The Spiritual Spa Treatments
As we begin our blog journey together, let us begin by discussing a concept that to a great extent has been forgotten by many in our society, though there are a few places of exception – service. A servant’s heart is one that is so full of love for others that room for self and self-serving are hardly introduced. A servant’s mind is one that is opportunity seeking, focusing on how good can be done for others. A servant being centers around the example of Christ and, Christ was a servant. I am fortunate to labor with a loving family of servants at the Pinellas Park church of Christ. May God so bless you as well.
Above all else, Christ was a servant (Phil. 2:2)
• He served man before his coming (John 1:1-4)
• He served man in his coming (John 13:1-13)
• He serves man even now (Heb. 7:25)
Are we Christians? Are we his disciples? What that means is that we are not only his followers, but, literally, his learners. Notice this in John 13. “If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” Christ was not instituting an act of worship, but giving them an example to follow. Think for a moment about what he has done. Christ was trying to combat an attitude among the disciples that lead them to ask “which of us is the greatest and will, thus, be the greatest in your kingdom?” It began when the mother of two disciples asks for the right and left hand positions for her sons. The debate ensues and in chapter 18 we find that the disciples themselves finally say, “let us just go to Jesus and ask him who is the best.” He tells them, “Unless you are converted and become like little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Well, apparently they don’t get it. As they enter into their final meeting with Christ, the time in which he is going to institute the “Lord’s Supper,” as we call it, they are still debating. Because of this debate, none are willing to do the servants job of washing the feet, a display of hospitality and love. They came to the supper with the same attitude we carry to the spa, “here I am, serve me, pamper me, give me more, more, more.” Yet, there is a spa of spirituality. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. The Bible talks of it often under the heading of “service.” The spa of spirituality is one where we are both worker and customer – serving using the blessings and gifts God has given us and being served as others employ theirs.
Just like the apostles, the Corinthian Christians has a problem understanding this idea of service. You will notice that the great love chapter of the Bible (I Corinthians 13) was written because there were some in the church who had lost sight of the concept of service, the heart and soul of the spiritual gifts. Paul even tells them, “when you come together (using these spiritual gifts) it is not for good.” Thus, he has to instruct them in the motive of service – love (agape - which defined properly, means “self-sacrificing benevolence”).
Christ served. We are called to serve. But maybe that is not the area of this idea we struggle with. Maybe ours is the questions of “how do I serve?” Well, I hate to tell you this, but there is no easy answer. I cannot answer it for you, other than to say, God has given you talent and ability. You may not realize it or you may suffer from esteem issues or other things that keep you from seeing it, but you are a talented individual. Ever notice that when Christ talked about talents he never mentions a zero talent man? Yet, some feel content to excuse themselves from service by saying, “I can’t do anything.” Even if your only skill lies in an ability to sit and write simple phrases in a shaky hand, you could use it for great good. I knew a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer and given only two years to live. All of her life had been devoted to nursing others back to health and taking care of their physical needs. As she neared the end of her life, four years later, she, though dying, still handmade cards, though they were remarkably less ornate than those produced in her prime, for the sick of her church. When she died they found the card materials stacked by her bed and some were even shocked to get cards in the mail from her the day after she had died. One of her final acts in this world was an act of service to encourage some weary soul.
How can you serve? Let us consider that Spa image once again, only think of it in spiritual terms, where you are the laborer. What are the tools we find in a spa? Pedicure, manicure, soft soothing tones, scented oils and incense, massage, masks, peels, scrubs, wax, candling, stones, hands, feet, eyes, ears and touch (not to mention others). Christian service has its tools as well. In many cases, you will find the same tools here as in the spa.
SERVICE OF THE MIND
One of the greatest things we could ever do for another is to study. C.S. Lewis, of Narnia Chronicle fame, once stated, “If all the world were Christian it might not matter if all the world were uneducated. But, as it is, cultural life will exist outside the church whether it exists inside or not. To be ignorant and simple now – not to be able to meet the enemies on their ground – would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen.”
