Last week, we considered the three essential elements of finding the abundant life the Bible speaks of and the world longs for—according to the Gospel of Mark:
1. The Biblical Worldview – God is working out a plan in this world.
2. Our Issue – The most important matter in our lives is finding our place in God's plan.
3. The Claim – Jesus is the key to finding our place in God's plan.
This week, we return to Jesus' first call to people to find their places in God's plan, as recorded in Mark 1:14–20. As you prepare to worship, read through some of the father/son email dialogue that Brandon (my son) sent to me when I wrote the three above-mentioned points to him:
So, you're saying that there is something going on bigger than we are that we don't necessarily recognize but we know exists. And we need to figure out our part in it, and there is only one person who can introduce us to it. Sounds like the beginning of an action thriller—like "The Fugitive" but with a more positive predicament for Harrison Ford.
I'm particularly interested in how our part in God's plan might play out in contemporary settings. How does a Christian make use of his smartphone to play a part in God's plan? How does a Christian make use of Facebook (or not make use of it) as part of God's plan (there must be some more-redeemed use than posting religious-y videos on it)?
Also important would be how Jesus introduces people to their places in God's plan. That always seems to be the missing piece for folks like me when we wonder, "Is this God's plan?" When it happens, we tend to say, "Okay, I guess that it must have been God's plan since it happened." It feels like what we see in the Bible might indicate a more "revolutionary" sense of calling.
The most difficult issue to a 20-something like me is how in the world we are introduced to that plan. We agree with your point 1, are pretty sure of #2, and we understand #3. But for some reason, we can't figure out how to get introduced to this plan—especially when we live in a world in which we have incredible amounts of competing and chaotic information catapulted at us. Perhaps the plan is simply learning to love and trust Jesus more than anything else—which it seems to be with the rich young ruler (eek, skipping ahead to Mark 10)—which then loops us back to the questions "How do we love and trust and follow Jesus wholly within our contemporary setting?" and "How do we apply what Jesus teaches in a way that is not superficial in the midst of an increasingly connected but anonymous and therefore often-isolated society?"
We'll chew on these things this weekend. May we all have a new sense of Jesus' call upon our lives.
To His Glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor