Sharing from a good read...:)

Been reading this rather small but "heavy" in content book that can really pierce right into your heart...

It's a book called "Perilous Pursuits" by Joseph M. Stowell. Took me quite some time to come to that book cos I found it a bit tough to grasp, plus all the other books that are lined on my shelf..sorry Jeannie and Jer! :P

It touches about the Christian's search for significance and the ultimate source of our significance in our service to the Lord. Simple and powerful, this book has touched on the intimate details in my walk with God and has actually really "rebuked" me, by allowing me to do a spot check on my heart motives in serving the Lord and also to let me see where I was drawing my sense of significance and assurance from.

Many a times, I have stepped onto the bandwagon of ultimately wanting to do many things and fulfilling my time up for God and also have felt the strain and insecurity when people do not seem to recognise my efforts. The book actually brings me back to recognising God as the source of our significance, and got me questioning each and every of my actions and my thought pattern by simple everyday events, events which I have seemingly masked my other "right" motives.

I realise that deep down lying within me is someone who could really want that attention, that pat on the back, that extra affirmation from ..People...ultimately serving God and honouring Him with my thoughts and actions could be so easily waivered when I remember a particular sharing by Alan back in Uni days, when we are tested by our trigger point. To me my trigger point is easy, its simply getting that attention. I remember Alan ever shared, what's our first response when we receive that praise? or that question on who had done that great job? that great presentation? My huge sense of self worth would start screaming, "Me! Me! Me!" At the same time, trying my very best to stay composed that the people would eventually realise who was to get the credit.

Let me share about two sections from the book how we should go through the process of redemptive restructuring when we realise that our lives are simply living off the wrong source of significance:-

Excerpts from "Perilous Pursuits" Chapter 7 - Redemptive Restructuring

"It's always worked for me before." How many times have you heard someone say that? Whether it's in business, at home, or in the culture at large, most people fall into familiar patterns or modes of behaviour. The problem is things change, and the old ways don't always work.

Some business learn this lesson too late and lose out. Boarded-up factories all over the country prove this. Other change, retool, and grow. The same principle hold true in the spiritual realm. How much retooling do we need as people who have been redeemed from the old way of life? Let's see.....

Two Kingdom Objectives

American industry realised quickly that new objectives needed to be established in this new global environment. Instead of mere quanitity, quality became the objective of corporate output. Instead of policies that served the company, it became necessary to make policies that served the consumer. Citizenship in Christ's kingdom also requires that we adopt two new objectives.

GOD'S GLORY

At the beginning of this book, I referred to Westminister Shorter Catechism, which teaches that our chief purpose is to "glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Here is the first objective of kingdom living. Obviously, this cannot be lived out until we have secured our significance in Christ. Liberated from the obsession with our significance, we are now capable of dedicating all that we are and do to His glory.

Paul spelled out this objective clearly:" Do you not know that your body is a temple of God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body" (1 Cor. 6:19-20). As we saw earlier, the scope of objective takes in every activity (1 Cor. 10:31).

So pressing was this agenda for Paul that he declared it to be his objective of his life as he sat in a Roman prision waiting for Nero's decision on his life. "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil 1:20-21). The objective of Paul's life was Christ, and his gain awaited in the next world. Most of us live as though our gain is here and now we gobble up every opportunity to gain advantage for ourselves. Not so! Kingdom objectives direct us to invest our lives in magnifying Christ in this world and experiencing our gain in the world to come.

When we have the significance in Christ, we are secure and can step aside to let Him live through us. Two models who sought to advance God's glory and gain through Christ living within are John the Baptizer and the apostle Paul. Christ became preeminent in their lives, both in action and attitudes.

John the Baptizer gladly heralded the coming of Christ even though the Gospels report that the baptizer was a stellar, well-known leader of his day. He had all the headlines! Crowds followed him. A household name, John was the center of many discussions among the intelligentsia and the religious leaders of his day. When Christ appeared, though, this high profile leader has an immediate response:"He must increase, but I must decrease" (NASB). John recognized the supremacy and priority of Jesus Christ; he was glad to humbly advance the significance of the Messiah.

(To be continued...)