Cactus Christian Fellowship
  • About Us
    • Mission Statement
    • Staff
    • Elders
    • Weekly Newsletter >
      • Offering & Attendance
    • Church Directory
    • Bible Reading Plans
    • Contact Us
  • Ministries
    • Cactus Care
    • Pastoral Care
    • Prayer Ministry
    • Missions
    • Men's Ministry
    • Women's Ministry
    • Teens
    • Small Groups >
      • Tuesday
      • Wednesday
      • Thursday
    • Service Opportunities
  • 9am Bible Classes
    • Adults
    • Teens
    • K - 6th grade
    • Nursery
  • Sermons
  • Calendar

Living a Life Without God

2/21/2018

0 Comments

 
One of the books of the Old Testament I used to avoid when I was a seminary student begins with the words: “Meaningless! Meaningless!...everything is meaningless.”  You guessed it—Ecclesiastes, written 3,000 years ago by wise King Solomon.  Since it began in such a cynical fashion I felt it couldn’t really provide much inspiration for me.  Sometime later when I was forced to study the book in detail I discovered that Solomon was only stating his conclusions up front about living a life without a secure tether to God, regardless of which direction it might go.  The real message Solomon had to give was in his last words, not his first ones.  He concludes his book like this:  “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man…”
 
I saw these same words rephrased in modern dress by Leon Morris in “The Cross of Jesus,” when he stated, “the tragedy of much of modern life is that the abandonment of the knowledge of God means that futility has taken over.”  Those are the two words that really describe the condition of people who don’t know God: “meaningless” and “futility.”  It wouldn’t matter if you lived in an Eastern culture 3,000 years ago or in the Western culture of today.  You always arrive at the same dead end when you omit God from your everyday life.  That is a description of what has taken over our own nation.  Of course that problem has always been around, but never has it so absorbed the lives of so many of our people.  The greatest mission field we face is not across the ocean in some third world country.  It is barely across the street.  The culture most lost to the gospel is our own.  I believe they are not so much lost like the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable, but more like the lost sheep.  They are just out there, a long way from where they should be. They can make no real sense out of their surroundings, and they have no idea how to get home.  That is why every Christian is a rescuer, or, if you please, a shepherd.  We should be the first to notice their location, their futility, their meaningless lives, and provide loving directions back to the sheep pen where the Good Shepherd waits to welcome them home where they belong.

 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Bud Downs

    Senior Pastor of Cactus Christian Fellowship

    Picture

    Archives

    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

2401 E. Cactus Road, Phoenix, AZ 85032  
  • About Us
    • Mission Statement
    • Staff
    • Elders
    • Weekly Newsletter >
      • Offering & Attendance
    • Church Directory
    • Bible Reading Plans
    • Contact Us
  • Ministries
    • Cactus Care
    • Pastoral Care
    • Prayer Ministry
    • Missions
    • Men's Ministry
    • Women's Ministry
    • Teens
    • Small Groups >
      • Tuesday
      • Wednesday
      • Thursday
    • Service Opportunities
  • 9am Bible Classes
    • Adults
    • Teens
    • K - 6th grade
    • Nursery
  • Sermons
  • Calendar