Acts of Service and Experiencing Jesus

Particularly popular in our age of social justice. Fighting for a cause becomes the expression of devotion to Jesus. We take our best and brightest saints and ship them off for indentured servitude. Exhausted Christians working for noble causes, but they do not report a daily personal encounter with Jesus. Over time the work itself substitutes for Jesus, and seeking him seems harder than doing more for him. Martha, Martha. Loving Jesus comes first; out of this will flow whatever work in the world he has for us to do. Without this, any work we take on will be impossible to fulfill.

Question: Who’s the hero; who is praised? Who is held up as models for serious Christian commitment in your world? “Here is Jeff — he really knows Jesus,” or “Here is Jeff — he serves the poor in India.”

-John Eldredge in Beautiful Outlaw, Ch. 15, Pg. 174