Pursuing Purpose

Recently I have thinking about my actions and where I have been spending my time. The question that I have been continually asking myself is this, am I living a life of purpose? Do I pursue activities that are glorifying to God or am I content to live in my rut and do things just because I have always done them.

The conclusion that I came to is that if claim to be a sold out Christian who yearns to see God's name glorified, how can I not be purposeful in all my actions? My life is too short to waste time on activities that in essence have no purpose. Should not all my time be spent in areas that make God's name look glorious and majestic?!

Many people in Orange County are very busy people and it is good to be busy and not lazy, but our busy lives should be much different than non-believers busy lives. They love to play sports and study hard so that their name my be glorified and they may think of how great they are in their own eyes. But as Christians we are not our own masters and we have a different name besides our own to glorify. Therefore, we MUST focus on engaging in sports, clubs, etc that actually do glorify God's name. I pray that we will not buy into this culture and be busy for busy's sake but instead we should be busy for God's glory! This is a serious issue at hand for we must evaluate who we are truly living for!!! We must be purposeful and planned in our actions. As Christians we have to pursue purpose in our own lives so that God's name may be glorified!

So in conclusion, I think it is crucial that since we are called to glorify God in all things(1 Cor 10:31) we as Christians should ask ourselves a few questions:

• Where do I spend my time?
• Why do I spend my time in these areas?
• Is God's name really being glorified in whatever areas I am spending time?
• Am I content with how I am spending my time?

And lastly..

• Am I pursuing purpose in my life and actions so that God's name may be glorified?
  

Majesty!

This blog is titled and focused on discussing the AWESOME power of our God.

Yesterday morning our soccer team went on a hike and it was truly awe-inspiring to be surrounded by such beauty. At the peak was an amazing view as the sun was just beginning to come up(it was a really early hike) While looking out from the peak, I was overwhelmed with the majesty and divinity of our God. The thought that kept on coming to mind was that Truly creation screams out for God to be glorified! One can not look upon such beauty and ignore the glory of the Creator. And to take it even further is the thought that this earthly, majestic beauty can not even compare to the magnificence of God. Moses could not even look at God's face, but instead could only look at His back and even though his face was still glowing for days and they even had to put a veil over his face! And that was only after seeing the back of God!

I inserted this picture to give a visual image of what man and this world calls magnificent or majestic. But as majestic as those mountains may be, they pale in comparison to our Creator. May we never forget that we serve an awesome, infinite, eternal(think about that one for awhile) God! All of His creation cries out for His name to be praised, but the question is do we focus on the creation and forget Creator? May it never be! My prayer is that we will recognize how truly passionate God is about His own glory! All creation was made for the sake of His glory and I pray that we will recognize the great lengths He goes to glorify His own name. So, in turn, we must go to great lengths to make sure that we are doing all we can to glorify His name!

Who Prays for it More?!

I just got back from the best week of summer yet, Revival 08! It was so awesome to see God's work and how He glorified His name through the justification of new Christians to the continual sanctification of current believers. All these thoughts of Revival have caused me to think about not only "Who wants it more?" but "Who prays for it more?"

If we really want and desire for Revival to come, isn't only natural that we would be praying for it ALL THE TIME? Whatever we want and desire should manifest itself in our prayer lives. We talk about what we like and want, so it only makes sense that we pray about what we like and what we want. So test yourself, if you really want a Revival to happen, do you even pray about it?

Furthermore, when we pray, what are we praying for? I am so ashamed of my prayers sometimes because it is almost as I forget who I am praying to. When we pray, we are bringing our requests before the Creator of the heavens and the earth! So, why don't we ask for AMAZING things to happen. Do we pray that one person will get saved today or that 1 million people will get saved today. God WILL glorify His own name so why don't we ask Him to do it in a magnificent way. We should expect God to work in astounding ways and we need to pray in such a manner. I fear that we have grown so content with little things happening that we no longer expect God to work in shocking manners. We should pray for another great awakening! Why pray for just one person to get saved when you could pray for EVERY person you know to become a Christian? God has dominion and power over all of the earth, so why don't we ask Him to glorify His name in a monumental fashion? We must remember who we are praying to! If we pray with the right motives, there is nothing wrong with asking God to do PHENOMENAL works among the world. He is a phenomenal God, so shouldn't we pray for His name to be glorified in phenomenal ways?


