Crystal and I are taking the
Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class. I highly recommend it to anyone who is able to take it. The subject matter is deep (it is a college level class), and it makes you think.
One of the subjects I've been thinking about lately is the glory of God. Apparently our pastor (Darrin Crow) has been thinking about it too, because we talked about it for Sunday school, during the sermon Sunday, and at our Perspectives class this Wednesday (where he was the guest speaker).
Our ultimate purpose (that for which we were created) was to bring God glory. As Christians we often miss this idea - focusing our efforts in "being good", condemning evil, or even proselytizing. However, Jesus made this purpose clear in John 17:4:
I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
Christ came to earth to bring glory to the Father. His work was to redeem us, but the purpose of that work was so that God might be glorified. In the same way our work is to spread the good news of redemption - not so people would be saved from hellfire (though they are) - but so that God's fame might be made known through his awesome work of redemption and we might turn our hearts toward him in worship.
John Piper says "Mission exists because worship doesn't". We need to be missional - the world needs to know God's overwhelming love for them. But in our drive to "reach the lost" we must not lose sight of the primary goal: humanity must be reconciled to God so that it can fulfill it's purpose of glorifying and worshiping Him!
Disclosure: I don't claim any credit for the thoughts in this post - they are almost entirely lifted from the Perspectives course material and pastor Darrin. It's good stuff none-the-less.
Crystal and I are taking the
Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class. I highly recommend it to anyone who is able to take it. The subject matter is deep (it is a college level class), and it makes you think.
One of the subjects I've been thinking about lately is the glory of God. Apparently our pastor (Darrin Crow) has been thinking about it too, because we talked about it for Sunday school, during the sermon Sunday, and at our Perspectives class this Wednesday (where he was the guest speaker).
Our ultimate purpose (that for which we were created) was to bring God glory. As Christians we often miss this idea - focusing our efforts in "being good", condemning evil, or even proselytizing. However, Jesus made this purpose clear in John 17:4:
I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
Christ came to earth to bring glory to the Father. His work was to redeem us, but the purpose of that work was so that God might be glorified. In the same way our work is to spread the good news of redemption - not so people would be saved from hellfire (though they are) - but so that God's fame might be made known through his awesome work of redemption and we might turn our hearts toward him in worship.
John Piper says "Mission exists because worship doesn't". We need to be missional - the world needs to know God's overwhelming love for them. But in our drive to "reach the lost" we must not lose sight of the primary goal: humanity must be reconciled to God so that it can fulfill it's purpose of glorifying and worshiping Him!
Disclosure: I don't claim any credit for the thoughts in this post - they are almost entirely lifted from the Perspectives course material and pastor Darrin. It's good stuff none-the-less.
Perspectives / The Glory of God
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