January 31st. Ozzie threw this down…
Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the gospel of God. Personal holiness is an effect of redemption, not the cause of it. If we place our faith in human goodness we will go under when testing comes.
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
How many times have you been guilty of thinking that a person’s salvation was dependent upon your behavior and holiness? I do it all the time. It’s good youth ministry! Don’t drink, don’t cuss, don’t smoke, and don’t marry a girl who does those things either. Doesn’t that sound like a life-giving, exciting relationship with Jesus?
Don’t get me wrong - most of the stuff on the don’t list are good ideas. (Of what NOT to do.) It’s just that I think most of us see that stuff as EVANGELISM and it isn’t. I’ll just be a good witness and people will ask me why I live the way I live and I’ll tell them JEEEESUS! I got two words for that - horse hockey.
Most people are too self-absorbed to notice how someone else is living. Plus - that kind of emphasis steals the spotlight from Jesus and shines it on us.
Galatians 5:9, The only thing that matters is faith manifesting itself through love. Proclaimers of the good news - in both word and deed. That’s faith manifesting itself through love.
Thomas Merton put it, “A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.”
Huh…I will have to reflect on that.
I may be wrong but the way I see it is the reason the things you said are bad is mostly because they focus on the self when we’re supposed to focus on others.(mostly God, but still others) Now I may be wrong about that and if so please let me know.
Grant I gotta agree with ya. It seems like the Christian community is starting to become more concerned of their looks and their acts, more than how they represent Christ.
Oh on a side note, why did you take my Blog off your links?
“I want it all”, we ALL experience the goodness of God. Common grace is shown to all by God, thus the reason we’re (believers and non-believers) are still alive, have the sun shine upon us, and the rain fall to the ground. I understand the statement’s meaning, but I would have to disagree with it. Just because we’ve experienced God’s goodness does not make us saints. Rather, it is God’s goodness that MAKES us saints (Romans 8:29-30) in Christ to further become partakers and proclaimer’s of God’s goodness and grace.
As far as our primary objective being to proclaim the Gospel, I would actually disagree. Our calling is to love God with everything we have. Out of that love relationship with Christ, we grow more like Him in character and actions. Therefore, our main calling as Christians is to love God…everything else stems and overflows from that. If there is (and I believe there to be) a disconnect from that love relationship with Christ (losing our first love?), then the next best thing we can do is “act” like we’ve still got that relationship going. We’re raised as kids to “take it on the chin” and to “suck it up”. Even if we’re dying on the inside, it’s atrocious to think of actually being TRANSPARENT. We continue with the facade of Christian maturity and lose our first love.
Mayebe I’m way off on this…I’m sick and tired, so the logic isn’t flowing as well as normal.
hehe, sick and tired - a great state to do theology!:)
I think it is our primary objective. I think that is the ultimate way we show love to both God and others. I can think of nothing more loving than introducing someone to the One who will change their life forever.
When JC unpacked the two Greats, it was always in the context of proclaiming good news - the Jews questioning him about the Greatest Commandment, the disciples on the mountain before he ascends - it is in the context of proclaiming the gospel.
He doesn’t seem to draw a distinction from lifting Him up as love and proclaiming the gospel.
Then again, what do I know.
Watch out! I’m climbing up on my Soap Box.
I’m sick and tired of hearing others tell us that we should be “holy” or look “holy” because it will “be a good witness”. Also, if you do something wrong (cuss, drink, go with girls who do) you aren’t “being a good witness.”
Is that what Christianity is all about? We all act perfect so others will look at us and say “I want to be perfect, I need to become a Christian!!” No, they look at that “holy” appearance and either say “You hypocrite” or “I could never be like them” This is NOT A GOOD WITNESS.
Christians aren’t different because they are perfect, but because they are forgiven, have hope, and love one another. I think if we let the non-Christians see more of our faults and how we can take them to the cross, the it would be much more attractive. Having hope in the face of personal struggle is something that unbelievers greatly desire. That’s what a relationship with Christ is all about.
We need to live our authentic lives around non-Christians and then they will be attracted to HIM, not us.
GREAT WORDS. Thanks, Ozzie and Grant
I agree with Tom, Grant, and Ozzie.
On the other hand, we can not ignore the direction toward holiness; however, I think that holiness is really something that exudes from Christ being formed in us. It isn’t a bunch of rules and behavioral attributes that we force on ourselves through sheer will power…it’s something more. Perhaps something a bit more mystical.
Just some quick thoughts.
Zach - are you gonna post more than once a month?
haha ….
I’ll give you a second chance, my young jedi apprentice. Trying posting once a new moon. That would be good.
G
Dave English reminded us this weekend on our men’s retreat that our purpose is for intimacy with Christ. If we make that number 1, we don’t have to worry about the rest. It won’t matter what others think. “Seek first his kingdom and rightousness and all these things will be given to you as well” Mat 6:33.
Okay, I hear you, JLo, but here is the danger of that - Monks have done that/attempted that for centuries and to what impact on the culture/world around them?
I think intimacy not born out in “proclaiming” falls short of the “salt and light”/Love God AND Love Others message that Christ preached.
Then again, what do I know.
Yeah, those lazy, self-absobed, non-impactful monks! So what if they spend their life copying the ancient manuscripts and making sure not a letter was dropped from the originals to the copies to the copies of the copies so that the world could have the Living and Active Word of God.
Just to redeem myself from my scathing comment above, I do agree with you, Grant. I think what Jason (and I think I tried) communicated was that when we seek Christ first and our biggest concern is for intimacy with Him, then the proclaiming comes naturally as does the loving of those we are proclaiming the gospel to.
I believe that everyone here agrees that the Christian world has a tendency to focus on appearance rather than depth of relationship with Christ (though there is a great revival of this going on all over the place). As Christ said to the Church at Ephesus (Rev 2:1-5), we have (as a church in general) foresaken our first love. We do all the right things (vv 2-3) and probably do them out of the correct motivation, but we have focused too much on the “doing” and not the “loving Christ”. Our focus needs to be reversed to Loving Christ and out of that ever-deepening relationship with Him to proclaim the gospel.
I got nothing but love for my Fayetteville Connections!
Well, if you ever don’t have nothing but love for the Fayetteville Connection, then just bring that to the table online.
Stumin clan vs. The Community. You’re toast!!!
Also, as a reminder, several of us play H2 every Tuesday night between 9:00 and 11:00 PM. See ya’ on the killing end of my sword!