This week for chapel there was a speaker named Brad Buser. Some things that he said have been very convicting to my selfish heart and have shown me more of the bigger picture of God’s plan for humanity and how much I want to be a part of that. I just want to share a few things that really challenged my thinking:
We know that we all are going to lay our life down for something, whether that be for a certain career, or for our passions and desires, or the people we love. Take for example what Jesus did, He laid down His life for a sinful humanity who He knew would reject and despise Him. Am I allowing God’s passion to be my own? Or am I putting my own desires, wants, and passions in the place of God’s? Do I have a passion for the world?
We are sent people. God has bought us with His precious blood and now has sent us out into the world. In stark contrast to mainstream American culture, we don’t have a right to have roots and comforts in life. We are pilgrims and strangers in this world. (1 Peter 2:11 “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”) We are all expendable, freed by the grace of God from sin and evil and hell, to allow God to use us for His glory.
Jesus’ last words on this earth to the disciples was the Great Commission.
I do not have to answer for everyone, but I do have to answer for my own life and whether or not I lived my life as a vessel for Christ. We are men and women under orders. (2 Timothy 2:3-4 “Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.”)
God is not timid throughout Scripture about our purpose on earth. He tells us throughout the Old and New Testament; “Its not about you, its about me.” He is a jealous God and is deserving of all glory. God is asking us to jeopardize our lives and ruin our futures in order to live a life devoted to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15 “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”)
I know this is all very hard to swallow and is definitely destroying all that my selfishness has envisioned the Christian life to be. But I wouldn’t trade this understanding for the world.
As I look ahead to a future life of ministry and missions I am scared and a little apprehensive still, not knowing where God may take me. One thing I do know is that my God is capable of all things and that He is the giver of life. The fact that I am still on this earth means that God has more for me to do.
