In the following video, Piper both in effect answers the first question to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and also reminds us that Missions is a means to an end, not an end in itself:
May God bring in a rich harvest of worshipers,
-TurretinFan
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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2 comments:
I think I've heard maybe one sermon from Piper. This short clip is very good. I'll have to check out that book from Jonathan Edwards or Piper's book!
TF,
last year I was in Fort Worth, TX musing on the fact that Texas Christian University was having a serious "mid" life crisis I suppose you could describe it as having. They were debating whether or not to take the word "Christian" out of the name and just be forever after known as TU instead of TCU!
What! I thought and then I pondered and pondered some of what I was taught as a young student of Ministry because of this debate.
What I hear in this Piper clip is similar to that teaching early on in my Christian ministry. Our sole purpose in this life is for and to the Glory of God. It is a teaching coined: "Purpose and Vision".
To use the "body" analogy, I point to the fact that there are parts of the body that do little more than cover the frame and that's it, it does not do much more than cover. Fingers and toes, eye lids and nose, ears and hair all have "more" function than a place under the armpits or on the back thigh or on the back of the neck. All these places on the body are as much a part of the body as the other more "useful" parts. My mouth and what I do with it seems to play a major role in the future of my body life.:)
While thinking along these lines this verse "came alive" within my spirit as the Holy Spirit made me understand my sole purpose in the next Life is, what is what is in the next Life and in this life I have the opportunity to prepare myself for it:
Rev 7:14 I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Rev 7:15 "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
I quickly realized that if I do not live for God in this life/bios and for His Glory I will not in the next Life/Zoe when I leave this life/bios for the next Life/Zoe.
That struck me and shook me to my core causing me to become aware of all that I thought and did. I began asking myself "is this for the Glory of God" or for some other purpose?
It was quite a wake up call for me as I saw how lax I had become and how unwilling I was to have everything, everything I did for the purpose of Pleasing and Glorifying God first! How did I become so dull and luke warm for the things of God's Glory?
Now I encourage those "with" the Spirit to make everything they do for the Glory of God, hotly.
Recently as some difficulties have come up afresh and anew this verse has taken on a "Life" of its own for me:
Psa 50:14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High,
Psa 50:15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."
I do believe and so I encourage us to be more thankful and prayerful continually in light of this Prophetic indicator from Paul:::>
2Ti 3:1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
2Ti 3:2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
2Ti 3:4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
2Ti 3:5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
2Ti 3:6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,
2Ti 3:7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
Difficult times are on the horizon and we have been fairly warned to call upon the Lord in the day of trouble, He will deliver us, we will Glorify Him! How much more then can we be filled with thanksgiving and praise in times of blessing and plenty?
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