#22: Go Somewhere or Go Nowhere

The QSC Mission

QuadShot Coaching strives to point clients toward an active, growing relationship with Jesus Christ in every aspect of their lives.

Core Values

Scripture-based Authority: Everything I do, believe, and present as a coach comes through a Scriptural hermeneutic. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Truth-Seeking: The coach/client relationship must be transparent, authentic, and honest for the sake of growth and forward movement. (1John 5:20)
Authentic Witness: Authenticity will draw people to Christ. (Philippians 3:12-14)
Life-Altering: QSC pushes clients to explore their comfort zones to expand outward as they grow deeper in their life purpose. (2 Timothy 1:6-7)
Humility: All ministry must be clothed in humility. (1 Peter 5:5-6)
All-Encompassing: Living a full life encompasses a whole-person approach; mental, emotional, personal, and physical transformation (Luke 10:27).
Sanctuary: QSC provides a safe place for clients to question, brainstorm, and grow. (Psalm 27:1)
Intimacy: Our relationship with Jesus is our youth ministry. (Psalm 139)
Awe-Inspired Wonder: Ministry must allow us to regularly rediscover the astonishment of the vastness of God and His infinite love for us, compel us to seek answers from His Word, and leave room for His continual work in our lives. (Philippians 3:7-16).
Creativity: QSC coaches clients to be free to discover and express their God-given creativity (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Coaching Objectives

The QSC objective is to help clients establish the following five components in their lives:

Purpose: Centering God in their lives rather than centering their lives upon themselves.
Understanding: Growing more and more like Christ, and less and less like the world.
Success: Seeing people through the eyes of God, with the heart of God, and with a desire to share God with others.
Fellowship: A time of communal growth for the Body of Christ. It can display itself in different aspects of the Christian walk.
Service: Taking what the Lord has taught us (internal) and expressing it into the lives of others (external), both believers and non-believers.

#22: Go Somewhere or Go Nowhere

“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.”
~Ephesians 2:11-12

Therefore…

The little word that carries so much meaning. Therefore tells us that everything said up to this point should completely impact us and be understood by that which is to follow. Upon first glance, therefore, it appears that we have much to consider.

Consider who we once were.
Like Israel before us, we were not intimate with the Trinity but were intimate with sin, separation, and hopelessness. We knew not the God who made us, even if we knew about Him. Like Israel, we did not seek God, but God sought us out and invited us into a relationship with Him.

Like Israel, we were not citizens of the Kingdom of God until God transformed us into citizens when we put our faith in Christ Jesus.

Citizens have rights as well as responsibilities. and while the gift of salvation was still freely offered to us, we were excluded because we rejected the love offered to us by the One who could set us free and call us home.

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The timeliness of this verse is not lost on me. What I mean is this: The letter to the Ephesians was written just short of 2000 years ago. At that time, Paul is writing to a primarily Gentile readership, and Paul is telling those readers that they now, through Christ, have a special relationship not only with God but also with the people of God, Israel; an ethnic group that God called into existence through Abraham and his dependents.

This was not a closed group, but an open one… when one turned to God and away from the polytheistic culture and the worship of idols—idols made of the construct of the hands and the heart and mind—one could enter into the great story of redemption and freedom. God's desire is inclusion and not exclusion.

When Israel rejected their Messiah, God's plan of redemption for all of humanity was not disrupted. The ministry of Paul to the Gentile world did not manifest as a counter-rejection of Israel, but as a gracious pause for them before the culmination of their relationship with God would be fully realized. Rather than 'no', God's response to Israel's rejection was 'not yet.' God's response to the Gentile world in light of Israel's refusal to follow Him was 'but still' as opposed to 'too bad.'

Today, Israel as a political nation again faces the destructive weight of the world for the special recognition of being God's chosen people; not chosen because of who they are, but chosen to become and to proclaim the message of Christ.

Chosen People is a position and title not placed upon them by themselves but by God. The history of this great people has been one not unlike its Gentile counterpart: Rejecting God, turning to idols, egocentricity, receiving the consequences of their folly, realizing their waywardness, repenting, and turning back to God.

In practice, Israel has been no better than the Gentiles, but they certainly are no worse.

Dive More Deeply

Last week, we looked at how we are made on purpose, with a purpose, and for a purpose.

Part of that purpose is to live our lives today within the calling of God, examining our lives daily for how we, too, get ourselves stuck in the sin cycle.

Rejecting God, turning to idols, egocentricity, receiving the consequences of our folly, realizing our waywardness, repenting, and turning back to God.

This Week

As you practice the other exercises from previous weeks…

Consider the gift of your life. Your life has purpose and meaning.
Contemplate that you yourself are a gift; to others, to God, and even to yourself.
As you Pray, ask God to reveal His will in your life*.
Write down ten things you would like to accomplish in your life.

Keep the list no longer than ten.
When you are finished, underline the top three that you would like to accomplish as a priority.
Of the ten, circle the one that you think you could accomplish the soonest to today.
Make the one you circled your top priority, and get it accomplished this month.
Pick the top thing you want to accomplish from your top three and begin making a plan and exploring what resources you will need to accomplish it.
Circle the next goal that you can accomplish in the shortest amount of time—it might be one of your top three!—and get to work on completing it ASAP.

Now go conquer the week!

*There is a difference between asking God to reveal His will IN your life and FOR your life. The first one conveys a constant activity of including God in the equation, and the second conveys a summation or final destination. Living life to the fullest means involving God's will IN our lives each day.

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