sujitha

Jesus We Talk About New Year’s Resolutions

Dear Thomas,

Your twentieth question is, “I can understand the idea of a new life, a new beginning, or a fresh start like New Year’s resolutions. But what is different about the Christian’s new life in Christ? Isn’t it just a form of New Year’s resolution by another name?”

No, not at all. New Year’s resolutions are man’s self-help attempt at improvement. We say to ourselves, I want to lose weight. I want to I want to start getting more exercise. I want to stop doing _______________. doing _______________. I want to accomplish _______________. New Year’s resolutions express our awareness of living at less than our potential. By resolve and effort, we think we can become or accomplish whatever we have stated in our resolution.

In one sense, by self-help and self-effort we can make modifications to our lives. We can decide to take a new job or even start a new career.

We can decide to move to a different house or even to a new town in a different state. We can decide to eat well and exercise. We can develop a program that will assist us in accomplishing a goal we have set for ourselves. We can do all of these things as New Year’s resolutions, which can give us a sense of a new start or a new beginning.

Jesus And New Year’s Resolutions

But in Christianity, self-improvement is not what a new life, a new beginning, or a fresh start is all about. It is much different from personal self-improvement, though it may certainly have that effect.

It is much, much more! It is a new form of life. It is a different kind of life. It is not a life that depends on self-effort and resolves, what Christians call the life of the flesh, but a life that is prompted by, initiated by, sponsored by, inspired by, given strength by, and driven by an active Spirit who dwells within us. This is the Spirit, who prompts all people through their consciences to move toward and welcome the relationship with

which is Jesus Christ. It is our free will choosing and thus making active a new relationship with Jesus Christ. This is what Christians call conversion or a new birth. It is a new life in Christ, “Christ in us.” It is an active, real relationship that did not exist prior to this new birth.

It is literally God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, alive and active within us. It is not just a change in environment or activity, though it will certainly affect them. It is a change in the very nature of our being.

Bible Verses About Setting Goals Like Jesus

So how does this happen? What makes any of us choose this new life in Christ, this born-again life? It is God, in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit, who comes to convict our consciences that something is missing in us.

It is the sense that we are somehow incomplete and undone. It is the discovery that something is not quite right, that something more is available to us.

Short of coming into a relationship with the living Christ, many people use the pursuit of false means to resolve the feelings of this incompleteness.

Some of those pursuits involve social, political, or career position, power, and wealth. Others just try to escape by numbing themselves through a variety of means.

But no matter, how. hard we try or what we do, we continue to find ourselves trapped in the effects of this inner sense of incompleteness. All these pursuits and efforts outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ never fulfill us for long.

The resolve to embrace this new life can come only from something or someone other than ourselves, our efforts, and our accomplishments.

If you are a single person, you cannot make yourself into a spouse, and if you have no children, you cannot make yourself into a parent.

Similarly, all the new starts, all the new beginnings, and all the New Year’s resolutions cannot complete the void that exists within us because of our disconnection from our true life source.

We are in need of being recreated by our Creator, God. We are in need of a Savior. We need to start from scratch to be born all over again. We need to start our lives again with someone that heretofore we were not connected to or in a relationship with.

New Year’s Resolutions From A Christian Perspective

So what happens and what changes in our perceptions about ourselves once we make the decision to come into a relationship with Jesus Christ?

I think the biggest reward in this thing called living is this: We realize we do not have to go through life alone. We receive and experience the reality that we belong to God, have been grafted into His family, and are adopted as His children (Rom. 11:23; Eph. 1:5; John 15:1, 5).

John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who received him [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God; children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but of born of God.”

John 15:14 says that we are Jesus’ friends, not His servants. Any wrongs of the past we may have committed have been forgiven (Rom. 5:1; 8:1-2; 8:31-34; Col. 1:14). And best of all, we cannot be separated from God’s love for us (Rom. 8:35).

Out of this new sense of belonging, this friendship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords—this Jesus we talk about—comes a change within us.

It doesn’t come from New Year’s resolutions but from beholding, communicating with, relating to, and worshipping Jesus Christ. We become united with Him and one in spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

We have direct access to God and can approach Him with freedom and confidence (Eph. 2:18; 3:12). We are even declared citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20) and saints (Eph. 1:1).

What Would Jesus Say About New Year’s Resolutions?

All this comes from acknowledging and accepting Jesus, who paid the price necessary for our redemption (1 Cor. 6:20). God has declared it so (John 3:16; Col. 2:10).

The difference all this makes to our lives is that it affects everything to a far greater degree than any number of New Year’s resolutions. It goes to the heart of God’s ultimate desire for us, which is to become people who love. That becoming is a process for sure, but as the apostle Paul reminds us in Philippians 1:6,

In this process, we have not been given a spirit of fear but one of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Tim.1:7). We have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16), and the Holy Spirit works in and through our lives to give us the necessary strength to do all things in accordance with His will (Phil. 4:13).

In the end, we are not just God’s creation but His recreation, His workmanship (Eph. 2:10). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Cor. 5:17-19).

God’s offer of forgiveness, a new life in relationship with Jesus Christ, and His indwelling, active,life-changing Spirit is a free gift. We can say, “No, I don’t want it,” or we can accept it and enjoy it. This free gift is just that— free for the asking, free for the taking. It is never forced on us.

That is the way God’s love works. It is an entirely new life affecting all aspects of our being. It is a life that no longer lives by sheer effort and will as declared in those New Year’s resolutions.

It is a life that has new power by its connection to the ultimate power as revealed in Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself gave expression to this living, connecting, life-altering power when He said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does” (John 5:19-20). He also said, “I seek not to please myself but him who sent me” (John 5:30).

Saying that we have a new life in Christ also means that the old life is past. It is history. It is done away with. It is no longer alive. In fact, that is the symbolism of baptism.

Baptism is a declared symbol of death. Just as no one can live without air when we go under the waters of baptism, we symbolically die and no longer have life. Self has died.

Faith-Based New Year’s Resolutions

As we rise out of the water in baptism, we rise symbolically to a new life, a fresh life, a fresh start, a different life, one that is enlivened by the Holy Spirit.

Even though we possess the same earthly body and soul (mind, emotions, and will), something new has taken place within us. As the apostle Paul explains in Romans 8:9-11,

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature [your old body and soul] but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

But if Christ [through the Spirit of God] is in you, your body [natural born self] is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies [at the resurrection] through his Spirit, who lives in you.

This is a changed life that leads to a new life. It is not an altered life achieved through New Year’s resolutions executed by self-will and self-determined effort.

It is the realization that we can do nothing by ourselves to gain this kind of new life. Within our nature, we don’t have the power.

