service

What’s Your Identity?

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

Photo Credit: Creative Heart Photography

The above photo is my current Facebook cover image. It asks an important question and gives my answer.

What is your identity?

Think carefully before responding, because identity is a precious thing, and we should be cautious about how we apply it to ourselves.

On the surface, we find our identity in a variety of places. Are you an avid Cowboys fan? Perhaps your children are your life right now and you identify as a loving parent. Maybe you spent years working on your medical career and wear the letters MD with pride.

Look at my graphic, at the purple words, and you see what most people would perceive as my identity. I rejoice in being a mother both to my sons and the daughters they gave me when they married. Being called Granna by my grandchildren and my grandson’s fiancé brings me joy; I adore all my kids! They are gifts from God to me.

I am also honored that I’ve been called by God to be a blogger and author. I try to serve Him well in these areas, being led by His Spirit to produce books and blog posts that bless! You could say, accurately, that they are my gift to God. So is my service in my local church where I’m a secretary and the coffee shop manager, and was an active volunteer for decades before being hired full time.

None of these are my core identity.

Which brings me to the white letters, the ones that are strategically repeated: Child of God. This is my core identity, the foundation on which everything else is built, the truth that infuses everything I do. While I do occasionally blow it and have to apologize to God or others, I try to always be led by God and His love. My goal is that every single thing I do bring Him glory in some way. I can no more separate my Christianity from my writing or parenting or anything else than I could separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water.

I’ve been mulling over this topic since publishing “Understanding Your Aphant.” I’d asked for input from a group of aphantasics in hopes of making it as accurate as possible. I got great feedback and did take their suggestions seriously, making a couple of tweaks. One of the responses I received, though, said essentially that it was great except for the one mention of God.

I got what the person was saying, because they don’t believe in the God I serve. The thing is, I DO. Leaving out that one sentence would have meant editing ME, censoring not just what I believe, but who I am.

So, if this post is the first thing you’ve read of mine, know right now that God is front and center in my blog because He is front and center in my life. He is more important than anyone or anything else. I absolutely adore my family, but I would walk away from any or all of them before I would walk away from God. It would pain me to do it; it would be agony. Nonetheless, if any one of them were to give me an ultimatum, them or God, God would win hands down. 

So yeah, you’ll see Him mentioned many times here. Join my community and you’ll have me looking over your shoulder, encouraging you to find Him if you don’t know Him and get even closer to Him if you do. He is IT. He is everything to me. My treasure isn’t in anything here on earth, but is in Him, and my ultimate goal is to help every one of my readers reach the place where they can honestly say the same thing.

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21 ) Our treasure doesn’t need to be in anything of this earth because this earth is temporary. Our treasure needs to be in Heaven where we’ll have access to it eternally.

Are you wondering what I’m even talking about? Ok, consider this.

Many Christians are watchful, more now than ever, expecting the Rapture of the Church to take place at any moment. We’re ready to hear that trumpet and Jesus call us to leave Earth behind and join Him in Heaven. (1 Thess. 4:16-18 gives you a glimpse of what I’m talking about.) However, there are some who don’t want Jesus to come back yet. To them, it’s more important that they have the chance to get married, or graduate college, or watch their kids grow up, or whatever. We can see where their hearts are. With that in mind, where is their treasure? Really?

I’m not judging, not accusing! I’m only asking. Yes, awesome things happen in this life, but nothing, absolutely nothing, that we can experience here holds a candle to what our lives will be once we, as I tend to think of it, really start living. In this life, we’re limited to the here and now. After this life, we have all eternity ahead of us.

So yes, “Child of God” is my identity, and all the other things are vital and precious parts of what I get to be and do as His child.

So, what about you? What is your identity?

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Serve

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

Photo excerpt from Inspire Bible, NLT, Tyndall House Publishers, Inc.

In John 13:3-7, we learn something vitally important. Verses 3 through 5 tell us, “Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.”

