Son of God
Light in the Lord
by Linda Rex
March 19, 2023, 4th Sunday in Preparation for Easter or Lent—Last Friday, like many others here in middle Tennessee, I found nighttime approaching and was unable to turn any lights on. With the power out for several hours, I had given up on trying to use the laptop and phone, wanting to save my limited battery power for emergencies. I began to bring out my old candles, and after lighting several of them, their warm glow filled the rooms in my home. It was good to be able to see, to chase away the darkness with a small bit of light.
The apostle John has a lot to say about light and darkness in his gospel and epistle. In the gospel story for this Sunday, John 9:1-41, a man who was born blind encountered Jesus. Jesus told this man, who had spent much of his life as a beggar and dependent upon others, to go to the pool of Siloam and to wash off the clay Jesus had spit on and placed upon his eyes. And he did.
On his way back from the pool, the man who had been blind encountered people who were shocked by the realization that the blind beggar they had seen every day in the temple was now able to see. This was an impossibility!
The people brought him to the Pharisees, who focused on Jesus’ “sin”, that he was a sinner in their eyes, rather than on the miracle of how Jesus had brought light into the blind man’s darkness, changing his life forever. To them, what was more shocking than the blind man’s healing was that Jesus had done something considered sinful—made clay with spit and dirt—on the Sabbath day, and even so, this man was healed.
Thankfully, the man who was born blind was not blinded by the same prejudice or pride which dominated these leaders. He was able to see what the religious leaders were unwilling to see—that Jesus was the Son of Man, the Son of God, the One who was his Lord and Savior. He believed, and his life was never the same again. The light which entered his eyes was eclipsed by the divine Light which entered his being and brought him to his knees in worship of Jesus.
The apostle Paul, in Ephesians 5:8-14, tells us we are “Light in the Lord” and because that is true, we are to “walk as children of Light.” There is a difference between a life walked in Light and a life walked in darkness—the difference has to do with who we fellowship with and what we participate in. We may fellowship with the evil one or fellowship with Jesus Christ. We can participate in the things which are “deeds of darkness”, like the people in John’s story, who chose unbelief, dishonesty, arrogance and pride. Or we can participate in what Jesus is doing, through humility, repentance and faith, thereby bringing healing, reconciliation, and renewal to a broken and sinful world by allowing the Light to live in us and through us by the Holy Spirit.
It all begins with a person—the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who is the Light of the world. In Jesus and by the Spirit, we have been given fellowship with the Maker and Sustainer of the cosmos and all that is in it. We can participate in what Father, Son, and Spirit are doing in this cosmos, or we can participate in what the darkness—the evil one—is doing. Who we fellowship with and what we participate in is evidenced in how we live our lives day by day, and whether the result is life-giving or ends in death.
Today, this day, where are your steps taking you? Are you tired of wandering about in the darkness? Do you realize that no matter where you are or what you are doing, the Light of God shines on you, in you, and through you because of Jesus and the Holy Spirit? Do you hear Jesus’ call to be washed anew in his rivers of living water, to be bathed in his wonderful light, and to turn again back into face-to-face relationship with Father, Son, and Spirit?
Lord, you are the Light of the world. I don’t want to walk in darkness, but in your marvelous light, now and forever. Wash me anew in your living streams, that I may ever reflect your glory and goodness, in your name, Jesus. Amen.
“… for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, ‘Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ ” Ephesians 5:8–14 NASB
[Printable copy: https://newhope4me.files.wordpress.com/2023/03/olitlight-in-the-lord.pdf ]
[More devotionals may be found at https://lifeinthetrinity.blog ]
[Subscribe to Our Life in the Trinity YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@ourlifeinthetrinity ]
Go and Do the Same
By Linda Rex
July 10, 2022, PROPER 10—This blazing hot summer weather here in Tennessee has driven a colony of tiny black ants into my kitchen looking for water and food. On the one hand, it is fascinating to see how busy and diligent they are in their daily business, but on the other rather irritating that I can’t seem to get them to change their mind about being in my house.
So often we find ourselves like the ants, diligently going about our daily business of life, while we don’t seem to realize the difficulties we are creating for others in our lives. We, as humans made to reflect the image of God, are meant to love God with all our being and to love others as we love ourselves. When we don’t do this and it is brought to our attention, our first instinct is to self-justify—to make excuses for or rationalize away our behavior.
