Resolution Two

Resolved, to place value on and pursue only activities which bring God glory.

There is an old Reebok commercial that says, "Life is short, Play hard!" Well, I agree with the first statement. Life is short. Also true is the statement, "You only go around once." If we put those together, we get one shot with a short life. How can we make it count for something? The world would have us enjoy our one shot at a short life. "Play hard!"

My own life is often filled with enjoyable things. And God did create us to enjoy life. The often quoted verse of 1 Tim. 6:17 says,

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

But it is interesting to note that the emphasis of this verse is not toward enjoying life, but placing our hope in the right place. It is not combatting those who are aesthetics and ignoring the secular for the spiritual; but those who, like us, are materialists and are placing their hope in their things. Even though God did create us to enjoy life, enjoyment of life is NEVER found in the things of life; instead as we place our hope in Christ, we are able to enjoy life. And when our hope FOR life is set beyond the things OF life we can find true enjoyment. No matter what our life situation is.

The best way to enjoy and to have a fulfilling and meaningful life is to fix our hope on Christ; as we do this it practically impacts the way we live. We will find ourselves pursuing only those things that have significance. I'm still trying to work out the ramifications of this. What actually has significance? My tendency in the past has been to ignore the secular for the spiritual, but I am not trying to say that we can only enjoy and pursue spiritual things in life. When God created the world, He took delight in His creation. One of His creations was mankind. As men and women, we can image Creator God and create many different things with our lives. In his book on common grace, He Shines in All That's Fair, Richard Mouw says,

Let me be concrete: I think God takes delight in Benjamin Franklin's wit and in Tiger Woods's putts and in some well-crafted narrative paragraphs in a Salman Rushdie novel, even if these accomplishments are in fact achieved by non-Christian people. And I am convinced that God's delight in these phenomena does not come because they bring the elect to glory and the non-elect to eternal separation from the divine presence. I think God enjoys these things for their own sakes.

I am inclined to agree, yet realize the danger of overemphasizing this truth would be placing too high a value on man's creations. So, God is glorified as we use our creative energies and image Him in this world, yet I don't find the pictures given us in Revelation have too many man made creations around the throne praising God. I think this area calls for much discernment, probably more than I have.

In the end, I am convinced of one thing - that God's greatest glory can be pursued in those activities which make much of Christ. When Christ is uplifted, God is glorified. If Christ is debased or marginalized, God is not glorified. It is my resolution to make each activity in my life a part of the pursuit of making much of Jesus.

Resolution One

Resolved, that my life would be about finding my joy in going after God's glory and not my own.
Our lives need purpose. A life without purpose is an empty one. For the the Christian, our purpose must be both based on and found in God. This resolution states my intent of basing my life on God and living for His glory.

Originally, I wrote "Resolved, that my life would be about pursuing God's glory and not my own." As I reflected on it, something seemed to be lacking. God's glory is, of course, the chief end of man according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism. But I realized that I had left out the other side of the coin; that which John Piper so vividly illustrates in Desiring God. It was Blaise Pascal who wrote:

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.

Pascal is saying that happiness (or the pursuit of it) is at the very core of a person. And Piper's driving point is that God has designed us to find our ultimate joy and happiness in the pursuit of God's glory. If (as a person) I cannot help but pursue joy; then I am deciding to pursue joy in God, for it is only here that true joy may be found. This is easy to say, but not so easy to live. But it provides a foundation for the rest of the resolutions and is my overarching theme.

By way of scriptural backing, Romans 11:36 is a great place to start, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." The scripture that explicitly says this best is probably Revelation 4:11...

You are worthy, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.

Resolutions (Heading)

I want to write a series of posts detailing (primarily for myself) what each of these mean, why I put it in this list, the scriptural backing, and the practical application. But first I need to address the heading...

Relying solely on the righteousness of Jesus Christ who by his life and death has become my justification and sanctification, I do purpose the following:

It is critical to recognize that anything we do that is pleasing in God's sight, is not because of our own goodness (Is. 64:6), but exclusively because of Jesus. Righteousness is not something that we can achieve, but something we are given. (2 Cor. 5:21) Would I never make a resolution, my standing before God would not be different in the slightest.
Christ's death appeased the wrath of God and payed for the penalty of our sins, but his life gave us our righteousness. His 33 years of sinless life are counted as mine!
Based on this understanding, these resolutions are written as my attempt to state my convictions. Imperfectly lived, but still convictions. Or one may say convicting convictions.