Tag Archives: serving

Doing it The Jesus Way!

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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
May 03, 2025: SOAP #5630:  2Samuel 7; 1Chronicles 17; Psalm 2; Matthew 20

SCRIPTURE:  Matthew 20:26 …whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—
28 just as THE SON OF MAN DID NOT COME TO BE SERVED, BUT TO SERVE, AND TO GIVE HIS LIFE AS A RANSOM FOR MANY.”

OBSERVATION:   That is how verse 28 is marked in my Bible – bold and underlined.  It is a purpose statement Jesus gives for His own life.  This is why He came.  Here is the reason for His presence.  This is an important verse revealing motive.  Recently as I read this passage, I noticed I had missed something very important.  I missed the first two words of the verse: “just as…”  Jesus was telling us about His purpose to use Himself as an example for applying the previous two verses to our lives.  “If you want to be great, you must become a servant (vs 26), —even a slave (vs 27); and here is your example (vs 28).  Do it like I do it!  Follow my example!”

APPLICATION:   The authority God has given me is a tool to use in serving others.  It is not how many people I can rule, but how many people I can serve.  Jesus is my example of not taking the comfortable way and making choices that serve me but making choices that serve others.  Today, in my life, I want to embolden and underline the two words previously missed. 

I want to serve “Jesus way.”  And since He is living inside as my LORD, I can count on Him to express Himself through me. 

PRAYER:   Lord, you are my example in using whatever authority is mine today, be it over others or just over myself.  I want to make decisions that please you and serve others.  As best I can, I want to use this day “just as” you would.  I am counting on your presence in me to help me.  Amen. 

Pastor Leon
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Serving A Faithful God!

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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
February 27, 2025: SOAP #5565:  Numbers 21-23; Mark 6-7

SCRIPTURE:  Mark (NIV) 6:49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

OBSERVATION:   To me, this verse is a strong indication that they had taken along with them one or two of the left-overs from the earlier dinner. They had in the boat evidence of God’s miraculous provision.  They had in the boat evidence that Jesus could impower them to do as He commanded, after all, it was He who commanded them to feed the 5000, and then He provided the food for them to do so.  It was He who told them to go to the other side, and He would empower them to do so.

APPLICATION:   So often, we need but to look around to find evidence of God’s great intervention in our lives.  In our homes, we have “basketfulls” of left-overs from some previous miracle.  Let’s not let our hearts become “hardened” so that we forget and cannot see what is so obvious.

God told me that my bus driving was over.  He did not say that my living in His provision was over.  As long as I am faithful to do as He directs, I can rest assured that He will continue to provide.  My faith was not in the bus company, my faith was in God.  My faith is still in God.  What He provided through the bus company, He will now provide through another source—probably for the next six months or a year, through the VA as a pension from cancer that is associated with agent orange being used in the areas we traversed in Viet Nam.  When this gets cleared up, God will provide through another means!  That is the way He is.  I am faithful to do as He says; He is faithful to provide and do what is needed for me to complete His assignment. 

PRAYER:   Lord, keep me in step with you, not lagging behind nor running ahead.  May I live and move with an awareness of your wonderful presence.   Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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