It is amazing to what extent I can go in my own effort to justify things I’ve said or done that have caused harm to others. What is especially amazing is how we can even use our efforts to do good or to serve God as an excuse for unacceptable behavior or neglect. Sometimes our efforts at self-justification are so effective, we don’t even see this is what we are doing. What we need is a mirror to show us the truth about ourselves. But would we even accept the truth if we saw it?
The question that the lawyer asks in the gospel story for this Sunday, Luke 10:25–37, is a very good one. But it most certainly exposed the truth as to the lawyer’s stubborn resistance to loving all others, no matter whom they might be. “Who is my neighbor?” is a question that when honestly asked of ourselves, exposes our prejudices and our preferences, and opens us up to the possibility that we may need to repent or turn away from our own self-centeredness.
What about the man in Jesus’ story, who laid beaten, rejected, left for dead by the side of the road? Isn’t that the way Jesus ended up at the hands of those he came to save? Do we understand first of all that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Word of God, who came into our sphere of existence to live as one of us? Indeed, Jesus became a brother to every one of us, making himself our kinsman-redeemer, willing to suffer and die at the hands of those he created and made so that we might be welcomed home to the Father in the Spirit.
Taking this a bit farther, we find in this story that the Samaritan—the one who is considered an outcast and a heathen—is the only one who stops to join with the fallen traveler who laid dying by the side of the road. Our participation in Christ’s death and resurrection necessitates us accepting our own reality—that we are the outcasts, and that we participate in Christ’s death and resurrection, the only place where we find redemption, restoration and renewal.
When we find ourselves exposed as being unloving and inhumane, self-justifying may seem the easiest and most convenient response. It sure seems to come naturally to us. But its consequences are often bitter, eternal, and not easily remedied. A much more difficult and often painful, but significantly more appropriate and redeeming response, is to speak the truth in love, to confess what we actually did say, think or do, and to receive the grace we need, and to accept the challenge to make amends as is appropriate.
Why is it so difficult for us to be honest about our failures to love? Perhaps it is because we forget that confession and truth-telling are things that we do “in Christ”. It’s all of grace. It’s all an inclusion in what Christ did in sharing in our human flesh and bringing us through his death into resurrection and ascension. It is his confession and truth-telling as to the truth of who we are as God’s beloved children, forgiven and accepted, that we participate in—allowing ourselves to be exposed fully and yet at the same time being held in the midst of Christ’s love and grace.
When Jesus asked the lawyer which of the three men in his story proved to be a neighbor to the wounded traveler, it is interesting that the lawyer could not bring himself to even say the name Samaritan. He bypassed this name and said instead, “the one who showed him mercy.” It must have burned his heart and mind to have to admit that someone so despised and rejected might possibly have done what he knew in his spirit he might not have done had he been in the same circumstance.
Christ was willing to pay the ultimate price for our healing, health, and wholeness so that we, through him, could live in intimate relationship with the Father in the Spirit. Like the Samaritan who told the innkeeper to do whatever was needed and to charge it to his account, Jesus has done all that was needed for each of us to find healing and wholeness, and continues to stand in our place, interceding for us in each moment in our relationship with the Father in the Spirit.
How beautiful is Jesus’ simple command, “Go and do the same”! If showing mercy is God’s way of being, and he has expressed that to us in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and gives us his Spirit so Christ’s life may find its full expression in and through us, then we are to be people of mercy just as God is merciful. Our acts of mercy come out of God’s heart poured into ours by the Spirit, and are not limited by any of the distinctions we tend to put upon our interactions with others. As the apostle Paul wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28 NASB).
This is a challenge for us as followers of Christ. Do we make room for those who don’t know Christ to come to know him and to grow in their relationship with God? Do we make room for people to be who they are, while inviting them to become all God created them to be? This is where love becomes a decision, a choice—an action of our will by the power of the Holy Spirit. To “go and do the same” is to walk in the path Jesus forged for us and gives us by his Spirit. May we bravely and courageously love as he first loved us.
Dear Father, thank you for loving us in spite of all our ugliness and willfulness, and our petty grievances against one another. Thank you for your forgiveness—we desperately need it and receive it humbly and gratefully. Grant us the grace to love others as you have first loved us, for Christ’s sake and by your Spirit. Amen.
