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Romans 1
Today we get into Romans, and Paul gets right into the heart of the matter. He starts with a longer introduction, then mentions that he’s been held up from physically coming to Rome, and then he starts into his theology later in the chapter. And it is the verses from 18 on that really caught my attention this morning. Paul really is describing a situation that is so common to us, and that I think is essentially a root cause of a lot of the troubles we face societally today. Paul says that the issue, the primary issue in his estimation, is when we worship created things rather than the creator God. When we pursue creation as an idol rather than God...that’s when the trouble starts. In our terms, when we pursue happiness rather than purpose, there is a problem. When we pursue security over surrender, there is a problem. When we pursue desire over discipline.
When we place happiness at the center of our attention, it creates some perverse incentives. This is because happiness is relative. Further, happiness is about ME, whereas ‘love your neighbor’ is about...obviously, your neighbor.
Imagine if we got that right as a church. Imagine if we had a reputation of being all about our neighbor like that. Imagine how attractive Jesus would be. Imagine how magnetic that would be.
Not only it is better for us individually to live a life that is centered on God and focused on pursuing God’s purpose for us, but it is the most compelling way to influence others to do the same. The problem is, it is often hard to say no to ourselves, and it seems so attractive to simply adopt a mindset that, “Life is about being happy and pursuing what I want”. That feels a lot easier. Eventually though, if you have lived longer than 30-35 years, you start to figure out that you were aiming at the wrong thing and you wish you’d gotten this right from the beginning...because that happiness agenda was the center of the biggest regrets in life.
Today, I pray that God would give me the wisdom to see His will for me life, and the courage to take steps in that direction out of discipline, trusting and knowing that His agenda for my life is the best agenda long-term.
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By Steve AndersonToday we get into Romans, and Paul gets right into the heart of the matter. He starts with a longer introduction, then mentions that he’s been held up from physically coming to Rome, and then he starts into his theology later in the chapter. And it is the verses from 18 on that really caught my attention this morning. Paul really is describing a situation that is so common to us, and that I think is essentially a root cause of a lot of the troubles we face societally today. Paul says that the issue, the primary issue in his estimation, is when we worship created things rather than the creator God. When we pursue creation as an idol rather than God...that’s when the trouble starts. In our terms, when we pursue happiness rather than purpose, there is a problem. When we pursue security over surrender, there is a problem. When we pursue desire over discipline.
When we place happiness at the center of our attention, it creates some perverse incentives. This is because happiness is relative. Further, happiness is about ME, whereas ‘love your neighbor’ is about...obviously, your neighbor.
Imagine if we got that right as a church. Imagine if we had a reputation of being all about our neighbor like that. Imagine how attractive Jesus would be. Imagine how magnetic that would be.
Not only it is better for us individually to live a life that is centered on God and focused on pursuing God’s purpose for us, but it is the most compelling way to influence others to do the same. The problem is, it is often hard to say no to ourselves, and it seems so attractive to simply adopt a mindset that, “Life is about being happy and pursuing what I want”. That feels a lot easier. Eventually though, if you have lived longer than 30-35 years, you start to figure out that you were aiming at the wrong thing and you wish you’d gotten this right from the beginning...because that happiness agenda was the center of the biggest regrets in life.
Today, I pray that God would give me the wisdom to see His will for me life, and the courage to take steps in that direction out of discipline, trusting and knowing that His agenda for my life is the best agenda long-term.