In the beginning, God....

It's not about you, students at Smithville Christian High School were told at Tuesday's chapel. It's about God.

Paul Dunk, director of ministries for Gideons International in Canada, said he is coming to be our daily chapel speaker during Spiritual Emphasis Week because he wants to preach the gospel, and the good news is the story is not about us and how we can get the most out of life. It's about Jesus.

At Tuesday's chapel Dunk said many Christians have traded the symbol of the cross for a ladder: their Christian faith is not about what Jesus did for them, but what they can do for Jesus, what they can do to achieve, to climb.

"Every morning when we wake up, it's either 'In the beginning, God,' or it's 'In the beginning, me,'" Dunk said. If we are not making our lives about God, we are making them about ourselves, and that's idolatry.

 

Reading from Genesis 1, Dunk said God was complete before the beginning of time.

"God didn't need anything," Dunk said. "God doesn't need us. God is the giver. God moved first. God loved first."

In Genesis 3, humans sinned by doubting that they would be fulfilled by God, he said, and tried to fill that need with something else. "The root cause of every sin you and I will ever do is doubting that God loves us and doubting that we can be fulfilled by him."

Dunk said when we care about what people think about us we will chase after the things we hope will make our lives powerful, meaningful or fulfilling.

"The iPod, golf, girls, guys, cars, fill in the blank -- it's all idolatry," he said.

God's message for you is you are already loved, you are already accepted, he said.

"Every morning, you either wake up 'from approval' or 'for approval,' either 'for acceptance' or 'from acceptance,'" he said.

 

 

If we are seeking approval or seeking acceptance, we will be living in a culture of comparison. We will want to feel good about ourselves by finding ourselves better than others.

But if we live our lives with the approval and acceptance of God, we can live with compassion, he said.

"It's either grace, strength and compassion, or it's comparison," Dunk said.

If we are trying to be great in our own strength, we will fail, he said. "God requires perfection, and even on a good day, we don't measure up."

But not only does God require perfection, he provides perfection.

"I can't clean myself up enough to impress God, but the good news is, God gave us a Saviour," Dunk said.

"The Bible is not a list of rules and ways to live and principles. It is not moralist teachings," Dunk said. "The Bible is a book about Jesus, and about how God provided perfection."

When we are deep in the gospel of Jesus "that's where the power is," he said. "That's where the transformation is."

A student praise team also led us in worship with "Centre," "You Bled," and "I Am Not Ashamed." Here's the video from I Am Not Ashamed: