Since our last post, I (Joseph) have been learning the deeper meaning of God’s faithfulness to act on His word. We are continuing to learn more and more that He actually calls us out of darkness and into the light for His greater Kingdom purpose. He doesn’t call us out of darkness to settle into comfortable, casual Christianity. He calls us to follow Him, step by step, into daily trusting Him, obeying Him and taking Him at His word. This is a relationship that requires interaction. It requires daily bowing before Him and surrendering to His agenda. This looks different for each person but the end result is the same. For me personally, this is renouncing my desire to be the best industrial sales rep. in the country for Tnemec Company. I’ve been building relationships and reputation for 12 years in this territory. I had a goal to one day run my own independent agency for Tnemec and I was well on track to succeed. There was a time when my heart was given to this agenda of building my own kingdom.  On occasion I would share the gospel, but that just never seemed like enough. My heart was divided and not fully surrendered to King Jesus.

When I found myself unfulfilled and unsatisfied with my own agenda, I began to ask the Lord, “what more could I give?” Through praying and digging deeper into scripture, I found passages like James 2:23: “So the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.”

And John 15:8: “My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.”

Also, John 14:15: “If you love me, you will keep my commands.” And a little later in John 15:14: “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

These verses speak for themselves. The Lord began to show me that His purpose for me and other professing believers is no different than that of these men who wrote the above passages. Our ultimate purpose is to point people to The Source of joy, The Wellspring of Living Water, the Bread of Life, Jesus. In John 4:34, Jesus tells His disciples that He has food that they do not know about. Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of the Father who sent me and to finish His work.”

I am not especially qualified to be a missionary of the gospel to Guatemala. If I were my own god, I would stay on course to be the best Tnemec rep ever, but I am not any more. I am sure God could do better than us for this mission, but we are certain that He has put this on our hearts. So, we choose to walk in obedience into this uncharted territory.  We will go, and as we take Him at His word, we now know that we have a greater purpose than our physical accomplishments or achievements in life. He is proving Himself faithful as always.

God has a greater purpose for your life in Christ than anything you could ever achieve on your own. It far exceeds us and our lesser goals. In Christ, our purpose is to proclaim the good news that Christ came to pay the price for our sins, that we could not pay, so that through faith in Him we can have a restored relationship with God.  Those who hear and believe on the name of the Lord Jesus, enter in to this reconciled relationship with their Creator and now have this same purpose!  Take Him at His word and you will know that His plan is best for you. “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” –Jim Elliot