Singleness of Purpose



By Rev. Dr. Paul Michael Raymond - Posted at New Geneva Ambassador School Blog:

Every true Child of God desires to change the world, by the advancing of Christ’s Kingdom for His Glory. Only the sincere regenerate sets forth his or her life in consistent self-sacrificial service to the living and reigning Christ. They alone understand the great commission of Christ’s global conquest to establish His reign in the midst of Time and History.

While the desire to change the world for Christ is admirable, there are certain problems the ambitious saint faces.

Problem 1: The overly ambitious saint wants to see change NOW, which means that he is very impatient and often doesn’t understand that the Kingdom of God is only advanced to its fullest extent throughout many generations. This is known as the doctrine of gradualism. Kingdom change does not happen in a catastrophic fashion. It does not happen immediately but over time through patience and tribulation. Patience, mingled with faith is the key to resolve. Impatience, on the other hand, tends to cause the saint unnecessary discouragement and frustration. It also fragments the saint’s focus.

Problem 2: As a result of the saint’s fragmented strategy, due to over ambition, he “bites off more than he can chew.” He tries to attack everything that is wrong with society. Every evil and injustice is in his cross hairs. But in order to feel as if he is successful in this comprehensive desire to change every institution by his own individual efforts, he resorts to a verbally assaulting what is wrong with the world without giving a clear Biblical alternative to the issue at hand. This verbal battle usually is staged within the realm of social media, the blog-o-sphere, op-ed newspaper letters to the editor, book writing or open live debate. While these, in and of themselves, are beneficial for educating the masses, they do little in actually changing anything concretely. Education must lead to action not merely contemplation. The contemplation, or in this case debate and argument, does little unless action is the result.

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