Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Christian, Are You Excited?


Maybe one of the most challenging verses in the entire Bible was spoken by the Apostle Paul to the Galatians, "What has happened to all your joy?" (Gal 4:15a). Francis Schaeffer in his 1968, yet timeless work, The God Who Is There gets at the question in this way:

It is hard to understand how an orthodox, evangelical, Bible-believing Christian can fail to be excited. The answers in the realm of the intellect should make us overwhelmingly excited. But more than this, we are returned to a personal relationship with the God who is there. If we are unexcited Christians, we should go back and see what is wrong. We are surrounded by a generation that can find "no one home" in the universe. If anything marks our generation, it is this. In contrast to this, as a Christian I know who I am; and I know the personal God who is there. I speak, and He hears. I am not surrounded by mere mass, nor only energy particles, but He is there. And if I have accepted Christ as my Savior, then though it will not be perfect in this life, yet moment by moment, on the basis of the finished work of Christ, this person to person relationship with the God who is there can have reality to me, p. 169.

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