One of the greatest acts of service Christ performed was delivering the will of God. Notice what Paul told Titus in Titus 2:11, 12. “For the grace of god that brings salvation has appeared to all men, TEACHING US that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age.”
SERVICE OF THE EARS
“Thanks for listening,” she said and just broke down in tears. I had said nothing, but showed up on her doorstep two hours ago after I had heard about the tragic and accidental loss of her child. What could I have said? Was anything I did going to ease her pain? Was there some magical potluck favorite I could run by to dry up the tears? No! No! No! All I could do was listen. I may feel helpless, but sometimes that is all I need to do. Isn’t that what the Bible encourages us to do. “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak…” (James 1:19). If you want to be a good communicator, good servant, good friend and sister then you will often have to simply sit and listen.
When we say that we do not mean “look like you are paying attention,” but actually listening determining what a person is saying and perhaps why. Ever wonder why so many people don’t like to talk to answering machines. It probably has to do with the fact that we know nobody is listening and to not be listened to hurts perhaps more than many would ever care to admit.
SERVICE OF THE EYES
“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep onself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). Yeah, but what has that to do with “sight?” Well, that all depends on how we see the word “visit.” If to us it means “let’s sit and have coffee and cake while ignoring your obvious difficulties” then it means very little.
The word visit here, however, means “go to see; careful investigation.” When we visit those in need, let us constantly ask, “why are we here?” According to James, we should be there to carefully inspect or see what a persons needs are. Why? So we can meet those needs and thus serve. I have met many people who tell me they have gone to visit shut-ins, but when I ask them, “how can we help them, what are their needs,” they just give me a blank stare, as if they didn’t just walk past the lawn that needs mowed, gutters that need cleaned, to enter the house that needs painted where the elderly woman sat in a broken down wheel chair with little to eat and no physical means to make food. All of this is easily perceivable if we are there to “visit.”
SERVICE OF THE MOUTH
“A man has joy by the answer of his mouth and a word spoken in due season, how good it is” (Proverbs 15:23). It is no mystery that words of encouragement are wonderful, faith-building tools. Yet, you will notice that the Proverb writer makes mention of the “due season” of our words. Word meanings change when spoken in different tones or given a certain quality by, among other things, non-verbal communications. For instance, a person may say “I love you” and their tone reflects dripping sarcasm more than genuine love. Or perhaps they say the same things while avoiding your gaze, scanning some unknown place in the corner of the room with their eyes and shifting in their seat. By all indications, though the tone may be right, they are lying. In other words, when and how we speak are just as important as actually speaking. This, of course, means we must know people and what is going on in their lives. We must be a friend. We must be concerned. We must think about our words and serve through and with them.
Considering that many of life’s problems revolve around a lack of proper, effective communication skills and miscommunications, time and effort are greatly needed in this area. I once knew an elder in the Lord’s church who told me, “I just tell it like it is.” What he meant was, “I have a license to hurt people’s feelings and assert my own opinions as fact.” How tragic. Such behavior may be self service, but not much else.
SERVICE OF THE HANDS
There are several ways we can serve others with our hands. First and foremost we can serve others with the hands of prayer. Paul knew the value of this. “Finally, brethren, pray for us…” (2 Thess. 3:1).
Second, we may labor and toils, making meals, designing or writing cards, arranging baskets for the poor or needful, callusing our left so the right can hand out the money earned, and so on.
SERVICE OF THE FEET
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.” The greatest service that you can ever provide to another is to teach them the gospel. Many in our age are concerned with debate and a refutation over fine points of doctrine that amount to nothing. Many are greatly concerned about riding the hobby horse of condemning what is false or wrong with the church. There is, no doubt, a time and place for debate and condemnation, but as we read the New Testament we cannot help but walk away with the felling that the bulk of the time of the first century Christian was spent in spreading the truth, though often heavily persecuted. Maybe they lacked the time to engage in some of our exercises of futility. Yet, the Bible records time and again in Acts that they “multiplied daily.”
One’s life can defined in a number of ways using a number of terms. If service and servant are not listed high among them, then we ought to go back again and examine once again the life of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, who was, above all else, a servant.
