Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Secret of the Universe

By Dave Gillespie

Image of SpaceYou may believe in a mechanistic impersonal universe, where we live all on our own. A universe that is indifferent to us so that we can with some justification can be indifferent toward other people. Or you may believe in a universe that is created, moral, purposeful, meaningful, and most of all relational. People fall into one of two groups in viewing this creation.

Is the spiritual part of you missing? In the “flesh” is to be physical, disconnected from God, with no spirit life, no spiritual component. To be spiritual is to be both physical and spiritual, connected to God…the one who created everything.

The single greatest characteristic of spiritual people is the decreasing of self-centeredness and an increasing of other-centeredness. To focus on self, you believe that you’re the most important thing . . . one difference of being fleshly, merely human to being spiritual is the degree to which we focus on others.

A spiritual person by nature is differential, their attention is shifted from self to others. Spiritual people are moving from a net taker to a net giver…heart and mind turned out . . . a net giver.

Each one of us is building a life . . . what kind of life do we what?

Fleshly or Spiritual?

Net taker or net giver?

Let me share with you three verses from the Bible:
God was kind and let me become an expert builder. I laid a foundation on which others have built. But we must each be careful how we build, because Christ is the only foundation. Whatever we build on that foundation will be tested by fire on the day of judgment. Then everyone will find out if we have used gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw. 1 Corthinians 3:10-12

What does fire do to gold? Not much.
What does fire do to straw? Burns it up.
The fire will test what sort of work each of us does. What do we build on the foundation . . . Gold or Straw? Flesh or Spirit? Inward or Outward? Giver or Taker? This is the question you have to ask yourself.

Many people are living a self-centered life and are distant from God. Gold would be to draw people toward God. To draw people away from the merely physical to a life that is whole because it is also spiritual.

To draw people from separation from God to reunion with God . . . from sin to forgiveness and new life, from mere existence to abundant life. From a life dedicated to self to a life lived for others.

Gold is to be an instrument of God. Gold is to turn our hearts and minds outward.
• One billion people in the world today suffer from hunger and malnutrition.
• 24,000 people die every day from hunger.
• 31 million Americans are food insecure.
• Worldwide, in the year 2000, AIDS claimed 3 million people, with 5,000 dying every day.
• 2.5 million child abuse and neglect cases are reported each year in the United States, (many more are never reported).
• One in four girls and one in eight boys will be sexually abused before they are 18 years old.

These are just some of the realities of this world.

What will you build on the foundation that God has given you? Net taker or Net giver? Gold or Straw?

I believe you will choose Gold and I believe it will be costly. And I believe God will take your hand and guide you to be the person of His dreams.

You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.
Woodrow Wilson

Never the Same
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