FORGET ABOUT HIS WILL FOR YOUR LIFE!
It's safer to commit to following Him someday instead of this day. - p 120
Growing up in a Christian culture, I was programmed to be obsessed with "finding God's will for my life". I think many of us miss out on what God actually wants for us by searching for "His will", which we turn into a "wheel". It just becomes one gigantic circle that we constantly chase without ever really doing anything of value.
I was also told a lot about "being well balanced", "finding balance in life", blah, blah, blah. You would think the church was filled with gymnasts. That's another part of our American Dream Theology - mental and quasi-theological gymnastics.
Nowhere in Scripture do I see a "balanced life with a little bit of God added in" as an ideal for us to emulate. Yet when I look at our churches, that is exactly what I see: a lot of people who have added Jesus to their lives. - pp. 121-122
That really sums it all up. We just add a little bit of god here, a dash of Jesus there, a splash of Bible, and...wait...why isn't everything working out? Why don't I feel satisfied? God, don;t you love me?!
The God of the universe is not something we can just add to our lives and keep on as we did before. ...Jesus Christ did not die in order to follow us. He died and rose again so that we could forget everything else and follow Him to the cross, to true Life. - p. 122
A little bit of Jesus doesn't cut it. A little bit of spirituality does no one any good at all. Francis Chan says the only thing that does for you is cause you to totally miss what God wants for your life.
What's more, Chan emphasizes that if we just want to live a semi-moral life and attend church on a regular basis, we don't need the Holy Spirit! Plenty of people worldwide live somewhat moral lives and attend regular religious services. We only need the Holy Spirit if we truly want to live changed..transformed lives by following the Way of Jesus Christ.
We've come to think of living for Jesus as "taking up our cross". You know, when bills have to be paid because we buy more than we need, we get a cold, a sinus migraine or the cat's litter box needs to be changed. Nope. I don't think that's what Jesus was talking about at all. People all across this planet do, well some of, those things every day without following Christ. And they do those things with pretty good attitudes, too. No, He calls us to a life of radical commitment. True, genuine commitment.
That commitment only comes about through a genuine relationship. An ongoing relationship. "Instead throughout Scripture we read of a relationship that calls us into an active pursuit of the Spirit." (p. 127) "Living by the Spirit implies a habitual, continual, and active interaction with the Holy Spirit." (p. 131)
So, where are you at?
I challenge you to examine yourself. Look at the "fruit" of your own life and let it be a gauge for you of your own connectedness with the Spirit. - p. 130-131
Thanks for reading.
Darth Baptist
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