Beautiful People,

I am encouraged by your tenacity and wholesome pursuit of prayer. Thank you for uplifting my family and me in prayer last week. I intimately felt the presence of God during the funeral and wedding last week. Thank you!

As we start our second week of school, I want to call your attention to our theme for this year, Firm Foundation. At Union College, I pray for us to build our lives on Jesus Christ, our firm foundation. A practical way of doing this is taking the message of Christ, the Gospel, seriously. A life guided and molded by the Gospel of Jesus Christ produces characterological change and reformation. Our identity is radically changed to reflect the image and beauty of Christ. A practical way of taking the message of the Gospel seriously and experiencing this transformative change is by actively engaging with Christ’s words. “Everyone who hears [My words] and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand” (Matthew 7:26). Adversely, anyone who puts Christ’s words into action is a wise man.

This conditional statement is the closing remark of the Sermon on the Mount. So, as we begin this day, I challenge us to build off the words of Christ found in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” To actively build our lives on Jesus Christ starts with a radical abandonment of self. In many ways, we are full of ourselves. Our bloated and egos charter a course to self-destruction. Our pride whispers lies of superiority and resists the help of others. Our hearts, moved by the undercurrents of our society, are full of arrogance and deceit. To be wise and to step into the blessedness of the Kingdom of God requires that we empty ourselves of our self-sufficiency, ego, superiority, inferiority complex, and deceptive nature. The less full of ourselves we are, the more we can be filled with the presence of Christ. Within the context of Scripture, to be poor in self is to be rich in God. Blessed are you when you allow Jesus to empty self of self. To build our lives on Jesus first starts by accepting our need for Him. Let us be poor in anger, lust, immorality, hatred, discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, envy, and dissension. But let us be rich in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.    

P.S. I look forward to worshiping with you this Thursday at 10:30 a.m. for uGather, 8/31, in the College View Church sanctuary.