in Christ
The Pursuit of Perfection
by Linda Rex
On my desk there is a block of wood with the word “MENTAL” engraved on it. A colleague of mine from several years ago knew I liked to write and he gave it to me for the times when I experience writer’s block. I can’t help but chuckle when I see it because right then, at that moment, I experience a “mental block.”
How often, though, do we find that we have a mental block when it comes to spiritual perfection? If we are expected to become perfect, how do we do it? For the perfectionists among us, this is important information, because perfectionists cannot settle for anything less than perfection.
There is way of looking at faith in Christ as an expectation that we become perfect people once we get done saying we are sorry for our sins. For some of us, we even think that we have to become perfect before approaching God or he will reject us. Either view is based on a misunderstanding of God’s expectations of us and confusion about who we are as his creatures.
First of all, part of the process of coming to faith in Christ is an acknowledgement of the perfection of God and his love for us, and the confession of our imperfection in the face of God’s perfection. As long as we see ourselves as acceptable, good enough, and able to take care of ourselves, there really isn’t much need for anyone else.
But there is a dignity in our confession of our imperfection. We are human, made in God’s image, to reflect his likeness. We were created for perfection. God desires to share his perfection with us. This is why Jesus came.
Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith—the one who began and will finish the process of perfecting us. Because he joined us to himself in his life, death and resurrection, God in Christ shares his perfection with us. We participate in God’s perfection in Christ by the Spirit.
But this is a process, a journey. It is a relationship with God in Christ by the Spirit in which we are, over time, transformed by the renewal of our minds. In light of God’s mercy in Christ, we surrender ourselves to God in obedient service and we walk in union and communion with the Father, Son and Spirit in love with God and one another.
Our spiritual perfection lies in Christ—we have the assurance that we will one day be like him in glory. For now, though, we focus on Jesus Christ and persevere in our relationship with God in him, rejecting and resisting anything that may seek to draw us away from the path of righteousness we walk in him.
When we read the history of faith in Hebrews 11, we recognize that faith does not come simply but exacts a price. Perfection is not an easy process. It is hard work. But it is not something we do on our own to perfect ourselves. And faith is not something we have to somehow come up with on our own. It is all of grace. It is a gift. Just as faith is a gift from God, so is our perfection.
So, in the midst of the messies of life and our imperfections, we can have Christ’s perfect peace, because he has given us his perfection, and he will continue to perfect us until we fully reflect him in glory. Seeking perfection isn’t a bad thing—but in the midst of all that effort, it is best to remember that there is only one who is perfect, and it is not us. But that Perfect One has graciously included us in his perfection.
Thank you, Perfect and Holy God, for including us in your perfection. Thank you that we don’t have to perfect ourselves or have perfect faith. You are the source, the author and finisher of our faith and our perfection. We trust you to finish what you have begun in us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1–3
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1–2
Is Grace Really Enough?
by Linda Rex
Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t fix things? Why doesn’t he fix this broken world? If God is such a great, awesome Being, why doesn’t he fix everything when we ask him to?
Specifically, why does God allow us to keep stumbling over and over again in the same way when we continually are asking him to help us to change and be different? Are people who are chronic sinners covered by grace or are they somehow outside the limits of grace, in some place of condemnation, headed straight for hell?
Do you ever think about questions like this? These are the tough questions of life. And there are no easy answers. It is questions like these that caused Martin Luther to walk away from Catholicism and to tack his objections on a church door. And he had good reasons for his objections. When is grace not enough? Is there a limit to grace? Is grace an umbrella under which only a few can stand and the rest (those “heathens”) are left outside?
Salvation is, as Paul wrote, not something earned, but “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). Every good and perfect gift, including grace, comes down from God and he does not change his mind.
He cannot change his mind about grace because he has committed himself unreservedly and completely to humanity in Jesus Christ. He has united his Godhead with our humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.
