Torch, Fall 2001

freedom, prosperity, security, good education, a good profession, a house in the mountains, a boat, and—well, you get the picture. That’s the American dream. Don’t be upset, but the American dream is an empty bubble. Take a look around you at people who have spent their lives pursuing this “dream.” Half of the husbands and wives get divorced, even among evangelical Christians. Their kids are on drugs or shooting each other in school. Their lives are unhappy and empty. That is not a dream; that is a nightmare. There is only one dream for a Christian, and that is to serve Jesus wherever and however He needs you. I dare you to enlarge your vision, to try and see the world as God sees it. Everyone reading this, if a Christian, is called to take part in God’s work in the world. There is nothing more important than being part of God’s plan for the world. And what is his plan? It is that men and women from every nation, tribe, and kingdom will come to know and worship Jesus Christ. You have been called to be ambassadors for Christ. That is what your vision, dream, and ambition should be. Francis Xavier was a great missionary to Asia in the 1500s. After he went to India, he wrote back home to Europe, “Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come east to preach the gospel of Christ.” Give up your small ambitions. Aim for God’s highest. Choose God’s best. Do you know what most of us do? We choose something that’s good, but we miss the best. We seek for some good thing and we miss the best thing. There is a saying I suspect you are familiar with— good is the enemy of the best. What that means is that good things may distract us from finding what is really the best that God has for us. This has happened to countless young Christians who have gone out into life and pursued some good thing and then realized years later that they had missed the best that God had for them. Let me make one thing clear. God’s best does not mean Fall 2001 / TORCH 9 you want—a BMW, a fancy house, the most expensive hi-fi equipment—and still follow Jesus at the same time. Remember the rich young man in Matthew 19 who thought he could do that? Jesus knew his heart and knew that he loved his possessions more than he loved God. When Jesus challenged him to sell his possessions, the young man went away sorrowful. Somehow the idea has gotten around that there are two kinds of Christians—those few oddballs who do something silly like become missionaries and then the rest who can lead nice, ordinary, comfortable lives. But Jesus never talked about two kinds of Christians. There is only one kind of true Christian. They are called disciples. Jesus had a lot to say about disciples, but just take one verse from Luke 14:27 where Jesus said, “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” That’s who a disciple is—someone who takes up the cross of self-denial, of self- sacrifice. One who lays all his possessions, indeed his very life at the feet of Jesus. One who says in the words of the hymn: “Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to thee ...”. This doesn’t mean that tomorrow you have to go out and sell your hi-fi equipment or your car or your clothes. It just means that those things don’t belong to you, they belong to Jesus. And that means that Jesus has the right to tell you what to do with them. What is your dream? Some pursue the American dream: Nepali believers meet wherever they can. Their hunger for a glimpse of God through the study of His Word is obvious. These meetings will often draw standing room-only crowds of people of all ages.