Senior Year: An Essay on Impact

Buckle up gang, and here we go. It’s time for yet another school year to start. More teachers. More classes. More homework. And yet, something is different. I venture into this new era of my life as a new man. During this summer God has rapidly transformed me from someone who wanted to know God (but also wanted other things) into a man totally dependant on the Rock, thirsty for His Word all the time. I enter this year no longer the same person I once was, and because of this, I am able to expect different results.

Last year I was a part of a lot of things, and I had a lot of fun, but I’m not quite sure where the eternal impact was. That’s a phrase we threw around a lot this summer. How can we truly make a difference in the lives of our peers and in our own hearts? So this year I pledge myself to live by that higher standard, to answer Christ’s call when he charges us in Luke 12:48. He says, “… From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

What does that mean? It means that I am being held at a higher standard. I’ve seen God’s provision for my life and I know that this year He expects great things from me. I just found out last week that a scheduling conflict is forcing me to drop what would have been my hardest class, allowing me to move into an easier one that will still be worthwhile I think. Through that and other experiences this summer God has just made it clear to me that this year, my senior year, is supposed to make a splash. School is a part of it yes, but the ultimate goal is this: to make more and stronger disciples of Jesus Christ. Christ says in Matthew 12:34 that out of an overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. So hear my heart. My desire is to evoke change, to “move the team” if you will. I want to take myself and those around me to a whole new level in our relationships with the Lord. In the words of the Babe from Sandlot, “Heroes get remembered but legends never die.” I want to make my mark. I want my life to radiate Christ with such a passion that my zeal for my Maker will overflow into all aspects of my life and every relationship. I’m not living so that people will remember Matt Bartlett, the local Jesus Freak, but rather I want others to see God’s love made physical through my life. I want to share the Gospel with not just my lips, but also my actions.

This started with me humbling myself before God, admitting that I cannot do anything without him. This ends with me sitting exalted at the throne, sitting side by side with the Lord of Creation, God Almighty himself. This is my senior year. I’m living with no regrets. I’m finishing strong. Never this year will I remember back to a time that I wasted an opportunity, failed to chase after the one who perpetually chases after me.

To all of you who are Seniors this year. Don’t waste this chance. We only have one life to live. Don’t look back at high school a decade from now and wish that it could have been different. “Greater things are still to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city” are the some great lyrics penned by Chris Tomlin. Do you believe it? Do you believe that you’re life is capable of changing others eternity, of impacting literally the entire world for Jesus? You can. Each and every one of you can set the world on fire for Christ. As LeaderTreks says, the first step to becoming a leader is believing you are one. If you believe in yourself, in the man/woman that God has created for a purpose, his purpose, then you will be an instrument of the Holy God, ready to impact everyone around you. I urge you not to waste this chance, to waste a year where “the world is your oyster,” where you are king of the jungle and have influence beyond your wildest imaginations. Change your school, change your friends, change your life. Take your relationship with Christ seriously. He died for your life, all of it, for you to spend all of eternity in communion with Him. And most of us spend maybe 20 minutes a day with Him. We don’t meditate on his Word, and we don’t pray continuously or even often for that matter. Christ didn’t die so we could give him our mediocre attempt at spirituality. Sure we’re all wrecks, no of us are perfect, but he deserves all we can muster. Get to know the one who knitted you together in your mother’s womb. Who planned every step you would take before you took them. Who created you with a purpose. Live your life for the one who sent you.

To all non-seniors; don’t wait. Don’t wait for senior year to “turn it on” so-to-speak. Don’t waste your time you have now that you could be running for Jesus. Once you get on his team start being that champion he calls us to be. Use your years that you have now to latch on to Christ and to build that relationship up further and further, be infatuated by His grace and desperate to be in His love. By the time you get to senior year you will have an even greater platform from which you are able to minister from. God calls each one of us to ministry, so get out there and go.
I leave you all with a set of verses and a parting word or two. Matthew 28:18-20, “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.” God is with us. He has commissioned us to set this earth on fire for him. Lets live it out. Make today a day worth remembering, a day spent chasing after the King of Kings. Amen.
-matt

Restored

Above all, You are the light

the world is Yours.