“And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ And He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?’ And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”’ And He said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; “Do this and you will live.”’ But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ Jesus replied and said, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, “Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.” Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?’ And he said, ‘The one who showed mercy toward him.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do the same.’” Luke 10:25–37 NASB
[Printable copy: https://newhope4me.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/go-and-do-the-sameb.pdf ]
Life in a Watered Garden
By Linda Rex
January 2, 2022, 2nd Sunday in Christmas—It’s hard to believe that we are beginning a new year again. It seems like just yesterday I was giving thought to what another year might hold, and was pondering what God might have in mind for all of us. Looking back, I am amazed at all that has been written on these pages we call life. So many joys. So many sorrows. So much loss, and yet, so many gifts of grace. So much faith, hope, and love expressed in our world, in ways which have yet to provide full results. And now, looking forward, there is a new blank journal waiting to be written in. What will this new year bring?
I imagine the wonder that Mary felt holding her baby Jesus for the first time. She had no idea what the future held for her, Joseph and the baby. She had no idea that soon she would be visited by dignitaries from the east bringing her magnificent gifts for her son. It never occurred to her that she would end up in Egypt, hiding from King Herod as a result of this visit. Nor did she realize that eventually she would end up in Nazareth, raising a craftsman’s son, who would be rejected by the people he came to save.
What God envisions for us is so often much greater and more involved than what we envision for ourselves. We see a simple path to our dreams or a path full of obstacles, while God sees a bright future with the bumps and bruises we will experience because of the choices we and others will make along the way. It’s possible that we might see a little into our future, but what God sees is what he envisioned for us before any of this was created. He “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,” the apostle Paul wrote, “that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:4–6 NASB).
What God had in mind is evident by how he placed those he created into a watered garden—the garden of Eden. He meant for us to live in this wonderful place of abundance, of joyful relationship with himself, and of meaningful labor and pleasant companionship. How is it that we chose instead a place full of thorns and thistles, of painful labor and heavy toil? Often, what God has in mind for us is so much more than what we choose for ourselves!
But God has always intended our lives to be like watered gardens—a place where we are nourished and blessed by his presence and love. So even before he created us and our world, he committed himself to do everything that would be needed to bring us to that place. First in the garden of Eden, as he walked and talked with Adam and Eve. Then, working with human beings over the millennia, building relationships, working with nations and people to accomplish his divine purpose.
And then he came himself as the Word of God, to take on our human flesh—to go all the way into our human experience, all the way through death to resurrection, in order to bring us into a new place where we could participate with the Son of God in his perfect loving relationship with his Father in the Spirit. The Word of God in human flesh—this was the will of God for you and me, planned and executed—the perfection of the divine life and love to be shared with those God had made. This redemption and ransom of his creation was planned all along—but none of us really came close to understanding it or seeing it until Jesus came and revealed the Father to us and send the Spirit to open our hearts and minds.
As Mary held her baby that holy night, all of this was held in abeyance—God’s plans for the precious infant were beyond those parents’ expectations or comprehension. Letting the infant Jesus wrap his tiny fingers around her own, Mary no doubt felt a deep affection for him, and maybe even an even greater awe at the miracle which had just occurred. God does amazing things when we simply offer ourselves to him in trusting obedience to his will and purposes in this world. But Mary did not grasp the magnitude of what lay in store for this little One.
Over and over, throughout his life here on earth, Mary came face to face with the reality of who her son was—God in human flesh. We read that she would ponder these things in her heart—thinking through what she heard and saw within the context of what she had been told about Jesus before he was born. As Jesus grew up and began to live into his identity as the Son of God and Son of Man, Mary reflected on all that she knew to be true about him. In the end, she came to believe, to put her faith in Christ as her Lord and Savior.
As we face a new year with infinite possibilities, we have the opportunity to pause and give some thought as to what God may have in mind for us as we move forward. Rather than deciding for ourselves what our goals for the next year may be or what our New Year’s resolutions will be, perhaps we could take some time to ask God what he would like to do with our life. What does God have in mind for us in 2022? Does he have a special word for us for this New Year? Is there something new he would like to do in our life this New Year?
In all of our ponderings, we can be encouraged by reflecting on the reality that God has placed us through Jesus in a watered garden. He has given us truth and grace in his Son Jesus, freeing us to live in relationship with God now and forever, as we open ourselves up to the free flow of the water of his Spirit immersing us in his life and love. All of life is lived in Christ now, and can be experienced as constant companionship with the Creator and Sustainer of all. God walks with us and talks with us by his Spirit and his Word, as we turn to Christ in faith. The New Year is full of infinite possibilities and bright hope because we rejoice and dance together in the watered garden of God’s love and life even now through Christ in the Spirit.
Heavenly Father, thank you for planning so much more for us than we could ever plan for ourselves! Thank you for including us in your life and love. Please show us what you have in mind for us this New Year. What would you like to do? How would you have us join in with your divine dance? Do as you will with us in 2022 and beyond, through Jesus our Lord and by your Spirit. Amen.
