So, today the sermon was given by Dr. Richard Pratt. He was one of Mark Upton's instructors at seminary. This was one of the most convicting messages I've heard in a long time. I cried as I drove home because I felt so raw and exposed.
Dr. Pratt taught on the portion of Matthew 6 that we commonly know as The Lord's Prayer. It's where Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray. Dr. Pratt drove home the point that we tend to focus on the latter part of the prayer, "Give US our daily bread....forgive US.....deliver US." The part we don't really focus on is the first verses which are "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."
Dr. Pratt suggested that the way Evangelical Christians view God is skewed quite a bit. He is our Royal King. That's who this prayer should be directed to -- to a Royal King. It's a concept we aren't familiar with -- this notion of being under a King's rule. He said, "Kings are inconvenient." When you live under a king's rule, you don't live for yourself. What the king says, goes. He is the authority. That's just the way it goes.
The thing that really got me (and many things got to me this morning) was when Dr. Pratt said that if your faith is covenient, that if your Christianity just fits perfectly into your life, that God is probably not King of your life. Ouch. Double ouch. He got me. I am afraid that I've become way too comfortable being a Christian here on this earth.
He also suggested that the Lord's prayer also challenges us to change how we view this earth. Heaven is the standard; earth is the goal. If we are to ask that the Lord's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, that should radically change how we live here. What kind of a legacy do we want to leave as Christians? Do we simply want to make good money, sustain a good job, be kind to others, etc.? Or do we want God's will to be done in our lives and to impact others this side of Heaven? We should do what He says now. We aren't living to escape earth to go float on a cloud and play a harp all day FOREVER. We are to carry the truth of the gospel to others NOW.
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then all these things shall be added unto you.
Showing posts with label christianity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christianity. Show all posts
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Zeal
I'm currently reading a book called True Discipleship by William McDonald. In the chapter entitled Zeal, he writes of a man who was inspired to live a life of all-out dedication to Christ by reading an article by an atheist. This is an excerpt of that article.
"If I firmly believed, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of religion in this life influences destiny in another, then religion would mean to me everything. I would cast away earthly enjoyents as dross, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity. Religion would be my first waking thought, and my last image before sleep sank me into unconsciousness. I should labor in its cause alone. I would take thought for the morrow of eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a life of suffering. Earthly consequences would never stay my hand, or seal my lips. Earth, its joys and its griefs, would occupy no moment of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon Eternity alone, and on the immortal souls around me, soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable. I would go forth to the world and preach to it in season and out of season, and my text would be, "What shall it proft a man if he gain the whle world and lose his own soul?"
"If I firmly believed, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of religion in this life influences destiny in another, then religion would mean to me everything. I would cast away earthly enjoyents as dross, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity. Religion would be my first waking thought, and my last image before sleep sank me into unconsciousness. I should labor in its cause alone. I would take thought for the morrow of eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a life of suffering. Earthly consequences would never stay my hand, or seal my lips. Earth, its joys and its griefs, would occupy no moment of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon Eternity alone, and on the immortal souls around me, soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable. I would go forth to the world and preach to it in season and out of season, and my text would be, "What shall it proft a man if he gain the whle world and lose his own soul?"
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The thing with Christians
So well put by Sheldon Vanauken in his book A Severe Mercy:
The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians -- when they are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in their complacent consecration, when they are narrove and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths. But, though it is just to condemn some Christians for these things, perhaps, after all, it is not just, though very easy, to condemn Christianity itself for them. Indeed, there are impressive indications that the positive quality for joy is Christianity -- and possibly nowhere else. If that were certain, it would be proof of a very high order.
The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians -- when they are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in their complacent consecration, when they are narrove and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths. But, though it is just to condemn some Christians for these things, perhaps, after all, it is not just, though very easy, to condemn Christianity itself for them. Indeed, there are impressive indications that the positive quality for joy is Christianity -- and possibly nowhere else. If that were certain, it would be proof of a very high order.
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