It is God’s power that is a sustaining power that doesn’t fail like New Year’s resolutions. Again this change, this power is a free gift.

Faith-Based New Year’s Resolutions

It cannot be earned by a life of good works. However, we do have the privilege to say, “Thank you!” We can show our appreciation for this new life in Jesus Christ by choosing to live according to His purpose and desire for us.

And we can have as many new beginnings as we need—not self-imposed, self-determined new resolutions but a new and clean slate along the way.

That is truly much, much more than all that can be accomplished through New Year’s resolutions. And it is all because of and through this Jesus we talk about.

Your friend,
Matt

Jesus We Talk About Why?

Dear Thomas,

In question twenty-two you ask, “If God is truly loving, how can He allow so much suffering in the world to go on for such a long time? Mankind has witnessed the Roman persecution of Christians, violent religious movements, the Holocaust, multiple genocides, man’s general inhumanity toward other human beings, pain, slavery, and the mass starvation of countless children. Where is God, and what relevance does He have in all this suffering? Isn’t the survival of the fittest the real truth about life?”

My answer reflects some aspects of your question nine, which was addressed in chapter 11, “The Good Life.” This question poses a struggle for Christians and non-Christians alike.

The question has often been asked how anyone can believe in a caring and loving God who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever-present when so much pain and suffering has existed in the world for such a long time.

If God is God, why doesn’t He stop it? What good can come from all this suffering in the world? Some people look at all the pain and suffering and just conclude that if God is God, He is not good.

So what is going on here? Did God intend for His creation to go through all this pain and suffering? No, certainly not, as God is agape love personified.

When God created the world, He declared that it was very good. However, we all know the story of mankind’s fall as recorded in Genesis 3. The result of that sin was enormous! That enormity was felt both by God’s creation and by God Himself.

The death of Jesus Christ on the cross was only part of the cost to God. God also hates giving up on those who choose the way of sin, self-centeredness, rebellion, and lawlessness.

From cover to cover the Bible is all about the cost of sin to God (man’s choice to live outside a relationship with God). The Bible tells the story of the loss of the gift of perpetual holy rest, which was replaced by unrest, anxiety, separation, and death.

The Bible also tells of the promise of all things being created new in a restored earth to come. In the meantime, we all know that the whole creation is groaning in agony (Rom. 8:22). Obviously something has gone terribly wrong. As someone might say, “Life stinks. And death doesn’t look so hot either.”

God so often gets blamed for pain and suffering. Floods, typhoons, tornados, killer earthquakes, lightning strikes, droughts, and storms are often labeled “acts of God.”

Likewise, we also thank Him for beautiful weather and for needed rain. He gets the credit for controlling the weather both ways. This leads some to conclude that it is best to keep away from God. By keeping our distance, God won’t find us to bother us.

Some look at pain and suffering as God’s judgment of the world’s rebellion. If He is a just judge, then He must punish the sins of the world, or so the thought goes.

This goes back to the law-based, performance-andjudgment notion of the gospel, which I have said I personally reject. God is not anxious to be judge, jury, and executioner as expressed in my letter addressing your eighth question (chapter 10).

Too often in the discussion on pain and suffering, Satan, the Evil One, is ignored. It is as if we make God both good and evil. Many spiritual belief systems do indeed view it just that way. However, in Revelation 12:7-9, we read,

Now there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven.

And the great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent, called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray—He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Another Scripture verse says,

Satan delights in the destruction of God’s creation and in destroying man through whatever means available. To the extent possible, he will use the forces of nature to do his destructive work.

His goal is to turn man’s heart and mind against God. He would have us curse God and life. He is the deceiver. He is the destroyer. He is a liar. He is the promoter of coercion and force. He is the purveyor of power and control for self-serving ends.

It was Satan who worked in the hearts of Eve, Adam, Cain, and on and on. Sometimes his activity and destructive power have been so successful that it seemed as though God would lose nearly all of His creation to eternal separation and destruction.

The drastic measure of the great flood, where only Noah and his family were spared, was needed not because God wanted to destroy or punish mankind but as a desperate attempt to save, lest all mankind be lost to sin and rebellion. “God so loved the world” (John 3:16).

We are living in a war zone, the center stage of a cosmic conflict. The extent of the complexities of the causal chain that leads to any specific event is beyond our ability to know.

The evil we know and experience is caused by the Evil One, who is the full personification of narcissism. The depth of Satan’s narcissistic hate for God knows no end.

He would have followed his path of self-destruction and the destruction of others without empathy or compassion. He is pure evil.

This is not just a balancing force in the universe. It is not yin and yang. It is not God equals good and Satan equals bad as if two equally dynamic forces continually oppose each other, and we humans are caught in the middle, suspended like electromagnetic particles.

I must add that man, through his own free will choices, can choose the way of hate, self-centeredness, and narcissism. He can become a monster of evil in his own right.

Satan has many partners in this fallen world who are exercising damage to themselves and others consciously and unconsciously, which has environmental, physical, mental, and generational consequences. It is the cumulative effect of this damage that is at the heart of evil and suffering.

There is no intrinsic good in pain and suffering. That was never God’s intent. Pain and suffering do not square off as an eternal condition of love with all that we understand love to be.

And when we get caught in and experience a variety of pains and sufferings, it drives us right back to the question of why.

Scripture gives us the how long in terms of earth’s future end-time events, while Satan and all the results of his work are the why.

So what is an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good God doing about it? In other questions, I have discussed the big picture. The plan of salvation, the good news of the gospel, and the restoration of all things are all part of that big picture.

Again, as stated previously, Scripture gives us in eschatological terms the how long in yet undetermined time. And there is comfort in knowing that however pain and suffering come to us, whether because of our brokenness, the brokenness of others, the brokenness of a fallen world, or as a result of the work of the Evil One and his agents, “we know that all things work together for good to those who love him” (Rom. 8:28).

The good spoken of in this verse refers to the good of moving us along the path of our redemption and ultimate salvation. It is the discovery that we are not alone or abandoned in our pain and suffering at any point along the way. To have the assurance that “this too shall pass” and “oh death, where is thy sting?” as expressed by the apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15:55) does instill hope and mitigate some of the pain. We are often awed by those who can face adversity with a smile and praise on their lips. Not all of us do that well.

So how should we relate to the fact that none of us escapes the problem of pain and suffering? It is pretty evident, whether from external physical, economic, or political sources, from other people, or from the malfunction of our bodies because of accidents, disease, or old age, pain and suffering cannot be escaped.

There is a natural evil that exists and operates in this broken world. But be that as it is, one thing is certain. We do not have to go through any pain and suffering alone.

