The Goal of the Christian Life

By David Hobbs

-----When Jesus came to Earth and purchased a people for Himself with His own blood, what was His plan for those people? Likewise, when Christian parents send their children off to Christian schools to be prepared for life, what is their plan for their children? Shouldn’t the goal of Jesus for His people and the goal of Christian parents for their children be the same?

-----Here are the goals of two Christian schools as taken from their websites:

The mission of ____ Christian School is to help students mature spiritually and excel academically by offering a Biblically-integrated, college preparatory program that will enable them to impact the kingdom of God by living productive Christian lives.

-----Notice that the way we “impact the kingdom of God” is by “living productive Christian lives.” (I thought we were supposed to impact the world for Christ. And if we do it best by living productive Christian [i.e. moral] lives, we should all become Mormons. They lead some of the most productive lives I know of). Here’s another:

_____ Christian Academy is an independent, co-educational, PreK - 12, college preparatory school with an educational culture built on the classical Trivium and historic Biblical Christianity. _____ provides an academic curriculum that trains students in the grammatical, dialectical, and rhetorical arts with an equal emphasis on the acquisition of the empirical and mathematical sciences preparatory to, or at the level of, College Board Advanced Placement standards. The program aims not only to equip students with knowledge of the different disciplines, but also to aid their understanding of learning as the pursuit and application of truth. The program's distinctives include Latin instruction that begins in third grade, a full year of informal and formal logic, a full year of rhetoric, the writing and defense of a senior thesis, and the age-appropriateteaching methodologies required of each subject.

Now that’s a mouthful!

-----The goal of many Christian parents, as reflected through their schools’ programs, seemingly is to out-produce the world in the field of education. Armed with our Christian principles and worldview, taking things seriously and applying ourselves, we can produce better educated and more successful (i.e. “productive”) kids than the unbelievers down the street whose kids party away their lives at Worldly U.

-----There is truth to this. I wasted my college years with drinking, drugs, bad attitudes, and general cluelessness. How I wish I could relive those college years now as a head-screwed-on-straight Christian when I could take full advantage of the opportunity offered!

-----But is that the goal of Christ? He died on the cross so we might be better educated and more together than the world? Many parents’ goals for their children are for them to be well educated, have a good career, a godly spouse, nice children, a comfortable retirement, and to be esteemed in their communities. We want them to be “good Christians,” meaning we want them to be respectable. That’s how we measure success. If we parents can accomplish that, with the help of our Christian schools and our church, then we can die happy, sure that we have succeeded in life.

-----I was not raised as a Christian. In fact I despised Christianity because I thought its message was: 1) be nice to everybody; 2) if it’s fun, it’s forbidden, 3) do unto others as you would have them do unto you (at least I got one right!).

-----When I got saved, the glorious story as told in Out of the Fire, A Life Radically Changed, The thing that amazed me most was that I could meet God for myself through Christ and have a ongoing, personal, supernatural relationship with Him. “How come they never told me about this?” I marveled. In fact I came to call it the “best-kept secret of Christianity.” In studying the Bible, I saw that that was in fact why Christ came and why He died. He wanted the same thing-- an ongoing relationship with us. Sure He wants us to be good students; He wants us to do good works and not mess up. But more than anything He wants to know us and love us and have us know and love Him.

-----Which of these two people would you most approve of? A well respected person with a good job and family who goes to church every Sunday and considers himself a “good Christian man.” Or a homeless person who lives in rags in the river bottoms, who cries out to God about the mess he’s made of his life, who has nothing and has to pray every day for food to eat and shelter from the elements. Which person has our approval? Which person has Christ’s approval? Before you answer, read Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14.

-----If the humble sinner is Jesus’ great prize, why do we make respectability and success by this world’s standards our great prize? Having met Christ for myself, I would rather live in the river bottoms and walk every day with Him than be Warren Buffet and only know about Christ and all the doctrines and theology of the Christian church.

-----If we’re saved “out of the world,” why do we go back and try to beat the world at its own game?

The Present War

By David Hobbs

9/19/2010

The war rages all around us. But how many Christians have eyes to see and understand the battles we find ourselves in? The closer I get to Jesus, the more intense the warfare becomes. I am reminded of Scriptures like Psalm 50:3—“Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages.” Being close to Jesus (or desiring to be close as in my case) is not easy. Consider Mt. 8:23—“Then [Jesus] got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat…. ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown.’”

Our church had been planning a prophetic worship conference for a year. We had been praying into it, and anticipating in faith that it would take us to a higher spiritual level. We didn’t have the money readily at hand to bring in the 5 prophetic worshippers/singers/musicians we wanted. Along with others, I participated in a dinner theatre and many other ways to raise money. We prayed, went on 3 day fasts, and invited people to come.

Now at last the week was here. It was a tough week, as it always is approaching a high spiritual time. I was doing a painting job with many difficult aspects to it. The temperatures were around 100 degrees. I had a deadline. It was hard getting the help I needed. It was very stressful time. I dropped off my former foster son “Jake” Thursday morning to work on the job while I took the hour drive to Sacramento to pray in the Capital as usual. The prayer time was totally dry. I had nothing to contribute, couldn’t focus, and kept falling asleep.

Upon my return to the job site I found Jake sprawled out on the front porch. He said he’d fallen off the top on an 8 ft. stepladder and hurt his back. Jake was always taking chances, and many times had come sliding off of roofs or had other spectacular experiences, always seeming to escape serious consequences.

