The Chief Aim of Man

What is the chief aim of man?

The Westminster Catechism poses this question at the beginning and their answer is:
"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever."

John Piper has created a new term "Christian Hedonist" by acknowledging this response and qualifying it further by answering:
"Man's chief end is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was he responded:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment." (Matthew 22:37-38)

We have a purpose. We were created for a purpose. All of these responses work together to reveal what our purpose is and to reveal what our culture has distorted. All three responses take for granted something that is largely absent from American Christianity-the pursuit of God. The pursuit of God in our culture is remarkably absent and obviously fruitless. We have lost touch with our purpose. The chief aim of man in all of these definitions is highlighted by emotions and relationship. We were created for God to pursue a relationship that is glorifying to Him by loving Him and enjoying Him forever. Where do we see this in our church?

Yesterday I read Psalm 100 and I was heartbroken that my life and the life of our church doesn't reflect this joyous attitude. If we set aside the small amount of time it takes to read that short Psalm I believe we will see a different attitude than the one we observe in our churches. The cry of the psalmist's heart is obvious-he loves God with all that He is. Today in church the sermon was about love, and love was defined as the chief aim of Christian living. While this is true it became remarkably clear to me that Christian living today is defined by misplaced love. As we were reading 1 Corinthians 13:2 as a congregation I saw a terrifying description of our Christian culture.

1 Corinthians 13:2

²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Our culture has books for everything and about everything. We have great theology and great insight, but we have nothing. We are not defined by a thirst and a hunger for more Christ; we do not see great gain in godliness, and instead we are defined by having enough. Today we accept Christ and that is enough. We do not pursue Christ with a stronger passion, because we have enough. But what Scripture actually tells us is that we have nothing, because we do not have love. Love for God is defined in the context of a relationship throughout the Bible. "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor.1:9 NASB)

 Saving faith and a true love for God is marked by a pursuit of God its battle cry is, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish  his will" (John 4:34). There is within God's people a true hunger to do His will and to follow hard after Him. To pursue God in a glorifying manner our pursuit must be fueled by love, a love that is defined by an overwhelming joy and a burning passion and desire to know God better and to bring His truth to all people. To pursue God in a glorifying manner we must ask God to reveal to us that "there is great gain in godliness with contentment" (1 Tim. 6:6 ESV). We must ask God to teach us and to reveal to us His righteousness and the gain there is in pursuing Him alone. We need to understand that there is joy and eternal reward found in pursuing God above all. Without this understanding we will never be able to "Delight in the Lord" as He commands throughout Scripture (Psalm 22:8, 37:4, 111:2).

I believe the absence of a true pursuit of God in our culture is defined by our seeking to make ourselves high and mighty so that we may feel accomplished. This is simply another way of stating that we want something to boast in. We have a created a theology where you can will God into your life and it has wreaked havoc on our spiritual lives, because it is a futile attempt from the beginning. Our love of God is a response to His grace.  "No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:44). We are given nothing to boast in, because we have done nothing to deserve and can do nothing to earn God's righteousness.  Our boasting has been excluded by faith, because our righteousness is imputed to us from Jesus by faith (Romans 3:27, 2 Cor. 5:21). Even our faith is given to us by God so that our grounds for boasting are completely shattered, "but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:26-7).

I am writing this so that we will see that a true and humble pursuit of God is a gift from God. God is the giver and we must receive life from Him. The chief aim of man is only realized when we begin to understand that God is greater than everything this life has to offer. The chief aim of man can then only begin when we humble ourselves and ask God to work in our life to create a love and a passion for Him. We must rely on the promises of God and once that love is born we will have an insatiable thirst for the almighty God. We were created by God and for God (Colossians 1:16). Our aim is loving fellowship with the gracious Creator of everything. It is my prayer that God will reveal His righteousness to us all and that we will develop a true hunger and thirst for Him that nothing in this world will ever diminish.

