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"!