Recently, I have had the pleasure of hearing Danny Jones, Senior Pastor at Metro Life Church of Orlando and the Overseer of all the southern SGM churches, speak on "Revival" and what that looks like in the life of an individual. Midway through his message however Danny gave a quote by Bryan Chappell, author of The Wonder of it All, and one paragraph in particular stuck out to me which I thought might to helpful to a few.
"No force, nor any other means, contributes more to the buliding of Chirst's kingdom and the destruction of the dominion of darkness than your personal, daily commitment to honor Jesus in the place where God has called you to live, work, love, learn, struggle and even play."
I found this quote to be quite powerful in the simplicity of its argument. What Mr. Chappell is saying here is an enormous claim. Essentially, he is communicating that there is nothing we can do bring more glory to God than through our daily commitment to Him. And it makes perfect sense. Avoiding all implications of legalism, we must strive to honor our savior in all that we do. These means that we hold nothing back. We must commit the way we live our life, the way we conduct ourselves at work, the way we communicate our love for one another as in the affections of Christ, the diligence in which we apply ourselves to our studies (I know this one might be tough), the way in which we humbly submit ourself to His graces in times of hardship, and even the way in which we strive to have biblical fellowship with one another (should there be any other kind of fellowship?).
What I am most fond of within this quote and most grateful for to Mr. Chappell is in the fact that it leaves no room for turning aside. Let me give an anology to further communicate what I mean. For most of my life I was a swimmer and I can vividly remember every time my father came to watch me race. Without fail, before every event he would say, "Leave it all in the pool Kyle." What He meant was for me to give it everything I had, so that when the race was finished I could say with confidence that I had in fact, "left it all in the pool." I think that God would hold us to the same standard in our daily commitment to honor him. He has been most gracious to our behalf and deserves all of our energies to bring Him glory.
Hopefully this has encouraged some to continue to strive for the end of the race and fight the good fight. However, we must not make the mistake of accomplishing these things to earn the favor of God. It was received the moment that we placed our trust in the accomplishments of Christ and the works that did. This does not mean that God would not want any one to sense His pleasure when we are obedient to Him, but that we humbly recognize we are able to obey, because the Son of God obeyed first.
-Kyle Glick-
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
That's a really great analogy and great quote.
When I hear an exortation to "give it all you got," can be tempted to give in to legalsim without even knowing it. It's almost like it's unconscious. I think you did a good job of providing a proper balance, though, when you made the point that it's not about earning God's favor.
Post a Comment