Anniversary

Today is the wedding anniversary of Stuart and Joyce Powell, parents of The Lovely Joanne. It's a day that they remember, not so much for the church ceremony they had all these years ago but for the meaning of their marriage. The two of them have grown in love and care for each other over the decades, deepening in their mutual concern, their understanding of each other and their desire to serve one another.

Joanne and I also treasure our marriage, and we celebrate our anniversary with joy. Another anniversary I treasure is my baptism. I had committed my life to God through Jesus Christ quite some time before that date. But on one certain day, I submitted to a ritual that showed what was already true; 'an outward sign of an inward intent' as we say. That ritual of baptism celebrated three things: that I had died with Christ; that I was raised into new life with him; and that I was made part of the body of Christ, the church.

I can still feel the water closing over my head as I was plunged under the water and then came up out of it. But as with marriage, I value what baptism stands for, not the actual ceremony itself. I value the on-going relationship I have with Jesus Christ and with his other children. I don't bother celebrating the actual date of my baptism when it rolls around every year. I do, however, celebrate what it means, every day of my life.

Being dunked in water doesn't save us, nor does it even transmit to us the salvation given us by God. But we are baptized to obey the command of Jesus in Matthew 28:19 that new disciples should be baptized. That baptism ceremony shows to the world and the church, and it shows us, whose we are. Being "raised from the dead" as it were, out of the water, symbolizes the newness of our spiritual lives from then on.

What about you? Is it time for you to commit your life to your Savior through this sacrament? Please ask a servant of Jesus Christ to help you with it. It's one of our greatest joys!

Resurrection Life

The celebration of Easter (see footnote) is behind us by a couple of days now. Once more we've lived through what many Christians call Holy Week -- the time from Palm Sunday, remembering Jesus' entry into Jerusalem with the crowds waving palm fronds, through the events of Thursday night, commemorated by footwashing and partaking of the bread and wine, to Good Friday and its solemn remembrance of the Lord's death on the cross; all the way to the victorious excitement of the resurrection on Sunday morning.

Now what? Back to the same old drudgery of working and paying taxes? Is that all? Nope -- Paul said we are "raised with Christ" (Colossians 3:1) and we have a whole new life with him (Romans 6:4). Paul says we are "in Christ" over 80 times in his epistles, not counting other phrases like "alive with Christ" or "raised with him". That means it was important to him, and it has a lot of meaning for us as Christ-followers.

Being "in Christ" basically means:
--Our sins are now wiped away because of his death on the cross
--Our old lives no longer matter to God, because the Father accepts us through Jesus
--Since he was resurrected, we too are as good as resurrected also
--We live in two worlds -- the current physical existence we see, and the spiritual life we experience through Jesus (this is the hardest one to understand)

How do we experience being "in Christ"? The best analogy I can come up with so far is being "in marriage." My old single life is gone, my wife accepts and loves me, and I get to spend the rest of my days exploring my relationship with her. I get to know her better, love her more, be loved by her, and learn to please her. By following that process, she and I are bound together in love more and more. We are secure in each other's love, and participate in each other's lives in multiple ways. We don't have any desire to go back to being single, and we live together more fully and intimately because we know and love each other so well.

In our new life "in Jesus Christ," we have at least one advantage that marriage doesn't give: at the end of physical life, we get transported into an eternity of ever-growing closeness with God. So, being "in Christ" is truly something wonderful and blessed. Even if we can't completely understand it, we can enjoy it. My life "in Christ" is a lot richer and deeper than it was ten years ago, and I hope yours continues to grow too.

*Contrary to popular myth, the name Easter is not linked to any pagan goddess. The best historical information gives a different story. For more, follow this link, or ask me about it:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/bytopic/holidays/easterborrowedholiday.html

Four Reasons to Celebrate the Resurrection

The death of our Lord was important. He was the perfect atonement for all our sins, so they are no longer a barrier between us and God. But lest we get wrapped up only in his death, we need to remember that we are also saved by his life:
Romans 5:8-10 says: ⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. ⁹ And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. ¹⁰ For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.

