A Renegade's Guide to God by David Foster

Author:David Foster [FOSTER, DAVID]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781455520831
Publisher: FaithWords
Published: 2012-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

NEW DESIRES

The converted heart is filled with a new drive and ambition. Contrary to what religious people say, Christianity is not the denial of desire. Jesus used the metaphor of hunger to explain the conversion effect. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matt. 5:6).

The converted heart has a passion for the life of divine intention. Since God sought me, saved me, called me into this new life, and left me here, there must be work for me to do. I’m not talking about religious fanaticism here. We have enough of those. These are people who have forgotten their purpose, but have doubled their efforts. They run around making a lot of noise and like a cap pistol, their “pop” signifies nothing. They are like basketball players without a basket, tennis players without nets, or a golfer without a green. What I’m talking about is the purpose-focused life.

One of my favorite verses is, “For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed” (Acts 13:36). How cool is that? David served God’s purpose. This made his life timeless, for it is God’s purposes alone which will prevail in the end. But he did it in his own generation. This gave a timely effect to David’s life. There are two qualities a converted heart seeks. We long to live a life that is timeless and timely. This is our goal and driving ambition—to live free, have fun, and dedicate our lives and fortunes to changing the world driven by the conviction that every life matters to God.

As an R4G (a loved, converted, qualified, gifted son or daughter of God), I carry in my heart a definite sense of design and destiny. These may sound like hokey ideas in our current society of cynics, but they are epic ideas to, those with a converted heart. We believe God when He dares us to, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jer. 33:3).

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list of all the effects that are present in the converted heart but I hope they’re enough to give you a sense of whether or not you possess one. This is really important because too often people just imitate the religious behavior they’re told to do, without realizing that just imitating the action of religion really doesn’t change anything at the end of the day. Whatever good works you do that don’t proceed from a converted heart is counted as outward compliance. And for all the things God will tolerate, heartless obedience is not one of them. You can do all the “do right” things and still miss God. Remember Judas, the man who kissed the door of heaven and went to hell?

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