Heard another pastor on the radio this week, and he was speaking about having a “purpose driven life.” Ugh. You know what, I am about sick of this theme! I think it’s all backwards. Instead of trying to figure out our gifts, plug in to a small group, and figure out God’s purpose for us (all this is focused on me finding my gifts, me plugging in to a small group, and me figuring out God’s purpose for me) we should be turning our eyes upon Jesus, focusing on Him and not on me or anyone else’s idea of what we should do. Yet another pastor is pointing Christians (and he was speaking to those already claiming to be Christians) to themselves, to spend time on figuring their thing out so they could follow some sort of purpose (supposedly God’s purpose). Now, I want to know, you out there who are seeking God’s purpose for your life, what exactly is this purpose? How did you begin to search it out? What was the thing that got you searching for God’s purpose to drive your life?
I’ll tell you how I have come to where I am in my life. In my sinful self, nowhere. I am nothing. My Jesus, He’s everything. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and I believe whether I am a janitor or the most famous writer and missionary, what I need to keep doing is keep seeking Christ Jesus. God does have something in my life for me to do, but it’s up to Him to show me. I can make my plans, but He is to direct my steps. “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is my strength and my portion forever.” Period.
C’mon, pastors, quit following a plan written by a man in a book. Lift your heads from that book and turn your eyes upon Jesus.
I am a C...I am a CH...I am a CHRISTIAN 
First and foremost, I am so with you in being TIRED of the Purpose Driven Life stuff. Not only have I been bombarded by it as a pastor but also as a Christian Bookstore Owner. So I am with you on that.
However, if you don’t mind, let me throw out a possible balance to a couple of thoughts you threw out there.
We are nothing, God is everything….true!
However, once we accept that beautiful gift of mercy by the sacrifice and victory of Jesus Christ, we are a new Creation! We are changed and start into a life that God has created for us, where He uses in us our spiritual gifts, testimony, and ablities for His glory and the furtherment of His Kingdom.
At the bare core of it all, learning more about worship, disciplship, fellowship, evangelism, and the personal ministry that the Holy Spirit lead us into is not a bad thing. So in the loosest of terms, there is a place within our churches to talk about what is our purpose that God has created us for.
But again, you can do it out of balance as well and almost worship Rick Warren and the Purpose Driven Life becomes your new Bible. May churches go through it to get their badge of honor that they have done 40 days and do not do so in the light of the Scripture in a way where the Spirit is open to lead us into a deeper relationship with the Lord and a call to service to Him.
Oh well, you probaly know what I’m saying. Just felt like, in the moment, that some additional thoughts that may be of interest.
I totally disagree with you. You have chosen to seek Jesus and based on the religious rhetoric it seems to be the anchor of the Christian faith. The thing that disturbs me about this is that the Christ that you seek is already within you. How can God be everywhere except within us.
We get on this treadmill of searching for something we already have. Spend time with your bible. Read it and try to understand what it means to you, not someone’s version or interpretation of it.
I am not trying to be combative, I do believe that we have a purpose, one that we choose. The purpose of life, however, is to live and live abundantly. To bear witness the Glory and have faith that what we see with our eyes is an illusion to what our spirit knows.
We are endowed with the spirit of God. We should seek to become Godlike and raise our awareness and conscious of who we really are and stop trying to bring God down to us.
j.kyle howard,
Huh?
I do agree I should spend time in the Bible.
I am not “searching” so much as seeking time with God, praying and reading to learn about Him and know more about Him. I already am a Christian, a believer. So, I’m not sure what your problem is with what I am doing. I am not going to be “Godlike” though. I am going to try to be like Christ. I am not trying to “bring God down to me.” Jesus already came to earth, died on the cross, and is seated at the right hand of God. He sent the Holy Spirit, we have Him as a deposit and comforter. What more do I need? I do not need to raise my awareness and consciousness, I need to follow Jesus.
You’re confusing.
What do you mean by “the Christ you seek is already within you?” Because I will say what is within mankind is the sin nature. Until there is faith in Christ and a confession of that faith, until we repent of our sins and follow Christ, we do not have communion with God. We are seperate and dead in our lives until we believe…and we are forgiven of our sins. It’s not us but Christ and his grace and mercy that saves us. We cannot come to the Father except through Christ, which means we do not naturally have Him in us. We have to believe and be drawn to Him, and there is a moment when we are born again, are adopted as the children of our Father God, then we are His and can be in His presence. Until then, we do not have Christ in us.
j.kyle howard,
I would like to understand your position better as well. It almost appears that you do not believe the Biblical teaching that Jesus died and rose for the forgivness of our sins. That we recieve this gift by accepting Him as Leader and Forgiver by acknowledging Him with our mouht and beliving in our hearts that He is the Son of God.
It would almost appear you believe we have a little God in us and our mission is to live more and more godly as our goal. That by our actions we can better and better ourselves while taking care of those around us. Am I correct?
Please accept my humble apology for the confusion. What I disagreed with was the idea of discovering your purpose. Yes the purpose belief has become commercialized. But, if millions upon millions did not feel that to be true it would have faded a long time ago. I believe that we do have a purpose. Jesus had a purpose for being here.
Now when I talk about God within, please understand that the word “God” and/or “Jesus” may mean different things to different people and cultures. So it would be ignorant of me to expect you to truly understand my concepts of the two without explaining and to that end, I have erred.
To me, Jesus the man embodied Christ the spirit. The story has been told as if Jesus’ last name was Christ and it was not. Remember he was born of a woman and Archangel Michael. Although he knew who his true Father was, his Christ spirit was born out at his baptism by John the Baptist. After the baptism, the heavens open, the holy spirit like a dove descends, and God acclaims Jesus is his Son.
(Matthew 3:4)
Jesus’ purpose here was well defined and as you have mentioned, He paid for out sins. That being the case, then the only true sin is not living as God designed and we were made in His image.
God is everywhere. Where can God not be. That being the case then God and His Kingdom are within you Luke:17 (read the whole verse). You like Jesus are composed of a physical body and a spirit (a Christ-like spirit). You do have to try to be like Jesus, you already are and the sin for that is not believing so and being so. Trying doesn’t cut it, you either are or you are not.
If you were to take an empty bottle and drop it into the ocean, would the water in the bottle not be ocean water?
The problems that we face on this planet has more to do with people not knowing who they really are. We have been given a wonderful Text, God’s Son, and God’s spirit yet we get so wrapped up in dogma. Jesus was not a Christian so how could being a Christian be like Christ. We, humans (hu meaning god +man) have created this thing called religion which Jesus was not a practitioner of. He simply lived the embodiment of the Christ spirit and that was his message.
Knowing who you are will allow you to fulfill your personal purpose here. This blog for instance allow those of us with different opinions to openly share our ideas with the foundation of love in hopes of spreading the Word as it has been given to us. I am not saying that you are wrong or that I am right.
Love God and love your neighbor as you would yourself. Two simple rules that appears to be hard to follow. A rainbow, when combined creates wonderful white light. Humans of different color creates madness. This process is simple. It’s a matter of knowing that you and I are children of God. That we embody the spirit of Christ and all we have to do is believe it and be it. We take the love we have with ourselves and share it with others. What we do for others we do for ourselves.
Yes, the way to God is through Christ and Christ lives within us. We don’t have to look for him, He’s right here right now. You are the perfect person right now you seek to be. How could you not be? Who you are right now is the only person you could be in this moment.
You are who you are looking for. It can be no other way. Or better said, “Go thy way as thou believe”.
For a true demonstration as to why what you believe matters most as Jesus vehemently preached, read Mark 6:5. Jesus could not perform miracles because the people were non-believers.
Thank you for letting me dialog with you.
All I can say, with two hands by my ears looking like dog ears sticking up is “brarge???” in a high pitched dog question tone.
First off, Michael is NOT the father of Jesus. Christ means annointed one, and that is NOT a last name for Jesus, it’s a descriptive name. We do NOT all have a Christ spirit, we’re not all the annointed ONE. Jesus did have a purpose, but more than that He was, is, and will always be God. He died for our sins in our place. We are NOTHING without Him. We are not little Christs walking around, we are sinful creatures who benefit from a loving substitute who stands in front of us, so to speak, and presents us to the Father as Holy only because He washed us. I do not know what you are talking about. No matter how we mingle ourselves together, and no matter whether the light is white or not, without the truth about Christ, we are nothing. Nothing.
Hey J. Kyle Howard,
Thank you for taking the time to describe what you believe more. You are well spoken and did a great job describing out your position.
Like Christianlady, I would take issue with some of your statements. I don’t think you can use Scripture to make some of your points and then ignore it at other times.
This would include the already addressed issue of God being the Father of Jesus as the Holy Spirit comes upon Mary.
Also, the position of the Spirit of Christ coming into Jesus at the baptism is unfounded. This is quite different than any of the prophecies, what the angel told Mary and Joseph, and what Jesus said at the age of 12 in the temple. It also different than tha account of Jesus’ baptism as well.
This would apply to the teachings that would contridict that since Christ was not a Christian then Christianity is a flawed religion. Christian means Christ like. It was first used in the church of Antioch in Acts. This is a Biblical term from the first century church meaning we believe in Christ as our Leader and Forgiver and follow His teachings.
I believe we all have a purpose. I believe we find that purpose in Christ and the Holy Spirit leads us in our life to that purpose or calling. Those who reject, will miss this ultimate purpose. Now many are sick and tired of the buzz word “purpose” and I get that but it doesn’t change that we have a calling on our life. Not because millions bought a book from Rick Warren but because the Scripture tells us so. Prayfully, within our freewill we will submit to this calling.
Again, J., thank you for describing your position better but I would suggest making sure the position stays consistant with all Scripture.
Blessings!
This is indeed why religion gets a bad wrap. You cannot discuss faith with facts nor can you prove something to be true by using the one thing to prove itself.
I was simply demonstrating to you that you are what you believe. I am no more right or wrong than you are. I simply believe differently. And, blessed or not with my belief will be a call that’s outside of the realm of us all.
If I believe that I have a Christ spirit and you don’t then we are both correct in terms of what we believe and our individual lives will bear fruit accordingly. If I believe that I was not born sinful but learned it otherwise and was given the power and the right to choose to awaken the Christ spirit within me and you believe that we are still sinful. Again, we are both correct and life will bear our fruits accordingly. I choose heaven now. Why wait?
Christianlady, it appears that I aggravate you a bit. Why is that? Does your faith require you to accept me and my thoughts without judgement? You don’t have to agree but what happened to “Go thy way as thou believe?”
tsfgodguy you are correct in how easily The word or any word can be misconstrued to prove a point. Faith does not require fact because neither of us can ever truly know. We can only believe.
The method of proving my point was the same method used on me in the Christian church. I was to accept what someone said without question and whether it felt true to me. What I discovered was that if I did not bring God to church within me, I would not find Him there.
I may be a bit off kilter ChristianLady but I’ve heard you say exactly what I’ve heard most of my life, repeated over and over again. It led me to question. The rabbit hole is quite deep. What does washing sins mean? He stands before us? What is truth about Christ? Do we know factually whether He truly existed? Before you go off on me, let me say that there is no factual proof and you can not use the bible to prove itself. It is about Belief.
We have become lazy in our quest. We regurgitate what we hear without discernment. Would it be safe to say that Satan would know all things concerning God and religion and therefore would be inclined to deliver a message if taken blindly would lead us further astray. And, it matters not what collar or hat he wears.
Hebrews:
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
This is what I believe. God’s Word (spirit, law, Christ spirit, etc) is within us. I choose to believe that I carry within me God’s power to choose how to “BE”. I choose that I have a Christ spirit that shows me how to live Christ like.
We get so hell bent (pardon the pun) on what we believe to be right that we defend it, some to their own demise. Why? I assumed that this was a place to share ideas. Some will agree and some will not. Some will shed some light on a few things and give us an aha moment. Should we remain rigid and taut how can we see or hear.
It is up to us to measure what we hear with what we know inside ourselves. I would surmise that God had to put his word in a place that devoid of misinterpretation. It’s like a record. You can sing the wrong words but the true ones will always remain. The spirit that animates us, that tells us when we are doing something wrong or right, what do you call it? Maybe I can get a better understanding, therefore putting us on better ground to communicate.
I’m sorry J but I’m not sure this is what gives religion a bad wrap. Maybe hyprocritical action, predjudice, killing in the name of Christ, theology without love, and the like does but having a difference of belief and a livily debate as such doesn’t always equal hatred and lack of tolerance does it? Maybe I misunderstood.
I guess the area I am struggling with in your presentation is what appears to be a liberal use of the Scripture. It appears you are willing to use it when it goes hand and hand in your beliefs and ignore it in others.
For me to have a better understanding of where you are coming from and for us to be able to talk more, can you tell me….do you believe the Bible is true or not?
Thanks and Blessings…..
Forgive me because I tend to ramble. What I was getting at about the bad wrap is that sometimes we get so wound up about our beliefs that we don’t allow another’s thought to be expressed without prejudice on what we believe. We get our information from many different points of view and tend to reject those without discourse when the thought may seem weird.
Now I’ve seen bits and pieces of the bible used as the basis for an entire religion. Everyone knows what God meant when He spoke so we have this myriad of beliefs, doctrines, and the things you mentioned above which causes us to lose site of what’s important, Love. We automatically believe that if you are not Christian then you cannot receive God’s love. I find it hard to believe that.
My liberal use of the bible was to simply make a point from a verse. There may be another verse that will either contradict or align with that. It also goes with, I believe, the way that moments in Jesus’ life has multiple and different versions based upon who told the story. For instance, why were certain books left out and who decided on the 66 we have now?
In answer to your question as to whether I believe the Scripture is true, I do believe it is true but not actual. The “actual” I strongly believe is what’s written in our hearts so that we can detect when something seems a bit off causing us to seek a better understanding. Also, and here’s the sticky part, I do believe that some of it is allegory and metaphor. It is a fact that man had his hand in shaping the doctrine to benefit whomever was in power at the time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version_of_the_Bible
I believe that we are all at different stages within our own lives. Therefore we interpret these things differently as much as we can feebly comprehend. What I believed as a child no longer holds true to me because of a deeper understanding I have of me.
The Book doesn’t change I do. Is it not a life manual?
If we are a macrocosm of this universe it seems that we should spend time trying to understand ourselves and discover who we really are. If not, I don’t think that we can understand the Greater Mystery. Now I didn’t make that up.
I appreciate the dialog and the opportunity to empty my cup.
Hey J. Kyle,
Sorry so long to reply. I have been on a little vaca to a land that has no internet….I know, I know….It’s shocking and I’m glad to be home =)
I really appreciate the dialouge and I am taken by your heart. However, I do think we will continue to bump into walls with one another simply due to the fact we have a core belief difference when it comes to the Bible. While many in America holds the Bbile as a holy book that’s basically good, many of us hold it as the Word of God who used man to write and form it. So while so many have had their parts in the formation of it, the common thread is the provedence of God running through it.
I know it takes some faith to accept that but I also believe it has evidence to rely on as well. There is a perfect balance in the Bible that could not have happened if it was nothing more than a hodgepodge of people’s agendas. In the entire book, it highlights the ups and downs of almost each person’s lives which shows historical creadence instead of agenda driven goals. There is tons of Old Testiment prophecy fulfilled within the New Testiment life in such a way that it is more likley to win the lottery without a ticket than it is to pull off such a scam. The Old Testiment scrolls being in place hundreds and thousands of years before Jesus Christ coming is not in dispute.
Now you bring up a point that some books were left out. Of course there was and I feel comforted by that. Let me explain why…..first, it shows how serious they were about the discernment they used to not just make it what everyone wanted but to follow God’s leading.
Second, have you ever really studied the so called left out gospels? Let me use the gospel of Judas for an example. First, the four gospels in the Bible were accepeted by the church long before any councils sat down at the table. They were all written first or second hand during the first century as eye witness accounts.
Matthew – an apostle of Christ
Mark – Worked with Peter and is credited for writting Peter’s account, an apostle of Christ
Luke – a disciple and follower of Christ
John – an Apostle of Christ
Now, what about the gospel of Judas. Quick penmanship by the apostle Judas before he hung himself by a tree for his guilt of betraying Jesus?
Nope, was written no earlier than 200 years after the fact. Not by Judas but by gnostics who had an agenda they wanted to push. Thier belief was a certain knowledge was what saved you and that most of us had the divine living within us. Yes, there was a creator god but he was a lessor god. The real god is you with this knowledge once you are released from this body we are stuck in from this lessor creator god.
The gospel of Judas portrays a Jesus who never claimed to be the Son of God but a man with the divine within him. His followers misunderstood him thinking he was of the lessor god and this annoyed Jesus and he made fun of them often. However, Judas got it and actually worked hand in hand with Jesus so Jesus could be killed and released from the created body and go back to being divine. Judas was simply misunderstood and the gnostics got it while the rest of the world did not. Jesus never resurrects because that would be putting himself back into the created body.
This gospel was never taken seriously by the church because it was a straight agenda piece. It was never considered because it is twisted and biased and false. When I read it, I could never, never imagine anyone who knows the Jesus of the Bible being able to justify that they could even take it serious since it conflicts with every major teaching of Jesus and paints a Jesus who is not loving but rude and mean.
I guess the concern I have is if the Bible is a good and holy book but the real stuff is on my heart and I can understand the “greater mystery” as such……then we are set up for a billion and one different truths as each one tries to “find themselves” in Christ. If their is no “greater mystery” because God wanted to reveal Himself to us through His Word, then there is one truth and we find ourselves within it.
OK, that’s my ramblings for now. Prayfully, you didn’t give up on me during my sabbatical =)