Why should we celebrate the resurrection? Here are four basic reasons:

1. His resurrection proves he was the Messiah, that he did die for our sins and was raised from the dead to make us whole.
1 Cor. 15:17-18 says: ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. ¹⁸ In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost!

2. His resurrection gives us our hope for a future life with God, beyond this physical life with all its troubles and brevity.
1 Cor. 15:19-22 says: ¹⁹ And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.²⁰ But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. ²¹ So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. ²² Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.

3. By faith we understand that the risen Jesus Christ lives in us, and we have new life already because of him.
Galatians 2:20 says: ²⁰ My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

4. The risen Jesus Christ is now with the Father, and is our advocate at the Father's throne. We are wrapped up in him and included with him, fully accepted and loved by God.
Ephesians 2:4-6 says: ⁴ But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, ⁵ that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) ⁶ For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.

Wow! What a series of blessings and gifts we have been given by this amazing act of God through his Son! These should give us every possible reason to rejoice this meaningful season. May you have a blessed week of celebration!

Perfect Love?

Loving others is important -- I think just about anybody on the planet would agree with that. Are you good at it? I'd like to believe I am, but I'm too fickle, too human, to love well, even most of the time. And to love perfectly? Out of the question, unfortunately.

John, the apostle who may have known Jesus best, says in his first epistle, 1 John 4 verse 18, that perfect love drives out fear, and fear is linked to punishment. Well, since my love isn't perfect, won't I get punished by God for that? I've beat myself up for decades on that one, trying to make my love perfect (and failing).

But that isn't the love John is describing here. It's not our love, but God's, that is perfect. Verses 9 and 10 say that "God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us..." So God's love is perfect, but how do we get his love?

John outlines God's love through the whole chapter in this way: Starting in verse 7, he says "Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God." Well, this love must be something special, not just romantic love, or fondness for a pet or for chocolate. Verses 9 and 10 (I quoted those just above) define the love he's talking about: a love that sacrifices what you want, with the good of the other higher than your own good.

In verse 15, he says "All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God." The Greek word for 'confess' in this verse means to recognize, face and admit, even to promise. It's commonly used in the New Testament to describe people's statement of allegiance to Jesus Christ.

What's with this "God living in them, and they live in God" stuff? In verses 2, 4, 6 and 13, he describes the Spirit of God and that it is the Spirit's work of living in us that produces God's love in us. Our loving like God depends on the Holy Spirit "who lives in" us (verse 4) -- not on our own effort. How do we 'live in God' then? By belief in -- allegiance to -- Jesus Christ, we have the promise of "eternal life" (verse 9); not just in the future, but since our life comes from him, we can say that we live 'because of him' and our lives are 'wrapped up in him' already in the present moment.

How do you know if you have the Holy Spirit living in you? Typically, from the time of baptism, although scripture also shows the Spirit drawing us before then. It gets down to this: if what John says about God's love, and our loving others, makes sense, if you know that you love this way (which is beyond yourself) and you desperately want to love more and know God's love more, that's the Holy Spirit's work. If you don't care, then the Holy Spirit hasn't gotten through to you yet.

But -- if this love is what your life has been missing, now's the time to pursue it. God has loved you since before he made the universe, but you can only experience his love by admitting how much you need it and asking him for it. How 'bout it? Why not now?

Buds

Trees and shrubs are budding out. New life is bursting out all over. Must be spring!

I think God chose the spring of the year for the centerpiece of his plan - the death and resurrection of the Son of God to bring us new life - so the visual metaphor of new life everywhere would remind us of the new life we have in Jesus Christ.

The book of Colossians has a lot to say about this new life. In chapter 2, Paul tells us that God has given us life in Christ: "You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins." He starts chapter 3 by saying "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ..." and then gives some suggestions for living in a way that is focused on what Jesus Christ has done and where he is now (in heaven). In verse 10 he gives it a sort of summary: "Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him."