I think about this scene and wonder what went through the disciples’ minds as Jesus rose from the table.

“What is He doing? Is He going somewhere?”

Then He took off His robe, which had to really make them wonder. And when He poured water into the basin? Had they figured it out at that point? Maybe?

If so, I’ll bet they were shooting truly startled glances at each other, trying to decide who would speak first. Their Rabbi, this man they had followed, who had led them and taught them, loved them and corrected them, was behaving like a common household servant.

By this time, they surely knew He did nothing without purpose. But what was His purpose? They had to wonder.

“You don’t understand now what I am doing,” Jesus told Peter, “but someday you will.”

The reason for what Jesus was doing – serving – is rooted in verse 3: “Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.” Jesus knew exactly who and what He was. He had absolutely nothing to prove to anyone, no doubts about Himself.

This passage has been used often to remind us that as Christians we are here to serve, and that is the clear message here (v. 12-17). But there is, perhaps, a less clear message waiting for us as well. It is the man who does have something to prove that refuses to serve, but demands service. It is the unsure man who requires that a pedestal be planted firmly under his feet.

Jesus could serve readily as He did because He was confident in Who He was. This is key. As Christians, we need to pursue a genuine understanding of who we are in Christ Jesus. Once we grasp the fullness of this revelation, it will be nothing for us to kneel and wash another’s feet. Service will have become part of who we are.

I have seen this over and over in those with whom I serve. My pastor, who is also my boss and a tremendous man of God, reminds the staff often that to follow Christ is to serve, and we should check our hearts if we ever forget this fact.

But what about those that some would call Christian celebrities? Yes, if they truly follow Jesus, they serve. You may not see or recognize their service for what it is, but I assure you it’s true; if they wholeheartedly follow Jesus, they serve.

John Ramirez is one excellent example of this. He comes to our church every year, and draws large crowds when he does. The last time he came, he showed up at the church early on Sunday morning – just walked in the front door like anyone else. Some of us were setting things up for service and he joined right in, picking up the end of a table to move it into place. When urged to stand aside and let others handle it, he reminded us that we’re all servants, him included, and assured us that he wanted to serve.

That’s what I’m talking about. He knows who he is in Christ Jesus! Yes, he is John Ramirez, someone we look forward to being with every year, but first and foremost he is a follower of his Lord, Jesus Christ, and that is what really matters.

Child of God, remember who you are, whose you are. Yes, as a son or daughter of the Most High, you are indeed a very important person. You have absolutely nothing to prove to man, because you have already been approved by the One who really matters. So set aside all pride and need for validation. Be confident in who you are and follow the example Jesus set for us: Serve.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

God Wasn’t Done

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

In 1 Chronicles 6 we are reminded of the tribes Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. They were responsible for carrying the various parts of the Tabernacle from place to place.

Then Solomon built the Temple. So was God done with them, these faithful men who had carried the house of God through the desert and into Canaan? No. Absolutely not.

The change began in 1 Chronicles 6:31 when David assigned men from these three tribes to lead the music at the Tabernacle. Far from being finished with them, God was drawing them closer to Him and truly giving them even more responsibility-that of leading worshippers into His presence.

We could learn from these tribes. Sometimes we go through seasons when we think God is done with us, that there is nothing left in us that He can use. When we think that, we’re wrong.

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 4

Tammy M Cardwell3 Comments

Copyright Jennifer Jones Manley
Copyright Jennifer Jones Manley

What DOES God Want?

Ephesians 4:1

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.

The question is not, “Am I called?” but rather, “What is my calling?” Speaking specifically in the realm of the church, we must ask, “To which local church has God called me? To which ministry or ministries within that church has God called me?” We are to seek the answers to these questions and, having found them, lead lives worthy of His calling.

