life

26
Dec
2019

God’s Guidance when Life Hurts

Originally published on The Electric Gospel on July 18, 2014.

This devotion was written as part of a Devotional Writing course I led.  Ben Bain offers a very personal story about how the Lord worked on his faith during a particularly painful time in his life.

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Shaped by the Potter’s Hands

by Benjamin Bain

“You, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8).

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As a sophomore in college, I came home for Christmas break to a surprise.  It wasn’t a good surprise, unfortunately.  When I got home, my dad wasn’t there.  My mom told me he had moved out. They were separated and trying to work things out.  I was shocked and confused.  How had this happened?  Why am I finding out now?  Talk about a “merry” Christmas!

I told my parents I would drop out of school so we could work this out as a family.  Both said I shouldn’t do that.  They told me it was their problem to deal with, not mine.  So I went back to school.

At school, I dug into God’s Word to learn what God said about divorce, the roles of husbands and wives, and blessings of marriage.  I prayed that God would bring healing and reconciliation for my parents, so that my family could be whole again.  Friends offered me encouragement and prayed for my family and me.

As painful as my parents’ separation and eventual divorce was, God used it to draw me closer to him.  I sought God’s wisdom in his Word.  My faith was strengthened.  My knowledge of God’s Word grew.  My understanding of Jesus’ love for me and all of his children blossomed.  I knew Jesus forgave my parents for their sins.  I knew Jesus forgave me for the pain I caused my parents and brothers.  I trusted Jesus could bring healing to all of the relationships in my family, but I also understood what Jesus meant when he said, “For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother” (Matthew 10:35).   I follow Jesus, even if no one else in my family does.

God uses many kinds of events in our lives to shape us into the people we are today.  And each of us is uniquely formed from the particular experiences of our lives.  And he blesses us with roles to play in his kingdom, distinctively suited to who we are.

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Prayer:

Loving Father in heaven, you have guided our lives, molding us lovingly into vessels for your good work.  Forgive us when we have tried to force ourselves to become something out of line with your plan.  Continue molding our lives as you see best.  We trust you fully.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

Posted by kyriesellnow
26
Dec
2019

Martha – An Example for Us

Originally published on the Electric Gospel on July 29, 2014

 

Martha, Martha — an example for us

by David Sellnow

I generally don’t pay attention to all the minor feast days in the Christian calendar.  It’s traditional within the church to designate certain days to remember people of faith from our past.  Persons who died martyr’s deaths are typically remembered on the day of their deaths — the day they went on to be with the Lord in glory.  Others simply have dates assigned by tradition.  I’m not the type to pray to persons from the past. I believe in relying on the LORD God alone.  But we do recognize the lives of trust that our predecessors lived and we desire to emulate their confidence in Jesus. Scripture urges us to ponder how they lived by faith (cf. Hebrews 11).  “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

July 29 is the traditional day for remembering Martha of Bethany, sister of Mary and Lazarus, dear friend of Jesus.  We would do well to think about Martha’s example as a believer.

I’m afraid what most of us remember about Martha — and usually with disapproval — is how she raced about in the kitchen when Jesus came to visit, and was frustrated that her sister wasn’t helping her.  Luke 10:38-42:

Jesus came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Don’t be too judgmental of Martha.  Jesus wasn’t.  His words to her were a warm encouragement, not a stern rebuke.  Martha loved Jesus dearly and opened her home to him.  Who of you would not try to put your best meal on the table if Jesus came to visit?  So often so many of us need the reassurance of Jesus — that we can quit all our racing around and just sit with him and listen to his message of hope.  We don’t have to be the perfect accomplishers of all of life’s little tasks.  We have a Savior who just wants us to be with him.

We would do well to remember another conversation between Martha and Jesus.  Martha’s brother Lazarus became very ill and died … and Jesus had not hurried to go to his friends when Lazarus was ill.  He came to Bethany finally after Lazarus had been in the grave for four days.  The evangelist John tells what transpired (John 11:20-27):

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him ….