So when it comes to Revival, if it is truly a desire of our heart we should be praying for it continually. If we are not praying for Revival, well then we don't want Revival. And if we are praying for Revival, how are we praying? Do we pray that Revival will take over one high school group or that it would take over the whole world? May our hearts and prayers be set on Revival and seeing others saved, but let us not settle for only a few people getting saved for we desire God's name to be glorified through thousands and millions getting saved for His glory!

Get Serious!

So i am departing from song inspired blogs and transitioning to conversation inspired blogs, which tend to be my favorite : )

I recently had two conversations which called into question how I would relive high school and what I would do differently.  It took little hesitation for I instantly knew what I would have changed if I could have gone back.

When I was in High School I lived under the allusion that there was no real pressing need to get super serious about being a Christian.  I was a good kid and did all the right things but never had that ADAMANT desire to grow and seek after God and Jesus in a radical manner.  It grieves me that I wasted away years of my life being just a mediocre Christian!  So my challenge to my readers is, are you getting serious?

PLEASE do not waste another moment in getting serious about your faith.  Time is a gift we take for granted.  We feel that we deserve life and we are so wrong!  We deserve nothing but death and it is a gift that we are allowed to go on living given the disgusting nature of our sins and our rebellion against God.  So we must understand that now is the time to get serious!  Why wait? Are we putting it off because we want to have fun or have a good "high school experience" or "college experience".  This is complete and utter foolishness!!  If this is what we believe, then we are in love with the world and what Satan has to offer.  It shows that we enjoy the vain passing pleasures of this life as opposed to the eternal joy that God offers.  And furthermore, what makes of think that we will ever get serious?  There will always be excuses and it never becomes easier later in life to get serious for the distractions and responsibilities pill up which is why it is so crucial that we get our priorities right now!

So, get serious!  Start living radically for Jesus Christ today!  Forget what your friends will think or what fun you think you might be missing out on.  You are commanded and called to get serious today and if you say that you are a Christian than this is what you MUST do!  Satan is very serious in how he attacks you(1 Peter 5) so shouldn't you get serious in how you respond?  There is a battle going on and if you aren't living seriously for Christ then you are losing and it is a complete and utter travesty.  So please, let us all realize, by the grace of God, that we must get serious and start living radically for Christ today, or we may never will.

Pain is Pleasure?

To stay on the theme of blogs inspired by songs, this one is inspired by "Jesus I my Cross have Taken" This is a classic old hymn with lyrics that are nothing short of shocking!
I love the progression of this song, as it starts out with justification and moves through sanctification and ends with glorification. My favorite verse, however, is the third which reads

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure!
Come, disaster, scorn, and pain!
In Thy service, pain is pleasure;
With Thy favor, loss is gain.

I encourage you to slowly reread those lyrics and take a moment to meditate on what they say. Like I mentioned above, these lyrics, to the world are shocking. It is complete and utter foolishness and idiocy to the world in which we live. Brethern, do not be decieved, the Christian life is to be lived in COMPLETELY different from the way in which the world lives. We are going directly up stream and there is no other way around it than that. If we truly desire to live the lives we are called and commanded to live, we must first understand that we are living exactly opposite from how the world lives. But before I digress too much I will get back on the topic to which I originally set out to discuss, the above lyrics.

These lyrics are kind that truly require deep and serious meditation. There is no much that I can write outside of asking you, my reader, a series of questions.

• Do you really believe these lyrics to be true of your life?
• Do you really care less about earthy riches and fame?
• Do you really believe that pain and suffering for the name of Christ is pleasure?
• Can you lose all that is around you, family, friends, material possessions and still sing that the Lord is good?
• Do you love the Lord enough that everything else is so worthless and meaningless that it doesnt matter where you live or how you are persecuted but all that does matter is that you are serving the Lord and following His every command?

Think about it, pray about it. We're called to live radical lives, but the only question is... are we?

Heaven Bound

So this blog is inspired by two songs: Joyful Noise by Flame and O For that Day (the quality isnt great on the link) by Enfield.

