Service of God

“ When men substitute obedience to a code for service of the living God, it is no wonder that the truth—the central truth of religion—fades rapidly from their minds, that the service of God is identical with the highest service rendered to our fellow-men. ”

“ Certainly our whole life ought to be dedicated to the service of God; but from the above command we are to understand that God especially desires our service during the early years of our life. They are our first-fruits. ”

“ But there seems to be no opportunity; such deeds are supposed to belong to special callings; one must be ordained to do divine service.
The truth is, divine service is the duty and high privilege of every human being; we all are divinely called to the ministry; the service of God and humanity belongs to us all. We must not wait for ordaining hands nor ecclesiastical robes nor for the environment of official sanctity. Every impulse to do good, to show human love, and do loving service is a commission from high heaven. ”

“ And instead of, as we have been taught by authoritative voices of late years, the service of man being the true service of God, the relation of the two terms is precisely the opposite, and it is the service of God that will effloresce into all service of man. ”

“ Can there be a nobler service than to serve God, the highest Lord, to serve the highest King, who has bought and won us out of the hands of our enemies, of sin and Satan? Gladly and joyfully will we serve Him, our Savior and our Lord. ”

“ And we will not serve God as though He stood in need of our service, or as though He would be made unhappy if we ceased to serve Him; but we do it because we are ourselves benefited by the service of God, and because we are freed from griefs and troubles by serving the Most High God through His only begotten Son, the Word and Wisdom. ”

“ Remember thy servant, O Lord, according to the favor which thou bearest unto thy people; and grant that, increasing in knowledge and love of thee, he may go from strength to strength in the life of perfect service in thy heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead: We give thee thanks for all thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence ”

“ Even reason teaches that your lives must conform to your business; each is in duty bound to obey him whom he serves. As Christians you are obliged to render another service than that you gave when under the dominion of sin, and obedient to it; when you were unable to escape its power and to do any work good before God. You have now come out of bondage and are relieved from obedience to sin, through grace, having devoted yourselves to the service of God, to obeying him. ”

“ All service is honourable, if we serve not ourselves, but our fellows, and it is doubly so if, serving man, we serve God too. As the sunshine looks down into, and strews with flowers, the lowest vales, so the Divine compassion falls on the lowliest lives, and the Divine grace makes them sweet and beautiful. ”

“ There should be good-will to their masters, good-will to the families they are in; and especially a readiness to do their duty to God. Observe, Service, performed with conscience, and from a regard to God, though it be to unrighteous masters, will be accounted by Christ as service done to himself. ”

“ The service of God, the accomplishment of His holy will, is not confined to the observance of His 16Commandments and those of His Church; but, by adding the rules of the Order, the will of God is made known and accomplished in all the details of life. ”

“ We, on the contrary, require support to enable us to serve. We must be rewarded for our work, must be encouraged by sympathy, must be fed with promises and spiritual gifts, in order to be strong enough to do our duty. Christ found duty its own reward, service itself joy, obedience a source of renewed strength. His will was one with the Father's; and thus he discloses the, to us, marvelous spectacle of one who could truly say, Not my desire or my duty, or my purpose is, but my meat—my food—my source itself of life and strength—is to do the will of God, and to finish his work. ”

“ Note the connection between ‘sanctified’ and ‘meet for the Master’s use.’ True holiness is being possessed of God; true service being used of God. How much service there is in which we are the chief agents, and ask God to help and to bless us. True service is being yielded up to the Master for Him to use. Then the Holy Ghost is the Agent, and we are the Instruments of His will. Such service is Holiness. ”

“ O God, who dispensest the services of angels and men in a wonderful order, favourably grant that our life may be protected on earth by those who always do thee service in heaven. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. ”

“ For Christian service—that is to say, service based upon faith and rendered in love—does minister delight to our Father in heaven, and He Himself has called it an 'odour of a sweet smell, acceptable unto God.' And if our service on earth has been thus elevated and transformed from the compulsory obedience of a slave to the joyful service of a son, then our reception when at sundown the plough is left in the furrow and we come into the house will be all changed too. ”

“ May it please Thee, O God, who hast called us to this ministry, to make us worthy to offer unto Thee this sacrifice for our own sins and for the sins of Thy people. Accept our service and our persons, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. ”

“ They shall have grace, not only to serve God, but to serve him cheerfully and with gladness, and that shall make the service the more acceptable to him; for, when we sing in the ways of the Lord, then great is the glory of our God. ”

“ God has something especially for every Christian to do. As surely as we have named the name of Jesus, so surely have we been called to do His service,—a service that is for each one just as definite as for any who have lived before us. We may not be able to do what we would like, but we can do a great deal more than we do for the Master. ”

“ We ought all to be Christ-bearers, by preserving in our hearts faith, hope, and charity, and by receiving Our Lord worthily in holy communion. He alone is worthy of our service. In the service that we owe to men, we ought to serve God by doing His will. ”

“ Do we love God for his own sake, and find in this love the inspiration of service, or do we patronize Him as an influential partner under whose auspices we can better conduct our manifold activities in the service of the world? ”

“ And so, all along the consecrated way and line of service, it is when the law of faith is written in the mind, and becomes a settled perception or conviction, that the sanctified heart is able to find rest. 'By grace are ye saved through faith', is true at the beginning; but equally true is the word, 'Kept by the power of God through faith'; and the principle is that the law in the mind and heart constantly operates as we tread the appointed path of life and service. ”