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Jesus demonstrated his grace and his almighty power that day, summoning the wrapped corpse of Lazarus out of his tomb and back to life.

 

Martha demonstrated the rock-solid faith of a disciple of Jesus that day, not afraid to question her Lord in prayer (conversation) with him, and also firmly convinced of the reality of his gospel.  Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, who came into the world to give us resurrection and life.

Martha knew that about Jesus.  We know that about Jesus.

Through Jesus “you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:21)

Posted by kyriesellnow
24
Dec
2019

God’s glory shines with grace

Originally published on the Electric Gospel on December 7, 2019.

God’s glory shines with grace

by David Sellnow

We know that “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).  The thought of seeing the light of God can frighten us.  Maybe you remember the fictionalized depiction of God’s glory melting the faces of those who opened up the Ark of the Covenant in the film, Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Certainly, those who stand opposed to God have reason to fear his dazzling power. But the recurring theme throughout the Bible shows that when God lets his glory shine for people to see, it is most often for the purpose of showing his saving love.  God’s glory shines with grace.Holiday lights have begun to shine in neighborhoods and towns.   Christmas lights are meant to remind us that Christ is the light of the world, reminiscent also of the star that shined to welcome the birth of Christ into the world.  16th century church leader, Martin Luther, is often credited with beginning the Christian tradition of a lighted Christmas tree.  As reported by History.com, “Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.”

That is what we see at God’s coming at Christmas.  The glory of God came to us, but came in the humble form of Jesus in the manger.  The Son of God came to us from the Father “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).   Jesus “is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3).  And that glory and being of God was coming to earth to be God with us as our Savior, to take away our fears.

To emphasize this truth—that God’s glory shines for us with grace—I’d like to lead you through a survey of different times when God manifested his glory to people, and how that glory was invariably a display of love and hope.

The first reading in which we find God revealing his glory and grace in such a way is Genesis 15. The LORD met with Abram and promised him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am you shield, your very great reward” (Genesis 15:1). As a way of evidencing his commitment to the promises he’d made to Abram, God then involved himself in a covenant ceremony, at the center of which was God’s own glory, seen as “a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch” (Genesis 15:17). God shined with glory to show Abraham that his promises of blessing were all true.

God’s next manifestation of his shining glory came when the security and future of Abraham’s descendants were in jeopardy. They were facing enslavement and infanticide in Egypt. And then God came to Moses, appearing to him “in flames of fire from within a bush” (Exodus 3:2), and said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt …. So I have come down to rescue them” (Exodus 3:7,8).  In setting them free from Egypt, God showed this same glory to all the people of Israel. “By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light” (Exodus 13:21).   When Egypt’s armies carne after them in pursuit, “the angel of God” and “the pillar of cloud … moved from in front and stood behind them,” separating and protecting them from the enemy (Exodus 14:19,20).  As Israel got further out on its way, in the desert and wondering how they’d eat to survive, “there was the glory of the LORD” again, “appearing in the cloud” (Exodus 16:10). “That evening quail covered the camp, and in the morning” manna was given for bread (Exodus 16:13-15).

The “glory of the LORD” next appeared a number of different times at Mount Sinai, where the law was given. But there wasn’t just law–even here, God’s glory was evidence of his grace. For what God was doing there at Sinai was choosing and consecrating them as his own people, his “treasured possession” (Exodus 19:5) among all the earth. He reminded them of how he had carried them on eagles’ wings and brought them to himself (Exodus 19:4). He showed them grace and glory before and after they sinned against him with the golden calf (cf. Exodus 24 and 32-34). Finally, when they set up their tabernacle tent to worship him, God “filled the tabernacle” with his glory as a sign of gracious presence with them (Exodus 40:34).

In every instance, God shined his glory to point the people of Israel to his wonderful love, to show them how he was working out his plan of salvation for them.

