"comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth--only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair."
--"Mere Christianity"
Not sure how I made it through Wheaton without reading this book, but i finally broke down and bought it. I am finding that I am glad I did.
Thought this was a really intriguing post from a Mark Driscoll teaching. I think it's right on.
This brings us to a startling human paradox. Let me state it simply like this: true freedom is freedom to be my true self, as God made me and meant me to be. But God made me for loving, and loving is giving, self-giving. Therefore, in order to be myself, I have to deny myself and give myself in love for God and others. In order to be free, I have to serve. I order to live, I have to die to my own self-centeredness. In order to find myself I have to lose myself in loving. I have read somewhere that Michelangelo put it beautifully in these words, "When I am yours, then at last I am completely myself." For I am not myself until I am yours (God's and others).
Again this is the radically subversive, and counter-intuitive nature and beauty of the Gospel.
So please check it out, knowing that just because it's on a website doesn't mean it is set in the proverbial stone. However, it may give you an inside look at what we have been thinking and praying about. Please feel free to post some comments or email me with any thoughts or questions you have. Even better, let's get together and talk if you are in the Orlando area.
There is much work to do--in fact, this is the easy stuff. The tough stuff will be actually trying to live out this vision and implement in our context. Conceptual is fun, but not all that difficult. This is why we need people to partner with us. So please visit the partner with us section to see different ways you can get involved. Please sign up for our monthly newsletter if you are not already on our mailing list. We'd love to keep you connected and share our specific prayer needs. Hope to hear from you soon!
Next week Heather and I head out to a 4 day church planting assessment center. In preparation for that I've had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and take 7 PERSONALITY TYPE TESTS! I know they can be helpful, but if I never see another one of those things again I will be okay with it. By the end I just wanted to get through. I don't know if they got more accurate or more convoluted. Who knows. What I do know is that I'm tired and the real assessment has yet to even begin. If you think of it, please pray for us October 22-25.
It's crazy, but it was hard to believe the truth of the Gospel at times this past week. It's like these tests have a way of telling you everything you are not--at least that is my disposition towards them. It became difficult to feel fully satisfied with who I am in Christ, if I can be blatantly honest. I know God is using this season of my life to grow me up and to trust in Him more than me, but it's crazy hard at times. This is why I'm so convinced that the I need a daily work of the Gospel. It has to be more than the ABC's of salvation, but the A to Z of life. Without this daily Gospel in-breaking I am prone to believe the results of an online test--or at least my interpretation of them.
However, God has been very good to me despite my quasi-existential crisis. It's as if He's reminding me that if this church plant actually gets traction and gets going, it will be in spite of me. I guess that's a good realization to have. God seems to like to use our weaknesses to display His strength.
Peace.
So in my "read through the Bible in a year" plan, I am currently in Isaiah. I've read it before. I've taken some classes on it. I'm still not sure I get a lot of it. However, a passage sort of jumped out this morning. Here it is:
Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
who rely on horses, who trust in the multitudes of their chariots
and in the great strength of their horsemen,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
or seek help from the Lord.
Taking a brief moment to remember the context, one quickly calls to mind the fact that the Jews were once enslaved in Egypt. This was the place they left in the great exodus. They had been given their freedom, and now they seem to want to go back. They want to rely on all that place represented. Its apparent strength and status, rather than seeking the Lord. I'm glad things are so different today. I'm glad I never long for my place of enslavement, falsely believing that will satisfy. I'm glad I always seek the Lord. I'm glad I never trust in myself or the things of this world. I'm glad there are no horses or chariots to trust today. I'm also glad I have the gift of sarcasm.
So interesting that we have such a hard time with true freedom. We falsely believe in the promises of "Egypt", not realizing we are enslaved. It's a beautiful thing that the Cross of Jesus never stops wanting to free us, even when we chase after the wrong things. The demonstration of this freedom is perhaps our best apologetic in an increasingly post-Christian world.
