That I May Know Him

Our Father, have Your way on the earth. Your will be done.

These are lyrics of Jesus' prayer to his Father, and it's this song that keeps bringing tears over and over. My soul longs to see God and to be overwhelmed by the roar of saints repeating this next line: Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Although heaven could be a moment away, we have no clue when God will call us home, and that necessitates that I walk soberly now while I still have life on this earth.

This topic of living soberly in light of eternity and my relationship with Christ is one that God keeps hammering away in my heart. From messages to conversations to prayers, I can't get away from it. I must know Christ. I must be walking with him! This may come as an obvious need to some of you, but how much more would this be pressing on your heart if you were leaving everything behind to take the Good News to a people without any clue of Him? You don't have to be called to missions to endure a harsh, primitive setting for twenty years, but you do need to know God if you want to plant a thriving church that will recognize their need to know God. Like a child naturally inherits a parent's mannerisms and philosophy, believers naturally inherit the theology of their church's planter. I cannot pretend that an absence of knowing God now will not result in a suffering church later, but then it's so much more than that, and this is what God is teaching me:

My walk with God matters not for any other reason but that I know Him.

I just dropped an absolute there, so let me clarify. Doesn't it matter that we love others? Shouldn't we be faithful to church? Isn't it good to be a missionary to such a needy people? Yes, yes, yes, but none of that matters if it isn't rooted in my walk with God. If my good deeds are not a natural outflow of the Holy Spirit's work as my mind is being soaked in Scripture, then is anything I do really good? So, here's the clarification:

First, I must know Him, then I can/will live in a way that honors Him. This is so simple, but this is what God is still teaching me.

I've been really encouraged by a lot of people recently. I've heard my pastor, Rich, pounding this topic into our church since we've been home. This morning, Jana, a lady on our worship team, shared with the church that all she has is Christ himself. A brother in Christ, Jon, has been dealing with Lyme for eight years, and he reminded me a couple weeks ago, that our focus has to be rooted in Christ and eternity. Laura, in conversation today, encouraged me to live in constant awareness of eternity. Our small group at church echoed this same need for eternal perspective. Today, my mom wrote, "I just wanted to say I hope you know how deeply you are loved and cherished by God. I hope that you find all of your worth in him and in no one else and nothing else because he is all that matters!!!" Man, how awesome is it to be surrounded by such encouraging people who find their value in Jesus. We need to keep that up.

Philippians 3:10, "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;"

Nate