There is no limit to grace. God didn’t just commit part of himself to us—he committed all of himself to us by uniting himself with us in our human flesh. There is no limit to God’s grace because God didn’t take up just part of humanity in Jesus Christ, but all of humanity. As the church fathers said, what is not assumed is not healed. God’s grace is unlimited.
But what about us? Is it all up to us to receive God’s grace? What if we reject it? What if we turn away from it? What if we, even knowing the consequences, continually turn away from God’s grace or abuse it? And what if we mess up after we have put our faith in Christ? What if our best efforts at “being good” fail?
Well, this is a topic worth wrestling with. If indeed, all of humanity was taken up in Jesus in his life, death and resurrection, then he stood in our place when he obeyed John the Baptist’s call to repent and be baptized. He certainly didn’t do it on his own account—he never sinned because he was God in human flesh. He did it in our place, making the choices we should have made and should make day by day and don’t. Jesus lived the life we ought to live in relationship with God and others. He, through his life, suffering, and death, and resurrection, was humanity’s perfect response to the Father, in our place, in our stead.
Whether or not we receive and embrace the grace offered by God is bound up in Christ’s perfect response to the Father on our behalf. So what is left for us to do? All God asks is that we participate in Christ’s life, death and resurrection. This is why Christ is central to everything in our relationship with God and others. We participate in his “Yes” to God in the face of our human “No.”
The scripture says sinners will not be in the kingdom of God. For example, the apostle Paul writes that people who practice “immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing,… will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Since we as Christians have all been guilty of these things at some point just like every other human being on earth, we all stand in the same place—in need of grace. This is why Jesus stands in our place even today as our “high priest” interceding on our behalf with the Father. This is why in Romans 8:1 we read that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ.
When we realize this and embrace the gift Jesus has given us—himself in our place—we begin to experience an inner transformation. The Holy Spirit, God’s gift to us of himself to us, within us, begins to change the way we think, feel and believe.
But it does not happen all at once. And indeed, there are things that we will wrestle with throughout our life, whether physical, spiritual, mental or emotional, that God will not immediately fix or remove. Whatever the apostle Paul’s thorn in the flesh was, God didn’t fix it. Instead he used it to keep Paul dependent upon his grace. It is in our humanness and weakness that God’s power works most effectively. We always and ever participate in Christ. Our mantra must be, “not I, but Christ.”
When someone willfully sins over and over, and turns away from God’s grace—God’s grace doesn’t go away for them. It is still there. They can still participate in Jesus’ perfect response to the Father. But if in the presence of that perfect love they live in rejection of it, they will be miserable. They will suffer all the consequences of rejecting the gift God has given them by giving them himself. Because they are denying their true humanity—they are denying and rejecting themselves. They reap the consequences of that inner split. Question is—when they stand in glory and face the One, Jesus Christ, who is both the Judge and the Judged—will they be found to be in him? And that is another question worth wrestling with.
Lord, thank you for your perfect gift of grace. Thank you for the infinite measure of grace you have given us in Jesus Christ. Please grant to each of us repentance—a change of mind and heart—that will enable us to fully receive and be transformed by your gift to us of yourself. Thank you that even though we are imperfect, you have perfected us in Christ. Thank you that even though we are weak, in Christ we are strong. Thank you that even while we were yet sinners, Christ, you died for us. You are our only hope, Lord Jesus. We trust completely in you. Amen.
“Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.'” 2 Cor. 12:7–9
Where the Road Begins
by Linda Rex
Several years ago I worked caring for dependent adults at a mental health center. I was an Adult Basic Education teacher and one of my responsibilities was to provide activities for my students that were fun, challenging and educational.
One of my students’ favorite activities was to climb into the van and take a “mystery drive.” This meant that we would just start driving down the road without a particular destination in mind. The challenge would be for them to be able to figure out where we were at any given time during the trip. And the fun for them was getting out of their restricted environment and seeing something new and different.
