In case anyone reads this, and I appreciate my audience isn't exactly large, I think its important that I share with you the message brought by Pete the pastor at my church today.
Its a very 'New Testament' church I go to: what does that mean? That'd really deserve its own post, but in short, its about following Jesus and sticking closely to the divine word of God as found in your common-or-garden bible (irony intended, of course the bible isn't exactly a common book). So its about being filled with the Spirit of God, aka the Holy Spirit, and about putting complete faith in the Son of Man who died to save us.
Anyway, today's sermon - all about being 'in Christ'. Whilst I had a vague idea what this meant, I was blown away by the fuller meaning behind the words. Pete described it in 3 elements:
i. where he is, so we are also.
In other words, we are located next to God, not so much physically (obviously) but in the more important, eternal way. The reality around us, of a world with bills to pay, kids going hungry, pain, suffering, is not permanent, it will fade away and be no more; however, who of us can completely ignore the physical situation and focus entirely on the eternal, the infinite? Never mind, that is what we should focus on, since as a believer in Christ, we are also in the presence of God, not cut off from him - how should we respond to this? By starting to live like we belong to the eternal kingdom and not bothering to lose sleep over the worries of this world.
ii. his relationship to God becomes our relationship to God.
Galations 3:26-27 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ, for all of you were baptised with Christ and have clothed yourself with Christ.
Wow! How about God being as accessible to us as he is to Jesus!? Wow, yes please!
iii. what he inherits, we inherit.
Jesus has been declared as inheriting all the world - God has already given it to his Son. As co-heirs of God, we will also inherit the 'remade' creation and will take our places alongside Jesus. Flippin' heck! When this 'shadow' of a world has gone, we will be 'remade' in glory and set alongside Jesus.
Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will open - God is there, if you want to find him, you will.
3 comments:
Does it show that I'd had a glass of red, when I penned that piece?
:-)
I am just thinking which illustration is more appropriate here - this or this.
:)
There is just one question which makes scientific and religious world views so different. That question is - "how do we know what we are claiming?".
There are so many factual claims in your post and none of them are testable in any way.
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