The same is true of other appearances of the glory of the LORD. With “a chariot of fire and horses of fire” God took Elijah “up to heaven in a whirlwind” –graciously giving him eternal life without even tasting death (2 Kings 2:11). Isaiah and Ezekiel saw the glory of the LORD when God called them by grace to serve as prophets (Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1). God even gave visual evidence of this grace to Isaiah by taking a token of the glory of God, a “live coal” from the altar of heaven, touched to Isaiah’s lips by an angel with the message: “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” (Isaiah 6:7). That is glory … and that is grace—forgiveness

Above and beyond all the dazzling appearances of God in glory throughout the Old Testament, the greatest shining of his glory is in the coming of Jesus. That Jesus is the brightest shining of all God’s glory was made clear on the night he was born into our world. The glory of God lit up the skies. “There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby …. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them” (Luke 2:8,9). They were terrified, but the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). Good news–of God’s grace!

Later on, Peter, James and John would see “the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6), when “he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white” (Mark 9:2,3), “as bright as a flash of lightning” (Luke 9:29). “His face shone like the sun” (Matthew 17:2). Jesus wanted them to see his glory, to bolster their faith before they saw his suffering and death.Wise Men in the east saw that glory of God shining too. “We saw his star and have come to worship him,” they said (Matthew 2:2). They saw the One whom Scripture calls “beautiful and glorious” (Isaiah 4:2), having been led to him by a glowing of his glory in the heavens.

God showed his glory also to a man named Stephen, a martyr about to be viciously killed for his faith. Stephen “looked up into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55). Men might kill him, but God wanted Stephen in his dying hour to know that he could not be robbed of God’s glory, for God’s grace had shown it to him.

So also at the end of the Bible, to the last apostle, God showed his glory again. Christ revealed himself, and John wrote, “His eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said, ‘Do not be afraid …. I am the Living One” (Revelations 1:14-18). At a troubled time at the end of the apostolic age, when Christians were persecuted for their faith, God gave this revelation of glory to show he was still with his church, Christ is still ruling all things, and God’s grace is still as amazing as ever.

God’s grace. God’s glory. It’s not like the face-melting, body-burning laser lightshow of a Hollywood movie. Instead, it is like the warm glow of heaven for us, like a candle left burning in the window of our eternal home, until we can come home to be there. The glory of God, as Scripture says, is when “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). That is God’s glory shown to us, to each of our hearts. That is how he shows himself–through “the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). God’s glory shines with grace—grace that saves us, in Christ.

Posted by Electric Gospel
24
Dec
2019

The beginning of a story

Originally posted on the Electric Gospel on October 24, 2019.

The following is an excerpt from a brief book of mine that illustrates truths from Psalm 23.  The book is called, The Lord Cares for Me (click the link to go to the page on Amazon).
Another book, Faith Lives in Our Actions, is also available.

The Story of Charlotte

(The start of the story)

Charlotte ran a business in New Orleans.  Her business didn’t advertise on the radio or in the newspaper.  Word on the street and pictures on the Internet attracted customers.  Charlotte ran an escort agency.  Actually, it was a prostitution business.  Charlotte had been a prostitute herself.  Now she was in her mid-30s and had taken over as the head of the agency.  The younger girls now worked for her, providing sex for money for sex-hungry men.  Charlotte kept a large share of the money for herself, because she found customers and made arrangements and kept things safe for her girls.  Charlotte’s business made lots of money.  She lived well in a comfortable apartment that was home for Charlotte and her son, Logan.

Logan had been a mistake.  Charlotte had gotten lazy about pregnancy protection sometimes when she had been selling herself for sex.  When she got pregnant, she decided to have the baby.  She’d never had anyone to love, and the baby meant the world to her.  Now Logan was five years old and ready to start school.

Charlotte’s business kept her up through the overnight hours most nights.  She slept during the morning hours, into the early afternoon.  Logan stayed with a neighbor as his babysitter during those hours.  Logan’s babysitter, Maria, had a five-year-old boy of her own.  Maria was a Christian.  She knew how Charlotte made her living.  She didn’t quite have the courage to talk to Charlotte about it, or know what to say if she did.  But she invited Logan to come along to a summer activity program at her church in the mornings, and Charlotte said it was okay.