Saint Dallan Forgaill from Ireland understood the pleasure and joy gained from a life spent searching hard after God when he wrote the hymn "Be Thou My Vision." Let us read some verses from his hymn and pray for a heart that belongs to God alone.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,

all else but naught to me, save that thou art;

thou my best thought by the day by night,

waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true word,

thou ever with me, and I with thee Lord;

thou my great Father, and I thy true son;

thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

Be thou my breastplate, sword for the fight;

thou my whole armor, thou my true might;

thou my soul's shelter, my strong tower:

raise thou me heavenward, great Power of my power

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:

thou mine inheritance now and always;

thou and thou only first in my heart;

Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.

God is our prize.

Amen.

Believe in God

John 14:1

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

It sounds almost ridiculous to say that one of the main problems with the church is that we don't truly believe in God, but it also seems to be true. It must have also seemed absurd to the apostles for Jesus to be telling them to believe in God at the end of His ministry. Weren't they following Him all along because they believed in God and that Jesus was the Messiah? Why would Jesus give them this simple command? The answer is also simple, because we forget who God is and our belief in the true God begins to decay. It is no coincidence that in the same chapter that Jesus tells his disciples to believe he also makes claims that he is the image of the Father, and that the Father is sending the Holy Spirit. The entire ministry of the Holy Spirit is to help us believe. Jesus says "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring your remembrance all that I have said" (John 14:26). We know God through His Son and the Word and it is the Holy Spirit who aids us in all of this knowledge, so that we may believe in God. 

It is important to note above all things that we "cannot receive even one thing unless it is given [to us] from heaven" (John 3:27). Faith and belief are gifts flowing from God's mercy and grace, and they should be treated as such. Belief doesn't come easy, but we can find comfort in the fact that it is not something that we are called to muster up. The beauty of the cross comes from the reality that we cannot do even one thing to boast in our own works. Everything was done for us by Jesus on the cross, so that God could punish sin and give us grace. We need to be constantly thanking Jesus and praying to the Father to give us more faith so that we may find more delight in Him.

Why is belief so important? It sounds like a silly question to ask, but if we aren't believing like we should maybe it's because we need to be reminded why we believe. In John chapter 14 Jesus gives us a monumental speech about the importance of belief. Jesus tells us that it leads to works (the Way), it leads to knowledge of the Father (Truth), and it leads to salvation (Life). That is why Jesus is able to make the claim he makes in verse six that "[He] is the way, and the truth, and the life," because trusting in Jesus is a transformation.

If we believe we will be transformed and we will walk in the ways of Jesus. In verse twelve Jesus states this quite plainly "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father." When we truly believe in Jesus and his life it will transform our character, and we will develop a love for the Father and His commandments. It's only natural that true belief in the life of Jesus leads to love, because through him God has given us everything. And keeping with this logic it is only natural for our love to be worked out through our lives. True love like the love of Jesus is proven by commitment to the Father's will. "I do as Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father" (John 14:31). Does our belief show the world that we love the Father?

Does our belief show the world that we know the Father? Jesus said "Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves" (John 14:11). This is a wonderful claim. These words should bring us joy after joy. God has chosen to reveal His character to us. We don't have to make guesses as to how God acts, we see it through the life of Jesus. We are blessed to live in a country where Bibles are abundant, most households have at least two. But we don't treasure them. Why? It breaks my heart, because there are people all over the world who have literally died to bring the Bible to others not as blessed. We need to learn to see the value of our Bibles. It is through belief in God's word that truth is made known to us. We can know truth. That is amazing. that is why the ministry of the Holy Spirit is so important, because the Holy Spirit helps teach us and remind us. How different the church would be if we all simply read our Bibles reverently. We need to pray for help believing and remembering what we read when we dive into the Scriptures. The Bible is meant to be our sword, but when we neglect it we make it our enemy.

Finally belief gives us life, and not just any life but full life. Through belief in Jesus we come to the Father, and through studying belief we learn that it is not simply a claim of faith, but a transformed lifestyle. Through belief in God we are given a hope that extends beyond this world. A hope that rests on the promises of an eternal God. We are given a life that allows Jesus to tell us to "let not [our] hearts be troubled" (John 14:1,27). We are given a life of eternal comfort and security that we can spend seeking after the pleasure of knowing our Creator intimately. A life spent anxiously awaiting for the moment when the veil is completely torn and we see God face to face, and there is no longer any mystery. We have a purpose, and that purpose is to know our Creator which can only be done through belief. Let us not take the words of Jesus lightly. We need to believe to live and we need God to believe. We were created that way for a reason, so that through belief we may eternally enjoy God by glorifying Him forever.

