Good is Not Good Enough

Jacmel Haiti

MUFHH

Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the gospel of God. ... Reality is not human goodness, or holiness, or heaven, or hell— it is redemption. The need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker today. As workers, we have to get used to the revelation that redemption is the only reality. Personal holiness is an effect of redemption, not the cause of it. If we place our faith in human goodness we will go under when testing comes. CHAMBERS

There is a reality that we are not aware of until we become Christians.  Some people have taken that to an extreme where they deny that the natural life even exists .. It does but there is a greater reality … an eternal one that supersedes this one.  That is why Paul talked about the insignificance of the affairs of this world .. even his own life .. because of his understanding of the greater reality … How we live our lives … what we consider important would be radically changed if we could ever grasp the truth of the greater reality.  To understand it is one thing … to believe it and walk in it is something else again.  Someone once said, ‘The only part of the Gospel that you believe is the part you obey.’  What would your life look like if you walked in the reality of your new life .. understanding that your citizenship is in heaven … this world is not your home …

One thing that you can do while you are in Haiti is to buy trinkets – souvenirs to take back with you … but the Word says to abandon your affection for the things of this world … each time I see those cute little ‘whatevers’ I am reminded of that.  We don’t have a wall of our own to hang a picture, we have a storage space full of things we don’t use … we are living in the new reality … well, most of the time …

Christian workers fail because they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God. “Don’t ask me to be confronted with the strong reality of redemption on behalf of the filth of human life surrounding me today; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes.” God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul was not conscious of himself. He was recklessly abandoned, totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose— to proclaim the gospel of God.  CHAMBERS

In other words, I don’t become more holy so I can know God .. I know God more and then I will become holy … It is His presence that makes me aware of my sinfulness … ‘Woe is me, I am a man undone!’   I am able to stand in His presence  because of what Jesus has done .. not because of my personal holiness …  The curtain has been torn down … I now have free access to the Father through the Son, living by the Spirit … Amen.

(John 14:27)

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

²⁷M'ap ban nou kè poze. M'ap fè kè nou poze nan jan pa mwen. Mwen p'ap fè li pou nou jan sa fèt dapre prensip ki nan lemonn. Pa kite anyen toumante tèt nou, nou pa bezwen pè. (Creole)

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Charley