Logan loved the church program.  He told his mom, “I want to go to school there all the time!”  The church operated a school, so Charlotte filled out papers to get Logan enrolled.

Maria spoke to the school’s director.  “There’s something you maybe should know about Logan’s mom,” she said, and told him the type of work Charlotte did.  The school director replied, “Well, it’s no different for Charlotte than for any other parent at our school.  We ask all parents to take a series of Bible classes so they’ll know the faith that we’re teaching to their children in our school.  If Charlotte agrees to do that, her son is as welcome in our school as anyone else.”

Charlotte did agree.  She began classes with the pastor’s assistant, Stephen.  Once a week, Stephen met with Charlotte in the afternoon.  He taught Charlotte about God and about how God created the world and the first people.   He explained how some of the angels God had created rebelled against him and became devils, and how Satan, the leader of the evil angels, tempted the first man and woman away from God.  Stephen said, “After the first people disobeyed God, all people have been stuck in sin ever since.”  He warned that sin is a real problem – and not just for our lives with one another as human beings.

Stephen told Charlotte, “Sin has created a horrible separation between us and God. The Bible tells it like it is:  ‘Your sins have separated you from your God.  They have caused him to turn his face away from you.  So he won’t listen to you’ (Isaiah 59:2).  And our separation from God is a permanent thing, a deadly thing.  ‘People will die because of their own sins’ (Ezekiel 18:20).  ‘When you sin, the pay you get is death’ (Romans 6:23).  Because we are sinners and live in sinful ways, we will die forever, be in hell forever.  Jesus warned us about the way we use our bodies to commit sins.  He said, ‘If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It would be better for you to enter the kingdom of heaven with only one hand or one foot than to go into hell with two hands and two feet. In hell the fire burns forever’ (Matthew 18:8).  We can’t actually help our situation by cutting off body parts.  But Jesus’ words were meant to show us just how serious a problem sin is.”

Charlotte was uncomfortable with these lessons from the Bible, with all the harsh words of God’s law.  The 10 Commandments bothered her.  She knew she was a sinner.  But she didn’t like to think about it.  She told herself she was just making money in the best way she knew how, to support herself and her son.  She didn’t like the fact that God was judging her life when the world seemed such an unfair place and God never seemed like he was there to help her anyway.

As uncomfortable as she was, Charlotte continued to meet with Stephen for Bible lessons.  Sometimes she argued.  Sometimes she got upset.  But she kept thinking about these things.

Once Stephen saw that Charlotte was thinking seriously about sin, he shifted his message.  “You know, Charlotte, the Bible isn’t all commandments and condemnation.  I’ve started there because that’s where the story starts – with our sins against God.  But there’s much more to the story than that.  There’s good news for us too – amazing good news.  Jesus warned us about the dangers of our sins, yes.  But Jesus mostly came to do something about our sins, to fix the mess we have made for ourselves.  The Bible says, ‘Those who do what is sinful belong to the devil. They are just like him. … But the Son of God came to destroy the devil’s work’ (1 John 3:8).  The damage the devil had done was undone by Jesus.  Jesus is God along with the Father in heaven and the Holy Spirit.  But he became human.  He became one of us to rescue us.  God says that people ‘have bodies made out of flesh and blood. So Jesus became human like them in order to die for them. By doing that, he could destroy the one who rules over the kingdom of death. I’m talking about the devil.  Jesus could set people free who were afraid of death. All their lives they were held as slaves by that fear’” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Charlotte looked at Stephen like had seen into her soul.   “For a long time in my life,” she admitted, “I wanted to die.  But I was too scared of dying to actually end my life.”  She told Stephen more of her story:  “I had run away from home as a girl because home was awful, but life on the streets was worse.  I survived, but I hated what I was doing.  I wanted to die but couldn’t.  I wanted to live but it wasn’t really a life.   I grew numb to the kind of life I was living.  I just made it about the money.  Then Logan came along.  Now I want to make a decent life for him, an actual life for both of us.”