Plants and trees can only grow as they have good roots, getting nutrients from the soil that they can combine with the sunshine to produce branches and eventually fruit. Paul uses this metaphor too: "Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. " (2:7) Our source for nutrition and strength for a Christian life is -- no surprise! -- Jesus Christ. Being based on Christ is the only way we can follow what Paul says in 3:17: "And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father."

In its own mysterious way, new life is budding out in the trees and plants we see outside. In "God's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself" (Col. 2:2) we also get to have new life, new growth, and the fruit of the Spirit. As you enjoy the spring season, I hope that seeing the new life in plants will inspire you to thank God for the new life he has given us in the Son!

Jeans

I get my jeans dirty every time I wear them, because of the kind of work I do when I've got them on. So I wash them. And get them dirty again. I could keep them folded up in a drawer. But jeans are made for wearing, not hiding.

Once we accept the salvation God has for us (Romans 6:23 says "the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord") -- which is includes being washed clean -- can we just 'fold up and stay in the drawer'? Avoiding everything outside of our own house, or our own little circle, could help avoid sin, I suppose -- although sin will creep in as long as we're human.

Jesus gave us a job in Matthew 28:19-20: "go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you." So we can't just sit around being holy. There's life to be lived, and work to be done. Jesus also wants us growing, "measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). And Paul was as serious as a mother in labor, to make sure the church was a group with "Christ...fully developed in your lives" (Gal. 4:19).

Being disciples of Jesus means getting 'out of the drawer and into the world', which can be messy sometimes. But we grow as we go, and go as we grow.

We 'measure up to Christ' in several ways. As we learn to love other people (who have sinned just like us) and help them find the same forgiveness we've found in Christ. As we learn to help one another grow, encouraging each other by Christian company, studying God's word together and being corrected by it. As we struggle through prayer, and learn to surrender our cares and our wrong desires to God. As we recognize our ongoing sins and go back to God, asking his forgiveness and accepting it. As we learn to ask forgiveness of each other, and give it freely too. As we teach others the ways of Christ (that's 'making disciples', like he said).

That's what the church (all of us, together) is to be doing. But unlike jeans, which get torn, dirty and trashed, we get to improve: 'And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.' (2 Cor 3:18) So let's be doing both -- growing, and going.

Mortgage Life Insurance

Well, it's the first of the month again, and time to pay the mortgage. The loan is a lot of money -- there's a comma in the middle, and the rest of the numbers are a little frightening sometimes. And it's hanging over my head for the next 30 years! Sometimes people buy 'mortgage life insurance' so that if they die, the loan is paid off and their surviving family have a place to stay without paying for it.

In 30 years, I'll be (well, never mind how old) but I hope I'm still enjoying living here. In 30 years, some of us will finally be grown up, and some of us won't be here any more. But did you know that Jesus promises us a place to live, forever, with no mortgage payment?

In John 14, Jesus was telling his disciples that he was going to leave them, but 'prepare a place' for them -- and for us, of course, as the disciples of this day. What kind of place was it he planned to prepare? We don't know exactly, but look at what he says next: 'When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.' Wherever and whatever that is, it sounds like a lot of security to me.

One more thing: there's no mortgage. No monthly payments.

See, Jesus had what we might call, in this context, "mortgage life insurance" with you and me as the beneficiaries. In John 19:30, as he was ready to die on the Cross, he said "It is finished." That was a sound of triumph as well as relief; the job was done. But you may also know that the Greek word translated "it is finished" is 'tetelestai' which also has a technical meaning: it was often written at the bottom of loan documents to show the loan had been paid. Your sins, and every other thing against you and God have been taken care of, completely.

Yup, that's the deal. He paid off the loan with his death. He made sure that we don't have to make even the first payment on the new place. It's all done! He invites us to move, rent-free, now and forever, into his Father's house, where there's lots of room, endless love and more enjoyment than we can imagine.

If you haven't yet decided that this is the life for you, now's the time. (Shoot, when will there be a better time?) All you have to do is stop running away, face God through his Son, and start walking forward again. He'll show you the Way (John 14:6) and help you move, step by step. Ready? On three: One, two, ...