What's the use?

Have you ever asked yourself what impact you could possibly have on this enormous world and how, in God's name, you could ever make a difference in the marketplace for the sake of your Christian faith?

Discouragement is the mark of an authentic Christian walk. If this wasn't so there would not be so many messages of encouragement contained in scripture. Discouragement tests our patience and perseverance and so helps develop our character. Discouragement prompts us to draw together with the Body in fellowship. If you never experience frustration and discouragement you aren't growing. Absence of trial is absence of walk.

FACT: The world hates what you love and what you are drawn to.

FACT: The world hates the truth. It hates Jesus because He is offensive to the fallen world - and you are offensive by association.

FACT: You are an alien in the world and your Christian Faith is not wanted here.

Jesus prayed for His disciples in John 17:14-17: "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."

And so, here we are - now strangers in a strange land. If this world doesn't somehow seem stranger to you since you've been "saved" - you've got to wonder ...

Our encouragement is this; We have a power, the power of light in darkness that is irresistible. You know that and you know that without a doubt. Yet you doubt - things. The darkness MUST retreat from the light. The darkness is displaced by the light. You know that. The flood of greed, dishonesty in the name of profits, poor character, inconsistency, carelessness, posturing and unsavory business practices that turn your stomach amplifies the enormity of the lost souls out there who are grasping at all the wrong things.

And it doesn't let up. Just because you are Christian doesn't mean that God plows a path of ease and pleasantness before you. If anything, it's gotten harder. Or has it? Or has it just become more obvious to you now that the blinders are off and you can now see things plainly - as they really, truly are?

Let there be no mistaking, everyone around you recognizes the light that now shines through you. That light convicts them and they don't like it. Some will be draw to it. Those drawn will be those who have or are coming the end of themselves - just as you did. You have a testimony for them.

Some (most) wish you were the way you used to be. They wish you liked the things you used to like. You're no "fun" any more. But you know you can't go back. Once in a while you lapse and give yourself to those old things but there is nothing in those behaviors - they don't satisfy - and you are left hollow and loathing yourself for having given in to them. Yet you find yourself thinking thoughts and doing things that satisfy your need to take control and look out for yourself and control the outcomes. You try to play the game the way the others do - and you stink at it more and more and you hate it. You're heart isn't into those approaches. You can't jump out of God's hands. Once you are His you are HIS.

The light of Jesus shows the way to peace. That light is in you. And so you convict those around you but you also represent the way toward peace. "God has placed eternity in their hearts" (Eccl. 3:11) and so while you offend and convict them they are also drawn ...

My Pastor recently taught on the three things that Believers (you and I - - - the Church) do; 1) We Pray, 2) We share the Gospel and 3) We wait for God to bring the harvest. That's it. We share the gospel first through the mysterious and remarkable testimony of our transformed lives.

In the midst of the race of the marketplace, the temptation to throw down your faith and plunge thrashing back into the mire is strong. But you also know you can't. When you try you're even more miserable and those around you scratch their heads and marvel at your hypocrisy. You lose your testimony. Your ministry suffers. YES - YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN STEWARDSHIP OF A MINISTRY.

God created everything, God uses everything. What's the use? EVERYTHING'S of use right down to the most minute gesture, thought, impulse and interaction. Your life is a string of those minute things - one after another - a string of precious pearls of life intersections. Let go, let God use you. That's the use!

Blessings,
Bill