Jesus and His indwelling Spirit can and will provide the necessary strength and courage to meet any situation. It is here that we have a choice.

Do we get angry and throw God out, or do we let God hang on to us with a loving, psychological, emotional, and spiritual embrace?

We have a free choice in the matter. We have free will. We have some say-so in dealing with life’s circumstances. The problem is that others, both currently and down through history, have had some say-so as well.

The issue is always how we react and deal with life’s tragedies, pain, and suffering. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16, the Bible says, “Be joyful always; pray continually; experience a variety of pains and sufferings, it drives us right back to the question of why.

Scripture gives us the how long in terms of earth’s future end-time events, while Satan and all the results of his work are the why.

So what is an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good God doing about it? In other questions, I have discussed the big picture. The plan of salvation, the good news of the gospel, and the restoration of all things are all part of that big picture.

Again, as stated previously, Scripture gives us in eschatological terms the how long in yet undetermined time. And there is comfort in knowing that however pain and suffering come to us, whether because of our brokenness, the brokenness of others, the brokenness of a fallen world, or as a result of the work of the Evil One and his agents, “we know that all things work together for good to those who love him” (Rom. 8:28).

The good spoken of in this verse refers to the good of moving us along the path of our redemption and ultimate salvation. It is the discovery that we are not alone or abandoned in our pain and suffering at any point along the way.

To have the assurance that “this too shall pass” and “oh death, where is thy sting?” as expressed by the apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15:55) does instill hope and mitigate some of the pain. We are often awed by those who can face adversity with a smile and praise on their lips. Not all of us do that well.

So how should we relate to the fact that none of us escapes the problem of pain and suffering? It is pretty evident, whether from external physical, economic, or political sources, from other people, or from the malfunction of our bodies because of accidents, disease, or old age, pain and suffering cannot be escaped.

There is a natural evil that exists and operates in this broken world. But be that as it is, things are certain. We do not have to go through any pain and suffering alone.

Jesus and His indwelling Spirit can and will provide the necessary strength and courage to meet any situation. It is here that we have a choice.

Do we get angry and throw God out, or do we let God hang on to us with a loving, psychological, emotional, and spiritual embrace?

We have a free choice in the matter. We have free will. We have some say-so in dealing with life’s circumstances. The problem is that others, both currently and down through history, have had some say-so as well.

The issue is always how we react and deal with life’s tragedies, pain, and suffering. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16, the Bible says,

Note that it does not say to give thanks for all circumstances but in all circumstances. To thank God for all circumstances would be wrong and imply blame.

The why of pain and suffering, though it has its source in Satan, goes beyond merely assigning the blame to Satan and his agents. It also includes the way God created us as human beings.

We were created in His image, and the main essence of that image is free will. We are not robots, puppets, or machines. However, the granting of free will created the other possibility as well.

Thus, the opportunity for pain and suffering exists for the sake of freedom and love. Unfortunately, humanity made the wrong choice in the Garden of Eden, and ever since, humanity has continued to make a myriad of wrong choices. History records its effects.

Physical pain makes us pay attention to the cut, keeping us from bleeding to death. Pain makes us pay attention to a splinter that could cause a bad infection. Our systems are wired for fight or flight for the sake of self-preservation.

From mental pain, we can recognize bullying, punishment, rejection, intimidation, etc. From physical and sexual abuse, beyond the physical pain, we recognize emotional pain.

It seems apparent that without pain we would also not learn empathy. In our broken world, it seems that pain has its place.

What does God want out ofall the pain and suffering that results from the evil that exists in the world? God wants us to have faith, hope, and freedom from the guilt of evil, even though we experience it, suffer because of it, and even knowingly or unknowingly at times cause it. Scripture says,

This is called our glorification or our full restoration, but it only comes after Christ’s second coming. It is obvious that we now live in an environment where we experience fear, mourning, crying, pain, and death.

Again the pain and suffering in life are not caused by God. God is more outraged with all of mankind’s history of brokenness, pain, suffering, and sorrow than we could ever be.

We have not been abandoned or betrayed by God because we experience life’s misfortunes in all its forms. He never intended life to be this way.

It took the incarnation and suffering of Jesus all the way to the cross to do something about it. Because of the fall of Eden, where Satan became the prince of this world, we are mortal human beings caught in a broken world that continues to be influenced by Satan and his agents.

This broken world extends to distortions within weather, ecosystems, and other elements. We also make bad choices on our own and are hurt by the bad choices of others.

But whatever the cause of our misfortunes, God does not abandon us when they come. As the apostle Paul says in Romans 8:35-39,

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake, we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yes, survival of the fittest has always been the truth about life. But the fittest is Jesus Christ, from His birth to His crucification and resurrection. The fittest is our freedom in Christ. The fittest is love.

Could God stop our pain and suffering? Yes, He could. But what might be the result? Would people flock to Him only for the purpose of relieving their pain and suffering? Once the pain and suffering were gone, they might have no further use for Him.

Jesus experienced some of that while He was on earth. That is not God’s desired end. He wants to build a relationship now that will last into eternity.

Such self-serving motives might hinder that. The stakes are eternal life, not just our temporal life with the desire for ease and comfort.

My efforts may not be totally satisfying in answering a specific why question. That answer may never come until we are in heaven and look back on all the events that gave rise to the event in question.

Then we will know and see clearly a gracious and loving Savior dealing with His broken people In their broken world through all the causal chain of events within this mortal life.

What we can see is God’s ever-present support within and through our pain and suffering in this mortal life as well as His ultimate rescue from it all because of and through Jesus Christ. Is it any wonder that we need this Jesus we talk about?

Your friend,
Matt

Jesus We Talk About Religious Stuff

Dear Thomas,

You ask in your twenty-first question, “How far do your beliefs have to go before you can call yourself a Christian? Can you just believe in Jesus, who died for your sins, and not believe or participate in all the other religious stuff?”

First I would have to address what is meant by believing in Jesus. To believe is to take as real or true the object of the belief.It means to have faith, trust, and confidence or conviction in the object of belief.

But Jesus Christ is a person, not an object, and believing in a person who is alive, personal, and relational takes on a dynamic quality unlike believing in an object. Furthermore, believing is not just an academic exercise for our betterment or security for the hereafter.

It is easy for us humans to depersonalize others, to think of them as objects. We tend to view others through the lens of us and them.

But when it comes to relating to our Creator and Redeemer, this Jesus we talk about, we soon discover that He just doesn’t fit into an “object” status.

He doesn’t fit into any category of an impersonal, historical figure. We can, however, try to force Jesus Christ into an impersonal object.

We can study Him in an impersonal way. Many academics do just that. We can assign Jesus the role of a charismatic prophet or messiah figure living some two thousand years ago.

If that is our approach, there is an astounding shortfall in the who of the living, relating, indwelling, “in Christ” Jesus.

The real Jesus Christ does not want to be experienced as an impersonal historical figure. He wants a personal living relationship with you and me.

Thus, our belief in Jesus Christ coupled with His indwelling Spirit becomes a personal, relational, intimate who. And when there is an understanding of the who, a relationship that inspires active worship results.

This who of Jesus Christ generates an awe of wonder from His other-directed love that includes you and me. The activities of worship with our whole body and soul (mind, emotions, and will) relating in honest wonderment to this creative, redeeming, loving, three-person God— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are certainly not just religious stuff.

To accept and believe that Jesus Christ is who He said He was—the Son of God—sets into motion all that He said would happen to us when we believe in Him. Believing in this Who sense is dynamic, not static. Believing becomes an active, real, life-changing, ongoing friendship.

This is not just mental assent but a living relationship that affects our expressions of awe, wonder, admiration, and worship. The who, when we truly know Him, transforms into a Thou.

It is a little like Jesus’ disciple Thomas, who was not present when Jesus appeared to the other disciples after His resurrection.

Thomas couldn’t believe the report that Jesus was alive and said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (John 20:25).

A week later Thomas was with the other disciples when Jesus appeared among them. Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side.

Stop doubting and believe” (v. 27). In response, Thomas declared, “My Lord and my God!” (v. 28). Jesus answered, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (v. 29).

So how far do you have to go in your belief to become a Christian? May I suggest that one goes all the way to the Thou. Anything short of that risks turning Jesus Christ into an idol, a thing to be used for personal gain. As the commandment of God given to Moses and recorded in Deuteronomy 6:5-6 says,

God also said in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, “I am the Lord your God—you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, and you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.”

I understand that the previous commands sound like God is giving us the order to love or suffer the consequences if we don’t.

But remember, issuing an order is not what God is doing here. He is making a declaration on how we were meant to function.

We were meant to be in a relationship with Him. We were meant to love Him as a precept or an operative norm that we have internalized, hold ready for use, and act upon.

I must add a footnote here. The stuff of religious worship, this Thou relationship, does not come from the natural inclination of what we sometimes call “the flesh” or from our natural instincts.

This Thou relationship comes from the Holy Spirit dwelling in us (see Romans 8:5- 11). Within our natural selves, physically born but spiritually dead, we can only look at the Christian life from the outside.

From the outside this Thou relationship seems ethereal, mysterious, and at times, depending on how the Christian life is expressed, foolish.

But to the one who is spiritually alive in Christ, it is neither foolish nor ethereal but very real, and yes, it is always a mystery that we could be loved that much by our Creator.

Then there is the other aspect of your question, “Do not believe or participate in all the other religious stuff.” There are probably many people we could describe as closet Christians.

They believe, pray, feel connected to Jesus Christ, and try to live their understanding of the Christian life through the prompting of the Holy Spirit in their social intercourse with their fellow man.

But for a variety of reasons they don’t participate in a formal Christian community. For me, this is the harder part of your question, how can a person experience the fullness of the Thou in isolation from a Christian community or fellowship?

How does someone express love back to God yet leave out all others He loves? Would God’s Spirit in a person act that way? Does God’s Spirit, the “in Christ” nature of the Christian life, include Christian fellowship?

I prefer not to become too harsh of a judge here. Many people with different backgrounds and personalities love and worship God.

Some of those people might be extreme introverts. Some have experienced such damage in life that relating to many people in one place at one time is very uncomfortable, even stressful for them. Christian extroverts might find this difficult to understand. Again I am referring to the extremes.

Though the apostle Paul spoke in synagogues, halls, theatres, and streets, I think Scripture indicates that Paul’s communities and the early church were rather small bodies of people meeting in homes.

Their gatherings often included a meal. Praise, worship, prayer, building up one another, lending support, learning, and equipping one another for contribution within and outside their small Christian community were probably the norm in their gatherings.

I don’t see any formal liturgy expressed. I don’t know if there was any music, but I would guess probably so. But what we see today in many churches, an hour or so of meeting time on Sunday with music, sermon, public prayer, and so forth, an often choreographed event on a stage, would probably not be recognized by those attending the early-church meetings in the first century AD.

The form of religious expression, it seems to me, can have a wide range, much of which depends on the culture, traditions, and personalities of the people involved.

The crux of the matter is that whatever the form, whatever the expression, whatever the activity, it all needs to be an outworking of the commandment Jesus expressed in Matthew 22:37-38, which says,

I think it is a true saying that love needs expression from one to another. Thus, our relationship with the Thou, this Jesus we talk about, finds its full meaning as we participate in some form of Christian community. The nature and size of that community and how it expresses itself depend on many factors.

The “stuff” you refer to may be certain elements within some Christian communities or churches that don’t fit your spiritual needs or personality.

However, the variety of expression within the community of Christian churches should enable you to find a comfortable fit. There are small home Bible study groups and Bible study groups that meet for breakfast at local restaurants.

Some people participate in these as well as in full worship experiences of gatherings in large megachurches. Others prefer small churches, others larger churches with choirs, pipe organs, guitars and drums, sermons, and everything in between.

Pray that you will find the right stuff where Christ’s indwelling Spirit creates the greatest Thou worship in your relationship with Jesus Christ, one that promotes loving relationships with others inside as well as outside the Christian community.

Your friend,
Matt

Jesus We Talk About The Word

Dear Thomas,

In your twenty-third question, you ask about the Holy Bible. You state, “Christians say that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. How can that be when it was given orally from generation to generation and then reduced to written form about 600 to 400 BCE, translated into different languages many times, and translated within the same language many times over? I’ve heard some claim that the various translations don’t even seem to say the same thing.”

Many approaches abound on how to look at Scripture. This is a very big subject with volumes written about it. However the Bible is approached, though, it remains the primary source of our knowledge about God and His relating to humankind over the millennia.

For Christians, the Bible is a sacred book. The Old Testament coupled with the New Testament provides the primary source for our knowledge and understanding of redemptive history.

The Bible puts life into a contextual whole. It gives voice to where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going.

It explains the fall of mankind or mankind’s choosing to separate from his special relationship with God and God’s efforts to reestablish that relationship.

The books or letters that make up the Bible were all written by the end of the first century. However, much of our worldview has changed in the last two thousand years, and this makes answering your question difficult.

How do we explain a book written by so many people over many centuries so long ago? The literary genre of the Bible includes history, poetry, storytelling, visions, dreams, miracles, and parables expressed by those who came before us.

