Grace For The Journey

  Deep inside of every human being is the need to discover the answer to this penetrating question: What’s the point?  There are, of course, only two possible answers: the first is you; the second is God.

So . . . what’s the point of your life?  Is it you? Or is it Jesus?

When you are the point, life becomes all about your success . . . your fulfillment . . . your happiness . . . your significance.  Your goals are rooted in what you want and how you want your life to work out.

The key question you continually ask and order your life around is,

“What’s in it for me?”

When you become the point of your life, you point only to yourself.  As someone has said, “At this level of living you have shrunk the size of your life down to the size of your life!”

On the other hand, when Jesus is the point, life becomes all about the advancement of His kingdom, regardless of the cost or circumstance.  You main goal becomes knowing Christ and living by His power (Philippians 4:10 – “… That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection …”).

The key question you continually ask and order your life around is,

“What’s in it for the King and the advancement of His kingdom?”

Jesus becomes the point of your life,

And

When He is the point you point to Him.

This might be a moment for some self-examination.  Is what you are currently doing advancing the cause of Christ’s kingdom?  Or are you busy building your kingdom?

Are you the point of your life or is Jesus the point of your life?

Only the transforming power of the Gospel can keep Jesus in His rightful position as the point of life.  Grace empowers you to live for another King and His kingdom.  You are able to look past your own good and live for the good of others and the glory of God. Your life expands beyond the borders of your own cares and concerns to the cares and concerns of Christ.  This is living large for a glory beyond your own.  This is “big living,” lived by “big Christians,” who are living doxologically – living coram deo, before the face of God – living for the glory of God.  Everything in life becomes an act of worship and echoes in eternity.

Adam and Eve lived this way in the Garden . . . until they changed the point of life from God to themselves.  Instead of pointing to their Creator, they pointed to the creature (themselves) and plunged all of creation into a catastrophic Fall, where the entire created order turned inward and plummeted downward.

Apart from Jesus, we are every bit as willful and rebellious and self-absorbed as our first parents.  But after Jesus comes into our lives, we have the ability to make Him the point of our lives once again.

The grace of the Gospel enables us to point up to Jesus and out to others.

In doing so, we live the way we were originally designed to live

– for God and His magnificent glory.

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey …

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

 Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”