The Motivator

I've got a couple hours to myself for once, so I figure I should give an update for the ten people who will end up reading this.

The fact that I've been here over a month is neither shocking to me yet nor is it by any means a small thing. Already I feel I've been so far transformed, but at this time I believe it's more in my thinking than anything else. I came here knowing that there was something deeper and more true to the intent of the Father from the foundation of the earth for how His people are to live in their time here. That's my deepest longing -- to please and glorify Him to the uttermost by being pleased in Him to the uttermost. Not simply pleased in feeling secure of my eternity, but pleased to walk in all His divine power gifted to me according to His grace as paid for by Christ. God's not pleased to have me infatuated with Him as a young lover, but rather He longs that I get the love he has for me inside me so fully that it flows out. He's not satisfied to have me simply dote upon him endlessly (although in the right attitude this should be fully possible) but to have me DOING His will, because when His will is done, He wins more of those for whom He suffered.

You know, the good news isn't "man can go to heaven" but "the Lamb that was slain has given infinitely to enjoy you eternally." Most people do not understand this. They hear "it's not about you" and maybe they can end up accepting that. But from there they simply graduate to a more subtle brand of selfishness. Their thinking says "It's not about me. Ok. It's about all men." So from there they go out and learn how to convince as many people as they can (if they have any zeal) to be Christians. It sounds noble. But dare we relegate the gospel to a self-help method -- not the one universally scorned by Christianity but one that applies to mankind's eternity? In other words, dare we be driven merely to improve the eternity of men? "But Jesus died for them!" You need to understand what the angel asks the Lord, "what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you give him breath?"

Man is just an object that God created to love. Man is not the end, it is a means of God getting what he wants: those who freely choose to receive His love and become vessels of it. You're his prized possession. The intern director was preaching a while back and said it like this: "he'd rather have hell than heaven without you." The word calls Jesus "the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world". God knew before creation that man would fall and he'd have to send His son, Jesus knew he'd have to die before "through Him all things were made". Yet God did it. That's how bad he wants us.

Thereby is our understanding of purpose truly birthed and established. For me to be what He wants me to be, for me to do His will in all its fullness for me, then I must take hold of all He paid for me to take hold of that He might receive the reward of His suffering. I heard of two young men who left their home in England having sold themselves as literal slaves just to reach a community of slaves on an isolated island whose master vehemently hated Christianity. They gave up their lives to bring the gospel to an island of slaves and they knew it. On their boatride out from the harbor, as they disappeared over the horizon, a huge yell was heard: "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering!" This is the motivation for ministry. This is the motivation for Christianity. This is the gospel. Not that he saved us so we loved him, but that He first loved us.

It's bigger than me, bigger than mankind. God MUST be glorified. He gives so much, he has suffered so much, he has taken so much grief from us. Oh that men would praise Him!


I don't know how I got off into all that but this is one of the things that's been churning inside me, becoming ever more a part of who I am. God is working in me to will and to do his good pleasure. Stay tuned!