However, culture changes. Language changes, and our worldview changes as well. With each change comes the challenge to understand the meaning of that literature expressed in its variety of styles.

Nonetheless, scholars continue to find evidence of the Bible’s historicity and its understanding of word meanings in Scripture’s best-known original form.

When it comes to the Bible, two primary questions need to be asked as we read and study it. First, what does it say about God? And second, how does it explain mankind’s rescue from sin and death and the plan for the restoration of all things?

Through the totality of the Bible, God is self-revealing. and the clearest revelation of God is found in the person of Jesus Christ.

The key to having faith in that revelation is established by the firm conviction that Jesus was raised from the dead. The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17 that “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith—and you are still in your sins.”

As I’ve mentioned, the Bible puts all of life into a contextual whole. From the war in heaven, the creation of mankind, and the fall to the covenant-keeping God of Israel, all pointed forward to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, and His perfect implementation of the rescue plan.

The crowning event was Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection and victory over death, which is now made available to all of us. Then we move on to the spreading of the good news of God’s rescue through church history and the future second coming of Jesus.

All of redemptive history eventually culminates with our own resurrection when Jesus at His second coming gathers His elect, His trusted friends, and transforms them into their glorified state.

And finally, there is the ultimate end of sin and sinners and the creation of all things new. All along the way the Bible gives instructions about how love works so we can be restored to a loving relationship with God and one another (see 1 Cor. 13; Phil. 4:8; 1 John 4:11).

In short, the Bible is about redemptive history our redemptive history and about the one who does the redeeming. It is about God’s original intent for this earth; about His rescue plan because of the fall, sin, and evil; and about His ultimate promise to restore all things.

It is about humankind’s decision to break a relationship with their Creator and to render judgment upon God by eating the fruit of the tree in the middle or center of the garden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

We humans have thus put ourselves at the center ofall life, determining through our own judgment what is good and what is evil. God, as expressed before, never intended us to be in the position of judge.

That is His rightful place. And just as self-centeredness started with Adam, it has been inured to all humankind throughout history, for we are all heirs of Adam.

Thus, God began His rescue plan because of the circumstances mankind found itself. Scripture is the unfolding of that plan, and the Bible reveals God’s nature and commitment to draw all mankind back into a relationship with Him.

The Bible is a major part of God’s self-revelation. It is through divine inspiration or God’s Spirit working on the hearts and minds of its writers that the Bible possesses that quality of authority and self-revelation. Thus, it is more than the recorded experiences and thoughts of men.

The Bible is not the mere subjective opinions of its writers, however valuable or true those opinions might be. Neither did the writers act as God’s pen as if God was dictating and they were recording His speech verbatim.

Rather, God inspired men, and they wrote within the context of their culture, history, and understanding. Except when stated specifically otherwise, God did not tell the writer in effect, “I am going to tell you some things to write.

Now write them down word for word.” No, I don’t think Scripture is a matter of dictation. I don’t think the writers of Scripture were acting as court reporters. Rather, their writing came from slow, quiet reflection and from history, convictions, dreams, and visions.

Their writing came from God’s still, small voice from within the heart and mind, and from information given to them by the enlivening presence of the Holy Spirit, who thus inspired them with what to communicate.

Again the Bible was written by human beings in their language, in their culture, and in their historical setting. Within the ability of the writers to express themselves in the various literary forms available, they gave expression to the message they were inspired to communicate.

This scenario could be likened to the actions of the president’s press secretary. The press secretary gives messages to the press in his own words, yet those words represent the president’s attitudes, policies, actions, politics, and thoughts about issues governing the nation.

They are not the exact words of the president, but they are representative of his words. And at times they are his words directly quoted.

Of course, difficulties arise whenever someone speaks in the representation of another. Yes, some historical difficulties and apparent contradictions can be found in the Bible.

Contemporary history is often not viewed the same at a later date. The Bible includes different mindsets of some forty different authors, which include priests, kings, prophets, poets, fishermen, historians, and doctors throughout nearly a millennium and a half.

All these different camera angles lend the Bible its full authority. Any one book written by one author at one time in history is but one piece of God’s communication.

It’s something like an answer to prayer. An answered prayer yields a powerful impact on the believer and others who are aware of God’s answer.

Yet how much more powerful is an entire life of answered prayers; wise, unanswered prayers viewed in hindsight; and prayers that seem to have been put on hold?

It’s easy to pick apart any one prayer and its answer, but when answers to prayers are viewed as a whole, they reveal a truth about prayer that becomes much more apparent. Scripture is like that. The sum of its parts gives power and authenticity to each separate part.

Jesus said in John 5:39, “These are the Scriptures that testify about me.” In Matthew 4:4, Jesus also said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, the Bible proclaims, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

And there is Romans 10:17, which says,

In John 14:10, Jesus declares, “The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” And Hebrews 4:12 states, “The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

As far as when the Bible was written, individual sections were probably written much earlier than you suggest in your question. My understanding is that the Old Testament goes back as early as the tenth century BC. Written texts were compiled from oral traditions, and spoken words transcribed into written texts continued throughout time.

The initial writings were copied and recopied through the centuries. Certainly, the earliest surviving copies were written centuries after the first copy.

The gathering and the consolidation of these copies were most likely done by Ezra in the sixth century BC. Most of the New Testament was written in the latter half of the first century AD.

The process of scriptural interpretation into languages other than the original as well as updating the understanding of the original requires hermeneutical (science of interpretation within a historical setting) and exegetical (critical analysis of the interpretation of word meanings) scholarship.

That scholarship can vary the way something is said. This is where people can get into trouble with their understanding of the Bible as the inerrant Word of God.

The problem is not with the Bible but with what people mean by inerrant. Inerrant does not mean that there are no word, story, numbering, dating errors, or thought translation errors that occur in the Bible but that it is inerrant in its self-revealing truth about God.

That is why we can read the King James Bible, the New King James, the Revised Standard Version, the New International Version, the New English, the Amplified Bible, or the Phillips New Testament translation as well as the Living Bible, the Message, and other paraphrases of the Bible, with assurance that God is being revealed as the Creator and redeeming God of love.

It is not the words, for they can come in many forms and languages, but the one behind the words who is being revealed is the inspiration of Scripture. And it is the Holy Spirit who illuminates its meaning to each of us who comes to it with an open and receptive heart.

The Bible bears witness to God, centered in Jesus Christ, as the one who created; the one who came to earth in human flesh through the action of the Holy Spirit; the one who was crucified, buried, and rose again and has promised to return. Why? Because our God loves and cares deeply about us.

