To put it simply - God loves me and I love Him.
I would rather spend time with someone I love and who loves me than do anything else.
What am I driven by? Is it love? Is it truth? Is it wisdom? Is it holiness? Is it all of the above? Are they really that different?
Love is the devotion and value you place on someone or something. When you love someone completely - such as a parent’s love for their child - you will give everything to and for them. This is sacrificial love, and sacrifice is the highest possible expression of love.
Truth is that which is, and which cannot be changed. It’s more than fact. It’s fact with an impact; or, fact with purpose and meaning. Truth is true whether you believe it or not. It’s impacts are real whether you ignore it or not.
Wisdom is your ability to improve the world around you in lasting ways; or, the ability to effect lasting positive change in the world.
Holiness is living lovingly, with truth and wisdom.
When you are young and you have what seems like unlimited time in front of you, you try to gather as much wealth and stuff as you can.
When you get older you start to realize that you will never satisfy the desire to have more, to keep building, to protect and secure all that you have gotten, and to hedge against loss by accumulating even more.
When you come nearer to the end of your life you realize that none of the stuff you have acquired can save you, and most of it becomes useless the older you get. You start concerning yourself with getting rid of it and unburdening yourself.
At no point do you consider life to be easy, although you may have bursts of momentary pleasure. There is always something to struggle against - that is, unless you just give up completely.
What is the thing that you can gain now, and never have to gain more of in order for it to be secure, and never have to unburden yourself from? Faith in God and Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
My Why
Goals
Lead people to faith in Jesus Christ by following Jesus so closely that everyone around me will see Him at work and come to know Him for themselves.
Surrender completely to God, in all things, and be willing and able to give up everything - at any moment - for His glory.
Be equipped, and equip others, to glorify God in all things - no matter what.
Core Values
Love.
I love God with all that I am, and as I grow in love my love for God will grow.
I love others as myself, and as I grow in love my love for others will grow.
Vision
Help people know God and strengthen their faith and trust in God in order to withstand any and all physical, mental, and spiritual trials and tribulations so that they may enter God’s kingdom for all eternity.
Mission
Read and study the Bible, and teach others how to do the same.
Meditate on God’s word, and teach others how to do the same.
Pray to God, and teach others how to do the same.
Contemplate (or commune with) God, and teach others how to do the same.
Worship God, and teach others how to do the same.
Be a servant of God, and teach others how to do the same.
The Problem
The world is, and always has been, ruled by fear, intimidation, anxiety, hatred, division, and violence. And most people are, and always have been, driven by selfishness and shortsightedness rather than love and wisdom.
The Solution
We need to know, follow, and trust God so that we can be saved from our sinful nature and become more like Jesus Christ. As we become more like Christ He will replace our selfishness with love, our fear with trust, our anxiety with peace, our grief with joy, our lack with abundance, and our despair with hope.
The Plan
- Get to know God more so that I trust Him completely
- Help others know God more so that they trust Him completely
- Build a mission that I can hand off to others so that we can keep working together to build God’s kingdom
Serving people’s practical needs is a worthy cause, but if all we ever do is try to comfort people in a physical, ordinary way then we will only ever be handing out bandages instead of curing the root cause.
I don’t have all the answers, but what I can help people with is:
- increased Bible literacy
- increased prayer drive
- increased meditation on God
- increased devotion to God
- increased worship of God
The Main Points
- Who Is God?
- Who Is Jesus?
- Who is Holy Spirit?
- Who are you?
- Why do you need to be saved?
- How do you grow in faith and trusting God?
- What is the tribulation?
- What is the ultimate reward?