Summary: We are called to be builders of people. Who are you building up in the Lord?

Romans 15:2 tells us “We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord.”

Paul calls us “builders.” We are following in the footsteps of the Great Carpenter, Jesus Christ. We do not carve stones. We likely don’t use a hammer, a chisel and a saw in our ministry labors. We are builders nonetheless. We are called to lead others into what is right and thus they are built. We are called to be builders of people, not buildings.

The Lord Jesus is the “general contractor,” overseeing the hopeful development of His children. You are a “sub-contractor,” given a small portion of the work. Do you know your part of the work? Your job is not a program director. Your job is not a keeper of the schedule. Your job is not a curator of creative curriculum. Your job is to build people and help them to do what is right.

As you enlist someone into the work, they, through your tender care, are built up. Often, it is through someone participating in the work of the ministry that results in them growing in the Lord.

Who are you leading to do what is right? Who are you building up in the Lord? Ask God for spiritual bricks and mortar today. What small step could you take, today, to lay an important brick in someone else’s spiritual house?

Summary: The Bible implores us to love with actions. Pray about what action-based act of love God might allow you to do today.

First John 3:18 says “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” It is impossible NOT to communicate, but we CAN communicate poorly.

We have all heard it said that actions speak louder than words. Even the same words with a variation of body language can change the meaning of the message. Words are cheap, right? I can and have said many things. Yet good intentions and quick words are no comparison, however, for actions and deeds.

Actions take an entirely different level of commitment and hold far greater gravitas. Your actions are communicating. The question is what are they communicating?

Love, they say, is a verb. Love does. Love is an action word. What actions might you take today to express love and sacrifice for another? Picking up the phone is an action. Sending a heart-felt and handwritten card is an action. Surprising someone with a gift, albeit small, at his or her front door is an action. Talk is cheap. Actions simply cost us more.

Pray about what you can do to express love to one key person or volunteer today. What action-based act of love might God allow you to do today? Ask Him to open your eyes. Ponder what direct action you might take today to express love as an action.

Summary: Regardless of the task before you today, approach all that you do from the home base of love.

1 Corinthians 16:14 says “Let all that you do be done in love.”

There is work to be done. We have tasks today, big and small, which are mission critical. Ministry is not all thought and feeling. Far be it. Ministry is not sitting and reading the Bible for eight hours a day. Those on the front lines of ministry know this is an active, not passive endeavor.

Most missions have a home base. In battle, a home base is the safe place from where we start. Home base is where we fall back. Home base is where we collect our thoughts, recalibrate our tools and remember our why. The home base from which our tasks are derived is love. Our home base is neither achievement nor activity-for-activity-sake. Our ambition is not building an “earthly-ministry-business plan.” It all starts with love.

As your hand hits the plow today, center yourself in Kingdom-love. Today, you may oil the gears of ministry; do it from love. You might do 14 never-to-be seen tasks; do it from love. You may find yourself doing a Kingdom task that seems more Kingdom-mundane that Kingdom-critical. Approach all that your hand touches from a home base of love.

Summary: Ministry is filled with the most random tasks and “duties as assigned.” Yet every one of those tasks is work to be done unto the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:58 tells us “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

Ministry is filled with the most random tasks and “duties as assigned.” Those not in full time ministry jokingly say, “Well, all you do is work on Sunday, right?” Far be it.

Early on in my decade-long tenure as a pastor, I adopted this verse: “…knowing that nothing you do in the Lord is in vain.” I kept this passage on the top of my mind. I allowed this passage to be quick off my tongue. Honestly, I needed it. I needed to remember that a particularly obscure and never-to-be-seen task held value in the Lord. I desperately wanted to be abounding in the work of the Lord, and yet, I never could have imagined some of the bizarre things needing done.

Remember, your toil in the Lord is NOT in vain … and toil it often is. Enter today with a singular mindset: My work matters. Embrace your toil with this frame of mind. Adopt an attitude of the heart that pushes every boulder, rock or pebble as unto the Lord, knowing that these things matter. Today you will do some less-than-glamorous tasks. Be steadfast, immovable and abound in this work today.

Summary: When we serve with a pure heart, God gets the glory.

Matthew 5:16 instructs “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

As one who has served for years in ministry, I know what it is like. Our efforts in ministry can be done with right motives. Our efforts in ministry, however, can be for self-exaltation. Your good works ARE shining. It is, however, a matter of who gets the spotlight.

When we serve with a pure heart, God gets glory. Our good works can be evidence that points toward God. Or our good works can crave the spotlight, wanting all eyes to be upon us. God wants our good works to be seen. He wants them to be placed upon a hilltop. He wants them placed on a stand for all to see and benefit. But the goal and benefit is for people to see the Lord more clearly.

Would you feel jealous if your efforts were utterly unnoticed and yet, as a result, someone longed more for God? Sadly, my head knows the answer but my heart wants credit on earth.

Today, be mindful of the directionality of your good works. Assume a mental posture, today, that allows others to see good works and associate those works with God’s love for them.

Summary: Don’t be a leadership hog. Do not be a service hoarder. Do not tightly hold ministry tasks from others.

In Hebrews 13:16 we read “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

I was an elementary PE teacher for one semester. We played a two-team variation of dodgeball called “Bombardment,” using eight foam balls for ammunition. I will never forget a kid named Forest. His strategy was clear: Hold as many balls as his arms would allow. Forest stockpiled ammunition in his chubby arms, thinking this gave him an advantage.

It did not. His team suffered. He became a sitting duck as he clumsily attempted to hold a fourth ball. Forest was a ball hog. It hurt him. It hurt his team.

Learn from Forest’s simple mistake. Don’t be a leadership hog. Do not be a service hoarder. Do you tightly hold tasks and mistakenly think you are “saving volunteers from extra work?” Sharing the work brings blessing to volunteers now and in the afterlife. What kingdom tasks are you hoarding that might rob someone of laying up treasure in heaven? When you share the opportunity to lay up treasure, you get treasure in heaven. Try this today.

Summary: The power promised to us in the Word of God is the power to persevere.

Colossians 1:11 says “…strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience...” In this verse, Paul uses two variations of the same the Greek word, dunamis (δύναμις). Dunamis is the word from which we get our word “dynamite.” The phrase “strengthened with all power” is literally translated, “powered for all powering.”

We are given, in some sense, “dynamite-ability for all dynamiting.” Keep in mind the first century writers knew nothing of explosives. This word is not explosive-powering but Spirit-Powering.

We all want to be empowered, right? We all want dynamic (same root work) strength to be given to us. But what is Paul’s hope for those who have such power?

Is this powering to charge ahead? No. Powering to be fearless? It is not. Is it powering to speak boldly? Nope. This power is allocated for “the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.” I need Spirit-Power for “stick-with-it-ness.” Being prone to wander, I need power to sit still and hold fast. Adherence to my call demands power from above. Today, ask God for power to persevere.

Summary: Do you have both the factual and experiential knowledge of God? If so, put Him promises to work today and know him more fully.

Colossians 1:9-10 says “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…”

Paul wants believers to have “knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Paul’s use of the Greek word “knowledge” is epignosis (pronounced e-pē'-gnō-sēs). One can “know” (gnosis) and be acquainted. However, someone can have “over-knowledge” or “upon-knowledge” (epignosis). Paul’s hope is that believers would have additional “experiential knowledge” as opposed to strictly possessing “factual knowledge.”

It is one thing to read and know, “God provides.” It is quite another thing to experience His faithful provision in real time. I want to have both “factual” and “experiential” knowledge of the Lord. Factual knowledge learns of the promises. Deeper knowledge comes as we stand on a promise and experience His provision. This builds “upon” my factual knowing.

Have you experienced God provide for you? If yes, you have “epi” (upon) “gnosis” (knowledge). Put some of God’s promises to work today and know Him more fully.

Summary: You were created to play your role. God preset the conditions for you to be you, so you could carry out the exact good works He prepared beforehand for you to do.

Ephesians 2:10 tells us “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Have you seen altered photos that combine two animals? Alligator-Eagle. Cat-Shark. Cheeta-Wasp. Someone altered and melded two animals into one, yet these modified animals are nowhere to be found in creation.

We all have wished we could adapt or change our physical bodies. If I were the creator, I would have made Josh Denhart 3 inches taller, naturally muscular and certainly not red-haired. If given the chance, you might make some structural changes to yourself too, right? But just as there is not a purpose for an Alligator-Eagle, there is no purpose in creation for a 6’2”, naturally muscular, blonde-haired Josh. God is a master builder and we are a one-of-a-kind work of art for a reason. Apparently, God needed a 5’11”, slighter-built, red-headed Josh. So, that’s what He made.

You were created to play your role. God preset the conditions for you to be you, so you could carry out the exact good works He prepared beforehand for you to do. He built your very DNA to pull off His will. Own that today. Can you pause and celebrate how you have been created?

Summary: Let us open our eyes today and search for the opportunity to do what is good. Let us seek to live a deeply productive ministry life today.

Titus 3:14: “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.”

Ministry is not a 9-5 job, right? Ministry is a calling. When viewed correctly, ministry is a lifestyle choice. The demand and duties of ministry often do not fit neatly into a Monday-Friday, workday template. Ministry is just not that cut and dried. Ministry is not that clean and simple. Ministry, you see, is messy.

As those who have taken up the mantle of ministry, we are devoted to what is good. You, oh servant, meet urgent needs. There is not a time clock, per say, in a ministry role. We do not have a “clock-in-and-clock-out-type” job. We are devoted to giving ourselves to this worthy cause. It feels good to do good. It feels good to meet an urgent need. It is a high and royal calling to lead a productive life for the Kingdom of God.

Let us open our eyes today and search for the opportunity to do what is good. Let us have an awareness of an urgent need and joyfully allow that need to hijack today’s agenda. Let us seek to live a deeply productive life today. Will you pray, right now, to allow God permission to dislodge your best human plans for doing His will today?