He wants us to know Him. He wants us to have that affirming, continuing, deep, and personal relationship with Him now and forever as the totality of Scripture testifies.

Your friend,
Matt

Jesus We Talk About Stop

Dear Thomas,

Your twenty-fourth question is, “If you don’t like being a Christian, is it easy to stop being one?”

I find this a curious question. It is like asking, “If I don’t like being loved, is it easy to walk away from it?” The truth is that there are people who actually walk away from love.

They find within themselves an inability to accept love. They are convinced from life’s damages that they are unlovable, or they may think they have done something unforgivable and are thus not worthy of love.

We all experience numerous common damages. Faced with a God who says, “I love you. I forgive you, and I accept you,” some of us respond in effect, “It can’t be so, as I know who and what I am.

This cannot be true.” But the good news is this: That is exactly what God means! He declares and proves it through Jesus Christ.

Our trouble is not that it is so but that we struggle to believe it. Certainly, we cannot believe it by our feelings or performance. We can believe it only by the evidence of a gracious and loving God acting in the history of man.

We can see the evidence in Scripture from man’s creation beginning to the end of prophetic history, and we can especially see the evidence revealed in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We can see the evidence within the affected lives of those who have experienced God’s love, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Being a Christian also means declaring our brokenness, and wanting to be set right each time we experience failure. It is believing in the God who forgives and heals, which is all made possible through Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Your question about not being a Christian probably has more to do with identifying with a particular Christian group than with being in a relationship with this Jesus we talk about.

Being a member of any denomination or religious group has more to do with personality, theological emphasis, and form and style of worship within the body of Christ (the body of Christ being those who declare themselves active Christians coming together for worship and fellowship) than with anything else.

A person can and many do change denominational membership or form of worship but remain in the body of Christ. And for a variety of reasons some may choose not to participate in a formally labeled institutional or congregational church at all.

They may feel that the institution costs too much and is too prone to vested interests, turf protection, and one-upmanship on theological truth.

Yet these people carry their faith, and by God’s grace, they try their best to walk humbly before their God. Even though they do not declare membership in a formal body of believers, they may still be active Christians.

That’s because being a Christian is not membership in an institution but a relationship with the living God expressed in relationship with others and exercised in fellowship with other Christians through a variety of means and places of gathering.

It is also being ready and actively willing to share the good news about God’s love. Having said that, I must add that Hebrews 10:24-25 does urge us to

Thus, going it alone is not what God had in mind for our loving, encouraging, healing, and building up one another. It is very important to find and maintain Christian fellowship as we have discussed before. As to whether a person can stop being a Christian if he or she wants to, the answer is yes. God never takes away our free will.

We can choose to turn our hearts and minds away from God and walk away from Him. We can disclaim our former faith. We can grieve the Holy Spirit to the point that our hearts become so hardened that God has no choice but to let us go and give us up.

We can take the path of the pharaoh of Egypt. When faced with a decision God put before him, he hardened his heart. Pharaoh could have chosen to be like butter and melt before Israel’s God, but he chose instead to be like clay and harden his heart before Israel’s God.

God was just the heat source that would melt the butter or harden the clay. It was the same heat source, but there were different effects depending on the freewill choice of the one making the decision (see Exodus 4-13).

Christianity is not a “once saved, always saved” system of belief. We are not predestined outside our free will. We are predestined to an open door of relationship with the living God, and we are free to open that door.

However, once that door is opened and we experience the irresistible love of our triune God, we could almost say, “Once saved, always saved” by our freewill attraction to that experiential love relationship.

Whether it is easy to stop being a Christian is another question. Turning away from God’s love has all the earmarks of a person who has experienced some emotional damage, hurt, or pain or perhaps one who has an incorrect understanding of the heart and character of God.

Those experiences can harden a person’s heart so that he or she concludes, “God just isn’t there for me. Nor will He beat least not in the way I want Him to.

If God won’t meet my perceived needs, what good is He?” Sadly some people are like Pharaoh, and when confronted with the heat source of God’s wooing them to come into or stay in relationship with Him, they become like clay and harden their hearts against God.

My conviction is that once a person experiences God’s love, which is found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then turning away from Him for any reason will not be free of struggle.

God does not want to give us up or let us go (see Hos. 11:8). It is a wise thing for us Christians to ask God to hang on to us, to never let us go, no matter how we feel, what mistakes we make, or how angry we become at circumstances in a world that cause us pain and suffering. It is important to ask God to hang on to us even when He seems absent for allowing the pain and suffering to come our way in the first place.

God is faithful in His love for us. However, in that faithfulness, God’s plans for our lives do not always seem clear or make sense. God’s ultimate end for us is to enjoy His fellowship forever. And on this side of heaven with broken bodies and souls (our minds, emotions, and will) acting within the confines of this currently broken world, very bad things sometimes happen.

God cries along with us in our hurts. Within the context of free will, He does what He can with us and those around us to help us hang on to love’s values, love’s fellowship, and love’s sense of acceptance and belonging so that we may enjoy its blessings.

When the truth about God is understood, there is just no reason to stop being a Christian, for being a Christian is living out the conviction and declaration of “I know to whom I belong” and all that can mean.

Your friend,
Matt

Jesus We Talk About Past, Present, And Future

Dear Thomas,

Your twenty-fifth question states, “Christians say that being ‘in Christ’ changes their past, present, and future. My past is my past. That’s history.

What can Christianity do about that? I am responsible for my choices in the present. What can Christianity do about those? My future is yet to be determined or discovered. What does Christianity have to do with those?”

Yes, in many of my answers to your questions, I have talked about the effect of being “in Christ,” the apostle Paul’s primary motif in explaining the effect of the gospel.

But as you ask, just what does being in Christ mean? Let me explain it again in this way: Adam was the first creation of mankind. All of mankind descended from Adam.

Prior to Adam’s fall into sin, he enjoyed an open, full, and rich relationship with Jesus, his Creator. However, once Adam fell, he lost the unique connectedness he had experienced in the Garden of Eden.

He was removed and barred from it thereafter (see Genesis 3). Adam, the first of mankind, ruined his original and intended relationship with God, and that broken relationship transferred from him to all successive generations. That is why Christians say that we all failed in Adam.

We are all born with Adam’s fallen nature. All of humankind’s failures are evidence of this fall, this separation from God.

Because of Adam’s failure and subsequently all of humanity’s failures ever since, we have a death penalty hanging over our heads, for the wages or consequence of sin, which caused separation from God and Jesus, our Creator, is death (see Rom. 6:23) or the ultimate cessation of life forever.

We and the rest of humanity, past, present, and future, don’t like those prospects. Neither does God nor Jesus, our Creator. There must be a way to resolve that separation.

There must be a way to bring man back into a relationship as intended in the beginning. And there must be a way to expiate or make amends for Adam’s sin, our sins, and everyone else’s sins.

Who could do it? Who could legally make things right? Who could take the responsibility for the wrongs of mankind? Who could pay the wages, and who could take the consequences of death legally and justly? Only one person could do that only our Creator, God Himself, only Jesus.

The rescue plan entailed the coming of the Messiah, the coming of the Son of God, and the coming of Jesus. Born of a virgin, Jesus willingly came to earth in the likeness of man, in the likeness of Adam.

Though He possessed Adam’s nature, He was yet without sin and in union with the Father. Setting His divinity aside (see Mark 14:38, John 5:19-20, Phil. 2:5-7), Jesus came to earth and lived a life of perfect fellowship with God, His Father, with the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Jesus came to live a life of perfect obedience to the law of love given by God. Jesus was the start over, the possibility for mankind to obtain a new beginning.

Jesus did what Adam did not do. But Jesus did much more than that. Jesus suffered the results of Adam’s sin, your and my sins, and the rest of humanity’s sins. It is a harsh reality for any of us that Jesus died on the cross of Calvary because of and for each of us.

Jesus taking the nature of humanity within Himself died with a sense of total separation from God. Jesus died the second death or ultimate death, which was our rightful death.

Jesus said on the cross,

As our Creator God, Jesus took my place, our place, all of humanity’s place, and paid the penalty for humanity’s sins. Jesus died so that we wouldn’t have to die the second death. Jesus died and was resurrected so that we could have life, including our own resurrection if we tasted death prior to Jesus’ second coming.

Even now we can start having that new life, that resurrected life in Him instead of maintaining our natural old life in Adam which is the sin of living life apart from God. The kingdom of God and eternity can start now in this life (see Matt. 10:7; 12:28; 13:11, 44; Luke 17:21).

If I put my passport into my briefcase, wherever my briefcase goes, my passport follows. My passport is connected to my briefcase. We are like the passport, and Jesus is our briefcase.

Jesus has an open invitation for us to come into His briefcase. He issues the open-briefcase invitation, but we make the choice to go in. Once in, we are “in Christ,” and the effect changes our past, present, and future.

Another way of explaining this change of past, present, and future is this: Once we choose Christ as our Creator, Redeemer, and Lord, we have a new life, a new inheritance, a new history, and a new family tree.

We are adopted, and we gain a new identity. We are no longer “in Adam” but anew “in Christ.” All this happens because God is agape (intrinsic, spontaneous, unmotivated) love.

He first loved us (1 John 4:19) and then did what was necessary for our redemption and salvation, validated by Jesus’ resurrection.

Once we belong to this new family in Christ, our past is forgiven, canceled, and made of no account in our present and future life in Christ.

Our present life is changed because of who we are in Christ. The old self of sin, death, and self-centeredness no longer have to dominate our lives, but a new and different operative with new understandings, visions, and motives from His indwelling Spirit comes alive within us. As we mark our days, our present becomes a series of new beginnings, new starts within our relationship with Christ.

Our future is also made different as we, through Christ’s Spirit, continue to heal from our past brokenness and are led by His Spirit to the full meaning of being in the Spirit and heart of Christ.

The “in Christ” motif of Christian thought really does make all the difference in the world as to our past, present, and future. To know that we can fearlessly stand before a holy and loving God because we are forgiven and hidden in Christ is freedom indeed.

Being in Christ means we get to be transformed into what we were intended to be. It is not a have to, or our earning the favor of Christ. Think about it.

Being in Christ allows us to become all that God desires us to be both now and in the future as a developmental process all as a free gift!

Now comes the apparent rub, a seeming contradiction to what I have just said. If we understand that God is love that we were created in His image and that our ultimate wellbeing is determined by our living and loving as our Creator intended, we quickly come to the realization that we just can’t seem to do it.

We understand the apostle Paul’s struggle expressed in Romans 7:7-24, where he lamented that he continually failed to do the things he wanted to do (meeting all of the law’s demands as he understood them).

Like Paul, it is easy to see that we do not live or love as God intended. Even when we try, it is usually infected with self-interest and self-centeredness.

In our still-fallen state, even though redeemed with the promise of a future glorified state, I don’t know if we can ever really know in this life what it means to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul or to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

But even with all our apparent shortfalls, could it be that God is truly I mean truly gracious? By gracious, 1 means granting us a status we don’t earn, don’t even deserve.

That is the good news. God is indeed gracious! But in order for the grace of God to be effective in our lives, we must believe that it is His nature.

He is there as our guide, support, aid, and comfort through all our trials and missteps as we grow in our relationship with Him.

And in that belief, we can know that no matter what we have done in the past, no matter what we just did in the present, or what we may fail to do in the future, God is still gracious.

We can fully trust Him that we will remain in Christ. God’s love and grace can change our motivating drives. It can affect our hearts and minds and make us into new people.

The apostle Paul discovered that truth in his own spiritual journey when he declared in Romans 7:24-25, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He goes on to say in verse 1 of chapter 8, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Then he goes further to explain how the process of change takes place.

This is not the cheap grace that I am talking about. It is a life that recognizes God’s love yet also recognizes an inability to love back adequately as a result of the sin problem, which has made its home within our beings.

It is a life that recognizes that God through Jesus Christ has taken care of our failure problems past, present, and future.

And by our conscious and consistent focus on Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our transformation or healing can and does take place, even if seemingly way too slow.

Our return to the Father, like the prodigal son of Luke 15:11-32, is God’s greatest hope and desire for us. And remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30.

I guess I could say that being in Christ is the only way to live now and forever. It truly does affect my past, my present, and my future!

Your friend,
Matt

Jesus We Talk About Rescued

Dear Thomas,

We have come to your twenty-sixth and final question, wherein you ask, “Why are you a Christian? What does it do for you? What do you think I am missing by not committing my life to Christ?”

I am a Christian for a number of reasons. First I have found a friend in the Creator God of the universe. I have found a friend in Jesus.

I have found living, experiential truth in Jesus’ statement, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends” (John 15:15).

I understand that I have been forgiven, not just for my past sins but also for my current and future sins that I trust I will regret and confess! I have discovered that I am loved.

I have been loved from the beginning of creation and from the moment of my birth. I will continue to be loved in all my present comings and goings all the way to my death and resurrection.

Being loved by God in Jesus Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit has made a tremendous difference in my life. It gives me the foundation of being. It gives a contextual meaning of life from its source to its ultimate new beginning.

I’ll confess that on the one hand, I fall short and know it. On the other hand, I can continually praise God for His continued acceptance of me in spite of all my failings in this life.

Yes, thanks be to God in whom my salvation and redemption are assured! Because of who Jesus Christ is, what He did on the cross of Calvary, and His resurrection, I no longer have to worry about living in a certain manner and accumulating good works to earn my salvation.

And if I Focus on who I am not in the flesh but in the Spirit in Christ, then the wonder and joy of it all come alive.

I can trust that slowly and surely I am being transformed into what God intended me to be, even in this life. There are possibilities of conducting my life in a manner that shows my appreciation for that salvation, that rescue promised and granted as a free gift.

The Bible says in Janies 1 that even when trials and tribulations crowd into my life, I need not lose my grip on the good news.

To paraphrase, “If we have a particular problem that we don’t know how to handle, we have only to sincerely ask God, who gives generously to all of us without making us feel stupid or foolish.” That is indeed good news!

That’s what is so fantastic about the Christian message, the good news of all that has been done to rescue us. Even though we are born into sin, which has made its home within our minds and bodies, we can still be free from the condemnation of it! We can also experience freedom from the guilt of it.

We can enjoy freedom from and victory over the activity of sin in whatever form it tries to express itself. And if we slip knowingly, impulsively, or even unknowingly until an attitude or action is exposed, we are free to confess and be forgiven. This all comes because of our relationship with Jesus Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

When we sin, we can say,

With God through Jesus Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit, the failings of the flesh can find redemption, even in this life. And along the way, as I have mentioned a number of times, we have the opportunity to experience the gifts of the Spirit as expressed in Galatians 5:22, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

All this is a free gift granted by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. God has declared it so. Thus, anyone can belong to Him just by choosing Him.

This holds true for you and for each person who asks for forgiveness and connectedness to the God of love. What an awesome experience to understand and realize God’s rescue plan as shown in the cross of Jesus Christ and His resurrection on the third day thereafter!

Often I journal in a way that is a conversation with God. In my journal, I have the opportunity to affirm my own understandings and convictions based on my personal experience.

Journaling helps me realize my own connectedness to Jesus. Though this is a personal prayer, let me share this prayer from my journal with you.

Lord, I most often start my prayer journals by addressing You thus. When I say, “Lord,” I know that I am addressing You, Father. I am also addressing You, Jesus.

And I am also addressing You, Holy Spirit, who dwells within me. You are one God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer of all life and all things, however large or small.

No one can fully comprehend You; no one can encompass You. You and You alone are Lord over all that was, is, and ever will be.

Your glory shines in the heavens above. Your glory shines in the earth below. You and You alone are given all honor, power, and glory forever and ever.

You, Lord, so loved the world that You gave Yourself to it in Jesus Christ. You, Lord, in Jesus, besides creating us, also redeemed us by Your birth, life, death, and resurrection.

You, Lord, by Your love and grace, gave us the Holy Spirit. You, Lord, enlivened us spiritually when we were once spiritually dead.

You, Lord, gave us the promise of life everlasting. You, Lord, gave us the power to discern and defeat the Evil One, Satan, the father ofall lies about You and those You love.

Now that I have been enlivened by You and am able to discern spiritual things by my freewill choice and by faith alone based on ample evidence, I belong to You.

I am known and loved. Yes, it would seem beyond belief that You, Lord, in every way know me, care for me, love me. Yes, it is true! It is absolutely true! And I am free to believe it, know it, experience it, enjoy it, and declare it. I am also free to love You back.

Lord, I ask in sincere faith that You would continue to heal me from the effects of sin in and around me. Heal me from life’s worries and stresses.

Heal me from those periods of doubt when faith gets weak. Forgive me and heal me from the errors of the past. Help me to seek Your kingdom first.

Help me to live in a relationship with you one day at a time. Teach me to always say what is true about You. Keep me close to You so that I may reflect You.

I understand that this world has become the focus of that cosmic conflict where Satan seeks to prevent or destroy any who would come to You.

If in any way Satan tries to separate me from You or tries to destroy me, please, Lord, help me to remember quickly who I am in You. I belong to You.

I have been adopted by You. You have given Yourself to me. Therefore, I can claim absolutely that because of your being in me and I in You, I am accepted, secure, and significant.

I am free in Christ Jesus, for in Him and Him alone I live, move, and have my being. This is true. This is complete. This is done now and in this moment, and best of all, it will continue forever! As Jesus Christ said and I am convinced of its truth by experience “I will never leave you or forsake you.” And “Lo, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age ” This is my declaration and prayer, in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Going all the way back to the beginning of our correspondence, let me repeat my picture of what God is like in the life of the Christian. The overriding reality is that God can be trusted to love us and have our best interests in mind in all His actions toward us.

I say this not only from my own personal experience but also from the consistent testimony of God working out His rescue recorded in the Bible, especially the information on the birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ, who said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.”

God truly values our freedom for the sake of love. He always treats us with respect and dignity. He wants a direct and individual relationship with us now and forever.

And He wants that relationship to begin now! To me, the evidence shows that God is a continuously creative, self-emptying, self-limiting, agapeAovmg deity.

That evidence is shown through Scripture, through changed lives, and through His working in my life just as He assuredly can and hopefully does in yours.

What you would miss by not putting your life in the hands of our loving, forgiving, and gracious God is life itself—a new life, a full and complete life in Christ Jesus.

God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all offering the invitation, and they are all waiting for you to respond. Please accept this invitation. “Come,” God says.

“Come and enter into a relationship with Me, and I will create in you a new life, a transformed life, a life that will enjoy a special friendship with Me now in this life and for eternity.”

It is a free gift. Remember again, God in Jesus Christ says, “I love you. I accept you. I want you. I need you! Come, please come!”

Jesus’ words to me that summer evening in the “Prayer and Fox” story so many years ago are forever relevant to me. They are also forever relevant to you, for the story speaks a truth that, once understood, is life-changing.

Jesus, our Creator, our Savior, our Redeemer, could just as easily have put your name in His message to me that evening.

Remember the “prayer and fox” story and read His words as if they were spoken to you, “[Insert your name], look around you.

If I created the rock you are sitting on, the water that is rushing by, the trees, the mountains, the moon, the clouds and stars above, and if I created you also, don’t you think I can take care of you? Remember, your responsibility is to live in a relationship with Me one day at a time.”

If you have accepted this invitation and have entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ, you have the gospel, the very good news about your ultimate future with Him.

Always remember that God loves you, accepts you, and will never let you go. By accepting Christ as your personal, relational, loving friend, you will discover a truly new life in this Jesus we talk about.

Your friend,
Matt