Belief is essential to the Christian life. It is the pulse of our existence. If we are not believing we are not living. Do we want to be dead?

Mark 9:24

Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

Let us pray to God to help us overcome our unbelief, so we can be a people that the world will see and acknowledge that we love the Father.

Erotic Playlist

The Erotic Playlists

What is the basis of pleasure? Is it not the satisfaction of expectation? Music has neurological ties to a couple parts of the human brain, one of which is the pleasure center. The pleasure center is stimulated by pleasant foods, smells, and of course sexual arousal. What is it then about music that triggers the same response in one’s brain, as would a passionate kiss (let’s try and keep this PG) from the love of one’s life?

There are three kinds of music for any given person. That is unsatisfactory, satisfactory, and pleasurable. One can walk away simply satisfied from mediocrity, but the purest form of pleasure can be attained only when all expectations have been surpassed. Pleasure is greatest when expectations have been transcended. Pleasure is most awesome when the experience has been heightened beyond the limits of the imagination. In other words, pleasure draws one away from oneself and into something indescribably greater.

There is something so erotic about music. The music begins dynamically either in soft foreplay or comes in full force and passion. The music builds, and it builds, and it builds. Then comes the bridge where everything is exposed. The heart and soul are vulnerably bare in the climax. And lo, there is resolution.

SECULAR-
This is a short playlist of secular songs that have drawn me away from myself in the experience of listening to them. These songs have more than satisfied my expectations, and in a crude sense have brought me into some sort of auditory ecstasy (i.e. orgasm).
*
Fake Palindromes- Andrew Bird
The Funeral- Band of Horses
Transatlanticism- Death Cab for Cutie
Cold Desert- Kings of Leon
This is Twice Now- Lydia
Chasing Cars- Snow Patrol
House of Regret- Wild Sweet Orange

WORSHIP-
Are we created to seek pleasure though? What of the Biblical warnings of pursuing the passions and lusts of our youth? What of Paul’s exhortations to lay dead the flesh and to resurrect the spirit? The world has definitely skewed what it means to find pleasure. I suggest, though, that our greatest pleasure is found in God. This is not to be confused with comfort or ease. I suggest that the martyr’s greatest pleasure came from the fellowship with Christ in the midst of their brutal sufferings. In the same way, I suggest that the modern church has tricked itself into finding menial satisfaction, not pleasure, in making much of itself rather than finding immense pleasure in making much of Christ.

I spent most of last semester having my heart torn apart and being put back together by my Heavenly Father. I came to the stark realization that my Heavenly Father is also my Heavenly Groom, and I His bride. This entails a calling to intimate fellowship with Him. The most erotic and intimate times that I have experienced with God have been in times of praise and worship. Obviously worship is more than singing songs to God. It is a renewal of your mind and submission of your body to the pleasing and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2). One way that this is done, however, is in song. Worship should be the place that we realize that we were made, not to be greatness, but to know greatness.

If music is such a powerful tool, then it makes sense that we sing to God in praise and worship. How much more transcendent must this experience be though? Is it not much more valuable to sing to God than it is to entertain yourself with music? If I can lose myself in music by Death Cab, then should I not lose myself infinitely more in the midst of the God who created me and redeemed me? How intimately erotic, transcendent, and passionate should this experience be, to submit ourselves to our groom who is capable of immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine?

These are songs that have utterly wrecked my life. Not so much because of the music, but because of the presence of my God and my Groom. These are more than chords, rhythms, and lyrics. These are more than dynamics, builds, and sustains. They are intimate discourses and proclamations to a Holy, Holy, Holy God. They have caused me to realize that I am in the presence of passionate divinity. They are erotic interactions with my closest and most divine lover.
*
Our God- Chris Tomlin
Our God Reigns- Chris Tomlin
Meteor Shower- Owl City
Cannons- Phil Wickham
You’re Beautiful- Phil Wickham
Heaven and Earth- Phil Wickham
Divine Romance- Phil Wickham
Beautiful, Scandalous Night- Robbie Seay Band
Yearn- Shane and Shane

* All playlists are arranged alphabetically by name of artist, and then by album. I encourage everyone to try and listen to these songs. If I find out how to load them, then I will surely do it.