Knowing the back roads like I did, I could point us in a particular direction and know that eventually we would end up back where we started even though we took quite a few detours along the way. I particularly enjoyed taking the students on these trips because of the joy and excitement it gave to them. The exciting chatter from the students when we came upon some eagles nesting in trees along the river or suddenly emerging into a small town through a small gravel road was worth the drive.
I often think about this whenever starting a new project or a new direction in my life. Here at the beginning of 2014, I’m expectantly looking to see what is coming. I don’t know what the year will bring, but I do know who is driving the van. I’m not sure what to expect, but I do know that Jesus in the Spirit is traveling the road with me. I’m anxious to hear his view on all that has happened in my life and will happen. For it is in Christ that it all will make sense and fulfill God’s purpose for my life. He is the one who will see that I end up wherever it is he has in mind.
I hope that you will trust God as well to lead and guide your life as we move into the New Year. I know that he has great plans for you—a hope and a future. And he promises to stay with you as you invite him to travel the road with you. It may get rough for a while but he will carry you through the tough times. And he will make it worth the trip in the end. So hang in there.
May God bless you abundantly in all your travels and may you have a blessed and joyful New Year!
Lord, I am so grateful that it is you who are driving and not me. I trust you with my life and my future. Grant me the grace to follow your Spirit wherever he leads in faith that you know what is best for me in every situation and every road my life takes. Thank you, God, for your faithful love, in Jesus. Amen.
“While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them.” Luke 24:15
The Best Gift Ever
By Linda Rex
As Moses and his people Israel stood on the shores of the Jordan River with the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness behind them and the Promised Land before them, Moses put Israel’s story down on paper.
But this wasn’t just Israel’s story. This was God’s story. And it began in Genesis with the creation of all things. Moses made it clear that God made all things out of nothing–a creaturely universe of much different material than the God-nature we know as the Father, Word and Spirit or God the Creator. And after six days of creative work, God rested. It was in this day of rest that God called us as humans into covenant relationship with himself. It was God’s joy to walk and talk with man and woman in the garden in a personal relationship of outgoing concern, love and service that was a reflection of the inner life and love of God.
But we as humans have incessantly refused to believe that God loves us and wants what is best for us. God called his people Israel into relationship with himself to rest in him so that one day all people would rest in him, but too often they turned the 7th-day reminder of that rest, the Sabbath, into a work to earn his love. They did not hear the words of Moses as he spoke of the Coming One who would save his people from their rebellion, sin and self-isolation.
But God continued to love and serve his people and to call them back into the love relationship he created them for in spite of their rejection of him. As all of humanity kept their continuous efforts in the darkness to earn the love they could not earn, the evening of God’s Sabbath rest moved towards morning.
In the midst of that deep starry night came the birth of a child–a birth so tremendous and earth-shaking that the angels lit up the night sky with glorious anthems of praise to God. Through the Holy Spirit, God as the Word entered human flesh–not as some kingly ruler but as a small child of humble means.
The shepherds bore witness to this angelic event and to the birth of the Messiah. Now the Sabbath had truly dawned in the birth of the Messiah! Here in the person of Jesus, all the hopes and dreams of all mankind are found, for God has come to be with us in a real way. God in human flesh–bringing to us a new day–through his life, death and resurrection. Through the Spirit we each participate in Christ in a real personal relationship with God. We can truly rest in him. He has become our Sabbath rest—we can truly have an intimate relationship with God in Christ through the Spirit.
A new day dawned in our Savior when he rose from the grave after his crucifixion. In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, every human being has entered a new day—the Lord’s Day. In this day, we all are offered the gift of new life in Christ. The old has gone and the new has come. We are included in his life, death and resurrection because he became human like us, bore all our human weaknesses and sins and failures, our self-isolation and rebellion, and purified it with his divine presence, with his life, death and resurrection.
