2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Yesterday, Pastor Chris linked to a blog that seeks to explain why people of Generation Y tend to be unhappy. The link to the article is here (Generation Y Yuppies are unhappy). The article does a good job of explaining the general malaise the people of that generation feel. However it does not address an important problem with the Y generation. The article is not written from a Christian perspective and it was never meant to address the problem. How do you reach a generation with the gospel that has been told that they are special, a generation that feels a sense of entitlement, a generation that is wildly ambitious and wants that #1 spot in whatever they are pursuing at that time.
The idea that everyone in the detrimental sense has even creeped into the church. I remember singing a kids song when I was growing up that went " I am somebody, because God loves me. I am accepted, just the way that I am." That however is not the message of the gospel. The message of the gospel is that we are an extremely messed up people. All of humanity is stained with the curse of sin. Left to our own devices we are going adulterous idolaters who are going to to chase after whatever makes us feel good, and worship whatever is most important in our lives.
The idea of transformation is throughout the Bible. We see it introduced by God when Abram becomes Abraham and Sarai becomes Sarah. God continues the theme in the New Testament when Simon becomes Peter and Saul becomes Paul. Through the Bible God through the prophets and the apostles preaches a message to his people. You are broken, I can fix you. All your human efforts to make yourself better will ultimately fall short. You cannot earn my love, and your works will never be complete enough to earn my favor.
How then do we reach a generation of people dissatisfied with their lives and have been told through those same lives that they are special? We reach into that discontent and dissatisfaction and tell them of the one who can make their lives whole. You take their sense of ambition and direct it to the glory of God and show them something that they work to that will out last them into eternity. You battle their sense of entitlement with the truth of their sin and show them the humility of Christ, the Son of God become man. But in the end only the Holy Spirit has the power to transform these lives. This is a generation that needs not the platitudes of Osteen, but the purifying, transforming power of the gospel.
S.D.G.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Saturday, September 28, 2013
S.D.G.
Colossians 3:17 "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
I used to write a lot more than I do now. Mostly blog posts that in reality were mini sermon ideas that I could write and flesh out. But even on occasion I would write songs or poetry. It was never great poetry or songs, but they could help me try to express the thoughts that were swimming around in my brain. But for the past couple of years I haven't done any real writing. I think there are a couple of reasons for that. The first is that I'm working more now than I used to, so that leaves less time for writing. Especially when your work involves sitting at a computer for 8 hrs a day. Some of those hours involving a lot of typing. As a correlation to working more, I am not reading as much as I used to do. I'm still reading my bible at my normal pace. But I'm not reading as much fiction or non-fiction as I used to. It's books that a lot of times would make me look a certain idea or scripture in a second light, and inspire me to write something on it. But honestly the main reason I stopped writing as I once did, was that I didn't think anyone was reading my writing. Or even worse if they were reading my writing, didn't think it was good enough to tell me they were reading it.
The problem was that I was writing for the approval of others around me. I love a line out of one of Lecrae's songs. "If I live for their approval, I'll die by their rejection." I can't control how many people read he stuff I write, whether they like it, or whether they comment on it. What I can control is whether I am going to use whatever talents or skills I have to glorify God. So that's why I changed my blog title to one of the slogans of the Reformation. I want whatever I do, whatever I write, from here on out in my life, to be for the Glory of God. Someone more talented than I Johann Sebastian Bach ended all the compositions of his music with the initials of S.D.G. to signify that God was to be given credit for his masterpieces. While this is no masterpiece, I'm going to steal that idea.
S.D.G.
I used to write a lot more than I do now. Mostly blog posts that in reality were mini sermon ideas that I could write and flesh out. But even on occasion I would write songs or poetry. It was never great poetry or songs, but they could help me try to express the thoughts that were swimming around in my brain. But for the past couple of years I haven't done any real writing. I think there are a couple of reasons for that. The first is that I'm working more now than I used to, so that leaves less time for writing. Especially when your work involves sitting at a computer for 8 hrs a day. Some of those hours involving a lot of typing. As a correlation to working more, I am not reading as much as I used to do. I'm still reading my bible at my normal pace. But I'm not reading as much fiction or non-fiction as I used to. It's books that a lot of times would make me look a certain idea or scripture in a second light, and inspire me to write something on it. But honestly the main reason I stopped writing as I once did, was that I didn't think anyone was reading my writing. Or even worse if they were reading my writing, didn't think it was good enough to tell me they were reading it.
The problem was that I was writing for the approval of others around me. I love a line out of one of Lecrae's songs. "If I live for their approval, I'll die by their rejection." I can't control how many people read he stuff I write, whether they like it, or whether they comment on it. What I can control is whether I am going to use whatever talents or skills I have to glorify God. So that's why I changed my blog title to one of the slogans of the Reformation. I want whatever I do, whatever I write, from here on out in my life, to be for the Glory of God. Someone more talented than I Johann Sebastian Bach ended all the compositions of his music with the initials of S.D.G. to signify that God was to be given credit for his masterpieces. While this is no masterpiece, I'm going to steal that idea.
S.D.G.
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