All tagged christ
We consider Jesus to be many things; we call him the Son of God, our Lord, Savior, Redeemer, the Dove of Peace, Lion of Judah, Prince of Peace, Bread of Life, and so many other things, but who was Jesus if not a missionary to the world? That is the thought I would like for us to consider this morning, and bring to the forefront of our attention. This is something He was proclaimed to be in ancient prophesy, and at the moment of His conception.
As I read my devotional this morning and concluded by reading James 2, it became clear to me that the compassion of Jesus plays a major part in translating our faith into action, or as it states in the bible… works. It leads us to not only ask God to come to someone's aid in prayer, but softens our hearts, prompting us to exhibit that selfsame mercy by helping them as well. Do we demonstrate the compassion off Christ in our everyday lives?
Feeling the Peace of Christ is one of the most treasured and coveted aspects of the Christian faith; it is a reward for obedience and is our harvest for believing, and living our lives as Jesus instructed us. Do we have the Peace of Christ today? Do we understand the difference between the peace of the world and the Peace of Christ?
We have completed Holy Week, and during this week we lived and were spiritually crucified with Christ during His final days. We followed Him through the joy of His arrival in Jerusalem, to the last supper, His anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane, the capture, trial, and scourging of our Lord, and then we join Him in spirit on the cross for His crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension.
I am resting in the shadow of the cross this morning. My thoughts are on Jesus, the cross, and what that moment in human history, when Jesus Christ hung from it, means to you, me, and the world. Jesus was not a victim, the cross was not imposed upon Him. Jesus, the lamb of God, did not come to this world to perform some deed that was cut short by a Roman cross, He came as a sacrifice for our sins, and we were graced with three years of His life so that we would know beyond any doubt that this man was indeed the Son of God, and learn lessons regarding the new covenant that we could not know otherwise.
This morning I am dwelling on a single phrase in the King James translation of the Bible... it is written by Paul to the Galatians, and in Galatians 2:20 it reads like this..."by the faith of the son of God." This is opposed to some modern translations which interpret it as "by the faith in the Son of God." So the question boils down to one word and two very different translations... "In" or "Of", and the implications are great.
We read a psalm that we didn’t write, about a time that we didn’t live, and yet it becomes our own. The emotion, the faith, and the belief are suddenly ours, and the I becomes us, just as if we were saying it and writing it. David writes “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want”, and those words relieve our wants; the green pastures become ours to rest in, and the still waters are as smooth and crystal clear as if we are seeing them with our own eyes. Some might call this imagination, but the faithful call it the Holy Spirit. We read more than what David saw with his eyes, we are lead to feel the relationship he felt with the Lord. Do we feel it? Do we live that gift as we are immersed in each verse? Is the comfort of David ours as his words are transformed within us? Does the I, and the me, that he wrote become us?
Are we at rest today? Do we feel a sense of peace in our lives? I was reading on the subject of being at peace this morning, and contemplating the answer to these two questions as they pertained to my life. I realized that as we look about us and see a world that knows very little if any peace, that it is certainly precious when we encounter such moments in our lives. When we think back on the times when we felt at peace, and were able to rest without the slightest anxious thought to disturb us, we find that one of two things were at play; either we were blissfully ignorant of the world, and our lives, or we were experiencing the true peace of Christ.
In today’s business world, and in modern life in general, it seems like the mean spirited, the devious, and the scheming people often prosper, and the righteous are relegated to a life of less, but that is only true when we look at the world through the eyes we have borrowed from it. When we see success as the world sees it, and value what the world values, then we find that we are ill-equipped for life within it. Our eyes should be the transformed eyes of Jesus, and our treasure should be eternal… is this how we are gauging our success in life, and view the blessings God gives us as we wait for Him?
Chuck Savage is a brother in Christ that I have loved dearly for many years, and he sent me a card yesterday. There was nothing unusual about that because he sends me one every single week like clockwork. You see he lives in a distant city, and yet our friendship survives the miles. Each week I receive a brief handwritten card from him in which he tells me a bit about his family, his life, and something he found uplifting about one of my devotional messages… which he reads religiously. He is without a doubt one of the finest, and most godly men I know, and he is my friend. Even though most would say that we are unlikely friends, and have very little in common, our friendship, and brotherly love for one another, survives.
When we carry the gospel to those around us do they see us as imposters? Do they recognize us as legitimate men and women of God, or just charlatans who want to take advantage of them? Even foreign dignitaries carry papers with them that bear the seal of the government they represent to prove their authenticity, so what identifies us as true emissaries of Christ? Surprisingly, we don’t need a letter with its wax seal, because we ourselves are the proof, and the letter. Jesus has written the evidence of our legitimacy on our hearts, and we bear His watermark; engrained within us by our baptism. We are walking, and talking, letters from Christ Jesus.
We hunger and thirst the most when we are starving and parched. The Lord knows our hearts and can see the coming droughts and famines, but those of the spirit are without a doubt the hardest to bear. We can recover from worldly starvation and thirst with the help of men, but only God can feed our souls, and give us living water when our spirits have wandered into a desert that is void of His Word. Have we strayed from our faith, and do we find ourselves running to and fro seeking God, but unable to find Him?
As Christmas Day approaches, and what should be a time of great joy, and restful peace draws near, let’s put down our daily burdens, and ask ourselves how long has it has been since we have taken a true rest on the Sabbath? Just as we say that the Sabbath is a day of rest, and yet continue to work during it, so it is with Advent. In a time when we should be at peace in the anticipation and contemplation of the birth of Christ, we are busily rushing about preparing for parties, decorating our homes, and stressing in shopping malls as we buy gifts. Have we lost the peaceful serenity of the shepherds in the pasture?
As followers of Jesus Christ are we able to reveal His character in everything we do, to be gentle, courteous to others, and to be submissive to authority? Do we go through our days reacting with love towards those who are in need, and readily doing good works to glorify God? How many times have we seen those who profess Jesus as their Lord and Savior speaking ill of someone, or ignoring the sick, the hungry, the naked, or the thirsty? How is it that they neglect these things when even a moral man who doesn’t know God, or believe in Jesus would act to remedy them? As we walk through the world today let’s pay close attention to our behavior, demeanor, and how often we show mercy to others, and let’s take count of how often our Christian life enhances our witness, and leads to Christian conversations.
Do we feel like men and women born in the wrong spiritual time? Do we feel more akin to the first Christians who followed behind Jesus than with modern man? Sometimes we look around ourselves and see what is happening in the world, and Church, and our hearts ache exceedingly for His return; we long for His coming, and a renewal of faith around the world. Well we are not alone in feeling this way because Paul felt just as many of us do… born out of due time!