This gift is for every man, woman and child. God is calling each and everyone to rest in Christ. Come, walk in the garden daily with the Lord of your life. Have an eternal relationship of love and grace with the One who knows you intimately and loves you completely. You are forgiven. You are loved. You are his. Receive this Christmas gift with open arms and open hearts. It is yours, forever.
May God pour over you all his blessings in Christ Jesus this Christmas and throughout the New Year!
Dear God, thank you for the great love you showered upon us through the birth, the life, death and resurrection of the Word, Jesus Christ. What a gift you have given! We receive it by your Spirit in deep gratitude, and we praise you for it! Emmanuel—God with us! Thank you so much! Amen.
“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:21-23
Gratefully Yours
by Linda Rex
Note to self: Shop for Thanksgiving before Halloween, not after.
I was rather frustrated this year when I found that the Halloween items took precedence over the Thanksgiving items at the store. In fact, once Halloween was over, it was next to impossible to find any Thanksgiving, fall or harvest decoration and gift items to buy. I had assumed (wrongly) that they would stay on the shelf until Thanksgiving. But apparently they only stay until Halloween is over and then it’s time for Christmas.
I forget sometimes how our mercantile system drives our culture, especially when it comes to our celebration of our holidays. I’m happy to have access to so many fun things to celebrate with, but it is obvious that our culture has moved beyond the Judeo-Christian basis for its holidays.
Whether or not one is a Christian, there is always a place for gratitude in one’s life. Gratitude is a way of thinking and living that genuinely appreciates the little and big things of life as gifts. It is a way of being thankful for the people and relationships and blessings that come to us everyday unbidden and unsought—the air we breathe, a beautiful sunset, dear friends and family, a newborn baby.
When we lose our appreciation for these things that come into our life with or without our effort, we may become calloused, cold, and cynical. Nothing is ever enough for us—we will always need or want more. We can become sad, depressed and overwhelmed by all the negative stuff in life.
Gratitude in some ways is a discipline—a choice in how we approach life and the events we encounter day by day. When we make the effort to pause and be grateful for what we have and share it with others, we begin to have a more positive attitude and spirit with which to approach life.
Our gratitude and appreciation for all the good things of life, in my view, merely points to the reality that we have been given life, breathe, all the resources we need to be alive and to live blessed because of God’s grace. We can believe that God does not exist, but the truth is, we would not exist if it weren’t for his kindness and mercy in sustaining what he created.
And that wasn’t good enough for God—just giving us life and breath and food and things we could do. He wanted a relationship with us as well—so he came to our universe, to our earth to live as one of us. He forged a permanent bond with us in Jesus Christ—living a perfect life we could participate in, dying our death so we could live with him forever, bringing us into the presence of God so we could be in relationship with the Creator our Redeemer forever.
To me, that gives us every reason to celebrate not just once a year, but every day, with gratitude.
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! May God bless you abundantly each and every day throughout this holiday season!
Lord, I give you thanks for all the wonderful people and blessings you have poured into my life. I pray you will watch over each of those who are reading this and bless them in every way. Let them feel your presence and peace in a deep way so they may be able to endure whatever hardships they are facing or struggling with. Thank you for your faithful love shown to us in Jesus. Amen.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.” Psalm 136:1
Intercellular Living
by Linda Rex
One of the most difficult ministry experiences I’ve had recently has been to be with members of my congregations as they go through the process of watching a loved one die of cancer. The strength they show in fighting this awful disease, dealing with the heartbreak and loss, and rebuilding after loss has been awesome and is a testimony to the grace and power of God. Losing a loved one is devastating, but it seems even more so when a family has to watch the loved one suffer and die slowly and progressively, whether from cancer or any other long-term disease.
Cancer, specifically, is so destructive to the human body because the building blocks of the body—the cells—turn into something they were never meant to be and subsequently attack the body they are a part of and are meant to help build up and sustain.
