Our Focus

This has been on my mind for a week now: how much do we focus on certain things? How much should we focus on our family, how much should we focus on right relationships, on Christian persecution, on greek meanings of Jesus' words, on the issue of sex trafficking, on giving financially, etc? When I say "focus on", I mean think about or strategize about during the day. I think the Christian fellowship I am currently with tends to promote thinking this question during the day: "how can I love person X today?" But it's not like that everywhere. When I went to Redding, the question running through some people's minds was: "Who in the grocery store does God want to heal today?" or "what prophetic word is God speaking to me and who is it for?" In other churches, it is "what sin is God revealing to me today?" In the missions field, it might be "how can I tell X person about Jesus?" or "how can I pray for person X in jail?" In seminary, it might be "what did Jesus mean in this parable?" There are so many "focuses", so many things we can think about--all of which are technically biblical. What we think about during the day--what we set our minds on-- influences our outlook on life, how we see God's Kingdom, what we think God's calling for us is, where our time is spent, where our heart is, our relationship with God, our relationship with others, etc. etc.

I used to think that there is no one "correct" way to go about it because we are called to different focuses at different stages of our life, but now I don't think that is necessarily the case. Not that I think there is one right way, or that we don't have different callings. We are called to different things, but we can't assume what we're doing now is what God has called us to do. We can't assume that what we're focusing on now is what God has called us to focus on. What is His will? and how do we know? What does His Word say?

the Word says to set our minds on things above, to seek first the Kingdom of God. But the Word also says to love our neighbors, to be reconciled with our brothers before we offer our gift to God (Matthew 5:24), to look after orphans and widows (James 1:27), to lead quiet lives gaining respect from outsiders (1 thes. 4:11), etc. Pick your favorite bible verse that is a command... Soooo... which one is it!!??

I used to make a list of all these commands/things we're called to do, so that I could remember all of them. I used to look at the list, point to my favorite one at the moment and be like: see we're ALL supposed to do that. I should go take care of orphans and be like mother teresa. And I would focus on that one verse. It's a good verse, but only focusing on a few verses in the bible is dangerous. That's how some Churches go astray; they overemphasize one thing and then point to one bible verse and are like "hey, the bible tells us to do it". But the bible also tells us to do... other things...

I was listening to short sermon clip on youtube by Bill Johnson. I think there's a lot of wisdom in what he said, even though he doesn't cite any bible verses. His explanation is that there are many truths (meaning many different bible verses of commands), and each truth has its proper place in the Kingdom. And no truth should be elevated above its proper place. So I guess it's just about where this "proper place" is. Some pastors say they are a husband first, a father second, and a pastor third, or something like that. Most of us agree that pastorship's proper place comes after the place of family.

There is one proper place all Christians can agree on---that is relationship with God is first.

"[God] will never take you to where your family is more important than God. Why? Because if your family is more important than God, then you have an inferior love for your family. But if God is first, you'll always have a greater love for your family than if they were number one" ~Bill Johnson

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sidenote: this is my first time quoting from a charismatic pastor in my blog and mentioning his name instead of being like "some pastor once said this". haha. o jamie. you care about judgment from both sides. And yet, there are no sides within God's Kingdom. There is unity. Let us be one. There is only God's side. I am on God's side; who's with us?