future before present

i just read an interesting article on teaching children that the Bible isn't really about them, but about Jesus. i've heard this idea often, and have used it several times myself. but something struck me new tonight.

what if we won't be fixed? what if our generation isn't going to get it right? what if, for all our hope and angst, we fail to live up to what we want the church to be? what if we stay broken til God calls us home?

but that wasn't too big a revelation. after all, i know we won't be perfect this side of heaven. but there's a flip side to that coin that i've rarely considered.

what if instead we focused on getting it right for those who come after us? what if our aim was not to make it all right, but to set us moving that way? what if we could take some of our junk to our graves, no longer to disturb the church? what if we could give our disciples a better start than we had?

now a risk is there, that we'd set our hope on a golden age this side of the resurrection, that we'd become like parents who set all their hope on their kids and drive them into the ground in seeking perfection. but maybe by aiming at the betterment of our disciples instead of ourselves, by putting the future before the present, maybe we'll do more good for our King and His kingdom.

maybe that's why the "great commission" isn't about us being better men.

repentance

a just had a renewed experience of this, and i thank God for it, as the giver of the grace of repentance. i find that often of late, i have been repenting before i act on certain sinful thoughts. i'm not sure if that makes much sense to some, but if the inclination in my heart to sin is sin (at least in some sense), then i'm repenting of that by not letting it follow through into action that leads to death.

last summer, at the advance09 conference, matt chandler spoke on the need for a culture of confession and repentance and dependence on the Holy Spirit. he said about how one falls into sin (in this case, so as to disqualify oneself from ministry) "it's easy, here's how it happens. it takes time, but there's a thought that goes rogue, the Holy Spirit says, 'uh-uh', and the person goes, 'leave me alone'."

i've found that to be true in me, so if i don't act on a leading of the Spirit in repentance at the moment i feel the temptation, if i don't run from it right then into the arms of God and into the ways He provides for the mortification of that unholy urge, then i will inevitably do something i will regret later. so i have to run, and obey quickly, for time is against me. God, help me. thank you for already answering for Jesus sake.

encouragement in the face of opposition

Exodus 1:12 - "But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel."

even in the days of israel's slavery in egypt, opposition caused growth. we see this throughout history, in that both israel and the church multiplied and spread under presecution. this is why i sometimes pray for the removal of our great freedoms in the u.s. in the same breath that i praise God for them, in order that His church might grow and be purified here; that like the martyrs of old and those around the globe, we would need to seriously consider our faith and what it means to us.