According to Wikipedia, cancer can occur when there is a loss of cell to cell interaction. When proper contact with neighboring cells is prevented from happening, cells become stunted and begin to collect into tumors and the unhealthy cells spread into other organs and places in the body. As the cancer continues it eventually spreads into the blood stream and lymph system and is carried throughout the body. And in time, and often after much suffering, the body dies. 1
Death, of course, happens to each of us at some point in our lives. It is inevitable. But I don’t believe God ever intended any of us to have go through the suffering and horror of cancer.
Yet it happens. It happens because we are frail and flawed human beings and we live in a broken world. It happens because we attempt to step away from and live apart from the God who designed and made us and the world we live in.
Thankfully, this life is not the end—God never meant it to be. He always meant for us to live in eternity with him in glorified human bodies which are strong, beautiful and whole, and in relationships with him and one another that are healthy and intricately intertwined by love and grace through Christ in the Spirit—just like the intricately intertwined relations of the cells in a healthy human body.
Even though the apostle Paul probably did not know what a cell was, his description of human interaction in the body of Christ reflects the truth of how we have been intertwined together by the Holy Spirit into one body in Christ. When we lose healthy interaction with one another, we begin to destroy one another instead of building one another up. When we believe things that are not true about God, about ourselves and others and act on those beliefs, we begin to destroy not only ourselves, but the body of Christ as a whole. This is also just as true in our communities, our state, nation and the world.
Even though we often try to live like it isn’t true, none of us exists apart from someone else. We were created to live in loving relationship with the Creator and one another. We were designed to exist in intricately woven webs of relationships which require healthy interaction and reciprocal caring in order to function in the best way possible.
We were each created uniquely, not so that we would be separate from one another, but so that we would all fit together into a united, well-coordinated whole—a body. This body’s life was given to us in Jesus Christ and has its source in the Holy Spirit.
Because there is one Spirit manifested in many ways, we are each unique and yet one. Just as a blood cell is not the same as a brain cell or a skin cell, none of us are the same. But the human body would not be what it should be if it did not have all three and every other different type of cell it needs to be whole and well.
When a person lives in a way that is contrary to their design by God, when they are abusive, selfish, fearful, hurtful to others, then they are like a stunted cancer cell. Such a person influences, affects, harms other people around them who in turn harm, wound and corrupt others—just as cancer cells metastasize and spread.
When society, culture, cities, nations, organizations, and churches become twisted and unhealthy, it is because the individuals within have lost their center in Jesus Christ. They are living out of their human brokenness instead of in the Spirit of life as God originally created them to live—in healthy relationship with God and one another. A cancer is created that in time, if unchecked, destroys families, churches, communities, organizations, cities, and nations.
So is cancer inevitable? Will cancer always win? Where’s the hope in this?
Our only hope is what it always has been from the beginning—in the God who loves us so much that he came himself in the Word, took on our human flesh and cleansed and healed it with his own divine Presence. Jesus Christ is the answer because he is the whole, cleansed and purified human we were all meant to be. He lived the life we were meant to live, suffered our pains, died our broken death and rose from the grave. He took our human flesh into the presence of God and gave us the gift of his blessed Presence in the Holy Spirit so that we could be regenerated or made new.
In Jesus Christ, every broken, cancerous cell in the human body, both individually and collectively, has been healed, cleansed and restored. God has declared us to be whole and well. He is offering to you and to me life in Jesus Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit. When we receive and embrace this, believing this truth and living accordingly, our hearts, minds and lives will be healed and transformed.
The corrupting cancers of sin, self and Satan have been neutralized and transformed by the healing Presence of the life-giving Spirit in Christ. Death has been defeated. Jesus triumphed over the cancers of evil, sickness and death. They can only make a big noise, bluster and try to cause pain, fear and suffering and to destroy our faith. But they have no power over us any longer. One day they will be only a forgotten memory. In the presence of the Living God they are nothing but a moment in the eternity of his Love.
