Day 3040 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Matthew 28:19 NIV

The cross isn’t merely a place where we’re to come and rest. It’s a crossroads dividing who we’ve been from where we go from here.

See, once Christ came and took our cross upon His shoulders, our understanding of life and how to live it changed forever. Before, making a name for ourselves made sense. It’s what everyone’s always done. To be seen. To be heard. To be noticed and known and applauded for living a way of life appreciated by the masses. But dead eyes seeing life for the very first time can’t see it that way anymore. No, on this side of a stone rolled away from a tomb we shouldn’t be able to leave behind, the only Name that matters is that of He who saved us from ourselves.

Because in Him alone is found the hope we all need. And that’s why we’re called to go and make disciples, not distractions.

Sadly, distractions are in fact most of what we’re seeing and receiving in this world today. People still set on serving themselves as if doing so will somehow lead to a life lived with meaning and purpose and worth. Many a soul remains enslaved to this idea that having and holding is worth more than knowing and making known. It is truly an utmost sorrow to see a world clinging so tightly to all that will one day be left behind. And it’s that irrationality to which we’re sent to help shatter.

But there’s a fine line between serving and seeking. It’s not up to us to be seen or to choose who sees. No, our job is to carry what we’ve been given to those to whom we’re sent. This is God’s show. You and I are just the stagehands doing the little of the little that we can to help encourage folks to tune in and be changed. There’s a humility that must proceed before us every step of this journey. Because if it ever becomes about anything or anyone other than Him, we’re not making disciples, we’re only making noise.

And this world’s already got plenty of that!

What does anyone gain if I gain anything? Is not all only to be counted as loss should I have lived seeking only my own glory? If my life is lived pointing at me, encouraging others to follow me, insisting that others know me, recognize me, believe in or on me, am I not the savior in whom those I coerce place their hope, their trust, their life? Matters not what anyone may say, think and or believe, that is simply a burden to great for any of us to carry.

No, that burden must remain upon the shoulders of He who bore our cross.

And yet, in this world in this time, there's such vanity seeking selfish glory as we've all been taught that the only life that matters, that means anything is the life lived that brings us the fame and fortune we've been led to believe we are entitled to receive. As if the world owes us something. But in truth, in humility, in Christ we find that it's not the world which owes us, but that we owe Him. And as part of the impossible recompense that He is owed, all we can give is a life surrendered to service.

That's the only life that matters, that means anything. It's a life given away, because that's the very example we've been given.

But what are we doing in light of all that's been given? What are we giving? What are we sacrificing? Who are we serving? And if the instant answer is anything or anyone other than Christ, we are wrong. If we cannot honestly say that He is the only main priority in our lives, we've missed the plot of this story of our salvation. If our first words given as response to who it is that we are serving is something other than Jesus, our lives are being lived for something hollow.

And it doesn't matter what kind of price tag or profit may have been widely attached to all these other perspectives and prerogatives, if Christ is not first, we are last and our lives without merit or meaning.

All because we're failing the entire purpose of the calling He made perfectly clear.

This Gospel is not a solitary thing. It's not a soloist's pursuit. It is not a gift saved forever between a single sinner and their only Savior. No, this gift is a gift which only grows, only prospers, only deepens when it is spread into as many hearts and minds as possible. The Bible speaks of a grace that overflows our cups, our hearts, our minds, our lives. Where is it flowing now that we've been filled to overfull?

The fruit we bear, much like the words we speak, points to the purpose preeminent in our hearts. If those around us are not growing in faith, in hope, in love, in life, perhaps we're not planting the right seeds. If the seeds are trying to sow are not maturing into the harvest they should bring, perhaps we're not tending the garden. If the garden is being watered and watched and encouraged but it's still not bringing forth its produce, we must be seeking a different kind of reward. Perhaps one more in line with what everyone else wants out of life.

Because honestly, the hope and joy found within the Gospel and the Almighty God who lovingly gave it to us despite our clearly underserving nature should be enough to be inspiring radical change. Not small sorrows or incomplete sadness or minute modicums of shame that pass like a driving rain. No, this Gospel changes lives, and so, if lives aren't being changed, it's safe to say we're preaching something wrong, or we’re preaching something else.

But either way, preaching is what we’re doing with the lives we’re living, because others are watching. And now that we call ourselves by the Name of another, they’re not merely watching us. They’re looking for Him. With that in mind, what are we showing the world about the One we claim to serve? If every life is a sermon and every person a pastor, the fruit should be both obvious and abundant.

