What You Have

Mark Dunagan
08/29/10 - Sunday Morning

What You Have

“My elder son, no shrinking violet himself, complained to me that his generation has a drinking problem. He and a few friends went in on a beach house this summer, and he noticed that at the shore the people his age stay drunk from Friday after work until Sunday night... This got me thinking: I tend to forget how different my life is from the lives of many people I rub shoulders with every day. Just because we drive down the same streets and shop at the same supermarkets, I have assumed that we see the same world. But since God has been in my life, I have things, invisible things, that lots of folks around me don’t enjoy” (Andree Seu).

One More Proof

If I looked around me and saw that most people were living godly lives, then I might doubt the truthfulness of Scripture or even the need for it. To the contrary, the reality that the vast majority are taking the easy and wide way to eternal destruction (Matthew 7:13-14) is as obvious to me as it was to my Savior. Truths unapplied in this life over time begin to make drug or alcohol abuse, cheating on one’s spouse, teenage rebellion, illicit entertainment or dishonesty for personal gain appear the norm. It’s not.

You Have An Identity

“My brother used to say, in our Buddhist days (about two weeks long): ‘If I dream that I am a butterfly, how do I know when I wake up that I am not a butterfly dreaming I’m a man?’ After that we both became Christians, and not a moment too soon. Without the Scripture for a touchstone, we were ooze falling through ooze. The first half of my life I wondered who or what I was: Was I a bit of protoplasm coughed up from the bowels of the earth? Was I the sum total of a set of physiological drives? Was I the dream of a demigod and would disappear when he woke up?” (Andree Seu). We should not be shocked that people outside of Christ, like we once were, struggle with the idea of who they are. In a sense that people who are detached from their Creator will not have a good solid concept of who they are or what their purpose is.

• “For you once were not a people” (1 Peter 2:10).

• “Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). 

• “...you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind” (Colossians 1:21).

So, not only do I know for certain that I exist, but I equally am certain that I am a child of God (1 John 3:1-3), saved and on the pathway to heaven. I know that we live in a culture where it is unpopular to be “certain” about such things, but the primarily reason that people embrace uncertainly is to avoid making hard decisions, the kind of decisions that force us to give up vices and change our ways.

You Have A Purpose

This is a purpose far beyond finding a career, owning a home, getting married, having a family and finding the American dream. The perception of one’s earthly purpose has varied over the years, and usually tend to be culture driven, yet in reality, Adam’s purpose was identical to the purpose that will be given to the last person born on this earth:

• To respect our Creator and keep His commandments: Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

• To be a light to those estranged from God: Matthew 5:13-16

• To bring honor and glory to Him through my godly behavior: 1 Peter 2:12

• To be involved in His good works: Ephesians 2:10

• “That you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

You Have A Sense Of Meaning

“It is strange to think that I inhabit this town with people who think the world began a gazillion years ago out of nothing and will end with a sputter in another gazillion years. The motions we go through every day, filling the gas tank, doing the laundry, dining at the restaurant, are permeated through and through with the sense of what we believe about the solar system. Why not eat, drink, and be merry, if you have come from nothing and are proceeding to nothing?”(Andree Seu). Of course, the little secret that a number of us have learned is that the more you eat and drink with abandon, the more the “be merry” part will elude us in the end. No one need tell you – we are surrounded by many people who have completely different world views. Some think this earth is just an accident, and so are we. Others are determined to live purely for themselves and to “go out kicking”. Others seem to honestly believe that they will never die. God’s people have always lived in cultures in which such thoughts were prevalent:

• “This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind” (Ephesians 4:17).

• “Do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do” (Matthew 6:7).

The Holy Spirit said to those who are in Christ something quite amazing: “And in Him you have been made complete” (Colossians 2:10). Wow! What a statement. Everything that we need to be as a person, is found in Christ. Christianity does it all. It is a complete system, needing zero addition from the outside. One does not need any supplemental ideas from other philosophies, rather, Christ will provide it all.

You Have Rules For Living

Don’t let anyone fool you – everyone lives by a set of rules. If you are tempted to dislike the “rules”, you’ll miss them the instant others begin to discard them. When other people keep them – they not only make them look good – I benefit tremendously when people around me are keeping God’s rules. Concerning the “rules” it is healthy to remember:

• God’s rules are things that are actually necessary. Society crumbles, marriages collapse, people self-destruct, and people hurt other people when these rules are ignored: Proverbs 14:34

• The rules are kept to a minimum and are far less complicated than most human rules.

• There is no true freedom without these rules. If we don’t submit to the Master, we will be mastered by many other things and people. His rules are good for us and are incredibly wise.

• These rules lead to liberty, in fact, the rules are called the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25). 

• The rules were designed to liberate us, lighten our load in this life, and to keep us from becoming enslaved to foolish things: 1 John 5:3; Matthew 11:28-30.

• They actually turn out to be the secret entrances to the pathways of life and clearly tell us where we are. “But where there is absolutely no plumb line for telling you if your actions are right or off, there is no freedom but only chaos” (Andree Seu).

You Have A Relationship

“I know a few Buddhists and New Age types, and I always feel bad for them because their highest and most ultimate reality is an impersonal force. That is, they are all alone in the universe and with no one to talk to when they lay their heads down at night. I lie there and talk to the Living God” (Andree Seu).

• I have a loving Father who actually cares about what I do and what happens to me.

• I have a Father who rejoices when I do right.

• I don’t worship and serve an “idea”, I have an intimate relationship with the Creator!

• I have access: “In whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him” (Ephesians 3:12).

• I am on the “A” list: “For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household” (Ephesians 2:18-19).

You Have A Destination

• “Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is... Set your mind on the things above” (Colossians 3:1-2). 

• “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great” (Matthew 5:12).

As a result, I can handle the ups and downs in life. Other people may not know or care, but the final stop on the train for me is Paradise – so whatever I must go through, whatever stops are between now and then, I can handle, knowing that each day gets me closer to the big reward. Everything between now and then is just a bump in the road. Paul even said about things that most people would consider to be huge setbacks and challenges, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory what is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Since Paradise is the last exit, then I need only look with optimism toward the future, a future overflowing with blessings upon blessings!

Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net