Start: The Decision

Part 1 of Big Picture: 

A Series On How to Change Your Perspective In Order to Change the World

 

Hey there! I'm so glad that you're joining me on this journey. I hope and pray that this series can be an inspiration in your life; that you can hear the things that you need and implement them. This is a journey I'm on, so please bear with my inexperience and incoherent thoughts that are sure to be here! I'm hoping to make this super practical, so that it's not just good ideas, but a road map of sorts to help us navigate. And just know: I'm praying for you!

So let's get started. If you're reading this, you're probably, to some extent, interested in changing the world. Maybe you have a dream, or good, practical ideas, or maybe you've tried to make a difference and it didn't work so - "farewell to idealism forever"- or maybe you're a genius who has undirected potential, or a successful person who  still feels unfulfilled. Or maybe you're a student who spends half their time struggling to meet deadlines and the other half eating ice-cream and trying not to think about deadlines. I don't know. 

But I do know one thing. If you're going to change the world, you have to do it the right way. And yes, there is a wrong way. Here's the deal. It doesn't matter how much brainpower, motivation, perseverance, time, money, etc, etc, you have.

Without Jesus, it's not happening.

Sure, you can try and do something. You may rescue a thousand orphans, abolish human trafficking, etc, but is that really going to help anything in the grand scheme of things?It's going to help - for a moment - but it's not going to have very much lasting value, and you are going to be BURNED OUT.

But if you have something completely isolated from just "humane help"- something that changes a whole person's life - and you can do it in God's strength, THEN you have something worth giving.

Please understand me here. Don't make a decision here to follow Christ for the sake of being more effective in changing the world. And if you're already a Christian, please don't tune me out. This is for you, too.

Following Christ is a decision that has to be made in light of the fact of Jesus' grace. Because of our sin, we are separated from God.

Romans 3:23 says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

But because Jesus died in our place we can again be with God and inherit eternal life. This is a grace-only deal, one in which our part consists in acknowledging that we are dead without Christ, and that we need Him, thus accepting His grace & believing in Him.

Acts 16:31 says to "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."

This is the message we have to hear ourselves, and this is the message we have to take to the world. If you have never talked to God and surrendered to His grace, I would encourage you to consider it, think about it, obsess over it. It is the biggest decision you will ever make, and not just something to do and then move on. It will become your whole life, and that is a really good thing.

If you are already saved, I would encourage you to dwell on God's grace this week. This is all about Him, not us. Whatever we do, we are able to do because HE saved us, HE gave us life, HE gave us the potential in the first place.

In Philippians 3, Paul basically gives his impressive resume. He could have boasted in it, but instead, he said:

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—  that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." 

The perspective shift for this week comes down to this:

We're not going to be the ones changing the world.  

That's a really good thing, friends. A really, really, good thing. 

This week, as we dwell on who we are, and who He is, I pray that it will spur us on to share His grace with the world.