As we embrace new life in Christ and live in the intimate fellowship with God and each other we were created for, the cancers of sin, self and Satan will be supplanted by spiritual, mental, emotional and social wholeness and health.
Sometimes it is a battle. Just as we battle cancer of the human body with every possible instrument we have available to us, we battle these cancers of the spirit with the divine weapons of the Holy Spirit—receiving God’s gift of salvation, trusting in Christ’s righteousness, and believing and living in the Spirit of truth and the Word of God. We use divine methods of treatment, but we do this in Christ. He is our life. He is our breath. He is the One who lives the life we seek to live.
It is the Presence of the living Word within, the Holy Spirit, who reminds us we are God’s beloved children and who guides us and teaches us how to live in healthy relationship with God and others. As we listen to him and grow up in this divine Life, we become a healthy part of the body of Christ, of our family, our community, our state, nation and world. Our true value and worth can begin to be seen and contributed to the whole. And this is what God created us to be in our own uniqueness and giftedness. This is the intercellular life God designed us to have from, with and in him forever. This is worth living and dying for.
Almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth and all that is in them, thank you. Thank you for life and breath, for all that you give us each and every day. Holy, Eternal Father, we believe in and embrace the gift of new life you have made possible for us in the life, death and resurrection of your precious Son Jesus Christ. Thank you for giving us new life even now in Christ by your Holy Spirit, your Presence within. Dear Jesus, we acknowledge you as our Lord as you are our Savior—we commit ourselves to live not in ourselves and our sin and brokenness, our guilt and shame, but in the forgiveness, healing and wholeness we have been given in you. Be our life, be our breath, our healing, health and wholeness. Almighty God, in your One Name as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:3-5
1 “Cell–cell interaction”, “Metastasis”, “Metaplasia”, “Dysplasia”, “Anaplasia”, Wikipedia.com. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell-cell_interaction (Accessed 11/22/13).
The Out Loud Word
by Linda Rex
It’s come to my mind quite often lately how much I have taken for granted the gift of being able to read, and to read quickly and with comprehension.
I go places and find that I have to be able to read the signs to know where to go and where not to go, how fast to go, what street I need to turn at, and so on. I walk into the store and find I have to be able to read the labels to make sure I’m buying the right thing.
The blessing of reading, by necessity, includes the blessing of sight, unless a person learns to read Braille. Someone was telling me the other day about a man who was more or less blind and who, because he couldn’t see to read the labels on the cans at the store, had eaten dog food for years. That seems like a stretch to me, but who am I to say any different? I just realized, though, what a blessing it was to be able to see and to read.
I have been finding also when leading worship in my congregations, that I must never take it for granted that the people who come to church have a Bible, or if they have one, that they are able to read it. We want all people to participate with us in the learning and understanding of God’s Word as they grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ. So the Apostle Paul’s encouragement to Timothy to not neglect the public reading of scripture is just as relevant to us today as it was then. This is why we read the Scriptures out loud during our worship services and in our study groups.
It is easy to ignore or neglect the reading of Scripture. It can be a chore we’d rather avoid. But if we feel we’ve read the Scriptures and we know everything that’s in the Bible, then we most likely are merely reading the Scriptures for information. It is no wonder that it is meaningless, boring and empty reading to us. But if and when we have entered into a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ, we are able to read the Scriptures in a whole new way.
We are able to read them as God’s Word to us both collectively and personally. We can begin to seek Jesus Christ in the midst of them. Before we begin to read, we say, “Lord, what do you have to say to me today?” We invite the Holy Spirit to open our minds and hearts to receive whatever it is God would like to say to us in that moment. We ask Jesus by his Spirit to live out in us what we hear in his Word.
It is often in the hearing as well as reading of the Word of God that conviction occurs and life-change begins. The Spirit of God goes to work when the Word of God is read, whether silently, or out loud. We continue in the reading of the Word of God day by day for God’s Word to us is made new to us moment by moment in our relationship with Jesus Christ in the Spirit.
