LORD, TEACH US TO NUMBER OUR DAYS THAT WE MAY GET A HEART OF WISDOM (Psalm 90:12). (I wrote down these thoughts below as early as March this year. I feel led to post it now,) The numbering of our days underscores the brevity and uncertainty of our earthly life and therefore, from the perspective of an eternity-minded believer, focuses on the urgent necessity of being used in the work of bringing more people to the kingdom of Christ for His Name’s sake and for the praise of His Glory. The believer’s work for the expansion of His kingdom on earth: isn’t it the major – if not the only - reason each one of the redeemed is still allowed to remain on earth despite the Lord’s expressed desire to take His own to be with Him where He is (John 17:24)? As we allow the affairs and concerns of this world – no matter how noble - to be relegated to the background in our pursuit of the glory of our Lord, we increasingly find that even the earthly blessings and benefits of sonship, which we presently bask in, fade in the light of this God-given passion for the glory of Him who loved us with such an incomprehensible love. And this is the urgency that, through the same grace that saves him, consumes a child of God for the rest of his days from the moment he was redeemed. This is the same urgency that prevents a faithful preacher at the pulpit from naively presuming that his listeners are in fact all saved just because they are in church. He may therefore brilliantly exegete selected Bible verses, deftly illustrate them using three points or so, give applications, eloquently admonish the congregation on relationships and loving people, address felt-needs of most people in the congregation, i.e he tries to become very “relevant” (a lot of listeners love the kind of preaching that caters to felt-needs), but he never leaves the pulpit without a clear Gospel presentation and invitation. He realizes that admonishing listeners on the practical aspects of Christianity (the rules that believers live by) is like “throwing pearls to swine” if they don’t have a saving relationship with the Lord yet He is acutely aware of the fact that he cannot impose kingdom rules on those who are not citizens yet of the kingdom. To him, preaching means, in the words of James Macdonald, preaching Christ, the Cross, and the Gospel; it is no preaching at all that does not do this. He is not just preaching something that could be heard at a mosque or from an Eastern guru or from a teacher/preacher of a works-based religion; he is preaching a unique message and the message is urgent because it spells either eternal life or eternal damnation to the listener, who could be a one-time walk-in visitor or a regular attendee/member for years who does not yet have a personal relationship with Christ and who is to have a fatal heart attack the following morning. Above all, he is doing a work for the expansion of God’s kingdom that brings immediate glory to the Lord he loves and serves.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 05:59:49 +0000
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