Graduation Time!

Congratulations, graduates, wherever you are! Graduation is often called "Commencement" and for good reason: your classes are over, you've passed your exams, and you're starting life in the real world, ready to apply what you've learned. This is a big moment! Even for those of us who graduated many years ago, we remember what an important part of life this is.  --And did you know, there's a similar 'commencement

Tribute to an American Evangelist

It's all over the news today. Billy Graham has died. Or as he famously said, "if you hear I've died, don't believe it. I've merely changed addresses." He spoke in evangelistic gatherings to over 100,000,000 (one hundred million!) people during a career spanning more than 60 years, and there was never a hint of scandal about him. What made him so special? Or another way to ask the question would be, what practices

Welcoming the Stranger

This week for one of my classes I studied the tale of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8. I've often visualized a black man in royal robes, bouncing along in a chariot, while a young Jewish man runs up alongside and is able to

No More Circles, Please?

A friend of mind commented the other day that Jesus seemed to enjoy having a meal with the most obnoxious and despised people of his day. That baffled the "good" religious people, who

Invited Into our Father's Business

By Randy Bloom, Regional pastor for GCI

Trinitarian theology teaches us that God (Father, Son and Spirit) is “on mission” in the world and we are invited to participate! We participate as we actively engage with Jesus, by the Spirit, in

How Do We Believe?

Do people become Jesus-followers because someone presents an argument, in a series of logical steps designed to convince them? Why do people begin to believe? Some of us are actively praying for others to believe, and some are actively involved in helping others believe, as best we can. So what is our part, if any, that we should be careful to follow?  Let's look.

Before Time, There Was...

Did anything exist before the universe was here? We have a hard time imagining something that could exist before, well, anything existed (if the word "universe" means "space and time and energy and everything"). But if God exists, which I believe he does, he was around before he made

A Glorious Mystery

A "mystery" is usually in a novel, where you have to read to the end to find out whodunnit.  (And no, I'm not smart enough to figure it out earlier.)  But in the Greek used in the New Testament, it normally means "something that, though once a secret, has now been fully revealed in the gospel" (Expositor's Commentary).  In Colossians 1, Paul writes of this sacred mystery, not as something still hidden, but an open secret:  "And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory." (Col. 1:27).  In this life, it's hard to measure a spiritual presence, so it can still look like a mystery sometimes; but the 'assurance of sharing his glory' is something I can get excited about!  Adding to that blessing, Paul writes "Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault" (verse 22). 

I'm awe-struck by these statements of spiritual fact.  I don't think of myself as 'without a single fault' because I'm too familiar with most of my faults.  But here, Paul says we are holy because of Jesus Christ, not our own right deeds.  We 'stand in God's presence,' he says, through 'the death of Christ.'  And besides that, we have the perfect Christ living in us. 

What that means:  Our future is secure.  On top of that, right now, we don't have to put up with a 'second-best' life anymore.  We don't have to settle for drudgery, ongoing depression or hopelessness.  The mind and will of Christ-in-us can lift us above all the misery and despair we might feel in looking just at physical life.  We have an absolute promise from God of "sharing in his glory" (forever!), and a spiritual sense of that glory already, because of Christ-in-us.  We can't measure it with physical science, but it's there and we can feel it.  And if we stay aware of Christ-in-us, we can let his presence change our thinking and our results. 

It's a different focus than we had when we didn't know Jesus.  People who are unaware of what he did for them don't have this hope, or this living presence in them.  But they could -- if we were to let them see it in us, and tell them about it!  If that joy is in you, why not share it with someone who needs it?  And if Christ is in you, and you're not feeling the joy, then ask him for more of it -- he will answer!

Pray without Ceasing

Some friends of mine say that nobody comes to salvation through Jesus Christ without prayers -- lots and lots of prayers -- being sent up on their behalf. Is that true?

Well, Jesus has already done all the heavy lifting for us. We read in Hebrews 2:9 that "by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone." And in 1 Tim. 2:6, we see that Jesus "gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone." So that part is done. And how do we, and others, come to know this amazing grace? Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of "sin, righteousness and judgment."

So God is perfectly capable of doing his work without our help. But how does he want us to feel and act toward our neighbors who may not know him yet? Do our prayers matter? In what way?

Jesus said in Matthew 5:44 "But I say, love [even] your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!" So loving our neighbors means praying for them. Even the guy who plays his music too loudly, or runs over our geraniums with his Jeep. How do we pray -- that they will reform, in order for us to be more comfortable? Rather, that they will come to know the love of God, who through his Son's death and resurrection has already brought them from death to life.

Jesus' command about love gave prayer as the first example of how to love someone. In prayer, we learn to care. When I'm praying for someone else's salvation and peace, for his or her sole benefit, that prayer will change me, helping me to care for that neighbor as God already does. I'll be more likely to respond lovingly -- as God, through Jesus, already has responded -- in any interaction. Earnest, intentional prayer for them to know Christ's love will make me more likely to be the right example and, if it comes up, to give them the right words also. And to be able to thank God, with genuine love for them, when they accept the love he is offering them. Without that prayer, God's work will still be done for them -- but less of it will be done in me.

Jesus told us to pray for our neighbors. Somebody prayed (maybe for years) for you to come to know salvation in Christ. Who are you going to pray for today? This week? This year? Without ceasing? --And how will all that prayer change you?