I have nothing to fear.

So why am I afraid.

I am inadequate.

You love me.

I ambandoned you.

You chased me.

I cursed you.

You held me.

Please don't give me what I deserve.

I need grace.

I always need grace.

So why do I forget you?

I'm a mess, God.

You are the author of life.

My story is not complete.

In the final chapter

we meet in heaven

restored.

-matt

Eternally Bound: An Essay on the Greatest Ransom

Earlier this week in my devotions I was reading through Leviticus of all places, that’s the third book in your bible, and really felt convicted. The themes of sin, ransom, and atonement were everywhere. Back in the days before Christ had come sins still were sins and a price had to be paid.

Leviticus 4:7-10

“The priest shall then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting. The rest of the bull's blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He shall remove all the fat from the bull of the sin offering—the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys- just as the fat is removed from the ox sacrificed as a fellowship offering. Then the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering”

That’s just an example of what we’re talking about here. For every sin, blood had to be paid, and the priest, as a mediator between God and man, would pay it by performing the right sacrifices which God gave to the Israelites through Moses. Now before you start freaking out (which I’m willing to bet most of you reading have, can’t imagine many of you find yourself in Leviticus during your daily devotionals), this isn’t anything new to you. Well, it shouldn’t be anything new to you. We, like the Israelites, are sinners. That sin has to be paid for so that we can receive that right standing with God. We aren’t able to pay that debt ourselves, so we require a priest to pay the penalty for us. And we have all of that in the person of Christ. Romans 3:23 defines our problem in saying that all have sinned and fallen short of the righteousness required by a holy God. 1 Timothy 2:5 says that Christ came as the one and only mediator between God and Man. 1 John 4:10 says that Jesus was sent as that sacrifice, thus cleansing us of our sin.

Now about that price, it says in Romans that the wages of sin is death. And in Mark 10:45 it says that Jesus came to be that ransom. We are all slaves to sin, held captive by our flesh, seekers of destruction in this desolate world. But Jesus’ sacrifice on that cross, his gruesome death pays the debt we owe for our sinfulness, bringing us into fellowship with a holy God, one that doesn’t tolerate sin. He sees us as clean because our flaws have already been paid in full by our Savior Redeemer Christ. This got me thinking about the whole idea of a ransom, and of atonement. The fact that God would willingly lay his life down, would endure 39 whips from a cat-of-nine-tails, would have three stakes driven through his wrists and his ankles, and have his side pierced, for us. God died so that we could be brought over from our communion with this world into a wholly giving of our souls to him. He paid the ultimate price.

What for? Think about this real fast, answer this question: How much time do you spend with God each day, ie. devos, prayer, biblestudies, etc. _____Got your answer? For me when this point was first given to me two weeks ago, I was deeply convicted, because my answer simply wasn’t enough. God died so we could experience an eternal relationship with him, so that we would give our lives over for him to use. He didn’t intend anything else. When God was in the garden and man was in perfect relationship with him, that was GOOD. He didn’t redeem us so that we could spend thirty minutes, an hour, even two with him a day. He requires our everything. Are we giving that to the Lord of Creation? We need to be.

So as an action step per se, can we not all commit to seek after God more earnestly, he deserves it. Let us repent, do a 180 degree turn from our sinfulness to the throne of Grace. Read His Word every day, for more than a few minutes. I urge you to take an hour before you start your day, yes a full hour, and give that to the Lord. It may seem like a lot, but how much time do we waste in front of the tv, video games, or Facebook? For parting words, a challenge: Ephesians 4:1; “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” God has bought us out of sin into full service to Him, Paul elsewhere describes himself as a bondservant and a slave. Live your life worthy of that calling, finish strong, have NO REGRETS.

-matt