serving God. Apart from salvation from the cross of Jesus Christ, our works are dead and worthless. Other people may be kind and helpful doing many admirable things, but it takes a spiritual man to render service which will count for all eternity. To get people to give up their idols is a useless endeavor. When their in ner eyes are opened to see the in finite and unfading glory of the Lord, however, these foolish substances loose their grip upon life. One does not become a Christian by giving up anything. It is not what you give up but what you take on which makes the difference. The service of God often refers to public worship of the Lord. We are told to present our bodies as a living sacrifice which is our reasonable service. Very few people seem to know anything about this. Offering oneself to God is the very heart of Christian service. We have an illustration of this in Acts 13:2 and in Romans 12:1. The words ministering and service mean the same thing. Thus it is evi- Dr. and Mrs. Louis T. Talbot continue an active ministry tor the Lord Jesus Christ in churches across the country. Here they are pictured during meetings of the third annual Biola Family Bible Conference held on the Campus. The attendance was nearly three times greater than any previous year.
dent that they were worshipping and offering up their praise and prayers to the Lord. Do we know what it means to min ister to the Lord? Is the reasonable service of offering up our lives to God real experience with you and me? Many things pass for Christian serv ice which have absolutely no war rant in the Word of God. They are merely the programs of men. Only Christian people are really concerned about the undying souls of those about them. Anyone can participate in sup plying bodily needs, engaging in human welfare, but only those who have been born-again can realistically be aware of the needs of immortal souls. Only Christians who are in tune with the Lord can be interested in the spiritual welfare of their chil dren, too. This is why constant fellow ship with the Lord is so vital. In Galatians 6:10 we see the direc tion of our service in that we are to do “good toward all men, especially toward them that are of the house hold of faith.” This covers all of hu manity, doesn’t it? Then, for our own, if we do not support the church, who will? If the church fails in its mis sion, there is no other institution .that can or will take its place. Anyone can join the “do-good-to-all-men” cam paign, but only those who have the life and love of God in their hearts can assist and support the household of spiritual faith. This is their big gest responsibility. Christ set the pat tern as is shown by Eph. 5:25. In I John 3:14 we are reminded, “We know-that we have passed out of spiritual death into spiritual life be cause we love the brethren.” F irst of all, we are to witness to what we know about the Lord Jesus Christ. Next, witnessing effectively involves the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He has been sent from heaven to abide in us, providing us with convincing effec tiveness. Finally, as Acts 1 :8 reminds us, we are to witness in our Jerusa lem, Judea, Samaria, and to the utter most part of the world. The entire globe is the Christian’s mission field. 34
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