who am I going to live for?

As we start a new year, I think there is much to be gained in asking yourself this question:

who am I going to live for?

Let’s think about the Gospel in relation to that question: The Gospel says: you are not good enough – but God has come and made you good enough.  And because He has given His life for you – your response is to live for Him.

We see this in the New Testament:

Romans 12:1

¹ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

The Word became flesh

Something to ponder this Christmas.  This poem is by Sam Storms - you can check out his entire post and more of his thoughts on Christmas by clicking here

"God became human!
the invisible became visible!
the untouchable became touchable!
eternal life experienced temporal death!
the transcendent one descended and drew near!
the unlimited became limited!
the infinite became finite!

How To Cleanse Yourself

Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:21-22: “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.  So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”

The application for us is that we need to cleanse ourselves from what is dishonorable by fleeing passions and pursuing Godly attributes.  The motivation for doing this has to be the Gospel (who Christ is and what He’s done for us at Calvary) – but the practical outworking of this happens on a daily basis.  The imperatives to flee and pursue also carry with them the idea of continuing to do this and to make it a daily habit of our lives.

But how do you do it?

Here are a few thoughts that may be helpful:

I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me

The thought struck me this week that we don’t really have words that are able to express who God is.  We, and many Biblical writers (think Ezekiel 1, Daniel 9, Revelation 1), say that God is like this or that – but we don’t have enough words to fully describe Him.  Nor do we have brains that can fully comprehend Him.  And my guess is that on the surface we really don’t like that because it puts God out of reach and beyond us.  But deep down it should be a great comfort to us because if He were within reach and we were able to confine Him with words – then God would be far too small!  God would become less than our language and our minds because both could contain Him.