What Are We Here For?

If you’re a Christian you’re a sojourner. If you’re a sojourner it begs the question, “What am I doing here?” When people sojourn somewhere they are there for a purpose. They go to that place to do something.

What are we Christians, us sojourners, here to do?

Are we here to fight the culture war? No.

Are we here to fight injustice? Yes and no. That may be part of what we’re called to do as Christians. It is most likely something that we are going to do because God cares about making things just and right. But, it’s not the end all, be all.

Are we here to make converts? Yes and no. That will be part of what happens as we live out our calling as followers of Jesus. But, like fighting injustice, it’s not the end all, be all.

What then are we supposed to be doing?

Peter writes,

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

In this sentence, Peter tells a group of Jewish Christians what their new identity is. He then tells them that this identity drives them into their calling.

That calling? “Proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

If God were writing a position focus for the follower of Jesus it would look something like this,

• Reports to: Jesus, Messiah, Son of God.
• Responsibilities: Proclaim the excellencies of Jesus.

That would be it. There would be little else. Do you know why? Because as we proclaim the excellencies of Jesus it changes us. When we talk about how awesome Jesus is, we will begin to want to be more like him.

As we become more like Jesus we begin to care about the things that he cares about. We will care about the injustice we see and act on it. We will become more holy because we will more align our lives evermore with his.

I want to be clear, this proclaiming the excellencies of Jesus is not about convincing people. It is about simply telling people that Jesus is excellent.

If you’re a Christian, you are sojourning here to tell the world that Jesus is excellent. When we grasp the excellency of Jesus in our own life and proclaim that to others, everything takes care of itself.

This proclamation of the excellency of Jesus is the opening of the rabbit hole. Open the door and see where it leads you. It has led me to Ypsilanti, MI to build disciples and send them out.

Join me as a fellow alien, sojourner, and exile in proclaiming how excellent Jesus is!

The post What Are We Here For? appeared first on The Journal by Daniel M. Rose. It was written by Daniel M. Rose.

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