“The only actual life there is,” Stephen said, “is life that God gives us.  Jesus said, ‘Anyone who hears my word and believes … has crossed over from death to life’ (John 5:24).  Having our lives connected to Jesus is the one thing that matters, the one thing that is needed, as Jesus put it (Luke 10:42).

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There’s more to Charlotte’s story. Read the rest in The Lord Cares for Me: Stories and Thoughts about Psalm 23 (available at Amazon.com).

Posted by Electric Gospel
24
Dec
2019

Navigating life’s changes

Originally published on the Electric Gospel on May 25, 2017.

Constant strength in a changing current

by Patrick McKay

Canoeing is one of the greatest outdoor activities that a person can do.  It’s a refreshing blend of relaxing / unwinding and yet challenging / rewarding.  Being out on the water leads you to realize and appreciate God’s creation, to really look at the beauty that the created world has to offer.    Going downstream and letting the current take you is soothing, an almost carefree ride.  With the exception of a few downed trees or sand bars, which easily can be avoided with enough practice, the experience is very enjoyable.

But have you ever tried to paddle upstream?  It is quite a different experience.  You must fight the current and steer your canoe, all the while being out of breath from paddling so hard.

In our spiritual lives there are times when we feel like we are paddling upstream and against the changing current of how the world wants us to live.  One moment the current pushes us one way and then will throw us back the other.  The current is never constant; it is always changing.   The Bible describes the ways of this world with a similar analogy, depicting this world’s influences like the roiling of muddy water:  “The wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud” (Isaiah 57:20).

However, God’s word is not like the constant churning of the sea or the changing current of a river, always fluctuating, always twisting.  God’s word is always constant.  It is always unchanging.  The word of our God is “imperishable … living and enduring. … The word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Peter 1:23,24).  The word of God is as firm as God himself, who assures us, “I the Lord, do not change” (Malachi 3:6).

What a blessing it is to rely on an unchanging God and the consistent message that his word tells us.  God tells us that although we were sinful, lost and condemned, he sent his Son Jesus to suffer, die, and rise again in glory.  Connected to Christ, by faith given us by the Holy Spirit, we are called children of God, with all our sins forgiven.  When the current of life in this world makes it hard to paddle, remember what a marvelous and consistent message that God’s word tells us about Jesus and the life we have in him.
Posted by Electric Gospel
24
Dec
2019

Tumbleweeds

Originally published on The Electric Gospel on July 24, 2014.

During the summer of 2014, The Electric Gospel featured items written by participants in the summer 2014 Devotional Writing workshop that I led. In this installment, Jenni Mickelson uses an illustration from nature to show our wandering tendencies — and our need for rootedness in Christ.

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Blowing in the Wind

by Jenni Mickelson

John 15:5-6 – “‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.’”

If you find yourself on a flat slab of barren land in the western United States, you will most likely come face-to-face with the local drifter: the tumbleweed. Tumbleweed is a plant that finds its home in areas where the ground is either weathered by the natural elements or cultivated by farmers. Once the growing season passes and the tumbleweed shrivels up, though, the wind can easily pluck it out of the soil and blow it around aimlessly in the remote plains and deserts. The tumbleweed also carries with it thousands of seeds that spread about the land and will later foster a new crop of menacing weeds.

Tumbleweed, in its dry, lifeless state, is useless. It only moves, with no anchor to keep it positioned in the ground where it belongs.

We sinners are in danger of drifting like tumbleweed, alone and without purpose. Lost dreams, wrongdoings, and hardships leave us parched and cast our minds into hopeless wandering. We blow in the wind, with no root system to keep us steady, when we forsake God’s will and instead succumb to the enticing but fleeting temptations of this world, the devil, and our flesh. We foster sin’s weeds and put others at risk of flying away when we live our lives in this way.

God does not want us to roam in this manner. He yearns for us to remain secure in him. It was for this loving reason that he sent his Son Jesus into the world. Jesus brought us back to God through his perfect life, innocent death, and glorious resurrection. Thus he is and forever will be our vine, our root, to keep us firmly grounded in the Lord. When we rely solely on Christ’s redeeming love and sacrifice for our salvation, and not on ourselves, we are no longer tumbleweed but rather the sturdy branches of God’s vine, nourished and strengthened by faith.

Tumbleweed – it blows around with seemingly no purpose but simultaneously gives off the impression that it is desperately searching for something out there in the world. How grateful we can be to Jesus for giving us a purpose to live for – him!

Prayer:

Jesus, forgive me for all of the times that I forget about being rooted in you and instead turn to the unstable pleasures of this world. Plant me firmly in you and nurture me once again with the news of your everlasting love through your life, death, and resurrection. Guide me in being your witness to others rather than being the cause of their drifting away from you. Amen.

Posted by Electric Gospel
24
Dec
2019

Christian Life

Originally published on The Electric Gospel on June 19, 2014.

In the history of the Christian church, theological writers often have titled their works in this straightforward fashion:

  • On the Incarnation (Athanasius of Alexandria)
  • On the Trinity  (Hilary of Poitiers)
  • On the Freedom of the Christian (Martin Luther)

This blog post takes up an assignment such as that from a New Testament course, in which students were asked to write “on the life of a Christian.”

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On the Life of a Christian

by Danica Scharlemann

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who recognize and accept Christ as their Savior from sin and those who reject Christ and his works of grace.  While members of the later grouping have no permanent hope on which to drive their lives, Christians have every reason to hope and live in joy, for they are compelled by the undying love of Christ.

The life of Christians begins as the lives of the whole world—drowning in a pool of original sin. “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10).  It was for this reason, moved by his love, that our heavenly Father gave up his only Son as a lamb without blemish to be sacrificed on our behalf.  And so Christ Jesus made in the flesh, yet being in the same nature God, made his dwelling among us and lived a life of perfection under the law of God and of man.  His perfect life only led to his suffering and crucifixion.  On the cross, Christ bore the punishment of hell for the sins of the entire world.  In doing so, our lives were redeemed and salvation was won. This is how the lives of the world were restored from their damning state.

Now we are precious children of our heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to create fruits of faith. It is this faith that determines our salvation.  We are members of God’s elect–those to whom he has graciously promised eternal life to through the works of the Father, Son, and Spirit.  It is not by our works, but by his works that we are granted life everlasting. This is the hope by which we live.

This hope is what defines the underlying confidence behind the life of a Christian. We walk through life, not as if our actions are meaningless and forgiveness is futile, but bearing the sign of Christ. “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, therefore all died” (2 Corinthians 5:14). It is not the old self of sin that thrives in us, but the new self in Christ, which strives to live in love and joy in every circumstance. We do not simply accept our salvation and become contented in our every action, for it is written, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:17).  Christians do not act in attempt to win their own salvation, for it is not their works that assure them of heaven.  Instead it is God and God alone who is capable of bringing us to heaven.  As Paul stated, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).  Our good works are surely not to be attributed to our own powers, but instead to God we give all glory.  Yet our sinful deeds are still of our own doing, and we still do sinful deeds in our lives now.  It is not until we reach our heavenly home that we will live in the totality of righteousness and holiness that only Christ attains.

Although Christians live with the confidence of salvation, they strive to live in the way of Christ, taking on the nature of a servant. We spend our days being models of Christ, showing through our own actions the wonders of our God.  Again, it is only through the Spirit that faith is found, but we work as instruments of the Spirit to spread the love of Christ to the world.  For who, with such wonderful knowledge of love and joy, would be able to keep from telling the world?  This is the joy, the confidence, and the love behind the life of a Christian: Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Posted by Electric Gospel
24
Dec
2019

Jesus is Resurrection; Jesus is Life

Originally published on the Electric Gospel on April 20, 2014.

This post was originally shared on an Easter Sunday.

