Quote and Question of the Year

From Dave Black*:

New Testament Christianity is not reserved only for super saints who are doing all the “right” things church-wise. It is for every believer, whatever your church structure, whatever your location or occupation, whatever your circumstances in life. Jesus wants to live His life through us in the world. The only question is: Will we let Him? Our problem today is that we want it all, and we want it now. But we have to choose our priorities. Yes, I will continue to call us back to the Scriptures as far as church life is concerned. But my constant prayer is that God will help me to do it with a broken heart and with a renewed willingness to make a deliberate calculation to accept sacrifice and suffering for the sake of following Christ.

I’d like to make the message in this quote the focus as we move into the new year. I like discussion. I like disagreement. I think we grow by being challenged and then studying out why we believe what we believe and then hopefully changing accordingly.

But if we stay in the church, in our homes, or in whatever atmosphere is comfortable to us while we try to straighten out our theology, and everyone else’s, we will never get around to the mission of the church. And you know what else? We will never manage to settle all the issues either. The more we look inward the more contentious we will get over more and more minor issues.

But if we put first things first, many of these other disputes will seem much less important, and it’s possible that as we serve, we’ll come to understand more of the way God sees them.

Let’s ask this question in every decision of 2012: How can I let Jesus live his life through me in this situation?

*(From Dave Black Online. David Alan Black is the author of Energion titles Christian Archy, The Jesus Paradigm,  Why Four Gospels? and the forthcoming Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?. Used by permission.)