What does God want?

Suppose a wife comes to her husband at Christmas. And she tells him that she wants a specific gift for Christmas. She tells her husband that the gift she wants can be found all over the world; from China to Africa to Europe and even down the street at any market store. They come in different sizes, shapes and colors, and this is all she wants for Christmas.

Now as a result of his wife telling him this, like a good husband he goes to the store in search of her gift. When he gets there, he tells the clerk what she wants and they proceed to get the gift. After all, this is what she wants.

Now along the way the husband sees something else, something that he is sure his wife would like, and in addition it is much more expensive than the gift she wanted. He is absolutly sure this is the gift for her and so instead of getting the gift she wanted, he gets her this other gift.

So Christmas time rolls around and the anticipation has built as the gifts have sat under the tree; anticipation from her because she believes that she is going to get what she asked for and anticipation on his part because he knows she will just love the gift he got her.

She picks her gift up and begins unwrapping it and to her disappointment she sees what it is: it is not what she asked for and she lets out a disappointed "Oh."There is hurt in the "Oh" because it isn't what she wanted.

Seeing his wife's disappointment, the husband will try to explain how he was at the store on his way to buy her the gift she asked for when he saw this and knew she would love it and furthermore it is much more expensive...

But the wife just sits there, staring at her gift, disappiontment on her face.

Suppose we were to sit down with God and ask him "God, what is it you want?" What would he say? I suggest to you that he would answer with "Well, there is this one thing i want. Now you can get these anywhere in the world; from China to Africa to Europe, even down the street from your house. They come in many different sizes, shapes and colors and it is this one thing i want more than anything else: mankind."

Notice what happens though; the church, the chosen, the known before creation vessel for the propogation of the saving message of grace, in its attempt to get the gospel to every living creature has become focused on things God did not ask for: bigger buildings and gymnasiums and the like. Now don't misunderstand this: these are all good things and they can be useful. But when a congregation fails to divert their attention on seeking and saving the lost and using those resources to do that, then God kind of says "Oh. Yes, the new church building is nice but couldn't that money have been used toward several missionaries with a machete in the jungle working to share the gospel with people who stand condemned in their sins.

My challenge is that everyone of us would take a step back and try to see what the motives behind every action are and weigh them on the scale with God's standard to see whether we have stepped over the line into comfortablity and lethargy, or if we are truly striving to please him in all that we do. Is this what God wants, or will his face and heart be clouded with disappointment as he says "Oh."