Does Your Life Measure Up?

Here is just a start to what I learned at Passion...more to come!

Francis Chan

“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Phil. 1:27
Francis talked about how your life measures up to the gospel. He took out an old fashion scale. He placed the Word of God on one side. He said that your life should look like the gospel, it should measure up. In other words, we should be living in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Man oh man this really got me thinking…Courtney, does your life truly measure up? Is everything that you do living in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ? About half way through this talk, I found myself in tears because I realized that if what I say I believe is really what I believe, then that scale is not always balanced in my day to day life. See, Francis talked about how he came to a point in his life where certain areas of his life where not measuring up to the gospel. This led him to leave his church and move his family across the world for a season of time. He realized that living here in the States, he did not understand persecution. He did not understand what it meant to love Jesus more then life. And I mean really, living in America where we think that someone not liking us is the worst possible form of “persecution” we receive for the gospel…we just don’t get it. We don’t know what it means to sacrifice in the name of Jesus. We just don’t get it. So anyhow, Chan had heard so many stories about the underground church in China. He decided to go there to learn from the pastors there, the people who understand persecution for the gospel of Christ. He also traveled to several other nations as well, just spending time with these incredible believers who pack into small homes and cry out the name of Jesus for hours at a time. Francis moved back to the states yesterday and decided not to return to pasturing his church, but is going to be living in San Francisco to share the name of Jesus with people on the streets. Just him sharing his journey even, and where the Lord has brought him from and to and where he is going…it gave me so much perspective and convicted me of so many areas of my life.

For me, this is what it comes down to…there is a verse in Revelation chapter 20, verse 15. It says “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” We have all probably heard this scripture read before. But I had never understood it the way I do now. Francis basically said, If you really believe that, in other words if you really believe that anyone whose name is not written in the book of life is going to spend ETERNITY in hell, then your life should be a reflection of that. Whooooohhhh. If I really believe that every single person in my life who does not know Christ is going to burn in hell, does my life reflect that? Does it measure up? Is it worthy of the manner of the gospel of Jesus? Honestly, no. My life has not reflected that. See, if I really understood that, I could not help but shout the name of Jesus, sharing His love for the woman checking me out at Walmart, the man behind the counter at the bank, the kid sitting next to me in anthropology, the mom of the girl that I nanny for, my own mom! Oh how the Lord broke my heart through what Francis said. I don’t know the beginning of what it means to love people well, to experience persecution for sharing the name of Christ, to sacrifice. Not even a little bit. As the Lord continues to fasten this message to my heart and continues to teach me what it practically looks like to conduct various areas of my life in a manner worthy of the gospel…where when my life is placed on that scale, it measures up to the gospel, my prayer is that I will come to just begin to understand what it means to live a life that displays an understanding of what this Word says. Oh Lord, just break my heart for what breaks yours…continue to speak to me, change me, challenge me, and show me how to conduct my life in a manner worthy of Your Word and your precious Son. That all those around me day to day will look at my life and hear the words of Truth spoken from my lips and know that You are God, that Your Son is Jesus and that in Him is everlasting life…the Only way to everlasting life and wholeness and peace and LOVE.