The One Thing

I don't really know about anyone else, but I am tired of constantly hearing about what people have to say. Here's what I mean: I was reading a book today that had about six thousand quotes from different people and it went from one authority figure to another. They were good men with something to say. Jonathan Edwards was one of them, and as we all know, you can't go wrong quoting Jonny E! I have also been kicking around on different blogs tonight and one thing that I notice is that so often we turn the Christian life into something that must be prescribed. Here, take a John Piper with a Justin Taylor. Wash that down with a good Derek Webb and you'll be in good shape. We are called to have a faith of our own. The just man shall by his faith live. I would take that to mean that if I really want to grow more like Christ and to be nearer to him, I ought to by my faith live! Sounds simple, but I think alot of times our faith is mislaced. We believe something because someone else of high repute told us that it was this way. I know that this may sound very individualistic and I want to be clear that I'm not addressing the whole context of what I mean until I talk about what this looks like in a community, but dang it we should all be saying, "I want to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being conformed to his death so that somehow somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead." "As the deer pants after the flowing streams, so my soul longs for you as in a dry and weary land where no water is" "O God you are my God, earnestly I seek you...my flesh and my heart may fail but YOU are the strength of my heart and my portion forever." So at the Reckless Raging Fury, let us not accept someone else's word for it. Lets experience the God Piper and Taylor and Edwards before them exalted. Lets sing like Derek Webb of the great and boundless mercy of God. But let us press after the One Thing that will satisfy. Let's not be content with intelligent people saying great things about God. Let's feel the greatness of the One God and long after his courts. "I would rather be a doorkeeper at the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked." O God give us this singular passion for our own cold hearts!