Thank you, Father, for giving us the Living Word, Jesus Christ, who came for us in our place to live out our perfect life in his human flesh and who comes to us in the written Word by your Holy Spirit. Give us a holy hunger for your Word and may your Word transform us as we read and hear it each and every day. In Jesus name by your Holy Spirit we pray. Amen.
“Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.” 1 Timothy 4:13 (NLT)
Canine Lessons on Living in Fellowship
by Linda Rex
I hate it when the dog is right and I’m wrong.
This afternoon she sat on the floor next to me, periodically bumping my elbow with her nose. With every bump the mouse jerked and I had to reorient the cursor on the screen. I was frantically trying to finish the last few touches on a PowerPoint presentation for Sunday and didn’t want to quit right yet. And she wasn’t exactly being very helpful.
Bump. “Just a minute. I’m coming.” I gave her a pat on the head and told her what a good dog she was. Bump, bump.
She’s really a patient pooch for the most part. This meant it was important that I get done and let her out the door. “All right! … I’m sorry—I’m going as fast as I can!” Bump.
Silly dog. I realized that indeed the project could wait a few minutes while I tended to the needs of someone other than myself. So I stopped where I was, put my shoes and jacket on, and took her out. As I was waiting for her outside, I heard myself urging her to hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!
And then I started laughing. Because if I didn’t know any better, I’d have to say that she was being pokey on purpose just to show me! She had to wait on me, so why shouldn’t I have to wait on her? As she curled up in the grass in the sunshine for a moment, I just had to laugh.
It’s funny how the simplest things in life are opportunities for God to teach us how to live in fellowship and communion with one another. Something as simple as the Golden Rule and treating others the way we would like to be treated can be easily swept aside when we lose our focus on what really matters—our relationships with God and each other.
Thankfully, if we pay attention, God can draw us right back into holy fellowship with himself and others. All we need to do is to agree with him that we have momentarily lost our way and thank him for his gracious forgiveness and for helping us get reoriented once again. And, if you are blessed like I am, we can also thank him for the pooches he sends our way to remind us of what really matters.
Lord, thank you for the lessons you send us each day, even through the animals and nature that we share our life in you with. Give us open and alert minds and hearts so we can hear and see what you wish to say to us, and grant us the hearts to always treat others as we wish to be treated. In your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen.
“Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.” Luke 6:31
When Life is Too Tough
by Linda Rex
I was reading a local paper today and noticed that one of the columns was an anonymous contribution in which the author memorialized a brother she had recently lost. She told stories of how her brother had quietly gone about helping her and helping others. It was obvious from what she had written that her brother had had a heart of gold.
I think sometimes we focus so much on what people say and do that we forget to look at their heart. A person’s heart may be in the right place, but all we can see is what they did or say that was wrong or hurtful. We take their words or efforts totally wrong and get offended or are hurt when really they never meant us any harm at all. In fact, they probably were probably clueless about having done or said anything amiss.
What can make a difference here is how well we know the person. How well we know them can determine how well we understand their motives and their heart. When we know someone really well and have seen over time that their heart toward us is good and that they only mean us well, then our response to them will mostly likely be positive and welcoming.
But if we really don’t know them to the point that we feel we can trust their heart toward us and that we’re pretty sure they only mean us well, we can become extremely self-protective and begin to impute false and hurtful motives or unjustly criticize their words and actions toward us.
When life gets tough and we aren’t receiving any positive answers to our prayers, it is easy to get in the frame of mind where we begin to question God’s motives, thinking he means us ill or doesn’t care about us at all. We question God’s heart—because we don’t know him well enough.
It takes time and effort to build a relationship with God. As we walk along life’s road with God we gain experience in recognizing God and seeing his heart towards us is always and ever good. We grow in our knowledge of God—not just about him, but knowing him as an intimate Father, Brother, Friend, and Companion.
