Have you ever had a brother or sister in Christ wish to give you a gift, or take you to dinner, or something like that, but you knew that it wasn’t something you needed? Or perhaps you knew that there was a “better” place for their resources to go? I know that I have and I’ve always felt a sense of discomfort about it. What we don’t realize is that even though it seems selfless, it can actually be more selfish to refuse the gift.

As I read in Philippians tonight, though it was something I knew, it occurred to me again that accepting that gift is often times a way to serve them in return.

Philippians 4:14-17:

Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.

Paul didn’t seek or ask for the gift from the Philippians. But he knew that they desired to serve God by serving him with their resources. So he graciously accepted their gift as it would be a service to their credit.

I would like, in those times, to realize that it may be self-centered to not accept a gift given in the Lord’s name. But perhaps the most selfless thing is to accept and appreciate their the love their showing me and God in contributing to my good.

In movies, in literature, in life, we hear people at the height of crisis say things like, “But I have always tried to do what is right” or “I have been a good person” or “I didn’t hurt people.” They don’t, in their eyes, deserve what they are getting.

The Jewish people had similar sentiments in regards to their laws and customs. And Paul responds to them.

Philippians 3:4-6

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;  as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

As most of us who are familiar with this verse know, Paul doesn’t stop there with his boasting. He continues in verses 7 and 8 to explain that whatever was to his gain in his flesh is of no ultimate worth. It is unreliable.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

We are not the first ones to assess the things our culture views as noble and elevate them beyond their appointed place. To do those things and pat ourselves on the back. Even become angry when we do not receive what we feel we deserve thanks to those things.

Like most of us know, and Paul reminds, those things which, in our minds, may lift us above those around us, are really of little worth at all—especially in the harsh light of Christ and the free grace that he offers to each of us, if we would only stop relying on those things.

This week’s video blog falls on Easter. I didn’t go to church. I have my reasons, and it’s not because I don’t want to celebrate the profoundly important resurrection of my Lord.

(Can’t see the video? Watch it on YouTube!)

1 Corinthians 11:1

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Paul writes these words to the Corinthians. He has just explained some of how he chooses to interact with the Lost. Giving up many of his own liberties, at times, to better meet those people where they are. And so he tells the Corinthian church to imitate him, as he imitates Christ.

This verse is often used in the more direct sense that we should imitate our leader’s as they attempt to imitate Christ. This is an apt application of the scripture. But it occurred to me this morning as I was reading that we could also probably apply this in a broader sense as well.

As believers we all are imitators of Christ. We all have his Word and his Gospel. While the early church needed leaders to be a kind of ‘walking scripture’ to remind them of the Truth (they didn’t have very may written copies yet, and no one had a copy all to themselves which they could study daily), we now have the written transcripts and almost all of us have one all to ourselves. Those leading figures in our community remain important, but perhaps not always in the exact same way.

Because of this, we are all in a position to learn from each other and pour into one another. In some ways, we are all to each other, as Paul was to the Corinthians. We are all imitators of Christ to each other.

It stands to reason, with some limit, that we ought to not only look to our assigned leaders for our example, but also each other as to how to imitate Christ. To assess what is honorable in each other and imitate that.

Perhaps I have a great will and ability to read and study God’s word, while you have a great will and ability to seek God in prayer. These are both honorable things, and looking to each other, we should see what is good and attempt to emulate that as well.

I suspect this would help us to have a healthier view of following and serving God in our various ways, rather than idealizing church leadership and viewing that as the ‘pinnacle’ of following Christ.

It’s Sunday and that means it’s time for video blog number five. This week’s video was provoked by an AT&T flash ad I saw on a blog site. I’m not sure which one, but it was probably Appleinsider.

The video is short and speaks for itself.

Forgive me. I know this is no tech blog—or a business blog. I also know there’s nothing new about this trick. But, my annoyance with needlessly poor customer service in all kinds of different industries compels me to write something about this.

Did you know you can tell Google to ‘listen’ to the internet and notify you whenever someone, somewhere mentions your name? Or your company’s name? Or your neighbors dog? Whatever. They’re called ‘Google Alerts’ and anyone can set them up.

Here’s how.

1. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts.

This will appear on the right side of the screen.

2. Fill in the ‘search terms’ box. Any Google search will do. Including all the standard tricks and operations.

2a. If you like, search only a specific site. Type your search in as normal. Then, add a space followed by ‘Site:’ then without a space, type the site you’d like to search. (example: “William Petruzzo site:blogspot.com”; using this in your Google alert would send you an email every time someone mentioned William Petruzzo on a blog hosted at Blogspot).

2b. If you like, select sites you would like to exclude. Type your search as normal. Then, add a space followed by ‘-site:’. Then, without spaces, type the site you’d like to exclude from searching. (example: “William Petruzzo –site:petruzzo.com”. Using this in your Google alert would send you an email every time someone mentions William Petruzzo anywhere except on my site, Petruzzo.com).

3. Choose the types of sites you want Google to ‘listen to’. It’s pretty self explanatory. You can choose from News, Blogs, Web, Videos, Groups and Comprehensive (searches everything).

4. Choose how many results you’d like in each email. Again, self explanatory. Either 20 or 50. More than that, and you’ll get multiple emails.

5. Select the email you’d like Google to send results to. Just type your email. If you have a Google Google account, then login and choose your email address from the list.

6. Press ‘Create Alert’ and respond to the email. Google will send you an email asking you to verify the alert. Follow those instructions and you’re good to go.

In Conclusion

So, if you’ve found yourself reading this. You might decide to use this to eavesdrop on your friends on MySpace. But if you’re a business owner, or salesperson, you might (wisely) use this to keep track of how people are responding to you or your business on blogs and forums and twitter and just about everything else.

This will give you the chance to respond to complains or compliments within minutes, even when they don’t approach you directly. But most importantly, it might, just might, help chip away at all the crappy customer service assaulting me all the time!

Reward good and honest business with business!

Reading about the assembly led by Ezra in the book in Nehemiah today, I thought it was interesting how similar the description was to what we see in a lot of modern preaching scenarios.

Nehemiah 8:1-8:

“And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose… And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. Also… the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Of course it probably looked very little like a modern church service. But, it’s interesting to see the similarities. “Early morning to mid-day” (church is usually in the morning), “all who could understand” were present (nursery?), “Ezra stood on a wooden platform” (the pulpit) “The Levites helped the people to understand” (the sermon).

I think that’s pretty interesting.