Prayer: Restoration of Joy

Psalm 62:8

Trust in Him at all times, O people;

pour out your heart before Him;

God is a refuge for us

Psalm 51:12

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit.

John 16:24

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. 

Ask, and you will receive,

 that your joy may be full.

Recently more than ever the importance of prayer has become extremely clear to me. We cannot delight in the Lord if we are not fellowshipping with Him. If we are not coming to God in prayer broken and contrite, humbled before our majestic Creator we will lack the joy salvation. God desires for our hearts to be near Him, but our hearts are prone to wander. If we honor Him with mere duty, but are hearts are far from Him we are no better than the Pharisees. It is essential for us as Christ followers to cast everything upon our Lord and to take refuge in His promise to deliver us. 

My prayer life has suffered due to an obvious lack of discipline. To improve our prayer life spiritual discipline is a must. We must learnt to love it. In Psalm 50 God speaks against the wicked "for [they] hate discipline," and He promises to reveal salvation "to the one who orders his way rightly. (Psalm 50:17,23 ESV) It is no wonder that in our present generation that despises authority that we also reject the need for discipline, but it is impossible to live a righteous and holy life without making priorities. We like to do things whenever we are in the "right" mood or have until we have "enough" time, but until we realize that we need to cry out to God even more when we don't "want" to we will always lack the joy of a mature Christian.

The more I have been thinking lately about the spiritual state of America and the more I have been reading Scripture the more I come to believe  that we as a church are far too content with spiritual infancy. What I mean by this is that we are far too pleased with only a little Jesus. We do not give God all the glory and majesty due to His name, and our faith reflects it. Our relationship with Christ is shallow, like that of an infant with his father, because we are not unified and we are not growing up into Christ. Yes, we are told to receive the kingdom of God like a child, but we are not called to be spiritually immature. In fact it is quite the opposite in Ephesians Paul tells us that "we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ" (4:15-16) 

I believe this is directly related to our prayer life. We don't struggle in prayer like Epaphras so that we may be "mature and fully assured in all the will of God" (Colossians 4:12). We don't prioritize prayer in our life and as a result we don't grow up, we don't have hope in God's promises, and worst of all we don't know Jesus as we should. All throughout Scripture there are commands to pray. I pray and long for us all to understand the sincerity of the importance to cry out to God. It is through prayer that we receive joy from God and that God is glorified in us. God is glorified when we come to Him broken so that He may restore us and fill us with Him. The joy of being filled with the fullness of God is indescribable and it is what compels us to outwardly share God with others. When we are filled with joy and love God we cannot help but to let overflow into every part of our lives bringing Christ with us everywhere shining as a light for the world to see.

My prayer for us is to become a people committed to spiritual discipline. Committed to growing up into spiritual maturity by devoting time to prayer and God's word. The Bible teaches us to pray all we need to do is open it up to the psalms and the Lord's prayer. Truthfully any passage of Scripture can guide is in prayer and we need to use it as such. Through all of this we will become a people filled with the joy of the Spirit and we will become a people anxiously awaiting the return of our Savior.

Ephesians 3:14-21

 ¹⁴For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

 ²⁰Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

A Quick Note on Pursuing Purity

Ephesians 1:3-4

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

Pursuing holy and pure character is essential to the Christian faith. All throughout Scripture commands and statements are made to remind us of this necessity. The good news of Jesus Christ is that through Him we have achieved holiness, because on our owns we are damned to failure. This is and should be common knowledge to the Christian, but then why do we struggle so much with bad character? Yes, we live in a fallen world and in the flesh, but there is more to it. We forget the blessings and promises of God. Peter writes in his second letter a list of character traits to pursue (1:5-7) and then says that his intent is to always remind us (1:12). We also need to be reminded that Jesus Christ has already died to make us pure and holy. We are blessed. Let us not forget that. Next time we catch ourselves falling into the constant temptations of this world let us remember that Christ has already suffered on the cross and paid the penalty for our sin, so that we may eternally enjoy the presence of God. Jesus suffered for the sake of our purity. How then should we live with this in mind?

