Finally
I see it forming...
The
vision of my purpose. How my life can
matter for God.
It’s
a vision of what He desires from me outside of and/or in addition to my
personal relationship of knowing Him.
He
has given me His heart for His people.
Especially for those who have fallen through the cracks.
It’s
the idea of reaching out to those who have perhaps rejected formal religion but
have deep spiritual needs and a desire to connect with God.
Or
to the people who feel left out and lonely. Those who have been wounded and
feel abandoned. Those who have a deep
need to see God’s love in action.
My
heart is for the people who have or want to embrace Christ but have been
disillusioned by or rejected by the formal church.
I
do not know what shape this vision is supposed to look like, but that group of
people are the ones I have been called to minister to. To love on. To reach.
I
understand their desire and need to reject formality, I grew up with that
mindset.
I
feel and share in the pain of their rejection from the ‘rule makers’, I grew up
with that as well.
My
heart is to reach out to those who desire to know God. To know Truth.
To
teach them that ‘sin’ is not simply wrong things that people do or have
done.
But
rather that any ‘wrong’ actions are the acting out or the result of ‘sin’. Sin is actually one thing: it’s the rejection
of a relationship with God.
It
is choosing our own way rather than choosing to acknowledge Him as God and
submitting to His will: and His will is for us to know Him.
I
have a huge desire to love people regardless of their actions, and show them
that God’s greatest desire is to be in relationship with them.
It
has everything to do with relationship and very little to do with actions.
Knowing
God is loving God and realizing His love for us.
All
of our actions are in truth simply reactions that stem from either knowing the
love that He has for us, or a lack of knowing it.
For
a believer it is because of being loved by God and knowing Him that we love in
return. And the love of - with - and for
God is nothing like what the world sees or portrays.
It
is His love that produces a desire in us for obedience to His will and to grow
in our relationship with Him.
And
it is through that relationship that the Holy Spirit provides the impetus,
power and means for living a renewed lifestyle, it’s not through the efforts of
the person.
Christ
was sent to demonstrate that love for us.
He is the means for us to know God and the only way to understand
Him. He is the bridge to God. He came to set us free from our bondage of
self willed living, and show us the way to freedom. There is no freedom, no joy, no life, no love
outside of knowing the Father.
I
want to help teach people where the importance in life is and help them refocus
on what God has asked of us.
I
want to point them to Him in truth and fellowship and to totally sidestep the
idea of working to be ‘good enough’.
Actually
I want to work at NOT allowing that idea of working to be ‘good enough’ to
drive them.
I
don’t want to throw out any of the Scriptures at all. I do want to highlight
the reason for the Scriptures which is to bring people back to God – back to
fellowship with Him.
To
tell His story of loving us and His desire to live in a close relationship with
us.
I
want to tell them that our relationship was severed because we have/had chosen
to live our own way.
That
the source of our anguish in life is the lack of that relationship with
Him.
But
I also want them to know that we can be reconnected to Him through Jesus, the
Christ.
It
all boils down to this: God has two rules, 1) love, and 2) love. To love God and to love our neighbors.
I’ve
lived in very rebellious times in my life, of hating all forms of external control
– the rule makers, and rejecting anyone or anything that would try to make me
measure up.
And
I’ve also lived the very opposite extreme lifestyle of conservative strict
rules and of a religious mindset of trying to look like I’m good enough, trying
to show that I do measure up.
Neither
of these ways of living was fulfilling and neither worked. They were both bondage.
I
don’t know if my perspective is unique or not, but I do know that maybe I can
help to be a bridge between these seeming opposing extremes.
I
do not want to make puppet people out of anyone, or turn them into the kind of
people that do not live truth. Truth is
vital for us all.
I
want to help bind the body of Christ together and help us to live in one accord
as a true body.
In
my mind the real body of Christ is a diverse group of uniquely made people who
fit together to do God’s will.
As
His body we live and function using the gifts that He has given us to love Him
and love one another. Period.
It’s
a matter of returning to basics.
For
me, if there were nothing ever added
or taught or learned about God than this - it is enough.
There
is more here than any person can achieve in a lifetime in these two rules: to
love and to love.
If
I know those two things and desire to live them I can be who He created me to
be.
I
have no idea how it will work out yet, but I want to live out this vision.
I
do not know where He will take me.
I
just know that because I am loved, I must love people and in loving them it
will help to set them free.
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