How Do We Serve God?

Today we will embark on a nine-week journey together. This nine-part series is the countdown to the 500th edition of 4th Day Letters. Throughout these next several weeks, I will present a detailed explanation of the meaning and purpose behind Broken Door Ministries while placing the focus squarely on its importance in your life. Today, in part one, I will tackle the topic of what it means to serve God.

Three of life’s biggest questions are:

  • Does God exist?
  • Do I believe in Him?
  • Why did God make me?

Knowing that this is a Christian newsletter, I assume that we all trust that God exists, and we place our belief in Him. This still leaves us, however, with the third big question. Why did God make me? The answer to this question will serve as a cornerstone for our nine-week series. Before we look at the answer to this question, let’s take a look at the future topics in this series.

THE COUNT DOWN TO 500

  1. Everyone needs to be saved.
  2. God’s greatest blessing.
  3. We’re all broken and wounded.
  4. Why are we afraid?
  5. God’s Plan for Christian community.
  6. What personality type are you?
  7. Living in a sea of purple?
  8. Living out God’s plan for our life.

Today, I will follow the advice of Julie Andrews when she sang these words in Do Re Mi, “Let’s start at the very beginning, A very good place to start.” As a young Catholic boy, I was required to memorize the answer to question number 6 from what was known to Catholics as the Baltimore Catechism. The question was, “Why did God make me?” The answer to the question was, “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.”

Do any of us really know God? Is it possible to know God? Certainly we come to know God through the Scriptures. In addition, St. Augustine wrote that to know God we must first know ourselves. Over the next several weeks I will offer up some tools and ideas to help us know ourselves better. I begin every retreat I lead by digging further into this idea of learning more about us so that we may know God better. For today’s purpose, I would just encourage everyone to ask themselves these two questions every week.

  1. What did God reveal to me, about me, this past week, that I never knew before?
  2. What did God reveal to me about Him, this past week that I never knew before?

The second part of the answer calls us to love God. How do we know if we love God? Jesus gave us the answer to this question in John 14:15 when He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” In the coming weeks, we will examine the many ways we fall short of keeping our Lord’s commandments.

This brings us to today’s main topic. What does it mean to serve God? The most direct and practical way to serve God is to advance God’s Kingdom here on earth.  The great commissioning found in Matthew 28:19-20  directs us to go out to the world to make disciples and to share the teaching of Jesus Christ.

Growing God’s Kingdom is biblically important. It is mentioned over one hundred times in the New Testament and over ninety of those times the words come from the lips of Jesus Himself.

So, what exactly is The Kingdom of God? The Kingdom of God has three dimensions. The first is the Christological dimension. In other words, Jesus Himself is the Kingdom of God. Another dimension is the ecclesiastical dimension. With this dimension, we see the Church as the Kingdom of God. Finally, there is the idealistic or mystical dimension. It is here, that we see that the Kingdom of God resides in the heart of man.

It is on this third and fundamental premise that Broken Door Ministries is grounded, and it is here that each one of us finds our role in Christianity. Jesus desires to dwell in each one of us and He is calling us to take this message to others, so that He can dwell in them too. This is our challenge!

I think it is safe to say we all have room for improvement. Throughout the remaining eight parts of this series, we will explore some important ways to become better at building God’s Kingdom. I close today with three questions:

  1. If serving God and growing His Kingdom is one of the three reasons God made you, how are you doing?
  2. In what ways are you currently building His Kingdom?
  3. What obstacles are impairing your efforts to build God’s Kingdom?

Heavenly Father, I long to know you, to love you, and to serve you with all of my heart. Over the remaining parts of the series, send forth your Holy Spirit to guide me and teach me to be a better disciple of Jesus Your Son. Amen!

As always, I love to read your comments below as well as hear from you personally by clicking here.


I NEED YOUR HELP TO WRITE MY NEW BOOK

I am writing a yearly devotional book. I am in the process of selecting 52 of the past 4th Day Letters, one for each week of the year. Each one will be presented in the book with a series of questions to reflect on for a week. I am asking for your input. Please write to me and tell me what your favorite 4th Day Letters are. I will randomly draw the names of ten people who respond to receive a FREE copy of the book as soon as it is published.

Brian Pusateri
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4 Comments

  1. alex garcia on April 8, 2021 at 8:44 am

    phenomenal!

  2. Joe on April 6, 2021 at 8:16 am

    The countdown has begun! Awesome ?

    You’re a great blessing to all who have read your letters. Thank you for your dedication to building the Kingdom of God.

  3. Chuck Tokarski on April 6, 2021 at 8:02 am

    Brian-
    This 4th Day Letter really brings the purpose of life down to the basics which is so important since we all can get so easily distracted by everything around us. Thank you for the important work you do in building the Kingdom of God.

    • Maria Garcia on April 6, 2021 at 1:49 pm

      My four letter is. ( Jesus ).

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