It's Not About You . . .or Me

It's about God's glory . . .period. That's the reason for our existence--the reason for the church's existence. The problem is that we often can't conceive of a God who has an agenda other than satisfying our perceived needs or desires. But God has another agenda. We don't need protection from physical suffering or pain, and we don't even need to be wealthy or healthy. We don't need to be entertained. We only need to be protected from anything that works against God's agenda for our lives. . . and God does that. He has a plan and nothing thwarts that plan.

God's plan for man has always had relationship at its center

God's plan for man has always had relationship at its center--relationship between a perfectly righteous, just & holy God and his image-bearing creation. Thus God meets real needs: First, we need forgiveness that makes relationship possible with a holy God and still live. Second we need a love that empowers us who are naturally selfish to have concern for something other than ourselves. Third, we need spiritual strength to change from bad people to good people, not to become good rule keepers, but to become people who reflect the character of God and really know how to love.

If you simply value a better life ( you define it-- better job, better church, better spouse, etc) than you are missing God's agenda--to make Jesus real in you for His glory. But if you pant after God (Psalm 42:1), you really thirst after one thing--an unmatchable intimacy with God, and you have begun the journey of a lifetime. The problem is that we often are willing to settle for "a better life" and we never address our real thirst. That's where addictive behaviors and temptations take foothold. The drive behind the behavior reflects our true thirst, but the behavior represents our own well that we dig (Jeremiah 2:13) apart from God's agenda.

As long as we think we can make changes necessary to make our life work, we will never experience God's agenda in our life

As long as we think we can make changes necessary to make our life work, we will never experience God's agenda in our life. But once we discover that we are little more than children, lost sheep, dead ducks (the least, the lost, and the dead), we can abandon ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit to live life not to merely enjoy it, but to look a little more like Jesus (Romans 8:29--"conformed to the image of His Son") and bring glory to the Father. Brokenness & repentence (death to our selfish pursuits or "conformed to His death-Philippians 3:10) becomes the path to real freedom to love with abandon.

There will always be room for brokenness and failure

In this life we will never perfectly and consistently worship God. There will always be room for brokenness and failure to hold God as our highest treasure. All of our efforts to love will be tainted by sin to some extent and until heaven, our transformation will be incomplete. Yes, we are a mess until heaven, but in the context of community, we get and give glimpses of God's grace and hopefully with greater frequency sense the intimacy of relationship with a God who pursues man at great cost and removes all condemnation through the act of His only Son. (Romans 8:1) It never was about you . . . or me.