Yet, I think that's a rather broad and common misconception within this whole concept of faith and our place within this story. We are not merely the recipients of an undeserved grace. We're not simply a bunch of sinners set free. We are not just the broken who've been healed. We are the broken, the lost, the sinners set free sent out to help others break free from whatever’s keeping them from seeing their place amongst His grace. We are all disciples, students, messengers, representatives. And we cannot continue to fail in seeing that.

Speaking personally, I know how unworthy I am of any kind of title or notoriety within all this. It’s something I’ve always shied away from as I know my past better than nearly all. And I think most of us feel the same. We know we're not the preachers, the pastors, the shepherds sent out to keep watch over the flock. Except, we are. Because the only One who knows our pasts even better than we do said so. And that which He has said is simply how it is, our feelings of insufficiency are overruled.

The fact is that once we embrace the chance to change our lives and live them seeking Christ and studying His Word, we become students of Him. And student is just another word for disciple. We are His followers. But where's the evidence of that?

You see, I fear that much has been lost in this great debate about salvation by works. We're all all but convinced that we mustn't try too hard to show evidence of our rebirth, of our renewal, of our new life being built upon new priorities and radically altered perspectives. We feel as if we can't show the work He's doing if it can only be shown in the work we're doing because of what He's doing. All because we're not supposed to make it about us.

But friends, can we not see the difference between working for salvation and working because of salvation? No, we don't go out into the world and gloat over the things we've changed. We don't boast about the growth and the achievements and the accomplishments we're seeing in our lives. But should we not share what He's doing in our lives? Should we not be living testimonies of old lives now dead and buried? Should we not be doing as we're called here and making disciples?

We don't do so by sleeking through life pretending that we're of such lowliness that we've nothing of any value to share. That's not humility, that's fear. That's arrogance in masquerade. No, we stand up and show ourselves to the world so that they can see Him instead of us. We speak in language that sounds different from the voices those who've always known us have always heard. We testify to the work He's doing as to inspire others to seek Him for themselves so that they can go out and tell even more.

That's why this isn't a solitary pursuit. If we are in Christ and He in us, then we are in this world for however long we've remaining for a reason. And that reason is to go. To preach. To serve. To share. To spread the Good News of His Gospel through our humility which now seeks only His glory, no longer our own as we've all always done. We are all dead men walking, and that kind of miracle is enough to rouse the rest. But we have to be the ones who go and tell of what He's done.

As I said yesterday, it all comes down to whose glory is being sought through the messages being shared. Sure, if someone is out here boasting about themselves, seeking the glory which comes from men rather than the glory that comes from God, if they're setting at the best seats and making a name for themselves, then yeah, think we can all agree that's wrong.

But as Jesus says in Mark 9:39-41, "For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward."

If we are seeking His glory, serving His Name, carrying His message trying to help His people, then we're doing as we've been asked to do by the One who asked us to go and make disciples.

The world doesn't need to see a bunch of beat-down religious people who have no semblance of hope or joy or peace or purpose. This world has plenty of that kind already. No, people need to see that there's truly something different about us on this side of that cross so that they find the excuse to come and see for themselves. They're not coming to see us, but to learn about the One who sends us. We are just the middlemen, the servant army, the humble hoard seeking only the glory of our Lord.

What are we doing, and is it being done in His Name? If nothing is being done or if something is being done but for the gain of anyone other than He, we've wandered and it's time to right the ship before we sink with the rest.

Friends, time to go. Time to do. Time to be who we're called to be, and we're called to be disciples. Let your allegiance show. Let your passion for this purpose grow. Let His light shine through the evidence that it has overcome the darkness you once were. People need the hope we've found. We may still be but beggars, but we know where there's bread. Let us break some loafs and start feeding the hungry with the Bread of Life.

Fact is that the world's in a rather dire state. And if we're not doing something to help whoever we can find hope in the only One we can, then we're failing everyone in every way. We don't need to be ashamed of the Gospel, and we don't need to seek gain from the Gospel either. We just need to share it so that others can find their shame absolved and that He can gain the glory as He changes one more story.

Go. Speak. Spread. Tell others what they're missing and where to find it. This world needs it. And they need us to be His students who are so zealous for His message that no other matters anymore. Because it's that kind of devotion that gets noticed and hopefully gets others interested in learning more about the gift they never knew they always needed.

Spirit and truth. Humility and urgency. Passion and praise for the One who makes it all possible. Disciples make disciples because they serve the one who worked such a change in their lives that they can’t help but seek to inspire others to learn what they’ve learned. Let’s tell the world, show the world what we’ve learned so that they can seek the One who began this good work in us.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold