Hello, it’s been a while. I think the last blog I wrote was back sometime in July or August. Needless to say, it’s been a while. A lot has happened and I’ve had a lot on my mind so I felt like sharing.
For those who may not have known, I used to blog regularly. Sharing my thoughts on things, mostly spiritually focused but on others as well. If you missed it, you’ve been missing out on some big stuff. (Not really)
Hope you’re doing well, I just got through most of my junior fall semester at Maranatha Baptist University. There are only two weeks of classes, left and then finals, ugh.
But now you’re probably wondering what exactly this blog is about. Instead of me rambling… let’s get to the point.
Living Worthy.
What does that mean? I had the awesome privilege of hearing Aaron Coffey preach at a church near my school a few weeks ago. For those who may not know, Aaron Coffey leads a music ministry team with his wife and family called Coffey Ministries.
I have been a fan of the team and it’s music for a few years now and it was awesome to hear them live. However, when Aaron preached from the book of Philippians which can get repetitive because it’s only four chapters.
I’ve read it dozens of times and heard dozens if not hundreds of sermons from the book but this sermon was different. Paul was exhorting or pleading with the people of the church in Philippi to which he was writing, he pleaded with them to live out the gospel and be examples to the people around them. ” This shook me.
If you remember, Paul was sitting in a prison because he was living boldly his faith. A gross, possibly cold, dark, prison cell, writing to the church to live boldly their faith for all to see. In my opinion, Paul was the epitome of living a bold faith.
Imprisoned several times, shipwrecked, tortured and ultimately crucified like Christ. Paul was bold. This was Paul’s mindset throughout his entire life. ” Paul esteemed the gospel so highly that he feared with his life that he may not put the gospel in a bad light as a result of his actions.
Everything Paul did was to further the gospel. I sat there listening to this and thinking to myself: Can I say this? First of all, do people know I am a Christian? I would say almost everybody I encounter realizes I am a Christian. How long does it take them to realize it? Does it take me telling them?
Or do they notice something immediately? Some may not be able to pinpoint the difference and that’s okay, but people should see me and know that something is different. The difference is my hope in the gospel and its power.
As a Christian, my hope is in the gospel. The gospel says that Jesus Christ came to earth lived his life as an example to us and died for us so that we can spend eternity with Him in heaven if we take hold of that hope. But, there’s some who choose to find hope in other things.
They find hope in their money, their friends, their possessions, etc. Paul found his hope in the gospel. No matter how painful and troublesome his life was on earth he had a hope for eternity. He knew what heaven had to offer and he kept his eyes fixated on that.
Yet, that was not enough, he felt like it was his duty to live as an example of the gospel and share it with as many as possible like Christ did when he was on earth. Simply claiming the gospel was not good enough for Paul, and I think this is a huge problem among Christians today.
We claim the gospel, we’re genuinely saved by God’s grace but God didn’t save us to simply sit back and enjoy eternity. God saved us to live as examples to others. The gospel is that Jesus Christ loved us enough to die for us.
Yet we (me included) tend to get comfortable doing our Christian thing and neglect living as examples of our faith.
I don’t want this thing to go on forever, but I want to say this. If the gospel truly means something to us as Christians, we need to do something about it. We claim the gospel. Even publically we tell others that we love Christ and that He saved us. But would people know if we didn’t tell them?
The gospel says that Christ died for us and that should change us but there are unfortunately a lot of Christians that are not living like they are changed.
Hope I was able to be an encouragement to you. Thanks for reading.
“Live worthy of the faith that you claim.”
– Paul