The Great Why of God

Every single one of us asks this question: "What on earth am I here for?". The Westminster Shorter Catechism sheds light by answering it this way, "to glorify God and enjoy him forever". This is what David Platt wrestles with in chapter 4. We all enjoy hearing that God loves us, but as Platt says many of us stop there. We make ourselves the end to the means of the gospel. Yet, as Platt, points out, we are the not point of the gospel. God is. "God loves me so that I might make him - his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness - known among all nations." We are here on earth the be loved by God and share that love with the world. I am guilty of hoarding the gospel to myself. Many times I am content just enjoying God, but I can't stop there. I must get off the couch and share the good news with everyone around me.

In three days I am moving to New Orleans to attend seminary. While there, I hope to learn how to properly teach God's Word. Yet, I also hope to learn how to more effectively share the gospel to all people. After reading this chapter I have become convicted because I have, as he says in the book, thought that God has given me a heart for America. Yet, as good as that sounds I only have a heart for 5% of the world. I am commanded in Matthew 28:19 to make disciples of all nations. So my question for thought today is: How do we, as Christians, make disciples of all nations where we are at? Is it just going on mission trips? Is it just giving money to mission funds like Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon? Or is there something more that we should be doing?

I want to end with the lyrics from a song that I wrote a few years ago that explains perfectly what was talked about in chapter 4 titled "You've Told Me to Go!":

I stand here before you broken and afraid

to share your love with people who don't even know your name.

People whom everyday I look past and walk by

I tell myself that I'm too busy and I don't have the time...

To talk to them and share your name

Declare your glory and fame

But you've told me to go, go and share your love

with people who don't know you and tell them that you're enough

You've told me to go, all around the world

Go and be blessing to every man, woman, boy and girl

You've told me to go!

Sometimes I'm fearful and I admit I don't know why

fear doesn't come from you Lord, it's my enemy telling me lies

I may not always understand why you want me and how I'm of use

But I know that you have called me and there is no excuse

Not to talk to them and share your name

Declare your glory and fame

But you've told me to go, go and share your love

with people who don't know you and tell them that you're enough

You've told me to go, all around the world

Go and be blessing to every man, woman, boy and girl

You've told me to go!

Beginning at the End of Ourselves

I felt like a weak Christian when I read chapter three. In 11 days I am about to start seminary and I know for sure that I won't have to baptize 30 new believers and plant a church before I graduate. If that were the exit exam at NOBTS I don't know how many would graduate, but I can tell you it would be a smaller school. Yet, if we think about Dr. Platt is saying he's absolutely right. In our churches today, how much do we truly rely on the Holy Spirit to work in and through us? It's all about how many butts we can put in the seats and how much money we can raise to build this new building or start this new ministry. We can be so consumed with the entertainment factor, as he calls it, that we lose sight of what we are truly at church for. We gather each week, not to be entertained, but to worship the risen Lord Jesus, hear from His Word and fellowship with other believers. But, if we are not careful we can make church about ourselves and doing anything if we set our minds to it. Before long, we look back and see all that we have accomplished, how many people we have brought to church, how much money we have raised for this or that ministry and realize that we did not include the Lord in the process. It was all of our doing and he had no part of it. This isn't church, it's pursuing the American Dream "in the name of Jesus". Jesus didn't die on the cross so that we can live the American Dream. He died on the cross so that we can be forgiven of sin and reconciled to a loving relationship with the Father. We so desperately need Jesus and we can't live this life without him. I am reminded of a song by John Waller entitled "Something Big", in the song Waller is crying out for God to use his life for "something so big, that it's destined to fail without You Lord, something so great it will take a miracle to do...". That is life we are called to live. A life that, if not for the grace and strength of God the Spirit, would fail miserably. I can't wait to live this kind of life, a life that says "I can't do it, Lord, so you will have to do it through me"!

Too Hungry for Words

Wow, I don't even know where to start about this chapter. Like the first chapter many things slapped me in the face and makes me feel like my faith is nothing. The story about the Asian believers who for 10 days, 12 hours a day wanted to sit in a room risking their lives to hear him teach about the Old and New Testaments. It makes me realize that I am no where near as hungry for God's Word as that. I have countless Bibles in my room which is a good thing, I guess, but many people don't even have a complete copy of God's Word. I wonder if we took away about cushioned chairs and the production that we call church would anybody show up. It was refreshing to hear that people did at their Secret Church. Even then, they were in no immediate danger of being killed for meeting like they were. I wonder if I was born in another country would I even profess to be a Christian?

It hit me hard when he said that our form of the gospel has been Americanized. We have made it so cliche and about us really. We say that God has a plan for my life that is why Christ died, which is true, but as Platt said he died so that we may know God. I have to admit that I don't radically seek him every day. There are many days that I don't even pick up my Bible. I read a quote from RC Sproul "our failure in our duty to study God's Word is not a lack of intelligence or passion. Our problem is that we are lazy". I believe he is right. Many days, I am lazy and don't read God's Word because I don't feel like it. That is no excuse. I am 100% dependent of God, I need him every moment of every day. When I don't read my Bible I am telling God that I don't need him that day and that I can do this on my own.

I am about to move to New Orleans to learn how to rightly handle the Word of Truth. I can study all day long and learn the right things to say and do, but if I, deep down, don't have a true passion and desire to study God's Word and understand that I need him every moment, how can I ever teach anyone else to do the same?

Someone Worth Losing Everything For

I have heard Dr. Platt speak before at Collegiate Evangelism Conference in 2006, I was with the Calhoun BCM. He spoke about being a missionary in a country in Asia that he could not disclose the location for safety reasons. It is unfathomable to me that Christians in other countries are being persecuted for their faith. We live a very comfortable Christianity here in America, and I wander if some persecution would help the American church. What is amazing to me is to read about Christians around the world and they don't want it any other way, they worship the Lord in joy even in the midst of pain and suffering.

I was hit hard by his statement about abandoning everything to follow Christ. We read passages like Luke 9 and as he says "we don't believe it. We are afraid of what it might mean for our lives. So we rationalize these passages away". He again says that "we are giving in to the dangerous temptations to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with". That statement hits me hard. I am about to give up everything I have known for 23 years and move to New Orleans in radical abandon to follow Jesus. But I don't want to just go to seminary, get my degree and then work at a church in a comfortable 40 hour a week job. I feel called to seminary because it is the next step to preparing me for what God is doing through me. People need Jesus, and not the comfortable Jesus that we make him out to be. They need the real Jesus that left the throne of heaven, lived the life we could not live, died the death we should have died and is calling us to do the same. He is calling us to give up our everything for him.