Everywhere I looked there were brushes, rollers, and buckets of paint drying out in the sweltering sun. My other son Dan had been supposed to drop off an airless at the job which I needed to paint a deck and some doors. But it wasn’t there. I called Dan. He was across town ½ hour away but agreed to bring the airless to me. But as he was on his way, Jake suddenly informed me that in his fall he had spilled the paint and there was none left. The paint store was in Dan’s direction but now it was too late to get him to pick up more on his way over. I would have to not only take Jake home, but now make the trip across town myself to get more paint, and then try to finish the job without Jake’s help.

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I lost it completely and started yelling at Jake, who started yelling back at me. I truly “cracked.” I was in a rage so intense that it lasted the rest of the day (Thurs).

Friday came and I was still unsettled. Though I had blown it, God was still faithful. Out of nowhere, He sent two people, including Dan (who was working on his own job), to help me finish my job. But it was as if my spiritual being was turned inside out. The rage and angst had left me exhausted, the heat had left me dehydrated, and the conference started that evening.

I went, but I was so out of sorts I could hardly enter in. I did the best I could by faith, but my innards were still a jumbled mass.

The next session was Sat. morning. I had gotten as much sleep as I could, but I was still exhausted and still dehydrated. I was also being attacked in my mind, both for my own failings and the conference itself was being disparaged. I couldn’t seem to get my spiritual legs under me. I was off balance and unable to function, like a fighter reeling against the ropes. There were workshops that afternoon, but I stayed home and slept, hoping to regain my strength.

Saturday night was another battle. I went through the motions but just couldn’t “get into gear.”

Sunday morning I was still exhausted, both physically but increasingly spiritually. My wife went off to the Sunday morning session while I stayed home to sleep, thereby missing what people agreed later was the best meeting of the conference. Sunday afternoon I napped some more--there seemed to be no way to catch up on my sleep deficit. Now there was only one meeting left; it was all going by me like a train going by the station. I was used to experiencing spiritual warfare leading up to an event. But it had been my experience that once the event started, the warfare ceased and the Lord took over. Now for the first time the warfare was lasting right through the whole conference.

When the last meeting started Sunday night, I was so overwhelmed I was unable to speak or sing and too tired to stand. There were only two things I could do—I could tap my feet along to the music and raise my hands. So the meeting chugged along with me lost in the crowd, tapping my feet and raising my hands in mute appeal to heaven. But that was enough!
As the worship progressed I began to be able to make some sounds; then I could sing along; finally I could stand. By the end of the meeting I was totally restored to normal, like the whole thing had never happened!

So where did that leave me? I had missed virtually the entire conference, but come out on top at the end. It seemed to be kind of a spiritual draw, though the Bible does put importance on the end of a matter more than the beginning or middle (“he that endures to the end shall be saved.”)

All I know for sure is that the warfare is intense, which means we’re getting close to Jesus! It’s no time to back down or give up. He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. Praise the Lord!

Worship Orders from Heaven

By David Hobbs

I arrived at the church for my early morning prayer. I had gotten extra sleep the night before thinking it might rejuvenate me and give me greater energy, but it didn’t help. I was tired and even a little weary, not feeling any particular leading in prayer. So I sat in a chair on the front row of the old sanctuary, stilled myself and asked for and waited for the Holy Spirit.

Nothing much happened, but after awhile I began to think of a song we used to sing in church a number of years ago. What words I could remember seemed to express where I was at spiritually, but the problem was I couldn’t remember all the words. It was tantalizing, because I could remember enough to whet my appetite, but not enough to sing out.
I kept rehearsing the parts I could remember in my mind, thinking it might jar loose the rest of it, as often happens, but no go this time. I just couldn’t quite get a handle on it.

A thought came to me to go over to the piano on the platform and look there. I did not in any way think this was the Lord. Sure, people sometimes left song sheets on the piano, but the odds that this old song might be lying around there were about nil. But to silence the thought I walked over anyway. There was nothing on the piano: no music, no song sheets, nothing. “Well it’s not like I expected there would be. Just a crazy thought!”
I was about to turn away when I spied something white at the far end of the piano, beyond the music holder, lying flat at the very edge. It was a piece of paper. “Hmm, wonder what that could be? Guess I won't be satisfied 'till I check it out.” I climbed the platform and approached the piano. As I got closer I noticed there were two sheets of paper lying one on top of the other. All of a sudden there was a lot riding on what were on those 2 sheets of paper! I rounded the piano bench, bringing them into full view, and my eyes lit on the top sheet.
It was the song. IT WAS THE SONG! Titled “More of You” from Psalm 63 with no author listed. Every verse, every word was where I was at in my walk with the Lord:

Earnestly I seek You
With all my heart I long for You
Like dry desert sands I thirst for You

I’ve seen You in Your power
I’ve seen You in Your majesty
Your wondrous love has changed me
Now You are all I want
You’re more than life to me…

Awake my soul awake!
Put on the song of praise
O God will You please hear my cry
And draw me close to You?

And let my spirit soar into Your presence Lord
For only You can satisfy this longing that is deep inside
I hunger and thirst for more of You
I hunger and thirst for more of You.

I searched the whole platform: the keyboard, all the music stands, the drums…. There was not another song or sheet of paper anywhere except those two songs stacked neatly on the far side of the piano. “More of You” which the Holy Spirit had already laid on my heart, and the second one, “Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord.” (“Open the eyes of my Heart Lord, open the eyes of my Heart, I want to see You; I want to see You.”)
The Lord had given me my morning’s marching orders via a miracle and I sang those two songs with all my heart for the rest of my 2 hour time slot. And two days later I’m still singing them. They are what He wants me to cry out for and proclaim, and by extension, what He wants to give me. (“To see You high and lifted up, shining in the light of Your glory. Pour out Your power and love, as we cry ‘Holy! Holy! Holy!’”).