.  A casual reading of scripture sometimes doesn’t give distinction with this either.

Each of these 3 words (ministry, service, and deacon) all have the same root Greek diakanos in scripture.  If you were reading through the New Testament you would easily see the connection between these 3 words.

diakonia (noun)= usually translated service, ministry, serve, distribution, help

diakoneō (verb)= usually translated wait on, served, serve, administer, help

diakonos (noun) = usually translated servant, minister, deacon

When reading through the New Testament in English we break these words up (service, ministry, deacon, etc) and think of them very differently.  Each word in our culture has taken a different identity.  But if you were reading through the New Testament in Greek you would have a hard time doing this.

The root of all this is a person who is identified by being a servant (diakanos).  This person does service (diakoneo) to those around them.  When the servant (diakanos) does service to those around him, scripture call this service (diakonia).  To use a similar idea for English using sports it would go like this.  The baseball player plays baseball, and we call this baseball.  You cannot read that sentence without seeing the connection that it’s all about BASEBALL.  For the church, the same is true:  It’s all about SERVICE.

As Christians we need to try and get away from our preconceived definitions of ministry, deacons and ministers.  We all need to strive to be servants.  The church today is too focused on titles, position and authority.  By embracing the heart of diakonos we embrace the heart of Jesus Christ himself, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Within the church a diakonos is the very person that would pickup a bottle up a Clorox and starting scrubbing toilets.  A diakonos waits on others, assists others, cleans up after others, and in all things puts others first (Matthew 20:16).  In what areas is God calling you to be a diakonos?

Related Articles

Being a Servant: The Example of Jesus

Being a Servant: It Starts From the Top

Being a Servant: It’s Not About YOU!