Tough Questions

In my readings this past week several times I have been posed with difficult questions. Philosophical questions that make you pause and ponder. Questions that often do not have easy answers. Questions that make me look at life and ministry from God's perspective.

Some I do not have answers. Others I do not like the answers I give based on life and ministry at this stage in my life. This is a season of stripping. God is filleting my heart in little strips as he strips away the things that do not please Him. He is also challenging my thinking on many things. It is a time of deep reflection and sometimes I don't like the truth of what I discover.

It's easy to coast through life drifting off course ever so slightly at first and then more so over time. It is easy to lose sight of what is really important. What are those things? Very simple.

Matthew 22:36-40 (ESV)
36  “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38  This is the great and first commandment.
39  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

What is the great commandment? Answer; love God and love people.

What should our priority be?

Matthew 6:33 (ESV)
33  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Seek first His Kingdom. The expansion of the rule and reign of God on this planet. What does that look like? How is that lived out in life and ministry? Tough questions may not have easy answers.

It's really not that contemplated. I am supposed to love God first and most. I am also supposed to love other people. Then I am to be about seeking to expand His Kingdom. This may or may not include leading religious gatherings. Assuredly sometimes it means rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty as you serve others and meet their needs. Sometimes it means following Jesus into some dark irreligious places to shine the light of the gospel.

I will not bore you with a list of questions I've been pondering. You might not like them and probably will not like the answers you come up with. I will leave you with just one more. What difference is your life and mine making in the Kingdom of God? I am not asking about your attendance at religious gatherings. I am not asking about your job, the money you make or the perks you enjoy.

What difference are we making? That is a question that we all must face and a question we will be held accountable for in eternity. Sadly we might find that in light of judgment we wasted much of our lives on things that held no eternal value. A abhor the thought of that and shudder to think how easily we can waste our lives, all the while convincing ourselves we have done good.

We only live this life once. We do not get a second chance. So let us devote ourselves to loving God most, loving others and seeking His kingdom first. Those things really matter.