HELPING OTHERS BY JESUS’ EXAMPLE

From AdventistReview.org

As a Seventh-Day Adventist Church member, I believe that the only, best way to help
other people is to follow the exact method which Christ did while He was still on the earth. The
Christ’s method involves mingling with the people, showing sympathy to them, ministering to
their needs, winning their confidence, and bidding them “Follow Me”.

Mingling with the people is the first step because I believe that before fully, heartily
helping them, it is important to know what their deepest need is. Mingling with the people may
involve initiating a conversation, providing physiological needs, or even living together with
them.

After determining the need of the people, it is important to feel that we are to share to
them some of the abundant blessings that we have received directly from God. Sympathy should
be demonstrated by a passion to help the needy even at the cost of our personal comfort.

In ministering the needs of the people, I believe that it is important to give thanks to God
for the opportunity to help rather than crediting it to our own skills and capabilities. Without
ministering to their needs, we fail to be the light to the people in need.

Winning the people’s confidence means that we have been successful in telling them that
we are helping them because we want something in return. We are helping them simply because
we love God, and He wants us to follow exactly what Christ did while He was still in the earth.

Finally, after we have imitated Christ’s method here on earth by helping the people in
need, they in turn will do the same to the needy people they encounter. That is what it means to
follow Christ, to serve the people passionately, and not to be served by them.
 PERSONALIZED ETHICS STATEMENT
I define ‘ethics’ as a set of standards or guidelines which govern a person’s everyday actions.
Ethics plays an important part in our lives as it affects not just our actions, but our judgments as
well. Every person, at some point in his/her life, will have to choose a decision that is right or
wrong, and live according to the results of that choice. If a person has built a strong foundation
of ethics, then he/she is most likely capable of making life choices with a few negative
consequences.

My personal ethics includes the settlement of disputes in peaceful talks, without resorting to
violence. I believe that those who resort to violence are either impatient or not good with other
forms of communication such as writing and speaking. And as such, I avoid people whom I
consider to be not good in either written or spoken forms of communication.

I also believe that there is not an experience in this world that God does not permit. All
experiences we’ve had until now are in God’s control. There are times when He does not want us
to do a particular action, but because of the hardening of our hearts, we choose to do it only to
suffer the consequences afterwards. God allows us to experience a variety of situations because
He wants us to fully trust Him, and to reflect in our own mistakes.

Finally, because God is in control of our lives, everything depends on our choices. We have a
choice to be happy or to sad whenever we experience challenging situations. Even when
someone dies, one does not necessarily feel sad about it. God is always with us. In the end, it is
our choice to fully put our trust in Him or to burden ourselves with our problems.