The Word is specific here as it refers to “your calling.” So first we are called with a specific calling. No man should walk in another man’s calling; God expects each man to walk in his own. A man’s flesh may declare that it wants to work in one ministry, but if God has called him to work elsewhere he would be walking in disobedience if he chose to follow his flesh’s lead—this would certainly not be an act of a life that was being lived worthily.

And we must consider carefully what it is to lead a life worthy of one who is called by HIM.

If one were called by the President—that is, if the President of the United States were to call on a man to do something—one assumes that he would not only do it, but do it to the very best of his ability. Who in their right mind would consider giving the President of the United States anything less than work of the highest quality? But we are not called by the President. We are not called by any mere man. Rather, we are called by GOD.

How is it, then, that we too often offer Him second or even third best…or nothing at all? Do we consider Him to be less important than the President? Do we subconsciously take advantage of His quickness to forgive? Do we find that, since we can’t see Him with our physical eyes, it is easier to ignore the fact that He is there and waiting for us to move, waiting for us to do (and do well) what He has called us to do?

When God calls us to a local church, He expects us to be active in that church. (Hebrews 10:25, KJV, …not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.) When He calls us to a specific ministry, He expects us to serve actively in that ministry—being where we are supposed to be when we are supposed to be there and doing all we are supposed to do to the best of our ability, with the right heart.

He has given us the great honor of calling us; it is also our honor to live lives worthy of this calling.

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 1

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 2

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 3

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 5

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 3

Tammy M Cardwell2 Comments

Copyright Jennifer Jones Manley
Copyright Jennifer Jones Manley

What DOES God Want?

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

We have been created anew in Christ Jesus to do good things. Other translations say “good works.”

When being encouraged to do good works, some people answer by quoting Ephesians 2:8-9. (KJV For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.) Yes, we are saved by grace, through faith and not by our works; salvation is a gift. Now, if those who quote verses 8 and 9 would only continue to verse 10, they would see why God gave us the gift— “to do the good things he planned for us long ago”. God doesn’t give useless gifts; He gives gifts with a purpose. Knowing this, we realize we are responsible to find out what His plans for us are and to follow through and do what He expects us to do. As Ephesians 5:17 puts it, “Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.”

God prepared these works in advance, expecting us to do them. How much clearer can it get? God had a plan in mind, works lined out for each one of us, even before we accepted His gift of salvation. Now it’s our turn. Now it’s time for us to learn what those works are, pull ourselves together, and go get them done.

This is not merely something we can do; it is something we must do if we are to be pleasing to Him. After all, His Word says repeatedly that faith without works is dead. (James 2:17, 20, 26; KJV; Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead… But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?… For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.) Too, without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6, KJV, But without faith it is impossible to please Him…)

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 1

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 2

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 4

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 5

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 2

Tammy M Cardwell1 Comment

Copyright Jennifer Jones Manley
Copyright Jennifer Jones Manley

What DOES God Want?

Ephesians 4:16

Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

Under his direction

These first three words are the key. We must submit to Him as part of His body, completely under His direction. If we won’t be under HIS direction, totally submitted to HIM, why do we call ourselves Christians? To be called a Christian is to be called Christ Like, and Jesus Christ was so completely submitted to His heavenly father that He willingly took the unimaginably horrendous path to the cross.

So, as we are under His direction…

the whole body

The whole body, every part of it, is “fitted together perfectly.”

is fitted together

“is fitted”

This phrase is in the passive voice, which shows that it isn’t the body that is doing the fitting together. The “fitting together” is being done to the body by God. (I Corinthians 12:18, KJV But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him.)

When we are under His direction, allowing Him to fit us together—letting Him put us where He wants us instead of insisting on putting ourselves where we want to be—we will be fitted together perfectly.

as each part does

Every part of the body has work to do. If a part of the human body refuses to work, the whole body suffers. The same is true of Christ’s body. We are not just here to be. We are here to do. (Ephesians 2:10, KJV, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.)

its own special work

God gives each of us work to do and we can either do that work or not do it. If we choose to do our work, we are free to choose whether to do it well or poorly. If we choose not to do our work, we are free to choose whether to do nothing or to do someone else’s work instead.

