Honest Thinkings part II

I can hear my Physical Chemistry lab report screaming for completion, but there's a few thoughts a'brewing that must come out somewhere.

So, here's Honest Thinkings part II

1. God wants us to fall more in love with Him every day. I was reminded of this tonight as I walked to UC East. Above me, the stars where shining, as they do, but below, on the layers of ice, another display was beginning. The streetlights made heavens below my feet as the light reflected off tiny pieces of ice, blinking in new patterns with every step. God wants to dazzle us everyday. And he often does.

2. After every discussion about righteousness or false teaching or most anything to do with Christianity, I realize that what I do always comes down to why I do it. If the motivations are wrong, the action is wrong, no matter how 'righteous' the action makes me.

But, when I glance over my motivations, and I honestly ask myself why I do things, I don't like what I see. Do I go to church to visit with God, or because I 'have to' (what would people think of me if I never went to church?). Do I help people so my Christian friends will think I'm a super-cool follower of God, or am I trying to display God's love to a neighbor? Why do I want to be a doctor? Why do I exercise?

"Do not do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will receive no reward from your Father in heaven."

3. Our room has been going through the Sermon on the Mount. As we finished today, I thought about how simply not sinning is not Jesus' whole plan for us. It's step 1. Step 2 is realizing we have a body and a mind to show others around us our God (through various means).

It's so easy to sit in the CCH and not sin. It's easy to be dazzled by God in the joy we find. And, it's easy to leave things at that. But I think Jesus calls me to more than this. He calls us to do good. In the study we just finished, he gives numerous examples of how to help people and why we should. I'm living as a passive Christian. There' so much more.

4. I want to memorize Dallas Willard's conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount:

"As a disciple of Jesus I am with him, by choice and by grace, learning from him how to live in the kingdom of God: how to live within the range of God's effective will, his life flowing through mine. I am learning to live my life as He would live my life if He were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything He did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner that He did all that He did.
As his apprentices, we pass through a course of training, from having faith in Christ to having the faith of Christ. As a proclaimer and teacher of the gospel of his kingdom, I do not cease to announce a gospel about Jesus. That remains forever foundational. But, I also recognize the need and opportunity to announce the gospel of Jesus - the gospel of the present availability to every human being of a life in The Kingdom Among Us."

-Bryce