It takes going through the ups and downs of life with God to help us to come to know him intimately, and to learn that his heart towards us is always and ever good. He never means us ill. Even when he has to deal with sin in our lives and life gets too tough, his love never fails.
It is God’s heart to draw us into intimate fellowship with him through Christ by the Spirit. God is working to eradicate or remove anything that may come between us and him, and to drive out the evil and sin that seeks to separate us from him. God will not stop until we truly know him for who he is—Love, a divine Love who is always looking out for our best interests. This is his heart toward us. We can trust him completely.
Dear God, thank you for being so gracious to us when we do not understand or recognize the love and tenderness that are in your heart toward us. Continue to draw us near to you that we might be transformed by your love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
“Then they will know that I am the LORD.” Ezekiel 29:6b, 9b, 16b, 21b. (NAS)
Divine Brotherhood
by Linda Rex
Attending my first family reunion when I was a young teen was an eye opener for me. As one of three siblings, I had rarely ever seen or been around any of my cousins, aunts and uncles or grandparents. I remember sitting in a restaurant back east in Pennsylvania and being amazed at the number of people I was related to. Some of them I recognized from having met them earlier in my life or from having seen their picture. But the majority of them I didn’t know. And yet I was related to all of them by birth or by marriage. It was hard to get my mind around.
But there is another extended family scene that still sticks out in my mind as well. I was at a fall festival in Squaw Valley, California, sitting in the nosebleed section of the ice arena, listening to a minister preach to thousands of us who had gathered there to worship God. I was overwhelmed at that particular moment by a sense of the unity of the Spirit among all of us as believers. We were each unique, with our own lives, families, jobs, and all, and yet, here we were, joined together in the Spirit, worshiping God as one. We were a spiritual family.
One of the blessings of understanding the unique nature of the God we worship is that we can know him as the God who exists in an eternal fellowship or communion of Father, Son, and Spirit. As God, he has a Oneness that cannot be separated, yet at the same time he is in an eternal relationship of love. Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.” He said that when he returned to his Father, he would send “another Helper” like himself, the Holy Spirit. We don’t understand the mystery that is God, but we do know that he has invited us to share in his love and life through Jesus Christ in the Spirit.
This was God’s plan from the beginning—that we would share in the divine life and love. He did this by giving us an “Elder Brother”, Jesus Christ the Lord. We are not called to become gods as God is God, because we will for all eternity still be his creatures while he will forever be our Creator. We are yet human and will be human (glorified human) for all eternity. It is just that the Word became human like us to purify our human flesh and to give us eternal life in him, so that we can share eternity with God. We can live with him and in him in an intimate relationship forever. We can share in the divine fellowship. Jesus became our brother, so that we would be God’s adopted children (only Jesus is the eternally begotten Son).
Not only are we joined now with God through Christ in the Spirit, but we are also joined with one another. Because Christ lived and died for all human flesh, not just certain ones, there is a place for you and me at the table of fellowship with the Father, Son and Spirit and with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers—he is one of us (while at the same time being God) and embraces each of us as a brother and sister in him, because he became for us all that we need to be to participate in the life and love of God.
This means that because of what Jesus Christ did in his life, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension, we are now invited to participate in an eternal family reunion where we are included forever in a relationship with God and each other that God intended since before the beginning of time. God has opened wide heaven’s door and is beckoning—“Come on in! There is a place for you, right over there! I saved it just for you!” We can live as part of his family right now by embracing the truth about who we are, who he has said we are and will be—his very own children. We are included. We are loved. This is the true reality, no matter what or who may tell us otherwise.
Holy God, thank you for your heavenly invitation. Thank you, Father, for planning this out and working out your plan so that we each have a place at your table in Jesus. May your Spirit bear witness with our Spirit that we are indeed your children and fully related to one another in Christ. Thank you for making us all one in him. In his name, we pray. Amen.
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Romans 8:29
Our Life in the Trinity 