a Christian's Rant.

One thing i've been thinking a lot about lately is how we as Christians apply the Word to our lives and live out the gospel daily. it's not enough in this life to just proclaim "Jesus is my savior" but our lives have to prove that He alone is the worthy One, the One we live every day for and make every decision in light of. The call to live for Christ is so much more than tacking the American dream on to the gospel. If you want to know more about why this has been on my mind, this book is one of the reasons. I am going through it with my junior discipleship group at PC and it is convicting. I have found myself in so many conversations lately with people who plan out every detail of life and have reasons why they can and can't follow Christ in the is life. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, "We walk by faith, NOT by sight." If you love and follow Jesus, what does this mean for you? For some Christian women, it means not working outside the home so that they can love and nurture their children in the Lord, not knowing how they will pay for a college education for the kids. But we walk by faith and not by sight. For others, it means taking a step out of their comfort zone to start a spiritual conversation. How will it turn out? we don't know, but we do know that we walk by faith in all that we do. If you look at the lives of the great missionaries of the past who reached out to the lost, who weathered illness and discomfort, who traveled to different cultures with new customs, what differentiates them from many Christians today? I believe it is that they didn't walk by sight, they did not worry about how God would provide for them but trusted in His sovereign hand and that "in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose". This has challenged me when i think about chasing the materialistic American dream. And while I do trust God, it is a daily battle for me not to choose to spend money on things that don't last, to live for today and not for eternity. In John piper's book Don't Waste Your Life, he pleads that we not get to the end of our lives and say, "I have wasted it! I have wasted my life!"...on working my life away, storing up possessions on earth that have no eternal value, pursuing the body of a supermodel...but that we would all live our lives as worship to the One we love. That we would experience the joy and freedom that come from giving everything to Him and walking out our faith every day.