No more tossing dynamite

So I've done it. I've taken the plunge.

No, I didn't elope over the weekend... but I did officially start my big-girl blog.

Supposedly I'm supposed to have a theme or focal point to my overall writings in this blog, but unfortunately my Sanguine points are far too high for that. I do, however, feel quite strongly about social justice, passionate living, vivacious Faith, and unrestrained dreaming. So I feel like most of what I have to say (or will get to eventually) will fall into those kinds of areas, but clearly I'll be all over the board. If you know me, this is no big shock and awe. ha.

I believe in worship for worship's sake. There is an incredible message by John Piper that talks about worship being an end to itself, it may even be called that actually. Anyway, the way he explains it in his message makes it very clear that for me to manipulate worship to be anything other than worship, is selfish and I'd be missing the point. God created us to worship; to ascribe worth to Him by any means possible, in spirit and in truth. (1 Corinthians 10:31, John 4:21-24) I take this to mean that He (God) not only wants us to choose to love and honor Him, but that we are to use all our physical and spiritual gifts, dreams, strengths, weaknesses, resources and yes, even personality traits, to bring Glory to the Father. I love that. There is nothing that I touch that can't bring Glory to God.

What about winning the lost? That's a resource we all possess. Do we win the lost so that they can go win more and then THEY can go win more... ?

(If that's the only reason, it feels a bit like Amway- Global Multilevel Marketing, and I'm not really interested. Thanks anyway God... I'm not really looking for a position in retail.)

No, I believe sincerely that we are to win the lost so that they might be saved EVEN IF THEY NEVER PROVE TO BE A MULTIPLIER IN THE KINGDOM. Who cares? I mean ideally everyone that is saved would crave the experience of sharing the Gospel that rescued each of us from failure, depression, and death. But do I want sinners saved merely to promote my cause? Not a chance. I want each individual soul to be saved so that each will be rescued from pain and suffering. I want them to know the vivacious life (abundant life- John 10:10) that God desires to bless each of us with when we choose Him.

Andy Stanley says that "Followers Fish." And yes, we want to encourage them to do so (Andy Stanley rocks it again!). But the day that I look at a lost soul and see a mere pawn in my ever-growing tier of religious salesmen, I've dehumanized that person and missed the whole crux of the Gospel. If I'm seeing it that way, the salesmanship way, I'm building MY kingdom, not His. In Matthew 28 we get this instruction starting in verse 18: 

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (19) Therefore go and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

To me, it doesn't sound like an evangelistic free for all, blitzing through towns getting conversions and leaving the churches and townspeople still clueless as to what they are to do next. No, I believe it's something a bit slower and quite a lot more sincere. "Make disciples of the nations, " He said. Look at Jesus' life. It took Him YEARS to train and develop the Twelve Disciples. Jesus had to be there through some of their failures and keep at it when one or two would want to bolt for the door. Jesus pursued these men and persisted through many of the milestones of life with these men. He was able to compel them later to do something with all the knowledge and training they had been given over the past faith-building years, because of the TIME and PATIENCE and GENTLENESS and WILLINGNESS TO LISTEN that Jesus so freely poured out for them continually.

If a leader reprimanded me constantly and berated me for my inevitable failures, or maybe ignored me all together and found justifiable reasons to give up on me as a future leader or even just a healthy and whole free-standing Christian, would I be so anxious to sign up for any mission he or she wanted desperately that I grab hold of? I'm inclined to say no. People all want the same thing: to be treated with decency (I think Brooke Fraser- Ligertwood said that). It's true though. People want to know that they matter and that they are worth trekking through mud and fire and desert for. They MUST know this, in fact, before they are in the slightest convinced that they have something to offer.

As a lay-leader in the church, I am confident that for this very reason we have so many half-hearted servants and less than brilliant efforts for the sake of our church's portion in the kingdom. People don't know that they are worth it, and for the most part, they certainly haven't had the time and life-trials alongside a genuinely loving leader long enough to be confident in their value and strength to even know that they have something grand and glorious to offer.

What is that thing to offer, anyway? The story. Christ's story. Their personal story... Time and Love.

Everyone who has accepted Christ as their personal Savior has all three of those things. And those are the three most needed things in world. Why are we not offering? Much less offering with excellence?  ...  We haven't been told that we have something worth telling, some time worth sharing, or a love that's worth the work.

Once we know these things, yes, we will be compelled to adopt that great commission ourselves. Until then are you fishing with patience and skill, or with dynamite tossed in the lake?

... But don't ask me. I'm no expert.