 

Jesus is Resurrection; Jesus is Life

by David Sellnow

There was a time when people laughed at Jesus. In fact, they were crying and screaming in sadness, but what Jesus said sounded so strange that they burst out laughing in the middle of a funeral.  A young person had just died. A young girl, twelve years old, had been deathly ill, and death had followed.  While she was dying, the girl’s father, a man named Jairus, had come to Jesus asking for help …but even before Jesus could come to Jairus’ house, someone was sent from there to bring the sad news. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher any more.”

But upon hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed” (Luke 8:49-50).  Healed from death? Who ever heard of such a thing?

When Jesus arrived at the house, it was full of people wailing and moaning and mourning. In true Jewish custom, they made quite a scene: tears streaming down their cheeks, hair disheveled, falling on the floor, groaning and bellowing, not a dry eye in the house. It was then–when Jesus entered that house–that the mourners went from hysterical crying to uproarious laughter in an instant. What the great and wise rabbi Jesus said struck them as hilarious. Jesus said to them, “Stop your wailing. She is not dead but asleep.”  They laughed at him, knowing that she was, in fact, dead (Luke 8:52,53).

But within moments, Jesus proved that they were dead wrong. He took the girl’s hand, said to her, “Get up” …and she did!  “Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up” (Luke 8:55). Her parents were astonished. Everyone was amazed. For Jesus, bringing to life a dead person was no more difficult than waking someone up from sleep.

Jesus has an entirely different perspective on death than we normally do. Jesus’ whole definition of life and death differs from what we normally think. The words on which I’d like you to focus especially today come from the story of another resurrection miracle that Jesus performed.  In talking to his dear friend Martha, just after her beloved brother Lazarus had died, Jesus spoke these powerful words: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25,26).

You see, according to Jesus, Lazarus had died but he had not died. Lazarus had died but he also would live again. Let me explain how Jesus explains life and death.

Life, according to Jesus, is when we are enjoying the blessings of God. When we enjoy the blessings of God in our bodies, we are physically alive. Our lungs breathe, our hearts beat, our hands and feet move.  Only by God’s blessing and his sustaining do we have physical life. When God decides it is time for us to pass from this life, those blessings are suspended, and physically we die.

But there is more to life than the body. God also created each of us with a soul. When we enjoy the blessings of God in our souls, we have faith in him, we have a relationship with him, we have life through him. Our spirits never die. The blessings of God upon our spirits began the day we were baptized and haven’t ceased since. We are blessed in faith throughout life and blessing awaits us beyond this present life.  We will live on with the Lord.  That is why Jesus could say, “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”  Our loved ones who have died have not really died–not their spirits.  They are alive still, living with the Lord, standing side by side with Jesus right now. We see only the physical aspect of life and death, but there is a spiritual and eternal reality that we don’t yet see, which nevertheless is absolutely true.  Those who have died in faith are yet alive, living and reigning with Jesus (cf. Revelation 20:4), who lives and reigns with the Father and with the Spirit, the one true and loving God, forever and ever.

But that’s not all. Jesus also said, “Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies.” The physical body dies, but Jesus pledges, with his word of power, that he will bring the body back to life. The daughter of Jairus and the man named Lazarus were two examples, demonstrations Jesus gave of just what he can do. By his miracles of resurrection, he was promising that he will do the same in the end for all of his people.

By his own resurrection, after he was crucified, Jesus proved that he has absolute power over death and the grave. A giant stone and armed guards of soldiers could not keep Jesus’ resurrection from happening. Likewise, there is nothing that can keep Jesus from providing the same resurrection for us, his people, when his final time arrives. On that day, “we will all be changed–in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52). We will be changed from dead to alive, from being troubled by all the ailments of our frail bodies to being freed from all ills in eternally glorified bodies.

“I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said. That’s exactly who he is. In him and because of him, we have life now and will have it always.  In him and because of him, we will experience one day the resurrection of our bodies into life and joy unending, that now we can barely even imagine.  In that day of resurrection, we won’t have any back pains or body aches or cysts or cancers or any other disease or pains or wounds.  All will be healed completely by the Lord and made perfect in every way.

Jesus, keep our hearts strong as we wait for that day!

Posted by Electric Gospel