Well we're back into the Don't Waste Your Life series at Deception Bay Baptist this week. Chapter Seven begins a couple of chapters which outline practical ways we can change what we do so that we don't waste our lives, and that we work towards achieving the goal of life... to gladly make others glad in Christ.
This first practical way is a big one... to "Live to Prove that He is More Precious than Life". The whole idea of consumerism and modern western culture's obsession with trivial things can define the way we make much of Jesus (or make not so much of Him as we focus on those trivial things). Can you ask yourself this question before you make any decision or buy anything in your life... "Will this help me treasure Christ more"?
If we are exiles and refugees on earth (1 Peter 2:11), and if our citernenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), and if nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35), and if his steadfast love is better than life (Psalm 63.3), and if all hardship is working for us an eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17), then we will give to the winds our fears and "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). We will count everything as rubbish in comparison with Christ (Philippians 3:7-8). We will "joyfully accept the plundering of our property" for the sake of unpopular acts of mercy (Hebrews 10:34) We will choose "rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin," and we will count "The reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt" (Hebrews 11:25-26).
~John Piper - DWYL, p108
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