“What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.”
- 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 (NIV)

Sometimes I wonder what my purpose in life is. God gave each person certain talents, skills, abilities, interests, passions, and all sorts of other neat things so that they would glorify Him in what they do. I look at my life, and I think, where does God have me? I earnestly desire to glorify Him, to worship and praise Him in everything. Yet through the lens of hindsight I still wonder what sort of influence I’m making in people’s lives. Have I ever planted the seed in someone’s life to get them started on their walk towards God? Did I ever water the seed already planted to reinforce the truth they seek? One thing I know for sure – though I may never see the results of my influence, as long as my desire is for God and I keep pursuing Him, there is no way that I could become reclusive or stop being around people. My prayer is that one day I will see how God has touched many people’s lives through me, and that even greater rejoicing will take place when I see it happen. The goal of Christianity is not to win souls, but to worship and enjoy God, and our desire should be that everyone else get in on this excitement.

“Now to Him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey Him – to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.”
- Romans 16:25-27 (NIV)

No matter what happens in life, whether it’s failing classes, broken relationships, depression, loneliness, physical illness, injury, whatever, Christians will always have the overflow of eternal joy through Jesus Christ. It is this joy that is consistently expressed within those who have a relationship with God that the “gospel” is established and proclaimed. Even when Christians are depressed and have bad days (yes, it happens to everyone), it seems like there’s something different that comes out of that depression – just a simple note of encouragement or spending time with a friend really lifts up the spirit of the depressed Christian. Just yesterday I was feeling incredibly lonely and depressed, and simply by spending time with friends and talking things out helped me to regain the joy that comes from knowing God.

I say this not to belittle those who struggle with clinical depression – it is a real condition and affects so many people. Hold fast to the promises made in the Bible. Jesus said that He came to give us life, and life to the full (John 10:10). No one can snatch us away from Him (John 10:28-29). Many key figures in the Bible had periods of depression – David, Elijah, Moses, Job, Jeremiah, the list goes on and on. Even Jesus often felt alone and cut off, depressed and felt that no one cared about Him. It’s the essence of Christianity – God, in His infinite love, came to take upon Himself all the sins of the world, and be tortured, forsaken, jeered, insulted, beaten, and killed. However, as Paul went on to say in the last part of Romans 16 (it does seem like I went of topic…) that this was so that “all nations might believe and obey Him.” For Jesus Christ did not simply die and disappear from this world, but He raised Himself from the dead (Philippians 2:5-11) and this was done to glorify Himself both as Son and Father. This is why David can write psalms that begin with him totally depressed, but then finish with statements about praising God and giving Him the glory. He knows what He’s doing. He’s the only wise God. To Him be all the glory!

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
- Romans 11:33-12:2 (NIV)

It’s interesting to think about all the times I doubt God. Too often I spend time worrying about what needs to happen next in my life to notice what God’s laying out before me. It is because of God’s mercy and sovereignty that we can lay down our lives in worship to Him. Without His eternal plan, we would never be able to have a relationship with Him. God is and must be in control of all things, and everything is as it should be. You won’t ever see God scratching His head, wondering what in the world we’re doing. It will all work out, and I need to trust Him more. He’s never let me down, and He never will. And that’s why we worship – because we can trust God to take care of everything.

Church today was awesome. We’re studying Hebrews 11, and the “Hall of Faith” where the writer of Hebrews lists out all of these awesome examples of faith and what faith is. Today Ronnie focused on verse 4: “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.” (New American Standard). In comparing the offerings of Cain and Abel (the first two brothers, found in Genesis 4), my pastor observed that while the objects offered in sacrifice were both acceptable (God accepted both grain offerings and blood offerings), the attitudes of Cain and Abel were quite different. Sin can’t simply be covered up in works and stuff, but blood must be paid; Cain recognized this, yet chose to offer a grain offering instead. My pastor put it this way: Abel said “I’m going to give God what He wants”, and Cain said “God ought to want what I’m going to give Him.”

It was pretty awesome. Another thing my pastor challenged us with today was at the beginning of the sermon. As he was giving a short synopsis of Hebrews 11, he asked us: Would there be anything in our lives to serve as a testimony so that we could say “By faith…[insert your name]” when we are introduced? That really challenged me; I want to life a life of faith so that when people talk about me, they would talk about what God’s been doing in my life.