Success and Why It Doesn't Matter
Success as we know and are taught it in North America has no place in God's kingdom work. Instead, “conquering” is the appropriate biblical lingo. What's the difference between the two? The short answer is Jesus. But Jesus, the risen One, gives us a more detailed profile in his messages to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. Each of these messages are addressed to those who hope to “conquer” and the gifts such conquerors will receive. Only two of these churches receive no censure from Jesus; the others all have something going on that provokes Jesus' ire. So our profile of conquering will involve extrapolating from the sins of five of the churches to their positive correlates and compare and contrast them with success in our culture. First , conquering is other-directed. Whether the “first love” from which the Ephesian church had fallen was love for God or love for each other, in either case the one who conquers is focused away from him or hers...