“ If they obey and serve him,—if they comply with his design and serve his purpose in these dispensations,—if, when the affliction is removed, they continue in the same good mind that they were in when they were under the smart of it and perform the vows they made then,—if they live in obedience to God's commands, particularly those which relate to his service and worship, and in all instances make conscience of their duty to him,—then they shall spend their days in prosperity again and their years in true pleasures. ”

“ Is it not that just as separation to God issues in blessing, so does blessing from God constrain to service, and especially to the highest form of service, that which is most God-like, that of Giving? God so loved the world that He gave; Christ so loved the Church that He gave; the Holy Spirit so loves the Church that He gives; and redeemed ones, created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, when led by the Spirit, first give themselves unto God, and then delight in such other free-will offerings as the Lord may enable them to present. ”

“ Consequently those who render the most free and kingly service, which is the result of a pious mind and of knowledge, are servants and attendants of the Divinity. Each place, then, and time, in which we entertain the idea of God, is in reality sacred. ”

“ It is the joy of service that makes the life of Christ, and for us to serve Him, serving fellow-man and God—as he served fellow-man and God—whether it bring pain or joy, if we can only get out of our souls the thought that it matters not if we are happy or sorrowful, if only we are dutiful and faithful, and brave and strong, then we should be in the atmosphere, we should be in the great company of the Christ. ”

“ He will tell us all things relating to the service of God which it is needful for us to know, will tell us that which will supply our defects, rectify our mistakes, and put an end to all our disputes. ”

“ Note, Whoever have exchanged the service of God for the services of the world and the flesh have, sooner or later, been made to own that they changed for the worse, and that while they continued in good company, and went on in the way of good duties, and made conscience how they spent their time and what they said or did, it was better with them ”

“ However indifferent he may feel, in his present fallen state, to the demands of heaven, and however negligent he may be of the duties which result from those demands, it is an incontrovertible truth, that the service of God has the first and highest claim. ”

“ Yes, we willingly admit, such human service is “religion pure and undefiled, before our God and Father.” If service is rendered to our kind as worship to the Father of men; if we reverence in each man the image of God and the shrine of His Spirit; if we are seeking to cleanse and adorn in men the temple where the Most High shall dwell, the humblest work done for our fellows’ good is done for Him. The best human charity is rendered for the love of God. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. This,” said Jesus, “is the first and great commandment. ”

“ Yawn, let me ask you this one question,—do you come to Church to do any good to Almighty God, or to me, or to yourself? Is it any profit to the Almighty that you serve Him, if such an imperfect attendance as yours can be called service ”

“ The power of a holy life is the best evidence of what God can do. Platform and Meeting-Holiness, or glass-case sanctity, are feeble when compared with the exhibition of the blessing in daily association. Therefore, 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven'. These words indicate my meaning when I urge you to seek and maintain the blessing of Holiness in the interests of those around you. Holy lives are the most convincing sermons and testimonies. We often say 'Holiness is power' ”

“ Now, we must not miss the point of the Apostle's teaching, which is, that when the law of God is stamped in the heart and mind, the spirit of the law prevailing within us makes us desire to obey and serve, and so we are empowered to sustain the claims of the consecrated life. ”

“ For instance, we may feel a call to special service—to the ministry, or to the missionary service, or to personal work—and we may have mapped out an entirely different life for ourselves and ate to submit to God's leadings. ”

“ "It is a dangerous thing, in the service of God, to decline from his own institutions; we have to do with a God who is wise to prescribe his own worship, just to require what he has prescribed, and powerful to revenge what he has not prescribed." ”

“ While, then, we accept Christ’s statement in its fullest significance, and maintain that our “reasonable service” is the offering of ourselves as living sacrifices, that spiritual worship is offered not in church only or mainly, but in doing God’s will with a hearty good-will, we all the rather see how needful it is to utter ourselves to God as we do in our social worship ”

“ In all departments of human activity, knowledge of the person served is essential to perfect service. Those who have never seen an earthly king cannot serve him as those who are in daily intercourse with him; their loyalty is at the most a sentiment, not a constraining power. The biographies of God’s most eminent servants in all ages make it plain that the first and indispensable state in preparation for His service is a vision of God Himself—a revelation of His majesty and holiness (vers. 1–4) . 2. What a man needs before he can effectively serve God is a vision of himself. ”

“ When we are to undertake anything for the service of God, after invoking His holy light and discovering His will, though we should employ the human means which we consider necessary and suitable in carrying out the orders of Divine Providence, yet we should not depend on them, but on the Divine assistance alone, and from it expect success, with the firm persuasion that whatever happens will be best for us, whether it appears good or bad according to our individual judgment.----St. ”

“ The burnt-offering tells us of the perfect and accepted righteousness of Christ, in virtue of which the imperfect believer and his imperfect service are accepted by God. But it also reminds the believer of his privilege to surrender himself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is to be the reasonable (intelligent) service (that is, ritual or worship) of each day and hour. ”

“ FAITH AND PATIENCE IN SERVING
QUANTITY of service is of far less importance than quality. To do well, rather than to do much, will be the motto of him whose main purpose is to please God. Our Lord bade His disciples tarry until endued with power from on high, because it is such enduement that gives to all witness and work the celestial savour and flavour of the Spirit. ”

“ But God makes no mistakes; according to their service He divides the help, and those who are called to the holiest service are those who can have least assistance. ”