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<\/p>\nRt. Rev. Thomas Low (Bishop, Lutheran Church in Malaysia)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Martin Luther once said that the \u201cdeepest work of God is often found in the opposite<\/em>.\u201d Luther was pointing out the fact that the ways of God is not the ways of man and often, God\u2019s deepest work in the heart of the believer would seem something totally opposite of what he expects. In greatest deprivation, we understand blessedness; in greatest pain, we cherish normalcy; in deepest grief we finally comprehend comfort.<\/p>\n The first step in\u00a0\u2018growing as Christ servant\u2019 is in \u2018dying to self,\u2019 so that Christ may begin to be alive in and through us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship<\/em> wrote, \u201cWhen Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Discipleship should not be confused with apprenticeship. Apprenticeship is about learning and cultivating the skills of the master. Whereas Christian discipleship is about being<\/em> before the doing<\/em>. Seminary students spend 3 or 4 years learning the \u2018doing\u2019. All the necessary skills for pastoring which include exegesis, exposition, homiletics, theology, pastoral care and other practical skills. But skills do not make a pastor. Doing is not growing.<\/p>\n Whereas dying is the beginning of growth. God wants us to grow; to grow out of our selfishness, our self-sufficiency, our egocentric certainty of how the world should be, how people should behave and how God has to work. What keeps us from growing is actually the self<\/em>. The self<\/em> gets in the way of God\u2019s work in transforming us.<\/p>\n The seminary has equipped us with the skills but only God can transforms us and our ego-self stands in the way.<\/p>\n To live is to die. To grow in Christ is to die to self. When God placed us into service as servants in the ministry, we must intentionally put our self to the side as a spectator and place Jesus to the front. That when others look at us, they see the\u00a0Lord. When they engage us in meetings, they engage Christ. Let our ego remain silent, our wants and expectations being consigned to a corner; it is not about our recognition, being right, being respected, being appreciated. It is about Him. It is God being given the recognition, being right, being respected, being worshipped. When we stop struggling and surrenders, you will slowly learn to listen more to God and speak less, you will find greater sense of peace in submission rather than being right.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been preaching for more than 35 years and preaching remains still the most difficult part in my ministry because of the sacredness of the office of the Word. If it is just about me, it would be easy. I can easily communicate my thoughts and opinions. But preaching is a sacred act, creating a sacred space for all those who come to hear the Word. It has been my one constant prayer each time before I stepped into the pulpit, \u201cLord, let me be hidden behind the Cross and You before me. That they would hear only You and see only You.\u201d<\/p>\n Growing as Christ\u2019s servant is to die to self, to serve our neighbors as if we are serving Jesus. Always hidden behind the Cross, with the Cross lifted up in all we do.<\/p>\n \u201cTruly, truly<\/em><\/strong>, I say to<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0you,\u00a0unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.\u201d \u00a0(John 12:24, ESV)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rt. Rev. Thomas Low (Bishop, Lutheran Church in Malaysia) Martin Luther once said that the \u201cdeepest work of God is often found in the opposite.\u201d Luther was pointing out the fact that the ways of God is not the ways of man and often, God\u2019s deepest work in the heart of the believer would seem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-45th-anniversary-celebrating-gods-greatness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}