Let Us Wonder

Let's face it one of the main problems facing the American church right now is spiritual boredom. We are bored with God, we are bored with His promises, and worst of all we don't seem to be doing much about it. Our culture is all about the newest and best movie, phone, or whatever. We want our satisfaction and we want it now. We don't commit, we prostitute ourselves out to any sort of new entertainment that looks pleasurable as it passes us. We aren't disciplined and we definitely aren't patient. 


Why? Why do we refuse to see God in all of His glory? Why do we choose to pursue anything less than our Creator? Why are we okay with being mediocre Christians?


C.S. Lewis' words from the "Weight of Glory" ring truer than ever today. "We are far too easily pleased." We choose to pursue and find our pleasure in the temporal and transient things of this world that are dying before our eyes. We take for granite the abundant luxuries we have, and we even take for granted the awe inspiring promises of God?


Where do we we get this boring insufficient view of God? Because it is definitely not coming from the Living Word.


We are fallen and flawed and incapable of loving God and others perfectly, but what scares me the most is that it doesn't even seem to bother anybody that we don't pursue God with the fervor and zeal that the writers of the Bible did.

Romans 5:7-8

⁷For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

But thankfully our God is gracious. He sent His only Son to die on the cross for our sins. Christ died not only for you and me, but because of you and me. Do we understand that? The awe and wonder those simple two verses inspire is indescribable. The message of Jesus is all about a transaction for which we pay nothing, Christ who knew no sin became sin, so that we may become the righteousness of God ( 2 Cor, 5:21). If we just meditated on this promise for 5 minutes every day for year our lives would be altered drastically. The love and grace of Christ dying, so that we may eternally enjoy the presence of our Creator is worthy of all praise and worship.

God is enough. He is truly worth everything. He gave up His Son and poured His wrath out on Him for us. We don't think or talk about the wrath of God enough at all. It's sobering and honestly just scary to think about, but thankfully Christ died to deliver believers from it. God doesn't desire for us to be punished, but He is just so sin had to be punished. God in all of His glory, before time, had a holy and divine plan to bring us near to Him through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross for the sins His people. It's God's desire for all to reach repentance, and He has made a way for us (2 Peter 3:9). Why do we spite Him by finding wonder and pleasure in the fleeting things of this world?

I want to challenge myself and anyone who reads this to make a commitment to meditate on just one promise of God every day for a month. It doesn't have to be for long period of time, but we need to take time to just wonder at God's grace. I believe and I know once we begin to do this we will see that we can never exhaust the glorious implications of God's promises. Isn't that awesome? We have been given something freely, not for free because it cost God His only Son, but we have been giving something freely from God that will eternally bring us pleasure and eternally mystify us.

How beautiful and different the church of God would be if we all took the time to be still before Him and meditate on His holiness. How different we would be if we treasured God above everything else. Just think how different our relationships and lives would look and as you think give all the praise and glory to God for the work He has done and continues to do. Worship God in wonder and awe because of His sufficient grace and perfect and sovereign hand that works through all things.

Deuteronomy 10:20-22

²⁰ Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. ²¹ He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. ²² Your forefathers who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Father, we confess that we satiated and bored;

Creation has bored us.

Work has bored us.

Family has bored us.

Friends have bored us.

Our homes bore us.

Television bores us.

Redemption has bored us.

Truth has bored us.

You have bored us.

No generation in history has ever had so much to entertain it.

We are jaded and cynical.

We think the world is our servant, so we are not thankful when things go well for us, and we are not patient when they do not.

We laugh, but we do not know joy.

We are captivated, but are never really awed.

We celebrate, but we do not worship.

Have mercy on us, and forgive us.

Amaze us with grace-blood stained, incarnate, Messianic grace.

Confession

Romans 7:19

For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing.

I started this blog under the title koinonia, which is Greek for fellowship, because I earnestly desired Christian fellowship. I was moving to Gainesville and away from my strong Christian friends and family back home. This blog quickly became a place where I could hash out ideas for sermons and lessons that God was teaching me it was great and encouraging, but I neglected an important part of Christian fellowship, accountability. In James the Bible tells us to confess our sins before another so that we pray for each other and be healed (5:17), and I intend to confess before you so that I may take the opportunity to boast in the cross and in my weakness.

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 

Obviously I haven't written much at all this semester, and it's not because God hasn't been revealing Himself to me. Honestly I'm quite surprised to see the amazing work God is doing in my life when I seem to be doing nothing. To put it plainly for the majority of this semester and this year I have felt overburdened and whenever this happens me the result is not to work harder, but to be apathetic. Consequently I have been more of a hearer of the word and less of a doer.  So instead of writing blogs about what God was teaching me and being an active partaker in God's kingdom I resided for the most part to keeping to myself and withdrawing from fellowship. 

Through all of this God has taught much more then I could ever hope to explain. Just the reality of experiencing what Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:13 that when "we are faithless, he remains faithful- for he cannot deny himself" (ESV) is beyond words. God is faithful and he will do what he has promised. He will complete the good work he started (Phil. 1:6). Through this period of trials the Lord has amazed by His love and continuing to bless me in ways I couldn't imagine. For example just last Sunday I was offered an internship at a church I don't regularly attend with a pastor that I have only met several times. God's love is faithful, patient, steadfast, and constant. And we are called to be the light shining God's love to the world. 

We cannot possibly do this on our own. We don't have the capability to love like Christ. I have been learning through this  difficult season that God afflicts us to remind us that we are weak and that He is strong. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12 Paul talks about God afflicted him with a thorn to keep him from becoming conceited. I needed a lesson in humility as I'm sure we all do. I don't understand what it means to make myself nothing like Christ did to glorify the Father. I need to be reminded again and again of my weakness and frailty. That I cannot do this on my own, because when I forget I do nothing.

Our God is the God who declares "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" (Isaiah 55:8 ESV). We are not like Him, we need Him, and that's the beauty of the cross. We couldn't justify ourselves, but God sent His only Son while we were still sinners to die for us. We need Him. We need reminders. We need affliction and whatever it takes to get our minds off of this transient world, off of ourselves, and to remind us to set our minds on the eternal Father who is in heaven. 

I'm writing this to remind us that we are weak, to ask for prayer, to remind us to pray for others, but most importantly to highlight that our God is glorious. He is worthy of all praise and He meets our every need. Let us learn as a community through fellowship what it really means to die to self and to seek first the heavenly kingdom relying on the Father's promises for security and boldness. Let us learn to be more open about our struggles so that we may lift each other up in prayer and encourage and comfort one another through the Word of God. God is a provider and He has given us all things let us praise Him and thank Him for His steadfast love.

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Romans 8:38-39

³⁸For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Immediacy of The Gospel

I haven't blogged in a while so I am going to go ahead and apologize in advance for the length of this and how erratic it may at first seem to be. I think with a little further examination it will make some sense as to how all of this relates to the urgency and immediacy of the gospel.

Have you ever read something in the Bible for the first time and just had to take step back? I remember last summer when I was reading through Matthew for the first time and I came across the passage where Jesus said "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword (Matt. 10:34 ESV)." What? I thought Jesus was all about peace and love? And then Jesus proceeds to talk about how he came to divide and "that whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me" (Matt 10:38 ESV) I can remember meeting up with Billy just after reading that passage still in a state of shock. That moment drastically altered my idea of who Jesus was and my idea of what it meant to follow Christ. God taught me that there are things in the Bible that I might not want to believe are true, but I have to die to self and take ownership of them because they are "breathed out by God" (2 Tim. 3:16).

The message that I want to present today is another one of those lessons. It's something that I don't want to believe and that honestly scares me, but I know that it is truth. So before reading any further I just want to encourage you to pray for God to reveal truth to you through His Scriptures. Like Peter says in his second letter this is not a "cleverly devised myth" that I have made up "no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:16-20 ESV). You don't have to take my words seriously, but I beg that you take the Word of God seriously.