Both songs speak of heaven and the future that lays in store for those who are truly Christians. These songs and thoughts of heaven have been on my thoughts recently especially in light of the missions trip that I just went on with the high school group from Compass Bible Church. During the trip the students were challenged to view people as souls instead of how the world sees people. This comes from 2 Corinthians 5:16 where Paul says"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view."

As I read this verse, and most of 2 Corinthians 5, which is very future focused(name of my blog :) I began to meditate more on the eternal reward that lays in store and there are a few thoughts that came to mind, so here they are:


First of all, It made me greatly desire to be in heaven with my Lord and Savior. As 2 Corinthians 5:2 says, "Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling" I looked up the Greek word for longing and it is the same word that is used in Philippians 1:8 where Paul says that he is longing with the innermost part of his being. MacArthur noted that this word of longing is the strongest Greek word used to express compassionate desire and love. I was convicted by the fact that my longing and desire to be in heaven with my God and Father pales in comparison to Pauls. I need to yearn for heaven with the innermost part of my being and be continually praying for Christ's return so that I may be in His presence praising His name. Instead I desire things of this earth, even spiritual things, when in reality I should be desiring that God's name will be praised and glorified and that day will come with Christ's return. So I am praying that God will work in my life and keep me focused on heaven and what lays in store so that I may be resolved to live more radically for Him!

Secondly, thoughts of heaven and Christ's return also instilled fear into me. I can not speak for my readers, which is probably only my roommate and parents, but if I have a final tomorrow, all I would be doing tonight and right now would be studying as hard as I possibly can. In fact I would probably only sleep 4 to 5 hours, if that, because I would want to be prepared as I possibly can. Why is that? Because tomorrow is the day of reckoning, where I am called to see how much I have learned and what I have done with the information given me and much of my grade depends on my performance. In a similar manner, if I am supposed to live as if Christ's return will come as a thief in the night, 1 Thess 5, then why am I not more active in my Christian living. Should I not spend all my free time spreading the Gospel, shouting it from street corners hoping to save souls from the coming condemnation. And even in how I live my own life, if Christ was going to return tomorrow, would I spend so much time worrying about a career or my future or instead focus on living each moment completely for Christ? I have been challenged to live each moment as if the day of reckoning is coming tomorrow for I will be held accountable for all that Christ has given me, Mtthw 25:15-28, and I just like I want to be prepared for my final exam, all the more do I want to be prepared for the day I meet my perfect and holy God.

My third and final thought deals with the awesome majesty of God. While I could point to numerous passages that tell of the amazing indescribable splendor of our creator I will simply tell of how important for it has been for me to DAILY meditate on the attributes of God. I find that when I truly understand my position before God and I am in awe of who He is and His nature I can live more effectively and battle sin more ferociously as opposed to the days when I do not focus on who God is. I pray that God may grant everyone a greater knowledge and understanding of who He is so that we may humble ourselves before Him and be in awe of His might!

In conclusion, I am eternally thankful for the gift of salvation that has been given to me and I pray that I will yearn for the day of Christ's return along with living in a manner that reflects the imminence of His second coming. The purpose being that my heart will be more in love with God and His Son so that I may better glorify His name and proclaim His truths across the world!

RESOLVED

So I just got back from the Resolved conference a couple of days ago and it was AMAZING! It was in blazing hott palm springs but the heat didnt keep 3400 hundred people from showing up to worship the Lord and hear the truths from His words! Though all the speakers were excellent, I personally felt that John Piper was the most convicting

Piper has a great mindset and I definetly reccommend reading some of his books(Desiring God, A Hunger for God, the Pleasures of God) It was very encouraging to first of all see the life that he leads and how the Lord has been faithful to grow him and make him a man of wisdom and maturity who handles the Word with reverence and accuracy. Furthermore; he is a man who is unabashed and unashamed about the Gospel and is adamant about the Glory of God being furthered. This is my favorite part about him and his sermons because they both point solely to the glory of God. Piper, by the grace of God, understands how all things must be lived for the glory of God and sees how things practically can be lived for the glory of God. While i could write more on this I should keep it short and save more later :)

But all in all, a very very good God glorifying conference that left me and my family encouraged and focused on glorifying God and focusing on Heaven so that we may live today in a manner the reflects Christ and thus glorifys God!