Bryan had the blessing of serving communion at the church we are fellowshipping at, and he shared something that had me pondering well beyond the end of the service. He talked about the fact that, when someone get's lost in the "wilderness" one thing they can do as they try to find their way out is to go to the highest point to try to get a "lay of the land" and see where they are in relation to everything else.
And, as a believer, as we look at the "lay of the land" in history, in the world, and in our own lives we will see that all roads lead to the cross. All roads find completion in the Savior.
It had me confessing and repenting as I sat in the seat...because I realized that, many times, all the roads in my life do not lead to the cross. Some of my roads lead straight back to me...to my goals, my desires, my plans, my glory.
I was convicted about the many "roads" I take each day...and yet take them with no thought to the gospel. How many times do I wash dishes and never contemplate how to glorify God in doing them? How many times to I clean my home in a way that makes the gospel shine bright...not just my floors? How many times does anger flare up in my own heart to a situation, or at my kids or husband when it doesn't go my way? My roads often lead back to me instead of to the cross.
What joy there is in repenting! What joy there is in walking anew! What joy there is in fixing our eyes on the cross...the only perspective in life that is truly real! And, what joy there is in the encouragement of God's Word and the words of fellow believers!
I was reading Kimiko's (my sister-in-law)blog tonight and the article she linked to could not have been more suited for my ponderings today! It was a sweet gift from God...and I thought you might like to "unwrap" and read it, too! It was posted on the "Desiring God Blog" back in November:
Gospel-Saturated Dish-Washing and Diaper-Changing
by David Mathis
In his new book,Gospel Wakefulness, Jared Wilson talks about how all of life is relevant for mission. From drinking coffee to changing diapers, from cutting the grass to washing dishes — all of life can be lived to the glory of God by those who have been awakened to the gospel of our exhaustively sovereign Savior.
He writes,
One of the attendant aims of missional evangelicalism is to challenge the compartmentalizing of the Christian faith that we see within the Western church. We are fantastic at itemizing our schedules, and even if we don't assign God a very large bracket, we are constantly remorseful that we "haven't made much time for him." While such compartmentalizing — as if "time with God" can or should be hermetically sealed off from everything else — is a natural symptom of our culture and environment, it also reflects a bad theology.
The truth is, the day does not belong to us. It is not our day to do with as we please. We serve a sovereign God. He created the end from the beginning, knows our future exhaustively, and is firmly in control. He made our days and they belong to him. As such, isn't it a bit arrogant to begin with the idea that each day is ours and then worry about fitting God in? Instead, we should work at the humble awe of knowing all of our moments, every millisecond, waking or sleeping, are perfectly accounted for within the economy of heaven.
Let us stake the flag of Christ's kingdom into the soil of our first waking moment. Drink your coffee when you get up, of course, but drink it to the glory of God. Then carry on in this way all day, no matter the task, be it menial or notable, so that each day may be a living prayer that God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is what it means to live a gospel-saturated life: it means being so conscious of the greatness of the gospel that changing diapers or cutting the grass is as much an act of worship as singing a praise chorus in a church service….
Jesus Christ is Lord over my heart, and he is Lord over my hands, and he is Lord over what I do with these hands, and he is Lord over what I say in my heart while I'm doing it. In submitting to the lordship of Christ, then, I do not treat washing dishes as wasting time I could be spending doing something "meaningful," but rather as a service to those who eat in my home, as a service to those who would have to wash the dishes if I did not, and as an offering of thanksgiving to God that I have food to eat, dishes to eat it on, and running water inside my home to clean with.
To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, there is not a square inch of our lives that is not claimed by God and counterclaimed by ourselves. If we believe God is sovereign, however, we will see all of life as mission and be led to submit the square inches we otherwise hold so tightly to the Maker of inches and hands."
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