As we begin our blog journey together, let us begin by discussing a concept that to a great extent has been forgotten by many in our society, though there are a few places of exception – service. A servant’s heart is one that is so full of love for others that room for self and self-serving are hardly introduced. A servant’s mind is one that is opportunity seeking, focusing on how good can be done for others. A servant being centers around the example of Christ and, Christ was a servant. I am fortunate to labor with a loving family of servants at the Pinellas Park church of Christ. May God so bless you as well.
Above all else, Christ was a servant (Phil. 2:2)
• He served man before his coming (John 1:1-4)
• He served man in his coming (John 13:1-13)
• He serves man even now (Heb. 7:25)
Are we Christians? Are we his disciples? What that means is that we are not only his followers, but, literally, his learners. Notice this in John 13. “If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” Christ was not instituting an act of worship, but giving them an example to follow. Think for a moment about what he has done. Christ was trying to combat an attitude among the disciples that lead them to ask “which of us is the greatest and will, thus, be the greatest in your kingdom?” It began when the mother of two disciples asks for the right and left hand positions for her sons. The debate ensues and in chapter 18 we find that the disciples themselves finally say, “let us just go to Jesus and ask him who is the best.” He tells them, “Unless you are converted and become like little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Well, apparently they don’t get it. As they enter into their final meeting with Christ, the time in which he is going to institute the “Lord’s Supper,” as we call it, they are still debating. Because of this debate, none are willing to do the servants job of washing the feet, a display of hospitality and love. They came to the supper with the same attitude we carry to the spa, “here I am, serve me, pamper me, give me more, more, more.” Yet, there is a spa of spirituality. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. The Bible talks of it often under the heading of “service.” The spa of spirituality is one where we are both worker and customer – serving using the blessings and gifts God has given us and being served as others employ theirs.
Just like the apostles, the Corinthian Christians has a problem understanding this idea of service. You will notice that the great love chapter of the Bible (I Corinthians 13) was written because there were some in the church who had lost sight of the concept of service, the heart and soul of the spiritual gifts. Paul even tells them, “when you come together (using these spiritual gifts) it is not for good.” Thus, he has to instruct them in the motive of service – love (agape - which defined properly, means “self-sacrificing benevolence”).
Christ served. We are called to serve. But maybe that is not the area of this idea we struggle with. Maybe ours is the questions of “how do I serve?” Well, I hate to tell you this, but there is no easy answer. I cannot answer it for you, other than to say, God has given you talent and ability. You may not realize it or you may suffer from esteem issues or other things that keep you from seeing it, but you are a talented individual. Ever notice that when Christ talked about talents he never mentions a zero talent man? Yet, some feel content to excuse themselves from service by saying, “I can’t do anything.” Even if your only skill lies in an ability to sit and write simple phrases in a shaky hand, you could use it for great good. I knew a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer and given only two years to live. All of her life had been devoted to nursing others back to health and taking care of their physical needs. As she neared the end of her life, four years later, she, though dying, still handmade cards, though they were remarkably less ornate than those produced in her prime, for the sick of her church. When she died they found the card materials stacked by her bed and some were even shocked to get cards in the mail from her the day after she had died. One of her final acts in this world was an act of service to encourage some weary soul.
How can you serve? Let us consider that Spa image once again, only think of it in spiritual terms, where you are the laborer. What are the tools we find in a spa? Pedicure, manicure, soft soothing tones, scented oils and incense, massage, masks, peels, scrubs, wax, candling, stones, hands, feet, eyes, ears and touch (not to mention others). Christian service has its tools as well. In many cases, you will find the same tools here as in the spa.
SERVICE OF THE MIND
One of the greatest things we could ever do for another is to study. C.S. Lewis, of Narnia Chronicle fame, once stated, “If all the world were Christian it might not matter if all the world were uneducated. But, as it is, cultural life will exist outside the church whether it exists inside or not. To be ignorant and simple now – not to be able to meet the enemies on their ground – would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen.”
