Last night my community/small group finished our study on John Piper’s book, “Don’t Waste Your Life.” I’ve mentioned in some of my other postings how much I have been drawn to this study. Yes, probably because it’s a missions & evangelism focused book, but even more than that, it reaffirmed the purpose for missions and the purpose for our lives…to worship and bring glory to our Father. Jesus, while praying to the Father, said, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.“
Throughout my reading, there were a few points that were very meaningful & thought provoking. I really wanted to share some with the team as well as all of our support. Hopefully some of these will be as thought provoking & inspiring to you, as they were to me!
“Missions exisit because worship doesn’t. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. Worship, therefore is the fuel and the goal of missions.”
“The apostle Paul said that his life and ministry were riveted on a single aim: ‘I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (1 Cor. 2:2). That is astonishing, when you think of all the varied things Paul did, in fact, talk about. There must be a sense in which, ‘Jesus Christ and him crucified’ is the ground and sum of everything else he says. He is pushing us to see our lives with a single focus, and for the cross of Christ to be that focus.’
“Oh, how many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and providing for the family. So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud–just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 videos in the evening (during quality family time), and lots of fun stuff on the weekend—woven around church (mostly). This is the life for millions of people. Wasted life. We were created for more, far more.”
“Paul said, ‘I die every day!’ (1 Cor. 15:31). Jesus said, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’ (Luke 9:23). Daily Christian living is daily Christian dying. The dying I have in mind is the dying of comfort and security and reputation and health and family and friends and wealth and homeland. These may be taken from us at any time in the path of Christ-exalting obedience. To die daily the way Paul did, and to take up our cross daily the way Jesus comanded, is to embrace this life of loss for Christ’s sake and count it gain.”
“Missionaries and ministers of mercy don’t come from nowhere. They come from people like you, stunned by the glory of God and stopped in your tracks. Sometimes it happens when you are going in exactly the opposite direction.”
