God is the end.

my friend maggie has repeated something in conversation with me a couple times recently. a verbal processor, she can word things much better than i can. this is what she said:

God is not the means to a good end, He is the end.

my church, as much as i love it, i don't believe has done a good job of honing in on this truth. too often Christians believe that being a believer means that God will bless you with a good life - a steady job and income, a cute family, and a white picket fence. but i'm not sure that God intends this of us. Christ intends that we be his fully devoted followers, and that definitely entails sacrifice. every single one of Christ's true followers in the New Testament had to sacrifice something in order to follow him and obey him. most of his disciples traveled around proclaiming the gospel; many of them were imprisoned. all of them GAVE to the needy. i don't think any of them really had the white picket fence of their time.

believing the gospel and following Christ - in its entirety requires a sacrifice.

what i'm not saying is that every Christian should move to a different country and become a missionary, but i am saying that you should be missional at home, you should support other Christians, and you should give what you can do those who don't have what you do.

i also am not saying that you have to enter into ministry to fully serve God. whatever your career is, you serve God through diligence.

but at the end of your life when you enter Jesus' arms, he won't say, "way to be career-minded and have an awesome car!" all that matters is what concerns him.

Jesus is not the means to a good end, He is the end.

though hypocrite that i am, i realize and even understand this and have a hard time doing it. prayers for me please!