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About Rev. Dr. David Bissett

I pastor a church in upstate NY. I'm happily married and the father of seven kids. It's fun, really! Leave me some feedback...

CNN on American Spiritual Scene…

Believe it or not, there is a “Belief Blog” at the CNN website, which I occasionally read. They are sometimes insightful, but are usually skewed by a liberal (and anti-biblical) bias. They recently posted an article titled “10 Things the Belief Blog Learned in Its First Year.” Their 10 lessons are a mixed bag of sad & interesting (even encouraging) points:

1 • Every big news story has a faith angle.
2 • Atheists are the most fervent commenters on matters religious.
3 • People are still intensely curious about the Bible, its meaning and its origins.
4 • Most Americans are religiously illiterate.
5 • It’s impossible to understand much of the news without knowing something about religion.
6 • Regardless of where they fit on the spectrum, people want others to understand what they believe.
7 • Americans still have an uneasy relationship with Islam.
8 • God may not prevent natural disasters, but religion is always a big part of the response.
9 • Apocalyptic movements come and go.
10 • Most Americans don’t know that President Barack Obama is a Christian.

Christ’s ambition?

What’s your ambition in life? If you are a Christian, is your ambition tied to that of your Lord Jesus Christ? Or is it the sad case that you are not ambitious at all, simply adrift?

Consider the powerful declaration of Jesus to Peter as a glimpse at Christ’s ambition:

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ~Matthew 16:13-18 esv

Jesus does not stop at the conversion of men. He aims to call men out of the world to Himself (“church” comes from the Greek world for ‘called-out-ones’), and build them up. It is His ambition to build the church — and He will work to that end, and nothing will stand in His way.

Do you share this ambition??