November 10, 2011
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Identity
Child of God, do you know who you are?
If the church aka the children of God (Christians individually and corporately) look like the world, talk like the world, think like the world, act like the world, respond like the world, find joy in the same things the world does, what will the WORLD think? What will brethren think? What will we ourselves think?
And I'm not saying that Christians can never sin. We will sin just as the world does yet not as the world does. Though we ought not to sin but wage war against it because of the gospel we strive not to, but being sinners we will sin. The world sins and we will sin but not like how the world sins. Because the world sins in darkness and responds as one in the dark thus they dwell in it, but we are not in the dark, we are in the light and when we sin, we sin as ones in the light because Christ has brought us in the light with all sins exposed, confessing repenting, being loved, and shown immeasurable grace from God because as we were yet sinners Christ died for us. These are things that the world can never imitate nor manufacture.
So when the gospel impacts a man it changes EVERYTHING.
The Gospel is the FREE gift of God that costs you your life.
What will it cost you to follow Jesus Christ?
Will it be REASONABLE RISK or RECKLESS ABANDONMENT?
What has/is following Christ costing you?Does the flow of my life make sense in light of the gospel and in light of eternity?
There has been a lot of heavy convictions and it has caused me to focus so much more on gospel centeredness and especially being on the mission. I love it! Because when I am this obsessed about God and captivated by Him, ALL the temporal obsessions of this world such as school, grades, money, ping pong, porn, food, things that cause worry or stress, etc. all just seem so much smaller and insignificant.
Following Christ is counter cultural and it ought to get weird and crazy because we have a great and crazy love. As a result I feel out of sync with the rest of the world because the song of my life is not in harmony with the flow of the world, but it harmonizes beautifully and wonderfully with the Will of God, this is the gospel rhythm and living on mission - doing all things for the glory of God and the final salvation of the many. I love it! This is my joy and delight! Living for anything else fails me, only leaving me dry and empty, lost and confused, going nowhere.
So light of all this why would I ever hold anything back? I will give up what I cannot keep, to gain what I cannot lose. I will follow Jesus Christ even if it costs me my life because He is worth it and He is gain. Selah.
Dear God,
Please sustain me and incline me because I am so prone to wander, already I can feel the world threatening me with lies like, "get back in sync with us or else you'll fail all your classes and become a hobo and you'll be a disappointment to your family!" Even if that is true, I don't want to lose this focus on You and with eternity stamped on my eyes and the love of God engraved in my heart and the gospel intertwined with ever fiber of my being I desire more of God, I don't want to be LUKEWARM, I don't want the church to be LUKEWARM, I want us to do everything for the glory of God and the final salvation of the many. Keep this fire blazing in my soul. You are a Consuming Fire. Unashamed, unreserved, unrestricted worship of the life is what I want to offer You because there is no place I would rather be then in Your Love and Grace and nothing else I would rather do that the things for Your glory and the final salvation of the many. Therefore help me, because I can't live like this without You.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Jean Patrick Fisher
