Dear breakfast companions, what work has God entrusted you to do this day, this week, this month, this year, this life? What abundant life has He asked you to live? What voice are you hearing to guide your life today? Jesus lived by every word that preceded out of the mouth of God, from the Father's heart. (Matthew 4:4) His food was the Father's will: "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." (John 4:34) He lived committed to God even when it was hard: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not MY WILL, but YOURS BE DONE." An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22:42-44) Are we committed to do his will? Paul knew he was committed to telling the truth about eternal life to the Gentiles and that the apostles, James, Peter and John, were committed primarily to the Jews. Of course the story of Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection, had to be told everywhere to deliver people from their spiral of sin and death. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) This was the Good News of the gospel of Christ. This was the message Paul received and gave his life to when He was called by Christ, and he knew that it mattered not who he was in the flesh. What mattered was that those called of God answered that call and reached the lost with the message that he expressed to his spiritual son, Timothy: Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst. (1 Timothy 1:15)
God has called sinners to repentance, and then He has blessed us with spiritual gifts as the Bible states, But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” (Ephesians 4:7-8) Everyone in the body of Christ has been given a special purpose, a gifting, not only to fulfill God's will, but to image Christ as well. Although made in the image of God, we are all unique. We have different bodies, fingerprints, countenances, and personalities. Every person found IN CHRIST reveals the true nature of God through his or her life as we are obedient to his will and follow him. For those outside of Christ, sin and disobedience mar the image of God and lead people away from God. IN CHRIST, as his collective body, we display God's glory and his attributes even more magnificently than we can as individuals. As more people are gathered into the kingdom, his beauty is manifested to the world to an even greater magnificence. This was the task Jesus gave to his disciples and to Paul: Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16) As a flower bud opens up to reveal its glory, it becomes more beautiful as the days pass. Likewise, as more people are added to God's family, God's beauty and glory are manifested more fully as light in a dark world. Every person committed to God adds uniqueness to God's family on Earth. We are his glory individually and as his body we reveal him to people looking for hope. The world will see God and his loveliness through us as we dedicate our lives to his purposes, his will. Sometimes, his will is hard as with Jesus on the cross; at other times life is peaceful and tranquil. Regardless, our daily task is to live each day directed by him, seeking to do his perfect will. We follow Jesus who said, I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. (John 5:30 KJV)
The world sees life as an organic blob formed accidentally through the eons of time. To the evolutionist, we are just mature amoebas. But God sees us as unique life, created for his glory and eventually, because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, as an integral part of his family. Each of us has a divine purpose for living. As Paul told the church in Ephesus, For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) The apostles were to tell the story of Jesus Christ to all who would listen. Our tasks are myriad, depending where we are in the body of Christ and the demands of our daily lives. But all of us have a specific task to carry out in this life. All of us because of God's love for us are worth more than the most precious thing in the world: the blood of Jesus Christ, his life. He paid the supreme price that brought us into the family of God. We were without hope, but the Bible says, But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13) We who are IN CHRIST now have an eternal home. We can live in peace regardless of our earthly situation, without the anxiety of not knowing who we are and where we are in this time capsule called Earth. We know we are destined for heaven, and God, OUR FATHER, truly did give us abundant life: eternal life with HIM. As Peter wrote: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10) No, we are not organic blobs, mature amoebas: we are a peculiar people, created for eternal life with God, aliens to this finite life, JUST PASSING THROUGH TO THAT HOLY CITY WHICH HAS FOUNDATIONS, WHOSE BUILDER AND MAKER IS GOD. (Hebrews 11:10)
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