This first blog of three, begins with ‘A Story about Three Servants’ as found in Matthew 25:14-30.
14 The kingdom is also like what happened when a man went away and put his three servants in charge of all he owned. 15 The man knew what each servant could do. So he handed 5,000 coins to the first servant, 2,000 to the second, and 1,000 to the third. Then he left the country. 16 As soon as the man had gone, the servant with the 5,000 coins used them to earn 5,000 more. 17 The servant who had 2,000 coins did the same with his money and earned 2,000 more. 18 But the servant with 1,000 coins dug a hole and hid his master's money in the ground. 19 Some time later the master of those servants returned. He called them in and asked what they had done with his money. 20 The servant who had been given 5,000 coins brought them in with the 5,000 that he had earned. He said, “Sir, you gave me 5,000 coins, and I have earned 5,000 more.”
21 “Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!” 22 Next, the servant who had been given 2,000 coins came in and said, “Sir, you gave me 2,000 coins and I have earned 2,000 more.”
23 “Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!” 24 The servant who had been given 1,000 coins then came in and said, “Sir, I know that you are hard to work for. You harvest what you don't plant and gather crops where you haven't scattered seed. 25 I was frightened and went out and hid your money in the ground. Here is every single coin!” 26 The master of the servant told him, “You are lazy and good-for-nothing! You know I harvest what I don't plant and gather crops where I haven't scattered seed. 27 You could have at least put my money in the bank, so I could have earned interest on it.” 28 Then the master said, “Now your money will be taken away and given to the servant with 10,000 coins! 29 Everyone who has something will be given more, and they will have more than enough. But everything will be taken from those who don't have anything. 30 You are a worthless servant, and you will be thrown out into the dark where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain.”
As my time in Egypt went by, I asked God to show me what it is that I need to learn from this mission trip. Because, yes we went to Egypt as ‘scouts’ to acquire material to make the western church fall in love with the persecuted church in Egypt, to help Christian organisations by filming material that they can use to raise support, and to encourage and see the small amount of Christians whom God allowed us to have an encounter with, but I do believe that in everything God also wants to work in our hearts and draw us closer to Him. If in humility, we allow Him.
As we sat down one evening to have our debrief for the day, we were asked to provide the group with one word that we would use to describe what the mission has meant for each of us. A word to take back home. I chose ‘inspirational’. Inspirational, because these Egyptian Christians were given, as a figure of speech, much fewer coins than I to start with, yet it seemed that their labour produced much more fruit for God than that of mine. They toil and toil in the midst of bombarded circumstances, yet they shine with God’s glory and live with the utmost respect and passion for life – a life of service. They do not plough God’s
fields with long faces. No, they do it day in and day out without needing a vacation, because working for God, seeing people receiving His love, fills them right up to the brim.
This caused my mind to toil, do we sometimes bury that which God entrusts to us? And you and I may say, but is it not true that I do this and do that? That I run here, help there? That I may do some charity and try my best to be kind and patient? That I try to do good in my studies so that I can one day use it for kingdom purposes? That I study God’s Word regularly and pray often? That I attend two church services each Sunday and worship with all that my voice can give…
All of these things may very well be true, yet I doubt that any of it really makes God happy, that I make Him happy. Except for the praying part, depending on the meekness of my heart during prayer before God and my submission to the Holy Spirit. Because how wholeheartedly and humbly do I do all of the above things if I
am truly critical of myself? How great is my longing for Heaven during my normal going abouts? How different is my life from that of people who do not know the things that I, by grace, have come to know about God and life? How different is my life from the life of those who do not have a relationship with God?
But if all of the above things miss the bullseye, what is it that those Egyptian Christians do or say that brought me to this point of lowliness? For I truly know now that I know not how much-much more I should humble myself before the Lord.
The key lies in the previous sentence. Humility. To humble oneself before the Lord. We as the unpersecuted church quite often talks about taking up one's cross, but I doubt that we, myself still included, really know what it means – or at least know how to do it. But, like the first two servants, we should also humble ourselves before God and not be lazy or think of ourselves as too righteous to do a servant's work.
The other important part is to simply delight in the Lord. Yes, studying His Word, the Bible, is also just as important. But a wondrously important aspect of our faith, that we often neglect, is to delight in the Lord. To have the true and showing will to spend time at His feet and praise Him regardless of our circumstances or how we feel, and this goes far beyond worship during a church service. It is to work for God because we want to, and not because we are good, but because by grace we still have the opportunity to show gratitude. For then we let go of the gloomy process of trying to please Him by ourselves and start to rely solely on Him to guide us closer to Him; if we have the true desire to live with Him. If I may be as bold, I would say God would be satisfied with only our Love. A love that shows unwavering trust in Him, an intense desire from our side to be with Him, a willingness to work for Him and to give Him not offerings but the greatest gift we can, our hearts – for what are offerings if it is not a symbol of the change that is happening within us. And from this love a longing and team effort (with God) towards pureness and our desire for servanthood, in and for His kingdom, I believe, will flow like rivers greater than the Nile.
This brings me back to the parable about the three servants and their master. The two servants with the 2000 and 5000 coins both humbled themselves to make work of what they had been given. They chose to work for their master even though they had no promise that they would join in the profits of their labour, for then the servant with the 1000 coins probably also would have worked tirelessly to gain a return on what was given to him, if he knew that his reward would have been equal to that of his comrades. Because for the master it was not about the amount of money that the two good servants were given or made for him, for both of them received the exact same praise and reward whilst not getting nor earning the same. For the master saw that both of these men were willing to, in
humility, sacrifice their time and energy to work for him, their provider. He saw that in their hearts they longed to please him, not because of what he has done for them or would do for them, for those two did not receive the same amount of money and were not promised anything, yet they took the same path, however different, and arrived at the same good end. They took the path of a servant because they knew who they were, but most importantly because they knew who He is. There is a God, and you probably believe this statement. Yet do we really?
There is a God who does things that we do not understand, yet we still in humility need to praise and serve Him, because HE is! For God is not a businessman who weighs and measures our gains, and places the one above the other, for none of us can please God by our acts and profits. Yet He can see the longing in our hearts, the burdens we carry in this sinful world because we believe in Him. Yes, He knows who wants to, with all their hearts, spend eternity with Him. And that makes all the difference.
A memorial of the 21 martyrs who were beheaded by self proclaimed members of ISIS in Lybia. Most of them were from El Minya, a town in upper Egypt that we visited during the last days of our trip. It is outside a memorial church that was built for them.
The values (in Arabic) of SAT7. An organisation that broadcasts Christian content on satellite television into the Arab world. In this way they reach thousands of people for whom it may not even be legal to own a Bible in their country.
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