Making a Difference: Where it All Begins

Looking back in my early childhood, I remember wanting to make a difference. I didn't know how I was going to make a difference - I just knew I wanted to. I always changed my mind from one thing to another. Maybe I could make a difference through astronomy, or as a veterinarian, or a missionary to Australia, or a construction worker. On and on I went, changing my mind on what I wanted to do for the rest of my life over and over again. I wanted to know the first step. I thought, at first that the first step was picking your major or getting a job or growing up. I really wasn't quite sure. Turns out I was wrong (as I usually am). Today I realize the first step, and the first step was not choosing a major or growing up - it was wanting to choose a major and grow up.

See, the world will only change if the one that changes the world wants to change the world. That is the very first step. In my early childhood, I wanted to know the first step but I never realized that my wanting was the first step. Now, as a teenager, I realize that I'm still on Step 1: wanting to change the world. I don't know for sure what my major will be in, but I sure do know what I want to be in the future - a man worthy of the Gospel. That's where the heart comes in. Your heart contains all the dreams and the desires of your life and when you let Christ into your heart, He becomes the dreams and the desires of your life and Christ commands us to make disciples and be the change that this dying world desperately needs. In other words, if Christ is the dreams and desires of your heart, then imitating Him by changing the world and making a difference almost certainly is as well.

What about making a difference every day? Well, to put this in the perspective of the heart, it is impossible to make a difference for the Kingdom of God unless it starts there, in your heart. Just wanting to make a difference makes all the difference in the world. I want to make a difference. Therefore, I am convinced that I will. I don't know what that difference I make will be. All I know is that it's there, waiting to be made, and God has called me to make it. And I can't make that difference unless I want to make it every single day and every single moment.

We do not start changing the world with choosing our major, whether it be ping pong or rocket science. We do not start making a difference when we graduate high school or turn 21. We start a making difference today. And the best place to start is your heart. So if you desire to really make a difference every day, make sure you really really really really really want to. Make change the obsession of your heart. I've never been a big fan of sitting around, living for the moment, celebrating the most pivotal events in history only on Christmas and Easter, and bickering about how twisted the world is without giving the time to actually do something about it. If I have said anything, I've said this: you can't change the world until you've changed your heart.

I'll let you go on this final note, if you go to any ministry or revival or church plant or anything that you know is changing the world today, and you go down into their history, I can 100% guarantee that the ministry started in the hearts of few and just spread like... something that spreads real quickly (the only thing I can think of are diseases and weeds). The hungry have been fed, the naked has been clothed, the needy have been given to, the broken have been mended, the imprisoned has been visited, the lost have been found, and the blind have seen, all because somebody's heart wanted it to happen. Every day, that passion for change needs to be implanted in your heart. It needs to be the definition of your dreams and desires. That is how you can start making a difference every day.

For now, I want to set a goal and cast a vision. I have no clue who you want to be, but I sure know what Christ wants you to be. This passage that I'm about to share with you is really close to my heart right now and it really gives me something to live for. Please, if this isn't your vision, make it your vision today and change the world!

But as God’s ministers, we commend ourselves in everything:

by great endurance, by afflictions, by hardship, by difficulties,
by beatings, by imprisonments, by riots, by labors,
by sleepless nights, by times of hunger, by purity, by knowledge,
by patience, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love,
by the message of truth, by the power of God;
through weapons of righteousnesson the right hand and the left,
through glory and dishonor, through slander and good report;
as deceivers yet true; as unknown yet recognized;
as dying and look—we live; as being disciplined yet not killed;
as grieving yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many;
as having nothing yet possessing everything.

2 Corinthians 6:4-10

In Christ,
Paul

Rebuilding From the Ashes: Introduction

Our world is messed up. It really is. But Christ came to fix that. He also wants to use us. As He said in Matthew 28:19-20:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”[1]

So are we making disciples of all nations? Or, if you're just a teenager, here's another question: are we even helping make disciples of our nation? Or are we doing the opposite?

Our World 

This blog is about living out Luke 10:27. We need to help by using our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Let's take a glimpse at the world we need to, by the grace of God, fix:

Love is a foreign language to us. There are kids out on the street starving while the fortunate are living in mansions eating giant feasts. We take too much while some have too little. We can help fix this problem by obeying Jesus' words recorded in Matthew 25:34-40 and John 15:12.

We are not loving Christ, or others, with our soul. One of our authors Langston describes loving the Lord with your soul in this way: 

"Well from my understanding, your soul is basically your core. It's you. It's your personality, how you view the world, your thoughts, etc.

It's not the same as your heart, which (again, from my understanding) is your passions, desires, goals and your emotions. That's just from what I know though.

I could have some details mixed up. :P But yeah.

Now the question is, how do you love Jesus with your soul?

Well, you first need a relationship with him. If he's a stranger to you it's going to be hard to love him in general. And its going to be especially difficult to love him with everyone you are.

The next thing is that you imitate Christ.

If you love someone with your soul, they are like a role model to you. And that's what Jesus should be. We all should want to be just like him.

We've fallen away from that. Christian means "of christ."

We should live in a way that people can tell we follow Jesus, or at least be able to tell that there's something different about us."[2] 

About the lack of strength: there are some Christians who are not really of Christ. They just go to church on Sunday and forget about Jesus for the other six days of the week. I was once one of them, but God changed, and is still changing, me. I mean no condemnation on these people. I just think we should let them know where life is really at and show them the awesomeness of our God. 

We live in a culture where atheism is growing. The faith of many Christians is being crushed by deceptive philosophies. The culture is displaying Christians as intolerant, hypocritical, and stupid. Since Christ commanded us to love Him with our mind, we must show that love not only to Him, but to others. 

The Series

I and the other Agape authors want address these problems of the world while giving advice to fix them. So, we are doing a new series called "Rebuilding From the Ashes." A godly society has been burned up, but we can rebuild it through the power and grace of God. We can make a change. Since this blog is mainly written to other teenagers, we can do that. For the Bible says this in 1Timothy 4:12-

Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. [3]

Like I said above, the world is messed up. We must help fix it. God can use us to do that. 


So this series will go in this format- there will be four posts for each three topics. The topics are:


-Making a difference in everyday life
-Shaping the culture
-Being the perfect example of Christ


I will write from the perspective of mind, Paul from heart, Courtney from strength, and Lang from soul. 


I hope that you enjoy the series and that it inspires you to live life to the fullest by Christ. Please enjoy. 


                                          ______________________________________
                                                                  Notes
[1] I copy and pasted this verse from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28%3A19-20&version=NASB
[2] I am quoting Langston from a post called "Soul? Love? How is this going to work?"
[3] I copy and pasted this verse from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+4%3A12&version=NASB