A New Perspective.

Hello ladies and gents!

I've been off my blogging game this school year, 

I do apologize. 

But I have be rather busy, 

quite a bit busier than I would normally like. 

But it's a good kind of busy.

The kind of busy where I have a lot to read and learn,

but I don't actually have to go anywhere or do anything. 

I'm taking a class at my church called Perspectives. 

It's so legit. 

It's a 15 week course about God's heart for the nations and His global glory. 

(here's the website if you want to read a bit more)

This class is serious business.

It requires more work than about any class I have EVER taken. 

Each week we have about 30-40 pages worth of articles, 

book excerpts,

 sermons, 

etc to read and answer questions about. 

It's proven to be somewhat of a challenge to get everything done on time, 

but I've managed to work out a system. 

And I'll tell you what,
 this class has rocked my world, 

and it's only WEEK FIVE!

Perspectives has opened my eyes to see God from a different point of view.

Up until now I've viewed God in terms of how I can understand Him.
Which is a very limited scope of understanding. 

So I basically viewed God as my own personal wishing well.

I had a problem, 

He fixed it.

I sinned, 

He forgave it. 

I was hurting, 

He comforted me.

I was alone, 

He was with me. 

Notice how many times I said "I" or "me"?

My image of God was so tainted by myself. 

So for me,
God existed to take care of me. 

That's what He's here for right?
WRONG.

I mean I would never have said,
"Uh yeah, isn't that what God's for anyhow,
to help a girl out?!"

I knew that God's purpose was His greater glory,
but I just never realized what,
"His greater glory,"
really meant.

But now I'm starting to understand.

Through this course I've learned that God is a global God.
That basically means that God's ultimate purpose is,
worship for Himself from a global community,
from every nation, tribe and tongue.

That doesn't mean the entire nation, tribe and tongue,
but it does mean a portion of every nation, tribe and tongue.

Think about the very scope of what that means,
every NATION, TRIBE AND TONGUE.

He's not talking about the political nations as we think of today,
it's more like people grouping.

So it's not just people who are the same race,
or nationality;
He's talking about every ethnicity,
people group,
culture,
subculture,
social class,
language,
dialect,
etc.

That really changes the way we look at verses that talk about "the nations,"
such as:

"Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples."
Psalm 96:3

"He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."
Daniel 7:14

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..."
Matthew 28:19

"You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation."
Revelation 5:9

God wants to join people from every
culture,
tribe,
language,
people group,
ethnicity,
race,
 and nation,
to Himself through global worship.

That is God's purpose.
That is how God has chosen to reveal His ultimate glory.

So it stands to reason that Christ's purpose is also to reveal God's ultimate glory.
God chose to do that through global worship of Him,
and He chose to use Jesus Christ to do it.

So I can only conclude that,
it's not about me.

Christ did not come to the Earth to die for me.
He did not forgive us of our sins for us.
The salvation of mankind was not Christ's purpose,
God is.
God's glory is Christ's purpose.
And God chose to reveal that glory through the salvation of mankind.
God chose to use Jesus Christ for this.

It makes me think of that old saying,
"When He was on the cross, I was on His mind."
I'm sorry but I just find that to be a bit ridiculous!

Let's be real,
I have NO IDEA what was going through Christ's mind while He was on that cross.
But I highly doubt it was us,
me in particular.
I feel like Christ's thoughts were more than likely, focused on His Father,
and His Kingdom,
and His Glory.

Let's not get too conceited fellow humans,
we all know we're not that great.

This is something that I've really noticed lately.
We've got this almost subliminal messaging in the Christian church today,
and that message is that it's all about me.

If I hear one more song about how much God does for ME,
or another sermon solely on how much He loves ME,
I'm going to pull my hairs out.

We're getting things out of focus.
Does God love me?
Yes.
Does God care for me?
Yes.
Does He forgive, restore, redeem, renew me?
Yes.

Yes, He does all of these things and more!
And I am so glad that He does.

But we've got to remember that it's not about what He does,
but WHY He does it.
He does all of these things because they point directly to Him.
He loves us because He gets glory from that.
He redeems us because that's how He wants it.

It's not about us,
IT IS ALL ABOUT HIM.
He's the star of this show,
and the sooner we realize that,
the sooner His global glory will be revealed,
to every people,
tribe,
and tongue.