One of the greatest acts of service Christ performed was delivering the will of God. Notice what Paul told Titus in Titus 2:11, 12. “For the grace of god that brings salvation has appeared to all men, TEACHING US that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age.”
SERVICE OF THE EARS
“Thanks for listening,” she said and just broke down in tears. I had said nothing, but showed up on her doorstep two hours ago after I had heard about the tragic and accidental loss of her child. What could I have said? Was anything I did going to ease her pain? Was there some magical potluck favorite I could run by to dry up the tears? No! No! No! All I could do was listen. I may feel helpless, but sometimes that is all I need to do. Isn’t that what the Bible encourages us to do. “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak…” (James 1:19). If you want to be a good communicator, good servant, good friend and sister then you will often have to simply sit and listen.
When we say that we do not mean “look like you are paying attention,” but actually listening determining what a person is saying and perhaps why. Ever wonder why so many people don’t like to talk to answering machines. It probably has to do with the fact that we know nobody is listening and to not be listened to hurts perhaps more than many would ever care to admit.
SERVICE OF THE EYES
“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep onself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). Yeah, but what has that to do with “sight?” Well, that all depends on how we see the word “visit.” If to us it means “let’s sit and have coffee and cake while ignoring your obvious difficulties” then it means very little.
The word visit here, however, means “go to see; careful investigation.” When we visit those in need, let us constantly ask, “why are we here?” According to James, we should be there to carefully inspect or see what a persons needs are. Why? So we can meet those needs and thus serve. I have met many people who tell me they have gone to visit shut-ins, but when I ask them, “how can we help them, what are their needs,” they just give me a blank stare, as if they didn’t just walk past the lawn that needs mowed, gutters that need cleaned, to enter the house that needs painted where the elderly woman sat in a broken down wheel chair with little to eat and no physical means to make food. All of this is easily perceivable if we are there to “visit.”
SERVICE OF THE MOUTH
“A man has joy by the answer of his mouth and a word spoken in due season, how good it is” (Proverbs 15:23). It is no mystery that words of encouragement are wonderful, faith-building tools. Yet, you will notice that the Proverb writer makes mention of the “due season” of our words. Word meanings change when spoken in different tones or given a certain quality by, among other things, non-verbal communications. For instance, a person may say “I love you” and their tone reflects dripping sarcasm more than genuine love. Or perhaps they say the same things while avoiding your gaze, scanning some unknown place in the corner of the room with their eyes and shifting in their seat. By all indications, though the tone may be right, they are lying. In other words, when and how we speak are just as important as actually speaking. This, of course, means we must know people and what is going on in their lives. We must be a friend. We must be concerned. We must think about our words and serve through and with them.
Considering that many of life’s problems revolve around a lack of proper, effective communication skills and miscommunications, time and effort are greatly needed in this area. I once knew an elder in the Lord’s church who told me, “I just tell it like it is.” What he meant was, “I have a license to hurt people’s feelings and assert my own opinions as fact.” How tragic. Such behavior may be self service, but not much else.
SERVICE OF THE HANDS
There are several ways we can serve others with our hands. First and foremost we can serve others with the hands of prayer. Paul knew the value of this. “Finally, brethren, pray for us…” (2 Thess. 3:1).
Second, we may labor and toils, making meals, designing or writing cards, arranging baskets for the poor or needful, callusing our left so the right can hand out the money earned, and so on.
SERVICE OF THE FEET
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.” The greatest service that you can ever provide to another is to teach them the gospel. Many in our age are concerned with debate and a refutation over fine points of doctrine that amount to nothing. Many are greatly concerned about riding the hobby horse of condemning what is false or wrong with the church. There is, no doubt, a time and place for debate and condemnation, but as we read the New Testament we cannot help but walk away with the felling that the bulk of the time of the first century Christian was spent in spreading the truth, though often heavily persecuted. Maybe they lacked the time to engage in some of our exercises of futility. Yet, the Bible records time and again in Acts that they “multiplied daily.”
One’s life can defined in a number of ways using a number of terms. If service and servant are not listed high among them, then we ought to go back again and examine once again the life of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, who was, above all else, a servant.
