Devotions

In his psalms, David wrote, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire; my ears you have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require” (Psalm 40:5-6, NKJV).

This may well be interpreted as an allusion to the custom of masters boring the ear of a slave who refused his offered freedom (see Exodus 21:6). What marked the bondservant is that he pledged to give himself wholly to his master. This is not to suggest we should all quit our jobs to enter full-time ministry. Too many nowadays are getting out of God's will by going out presumptuously, leaving the responsibilities of raising a family to “go out by faith.” This is mistaken mindset!

The greater thing is to stay put and give the Lord more quality time where you are. It is a matter of putting Christ at the center of everything so that family, job and all things revolve around him. Christ becomes the focus of our thoughts and we spend time in his presence, hearing his voice, obeying his commands.

The bondservant is more a giving rather than a taking soul. This servant is not interested in reward or personal gain. His wages are the glory and honor he bestows on his master. The true bondservant who is committed to lifelong service is marked by the Lord in some special way. What marks the bondservant?

Scripture says, “Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And he called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; and the Lord said to him, ‘Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.’” (Ezekiel 9:3-4).

You can't miss the servants of God because they bear in their bodies the marks of Christ. The mark of a broken, contrite spirit is that it weeps over the abominations done against the Lord. God does not drill the ear with an awl; rather he breaks the heart with his hammer.

Another mark on this bondservant is a circumcision made without hands. It means that all self-made plans, schemes and dreams are abandoned, and the concerns and burdens of the Lord become supreme.

When I speak of our servanthood to God, some people protest. Would you remind me that you are a son, and not a servant? Then I would kindly remind you that Paul commanded the church, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5-7, NKJV). He could have come the first time with a sword on a white horse, trampling every foe, yet Christ chose to come as a humble bondservant, fully committed to his Father's interests.

For a dedicated servant such as we are called to be to our Lord, there is no dilemma. This is what Paul meant when he said, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ.” Paul’s decision was never in doubt. His master was his whole world, and he was bound to him with an eternal bond of love. He could not possibly leave his master or his house.

A servant’s life revolves around his love for his lord, so Paul considered all else as “dung” that he might win the master. He was the kind who would be willing to be accursed if others could come to know the love of his lord. He valued intimacy with his master above any earthly blessing. Who cares for flocks, for corn, wine and oil, or any earthly wealth when you could have endless communion and fellowship with Christ?

This is how Jesus told his disciples, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). In essence, he was saying, “If you love me, you will obey me.”

Christ is enough! Nothing in this world is worth losing the sense of his presence. All the wealth and prosperity of the entire earth is not to be compared to a single day spent with him. The pleasures at his right hand far exceed any ecstasy known to man. To know him, to be where he is seated in heavenly places, is more than life itself. To serve him, to be led by him, to come and go as he alone commands is life on the highest plane. Love makes it easy to obey from morning to night.

God's ways seem paradoxical to the human mind. He says, “To live, you must die. To find your life, you must lose it. To become strong, you must first become weak.”

One of the greatest paradoxes of all is this: To be truly free, you must become bound. To gain the greatest liberty in God, one must give up all rights and become a lifelong bondservant to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a glorious servanthood that leads to the highest form of freedom. It is a voluntary surrender born out of love and affection, causing one to consider servitude even greater than liberty.

In a time when God's people are obsessed with claiming their rights, taken with the Lord's blessings and benefits, it would profit us all to allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to a place in God beyond anything we've yet discovered. It is in perfect divine order to receive all the good things from the hand of God, and no child of the Lord should feel guilty about the blessings and benefits poured upon him.

Yet we need to see there is something better than blessings and prosperity, something far more rewarding than all the other manifold benefits he daily gives us.

A bondservant is one who has entered a sacrament of service with his master. It is beautifully described in the following Scripture: “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. …But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master… I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever” (Exodus 21:2-6, NKJV).

This is a picture of God's concern for servants, but it also clearly portrays in type and shadow the bondservants of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the master in this account, and we are the servants whose freedom has been purchased. The cross is God's Sabbath, the year of release for all prisoners, captives, slaves and servants, and we who were sold under the Law have been set free by grace! We are freed from sin, yet bondservants to Christ, all our days, by choice.

I would not say that I'm able to predict the future of America in terms of whether there'll be another great revival here or not. That's certainly my hope and prayer, and we’re seeing some inclinations that might lead in that direction. Here’s the thing I want us to consider, though. What if the Lord gives us an Isaiah type calling?

Remember when Isaiah said, “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. …And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. …And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.’” (Isaiah 6:1,4,8, ESV)? We often stop at that part with the lesson that when God calls, we should respond, “Here I am! Send me.” 

Don’t get me wrong. We should respond to God that way, but we also need to take in what God tells Isaiah next. “Go, and say to this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed” (Isaiah 6:9-10).   

Basically, God tells him, “Go. But know that they're not going to listen to what you say. Their hearts are going to be cold, and they're going to be far from me. However, you preach the Word faithfully.”

It’s not up to us to only witness where there could be revival or when we’re seeing that our ministry or calling is making a tangible impact. Obviously, that’s our hope and desire, right? We have to be ambassadors for Christ, though, even when there’s no revival or conversions. We have to be faithful and true even when we don’t see any results around us. That’s going to be very hard.

It’s at lot easier to be faithful when we see God dramatically moving and people being saved, but can we be faithful when there are no deliverances or spiritual awakenings happening? Will we still trust in God and testify to his goodness when he isn’t moving? Let’s ask God for the strength to be such steadfast witnesses!

One of our directors recently went to Turkey to check on our partners who have been affected by the terrible earthquake there. Let me say from personal experience, when you see devastation like what they are currently living in, the overwhelming human loss and suffering, there are images and memories that will never leave you.

You hardly need me to tell you that there is much suffering in the world, though. Everyone has been touched by anguish in some way. Whole books have been written on this single topic. It would be impossible to touch on every aspect of such a complex subject, but I wanted to reflect for a moment on those who suffer because of circumstances outside their control. Their pain doesn’t come as the consequences of their own sin or from others sinning against them; it’s simply from living in a fallen world.

Like Jesus’ disciples, though, we can be tempted to offer simple answers for pain. Like them, we ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” I believe God’s response to us is the same as it was to his disciples. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:2-3, ESV). Sometimes we can suffer in ways that have nothing to do with our sins, like with natural disasters; but God still has a purpose for pain.

This is why Peter later wrote, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).

Pain can rock us to our core. It can prompt us to harden our hearts to protect ourselves. Sometimes, it can shake us to the point of jettisoning our faith. Let nothing I say trivialize the magnitude of suffering.

However, suffering is never neutral. It will either draw us closer to God or harden us to his voice. As Charles Spurgeon said, “The same sun which melts wax hardens clay.” We can suffer well if we invite Christ into our pain and lives.

_{Mark Renfroe and his wife, Amy, have been involved in field missions work for 30 years. Mark served as the area director for Assemblies of God World Missions and currently serves as the chief missions officer for World Challenge.}