missions

i was reading the a chapter of don't waste your life by john piper the other day.  also, reading holy discontent by bill hybels.  a dangerous combination, for sure...

holy discontent had a line that is sticking with me... he says,

Friends, in what other life are you going to go all out?  We all have one shot and one shot only to leave a lasting legacy--a definitive mark on this world... A legacy that says, "I have been trusted to carry God's message of hope to an aching, fractured world in need, and I refuse to rest until my role in that is fulfilled."  page 136 (holy discontent).

what a great line!  what other life?  we live that way, don't we?  as if our time here doesn't always matter.  or, we live as if what we are building is going to last forever...either way, it is not reality. the opposite is true.  what we build here isn't making it into heaven and every minute here counts!  i ought to live that way...

Piper states this from the Bethlehem Institute Affirmation of Faith

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. (p162 don't waste your life) 

wow!  what a great thought!  missions is a temporary necessity, but worship abides forever! worship, like singing?  not exactly, yes, but that isn't all of it.  worship like a life style.  worship, like giving.  worship, like loving.  worship, like thanksgiving!  that kind of worship, your life.  my life.  the fuel for missions is that God's name isn't being worshipped!  God alone is worthy of honor and glory and those things are going out to far less things than God.  

somehow in my life, right now, these two thoughts are being connected.  they are birthing something in my heart.  but i didn't get the ultrasound...so, no idea what it is yet...  but, it is very cool.  i always thought God would pop something into my head and poof! there my idea would be and attached to it would me a road map.  i am finding, right now, He is slowly unfolding something in my heart.  it is a lot less like a poof and a lot more like a process.  i think it always has been, i was just looking for the wrong thing.