A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and
Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 120). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the
title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
I like the adventure of finding new
coffee shops. I stopped at one this
morning that I had never been to. I
pulled down a street, saw that the sign said no parking 6 – 8 and went in got a
cup of very good coffee spent some time reading and then came out and saw that
I had gotten a ticket. I thought it said
6 pm – 8 am but it said 6 am – 8 pm. So I just got done writing a check to the
City of Burbank because I didn’t really read the details. And that is kind of like how many people deal
with their faith. They don’t really see
the details so they lose out on what God really wants/expects from us.
Mark says, “Most people are bored
with their faith because they are selfish. They think they are following Jesus,
but the reality is that they have invited Jesus to follow them. They are trying
to lead instead of accepting the invitation to follow. I call it the inverted
gospel. And it’s absolutely unfulfilling. It’s not until you say to God ‘whatever,
whenever, wherever’ that you begin living out the adventure God has planned for
you. Trust me, you cannot follow Jesus and be bored at the same time!”
It is all in the details. Mark also says, “We so quickly and so easily
lose sight of what’s really important in life. In the words of Stephen Covey, ‘Anything
less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment
to the unimportant.’ And before we know
it, we’re majoring in minors and minoring in majors. That’s why Jesus kept
going back to the Great Commandment. He reduced the 613 Old Testament laws into
one common denominator: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”
That is a very important detail in
this matter of having a relationship with Christ.
So how does this thought make a
difference in your life today?
So true. We are trained by the world to be selfish. We walk down the supermarket aisles choosing only what will suit our felt needs and then we choose our faith the same way. We buy the 'product' we feel will suit us. We don't need to 'purchase' God because he already purchased us with the ultimate price.
ReplyDeleteThat is so true, Rodney.
ReplyDelete