We’ve a world of choices and only one is acceptable—to do that special work that God has set aside specifically for us. To do anything else is to fail Him, the body, and ourselves.

This even holds true when we decide to do ‘extra’ work. While being faithful to our own special work, we might still have enough time that we choose to go help another part of the body as well. This can be a wonderful thing, but if we move against His direction, stepping out on our own accord, the whole body will suffer.

This is not to say a man cannot be active in more than one ministry. If God directs him to serve in multiple areas, God will also orchestrate his service. If, however, he chooses to serve in multiple ministries against God’s direction, he is asking for trouble to visit not only him, but every ministry he touches.

We each have our own special work to do and He expects us to do it and do it with excellence!

it helps the other parts grow

What a gift! Can anything greater be said of a man than that he helps others grow? No. Here is a promise, a result, worth working toward!

And, to consider this from the other side, if this member of Christ’s body chooses not to be under His direction, not to fit in his assigned spot perfectly, not to do the special work God has assigned specifically to him, then he will inevitably hinder the other parts in their growth.

How much better it is to do what we know to do and do it in the way God intends!

so that the whole body is healthy

This is one third of what should be our goal, and is God’s goal, for the body of Christ—that we as the body be healthy and growing and full of love.

Unfortunately, though many individual churches are healthy, this cannot be said of the church as a whole, at least not here in the United States. Many churches have experienced splits and too often church members are not surprised when they learn of other members’ immorality. One can also find church buildings for sale in this nation that are available for purchase not because the churches have grown too large for them, but rather because they’ve died.

and growing

Obviously, if the church as a whole is not healthy, it is also not growing. I was somewhat surprised at one point, though I wasn’t too very shocked, to hear my pastor say in a sermon that the church in the U.S. has not grown since the 1970s. If this is true, something is obviously wrong.

and full of love

This, perhaps, is the saddest thing of all. God is love; you would think that His church would necessarily be full of love, but in how many churches will you find no gossip, no murmuring, no backbiting, no complaining… If a church is truly full of love, there is no room for these things.

So we, the body, fail the test. We are not fitted together perfectly, with each part doing its own special work. Why?

Because too many of us have never learned the difference between being a volunteer and being a called out, chosen one—the difference between one who casually offers, “I’ll do it,” knowing he has the option of quitting later, and the one who answers the call of his Lord, fully prepared to do anything and everything he is told to do. If the church is to be healthy, to grow and to be full of love, we as individuals must grow up first, moving beyond “I’m only a volunteer!” and into “I am a called out child of God who will fulfill my destiny!”

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 1

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 3

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 4

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 5

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 1

Tammy M Cardwell1 Comment

Copyright Jennifer Jones Manley
Copyright Jennifer Jones Manley

What is a Volunteer?

Jesus often used illustrations a gardener could easily understand. In looking at volunteers it seems particularly appropriate to follow His example. So let’s imagine the life of a certain volunteer plant.

       There was once a volunteer plant. Like all volunteer plants, it popped up in an unexpected location. Some animal carried a seed into a side yard and dropped it, and there it grew. When the gardener found it, he had to make some decisions.

       Should he move it to the garden where it could grow as he’d intended and receive all the right care? No, the plant had set its roots firmly right where it was; it would not be shifted to a more appropriate location.

       Would it be best for him to cut this plant down so that it would not hinder the growth of the plants he had selected specifically for this area? He did not like this idea at all, for it was a nice enough plant and there was some hope that it would bear decent fruit even here, where it wasn’t supposed to be.

       So the gardener chose not to cut it down, but to watch and ensure that it did not too greatly hinder the growth of the plants around it. If it proved too much of a danger, if the fruit it might one day produce seemed not to be enough to outweigh the damage it could cause, he would remove it.

