The View From Here

On this day that we celebrate our nation’s independence I would like to stop and think about something else for a moment.  We are taught in our western world that every human being is autonomous.  We can make it on our own (by stepping on others to get there).  This mindset trickles over into our religion as well.  What we need to understand is that this is not the case at all.  Today, as it should be everyday, I want to declare my dependence on Christ for everything.  He is the reason I am who I am. Without Him I would not exist.  He is the reason I have my wife, my family, my (fill in the blank).  Without Him the world that I live in would cease to exist.  Every breath I take is a gift from Him that should be used for Him.  So exactly how dependent am I on my Savior?  Wholly, comprehensively, entirely, totally, utterly, perfectly dependent.  So as we celebrate our nation’s independence, keep in mind the dependence the whole world has on God and exactly where we would be without Him.

Brian

I am finally getting around to joining my the church I have been attending for a little while now. As a part of joining there is a Membership Agreement that you have to fill out. On the back of that form they ask for you salvation experience. Here is what I wrote:

“I was raised in a Christian home and I heard the gospel from my parents and my older brother from the time I was born. I grew up attending Abilene Bible Church with my family. I was saved by God’s grace when I was very young. My mom tells me that I was five when I told her that I had accepted Jesus as my Savior. I don’t remember the exact day (I am sure my mom has it written down somewhere) but I do remember a change in me that was a definite result of Christ replacing my heart of stone with a heart of flesh that was malleable in His able hands. Life went on and by the time I was in the last years of high school I had been brought low by the deceit of sin in the world that so surrounded me. I was in sin and did not even acknowledge it. I knew it but I did not want to change and did not see any reason to change. I was blinded by sin. I existed in the state for four years or so but then God began calling to me. He renewed the spirit within me apart from anything I wanted or could have done. This was a great assurance to me at that time of the sureness of my salvation that I claimed before.

Growing up I had been envious of people who had a saving experience where they saw themselves rescued from a life of sin. I did not have this as I was saved at an early age. Maybe God allowed me to go through this period to give me this change-of-heart experience. I know he put me through this time to prepare me for future ministries I have had and will have with people He has sovereignly put in my life.

Going back to God calling me back to Himself. Over a period of a few months He worked in me a gave me a zeal for His truth and His love for others. At this point I felt it was finally time to be baptised in obedience to His Word. I was baptised in October of 2001 at Calvary Bible Church by my dad. Since then I have been continually seeking to be like Christ. I have had my spiritual ups and downs but these have only drawn me closer to my Savior. My desire is to server Him in any way He calls me and to share His amazing saving grace with all I come in contact with either by my words or actions. My goal is to store up as much spiritual treasure in heaven as I can while I am on this earth so that when I get to heaven and meet Jesus face to face I can cast it all at my God and Savior’s feet.”

I am sure I will add more to this through the years but this is very briefly how I came to know Christ and how I want to know Him more and more as my life goes on.

Brian

seek (v) - to endeavor to obtain or reach; to go in search or quest of.

Matthew 6:33

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”

I like to think about words. I don’t know exactly why. Maybe it is because I want to make sure I understand what a word means and implies. The above word is a good example of one I have been thinking about recently. Seek. As you have already read if you are this far, it means to endeavor to obtain and to go in search or quest of. It implies action and not just any action, it implies intense action. When I was a kid we played a fun little game called hide-and-go-seek. I am sure everyone reading this knows what I am talking about. When we played this game it was one person’s job to go and find everyone else that had hidden. The seeker had to go looking. He couldn’t just sit in a chair in the living room and expect to find everyone. He had to search high and low to discover where the hiders had cleverly hidden themselves. You get the point.

In the same way, we as belivers in Christ are commanded to seek God’s Kingdom and righteousness and seek this first. This is not something that we can expect to accomplish by going to bed with our Bible on our head. There is hard work implied in seeking His Kingdom and righteousness. We have to go looking, studying, and laboring to find these things. We have to go in quest of God. We have to endeavor to obtain the knowledge that he has provided for us to learn about His kingdom and His righteousness. Are we seeking as much after the thing that we should be seeking first as we do after our career, getting through school, or being liked by people? Granted, we should not let these things go by the way but it is the order in which we seek them that is important. By seeking God first and then, through Him, seeking all these other things we can be assured that “all these things will be added to (us)”. By seeking in the proper order, God tells us that through Him will come our completion.

When will I get this right? My days are so distracting that I find myself seeking things in the wrong order. I endeavor for things that, if I would seek first Gods Kingdom and righteousness, He will add to me. Endeavor to be righteous in His sight and strive for His Kingdom by bringing others to know who He is through our words and actions and God will give to us the things we need in life.

Brian