Live on Purpose

I will admit right off the bat that when this writing began to formulate in my mind it began as a scathing, self-righteous blog about the evil of the world and the imbalance in culture and how we as Christians are in the minority and the values that we hold dear are slowly being swept away in favor of blatantly perverse sexuality, atheistic/pantheistic views of god and a nation that has taken “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to an unintended level.

Let me give you some background. I did not watch the Grammys. (I used to love watching but quit watching years ago for various reasons.). Honestly, I didn’t even know the Grammys were happening. But I read about it yesterday and was shocked to find that the act that “stole the show” was a sexually explicit song accompanied by sexually explicit choreography that was touted as showing what strong women really look like.

It seems so backward to me, how, during “Women’s History Month” a song like that could be touted as appropriate much less a picture of strong women. This is not what I want for my daughter – my granddaughters. I want them to be strong women, but not degrade themselves and others to prove that is what they are.

Anyway, let me get back to it because I feel that original intent coming back to the front…

So I was praying about it this morning. The backward views our culture has. The desire to be respected yet seemingly disrespecting yourself. The blatant sexual overtones. The morally rotten culture. As I was praying I suddenly realized it is so easy for me to forget that those people in culture that are propagating this agenda – that is all they know. They are lost without Christ.

They need Jesus. Jesus brings real worth and self-confidence. Jesus brings healing to hurts. Jesus shows what true strength is. Jesus loves them exactly like they are, but loves them so much He doesn’t want to leave them like they are.

Then God gently spoke to me, not audibly but certainly loud enough for me to hear, if you know what I mean. “Kevin, why don’t you pray for those people? They are lost and they don’t know Me and how will they unless people like you – my people share with them?”

Why in the world should I be surprised when lost people act like lost people? I was once lost without Christ and my life didn’t make sense either. I thought wrong was right if it felt good to me. This is the same thing that is going on in our culture today. Truthfully, what I should be surprised at is a church (people), who claim the name of Christ and have been saved by grace through faith, that don’t see the need to share Jesus with world but instead just gripe and complain about how bad the world is becoming. Oh how we have forgotten…

SO…

The prayer is not, “God, change the culture.” The culture from the BEGINNING as been bent toward sin, death and self-destruction. Nothing has changed since Genesis. Scripture tells us that this is the way of the world and we should not be surprised by it even when it gets worse. (Romans 5:12, Ephesians 6:12, Galatians 1:4)

The prayer is, “God change me. Give me a passion to tell a world of lost people about the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. Help me to remember what it was like to be dead in my sin so that I don’t write someone off as hopeless in theirs.”

My pastor shared this verse with our staff yesterday morning and the words came back around to my mind and heart last night as I was contemplating this. They are the words of Paul written about two groups of people. Those who have not heard and beleived and those who had.

Romans 10:14-15 “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? ¹⁵ And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

The world needs to hear. People are lost.

The culture WILL NOT get better without Jesus in it.

The church has the responsibility to make that happen.

How will they know unless we tell them?

So who have you told about Jesus lately? That is the only way to win the world! That is our purpose. Let’s live it.

Live on Purpose