Matthew 7:21-23

²¹ "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' ²³ And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

This passage of Scripture has been on my mind for quite some time, because it terrifies me. People are going to die and come to the judgement seat fully expecting to spend eternity in heaven with God, but God is going to turn them away to a place of utter darkness of weeping and gnashing of teeth. People are going to see God and be completely shocked when God tells them " I never knew you," and it is going to be to late for them to do anything about it. We can create a false sense of salvation for ourselves. Sin and our hearts are that deceitful. That scares me. 

In America we are part of a church that in my opinion is far too comfortable telling people that they are saved. We tell people if they pray this prayer then they are saved. I don't see that in Scripture. And even if we aren't that extreme we still live like we can have the world and add Jesus like is some sort of accessory we can choose to take with us wherever we please.I heard someone say the other day what scares him the most is "that the road to Hell isn't even marked Hell, it's marked Heaven." We see the reality of that everywhere. People living lives in darkness deceived that they are in the light. Yes the Bible says to confess and believe (Romans 10:9), but it also tells us to count the cost saying if "any of you who does not give up everything he has  cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:25-34) Have we ever sat and really thought about this verses and our own salvation? Do we present a gospel to others that presents this same message? Because in reality the gospel is not about us, it is about God and His glory.

1 Peter 3:18 

¹⁸For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

Christ died to bring us to God. Too often we idolize the gifts of the gospel and forget that Christ died above all to bring us to God.

So what does this have to do with the immediacy of the gospel? Everything leading up to this is meant to urge us to "make [our] calling and election sure" ( 2 Pet. 1:10) to "examine [ourselves] to see whether [we] are in the faith" (2 Cor. 13:5). I don't want people to doubt their salvation, because the Bible in 1 John 5:13 tells  us that we can be sure. But at the same time John in that very same book also tells us that if we go on sinning we walk in darkness, if we don't obey His commands we are liars, if we hate our brother we are liars and the truth is not in us. 

If we are liars we know it. And truthfully there might not be much time left for any of us. Our lives on earth could end at any minute, but we tend to live as if the opposite were true. The story in Matthew 8:18-22 has been weighing heavy on my heart lately. A man walks up to Jesus and tells him he will follow him wherever he goes.When Jesus replies that "the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" another man speaks up and says "let me first go and bury my father." Jesus responds not just by saying "leave the dead to bury their own dead," but he also leaves. He doesn't pursue the man and try to convince him of anything he just leaves. Jesus lets him have the desires of his heart, and we never know the end of the man's story. 

I think too often we have this same mentality when approaching the gospel. We have a checklist of stuff that we need or want before we follow Jesus, because we don't treasure Him above everything else. We have not counted the cost. The truth is this isn't Biblical and we need to be aware that our time here is short and that our lives could end at any minute. Honestly we might not have another moment later in time to decide to follow Christ, because we cannot guarantee our next breath. The gospel's message is urgent. It's about dying to self right now and picking up our cross daily to be a part of something better so that we will be able "to enjoy God and glorify Him forever". I know our culture chooses to ignore death and even attempts to hide it, but as Christians we should see the hope and gain in the end of earthly life and the beginning of an eternal life with God.

Along with everything else I want to stress the importance of spending time along with God and in His Word. Yesterday I listened to a Francis Chan sermon titled "The Most Important Lesson I Could Ever Teach." It was all about how the most important lesson he ever learned and could ever teach is how to read the Bible. I completely agree with him, because things drastically changed in my life when I began reading the word for myself last summer, I actually started following Christ. My prayer for anyone that reads this is that God will put a desire in your heart to read the Word and to desire and take ownership of His truths no matter how uncomfortable they may be. God will change your life if you come to His Word searching for truth it's a promise in Scripture, and I have seen the fruit of it in my life.

Isaiah 55:10-11

¹⁰ As the rain and the snow
       come down from heaven,
       and do not return to it
       without watering the earth
       and making it bud and flourish,
       so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
 ¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
       It will not return to me empty,
       but will accomplish what I desire
       and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

2 Corinthians 6:2

²For he says,
   "In the time of my favor I heard you,
      and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

Philippians 4:9

⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Romans 3:22-26

²²This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.