Wanting to Do Something Great

I've always had high aspirations, high goals for myself, sometimes ones that are nearly impossible, or highly unattainable. Everything I do, I strive to be the best at. Now this can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing.

Obviously, being the best at everything you do can be a great thing! Especially as Christians, one of the ways we can be great witnesses is through serving by example. The way that we live our lives should have people questioning what makes us so different. Whether it's being the best employee an employer could ask for, the best employer an employee could ask for, the best friend anyone could ask for, the best teammate, the most determined, the most humble, e.t.c., when we utilize our gifts to their maximum potential, people begin to take notice. When they take notice of the success of Christians (and not necessarily success in worldly terms, but that does definitely take a part of the equation), they begin to question what they don't have. That opens up the perfect door of opportunity to evangelize.

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However, we can get caught up in being the best too much. I think there are two ways this can happen. First, in striving to be the best, or the most successful, we could begin to judge ourselves on worldly terms, such as what accomplishments we have, what trophies, medals, awards we have accumulated. That is not successful in God's eyes. Secondly, we can get sidetracked by our mission to become the best. In fact, when we are so occupied at being the best, it can almost become a religion. It occupies our every thought, it's the reason we are living, it becomes our everything.

One of my favourite autobiographies is Me, Myself and Bob, the story of Phil Vischer's life (creator of VeggieTales). Not only is this an amazing story of perseverance, dedication, and extreme vision, but also of extreme devotion to God. Perhaps one of the most insightful statements that Phil Vischer makes is "I am growing increasingly convinced that if every one of these kids burning with passion to write that hit Christian song or make that hit Christian movie or start that hit Christian ministry to change the world would instead focus their passion on walking with God on a daily basis, then the world would change. What is 'walking with God?' Simple. Doing what He asks you to do each and every day. Living in active relationship with Him. Filling your mind with His word, and letting that word penetrate every waking moment. Because the world learns about God not by watching Christian movies, but by watching Christians." 

I'm not sure what I can add to that; it sums up everything perfectly. Are we focused on our own dreams, or on God's dream? Sure, God's dream might be that one day we do happen to have a hit something, or win a gold medal, or achieve our wildest ambitions, but first and foremost His dream is that we are working on our relationship with Him. His biggest desire is that we are walking with Him. Everything else doesn't matter.

As a sidenote, Me, Myself and Bob is an incredible book. I strongly encourage everyone to read it. Phil Vischer is blessed with vision, and a piercing clarity. His knack for putting that down into clear, concise words is also perfect. His amazing testimony has been a true blessing to my life.

Reading Isaiah

Isaiah is perhaps the most profound book of the Old Testament when it comes to revelation about Christ. Actually, much of the Old Testament contains prophecy or typology (types of people, institutions, sacrifices, e.t.c. that symbolized Jesus) regarding Christ, as the Messiah. The New Testament prophecy after Christ's ascension moves to revelation regarding Christ as a King, but that's a topic for a different post.

Isaiah is mainly a prophetic book that focuses on Christ's coming as the Messiah, but also the deliverance of Israel from slavery. The main idea is that the Messiah would release Israel from the bonds of sin, through salvation. In fact, the name Isaiah means Yahweh is Salvation. The book contains the word salvation 26 times, compared to 6 times in all the other prophetic books combined.

The book is also used to support the Substitutionary Atonement theory of salvation. Substitutionary Atonement states that Christ died as a substitute for others, instead of the people dying themselves. With the penalty of sin being death, Christ acted as our substitute and bore all of our sins, so that we wouldn't have to be punished. Isaiah tends to focus on the suffering of Christ in this act. His symbolism and imagery is piercing, and is commonly used in many Christology studies.

Interestingly, the book of Isaiah is structured much like the whole Bible is. The first 39 chapters can be compared with the first 39 books of the Bible, more commonly referred to as the Old Testament. Just like the Old Testament focused on judgement, so do these first 39 chapters, with judgement on immoral men the chosen focus. The next 27 chapters can be connected with the 27 books of the New Testament, which focus on a message of hope. Of course, that hope is Christ, our Messiah and King.

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Reading Song of Solomon

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For some reason, this book of the Bible is commonly tossed under the rug by Christians. The topic and descriptions included seem to embarrass or even shame many believers. Of course, considering the so called taboo topic of relationships, it seems like Christians want to entirely avoid discussing love. To be honest, it almost seems like we act like school kids when it comes to the topic, running away so we don't have to deal with it.

However, if we accept that the Bible is the Word of God, that means everything included comes from God. Anything that comes from God is important, including the book, and talk about relationships.

Our world today heavily relies upon relationships, especially of the romantic variety. It seems likes our lives are based on finding that perfect someone. Even if it isn't finding that one special relationship, we all seem to find fulfillment in who we are connected with. Society has picked up on that, and it seems like every major movie, book, TV Show, and even advertisements describe who the perfect person is, what they look like and how they act. Popular culture has also defined what the perfect relationship is, what is involved, including roles, emotions, actions, e.t.c. But popular culture has ruined what God designed relationships for.

If anything, we should be looking to the Bible to find out how God designed relationships to be like. Throughout His word, He lists ways we should interact with the opposite sex. Song of Solomon is just like the tip of the iceberg. In God's perfect world, He had one man and one woman together. Throughout history, men were either built up or destroyed in regards to how they participated in their relationships. Many of Paul's letters also contained helpful information regarding relationships.

Clearly, it is important to God that we have biblically defined relationships. In fact, that's the only way to have a successful relationship in Christian terms.