Page 77 - GRACE

GRACE, Exploring Its Riches

ministry, is a key feature of our place in God’s Kingdom.
Service has helped to advance the cause of the Kingdom on
earth. Service has also caused many saints to connect with
uncommon levels of grace.

It must however be stated that service should not be a
priority pursuit of Christians, as important as it is. Our
priority should be relationship with the King of the
Kingdom. We should aspire not just for a relationship with
Jesus, but an intimate and passionate one. There are people
who serve the Lord who do not even know Him. They have
no relationship with Him. Such people serve with the
motive of getting something from Him, not because they
desire Him. They do not know Him, neither do they aspire
to know Him. When service is conducted with such
intention and absence of mind, it easily leads to
compromise or outright sin; because, it lacks the knowledge
of God or the fear of Him.

The example of the two sons of Eli is frightening. Yes, they
were born to a religious father. It was customary in their era,
according to the Aaronic priesthood, to inherit the ministry
of their father. They grew up in the house of God at Shiloh;
they knew the rudiments of the religious life of their father,
but they did not know the Lord God who appointed Eli to
be high priest unto Him. Yes, Hophni and Phinehas took up
official positions as their father’s associates; they were free,
as it were, to religiously collect the offerings the people
offered at Shiloh, a privilege they unwittingly abused, and
sacrilegiously slept with unwary women who came to

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