       So it remained where it had planted itself, though the gardener was never fully happy and kept a cautious eye on it always. He watched as it grew. He watched as it flowered. He watched as it produced fruit. He watched as it died.

       The gardener had managed to minimize the damage this volunteer plant did to its companions. He had also harvested the fruit it produced, though this fruit was disappointing when compared to the fruit of similar plants that flourished in the other part of his garden. The gardener was sad as he disposed of its dead remains and considered what this plant could have been, what fruit it would have produced and how much better off both sections of his yard would have been, if it had only put its roots down where it belonged.

 

The gardener, of course, is God. The volunteer plant is the Christian who is a mere volunteer, one who does not understand the call of God, one who chooses where he will go and how he will serve instead of letting God plant him in the proper spot and serving as God calls him.

A mere volunteer goes where he wishes to go, offers only such assistance as he is inclined to offer, and remains only as long as he wants to stay. He may choose to plant himself in the very place God would have put him, but if his heart is not right or if his chosen place of service is not what God has planned for him, there will be problems. He may be of some benefit in this area where he chooses to plant himself, but he will never be all God wants him to be.

The Christian who plants himself in a location other than the one God has chosen for him will have, and cause, special problems because he is not where God wants him to be—in that place set aside for him where he can do the special work God has already prepared for him to do. (Ephesians 4:16, KJV, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.) He cannot help this alternate location as well as one who is called to it, and it is entirely possible that his presence will eventually prove harmful—to himself, to those around him, perhaps to both. He may manage to live the entirety of his days in this one, wrong spot and he may be happy, but he will never be fulfilled because he will never become all God has ordained him to be. Worse, the body will never be all it is supposed to be, because he is out of place.

When you consider plants, there is really only one difference between a volunteer plant and a weed. The volunteer plant is a cultured plant, one that is designed to serve a purpose. God obviously doesn’t want weeds in His garden. He also doesn’t want His cultivated plants putting their roots down in places not of His choosing.

A volunteer, according to the dictionary, is one who enters into an activity of his own free will. A mere volunteer not only enters of his own free will, but retains the right to free will, the right to say, “You can’t expect me to do that; I’m only a volunteer!” He will work only as hard as he pleases, do only the jobs he chooses to do and stay only as long as it suits him. He persists in thinking that it’s all about him, when in reality it’s all about HIM.

 

So…

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 2

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 3

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 4

God Doesn’t Want Volunteers Part 5

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Stepping Stones

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

I recently had occasion to remember a discussion I heard years ago between two friends. We were all in the same ministry and one told the other, in reference to that ministry, something along the lines of, “But we’re different. We have a call on our lives and this is just a stepping stone to something bigger.” I was appalled. I didn’t respond, because I was so much in shock at her audacity, but even though I was fairly young at the time I knew enough about God to know He doesn’t work that way. He doesn’t deal in stepping stones.

I’m still stymied when I consider that any Christian would think that way. I mean… When using a stepping stone, what is your mindset? It’s to get OFF. If you think of any ministry as being nothing more than a stepping stone, you’re going in at least somewhat with the attitude that the ministry itself doesn’t matter other than in its service to you, and you don’t plan to be there long. That attitude is so completely unscriptural that I can’t even fathom a Christian having it. I know many do; it’s just beyond me.

I don’t choose the ministries in which I serve; I let God choose for me. He knows exactly what I am now and what He wants me to become. He plants me where I need to be to grow into that person, and He plants me where I can prove most effective for His Kingdom – all of which may or may not have anything to do with what I want to do. Someone once expressed to me the idea that he had a specific call on his life and it didn’t make sense to serve in any area that wouldn’t further that call – yes, I did speak up that time, because I’ve learned through experience just how erroneous that thinking is…and how dangerous.

The person who made the original “stepping stone” reference? If she ever did move on to the bigger and better things she was anticipating, I don’t know about it. I can’t help but wonder if her attitude was part of the reason why.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C