“ ‘For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, and they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD—over the grain and the new wine and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; and their life will be like a watered garden, and they will never languish again. Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together, for I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow. I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness,’ declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 31:(7–14) 11–14 NASB
“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, ‘This was He of whom I said, “He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.”’ For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” John 1:10–18 NASB
Our Response to God’s Overflowing Benefits
by Linda Rex
As I was looking at some scriptures this morning, I was struck by the way the psalmists often remind us to not forget God’s benefits. It got me to asking myself how many benefits are out there for us we are not even aware of, and are we even enjoying the benefits God offers to us each and every day?
Even though I work full-time hours as a pastor, I also work part time for another organization. One of the things I do at my other job is to help sign people up for benefits. These benefits are determined by the organization, and people are eligible for them if they meet certain criteria such as working the equivalent of 30-40 hours a week.
It is important for me to determine whether or not someone who is eligible for certain benefits has actually signed up for them and is receiving them like they should. There may be some really good benefits they could be receiving, but they might not even know those benefits are available to them or that they qualify for them.
Now in the working world, benefits can be things the employer pays for, but they can also be things we pay for. But God’s benefits to us are freely given to us by him. Any cost incurred was paid in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of his own Son Jesus Christ. We don’t owe him anything for these benefits other than gratitude, a gratitude which expresses itself by living in loving relationship with God and others.
So what are some of God’s free benefits? The most significant and life-transforming benefit God gives us is eternal life—a knowing and being known at an intimate level both now and for all eternity by God, because of God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ, and his gift to us of his Spirit. God through Jesus and by the Spirit intervenes in our human existence and brings redemption, healing, renewal and abundant living. God’s benefits also include a deep and abiding love and compassion, and personal participation of Christ by the Spirit with us, in the midst of our suffering and daily struggles.
So, this begs a question: Do we have to sign up for these benefits in order to receive them? What if we don’t even know about these benefits? Does this mean we never receive them at all—we’re just out of luck—too bad, so sad?
The truth is, God’s giving of his benefits to us as his creatures, made in his image, is a freely given gift. God gives us all of his benefits, not because we deserve them, or we have earned them, but merely out of the abundance of his great love. He is the Benefit-giving God. It is his nature to be beneficent.
Considering all God has provided for us not only in this amazing cosmos we live in and earth we live on, but also in all he has given us in sending his Son and giving us his Spirit, we are really overflowing each moment with benefits. It may feel like our world is falling apart, or God is indifferent to our existence, but the truth is, we are held in the midst of his love and grace, and we are abundantly blessed with his benefits.
These benefits are ours just because we are God’s creatures, his beloved and redeemed children. The thing is, we have an extremely difficult time participating in and enjoying these benefits when we either don’t know about them, don’t recognize them, or refuse to embrace and receive them as a free gift from the Giver of all Benefits.
We may think we need to sign up for them in order to have them, but the reality is—they belong to us already. How we participate in, enjoy and experience these benefits has more to do with our relationship with the Benefit-Giver than in our experience of the benefits themselves or our need to do something to enjoy them. When we turn to Christ in faith, we find our eyes and hearts opened to the deeper reality of an immense array of benefits at our disposal, many of which we didn’t know existed or thought were worthless.
And God is not expecting us to pay him back for the benefits he gives us. Rather, he is inviting us to turn away from ourselves, and all our other loyalties, and to turn back to him in face-to-face relationship so we can experience the fullness of his benefits. He’s offering us what the deepest longings of our hearts cry out for—to be truly and deeply known and loved. And this comes as a free gift to us—something he has already paid the price for.
This leaves us with only one thing to do—to give thanks! And we do this out of a heart overflowing with gratitude for all God’s goodness, grace and love. Yes, there will be times when we lose sight of all God has done and is doing because life is such a struggle or so distracting. But even then, God will remind once again to live gratefully by sending his Spirit to whisper his Word into our heart: the echoes of the psalmist’s song, “forget none of His benefits.”
Abba, thank you for all your overwhelming abundance of benefits which you pour out to us moment by moment, day by day. You are so generous to us! May your Spirit ever remind us when we forget of all the benefits which are ours, and grant us the grace to live gratefully in response, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. Psalm 103:1–5 NASB
Living in the Breath
by Linda Rex
I love it when I drive home from East Nashville and there is a sky full of puffy clouds just starting to glisten with colors from the sun setting in the background. Every time I see the sky, it looks different, and as an artist, I am always amazed by how creative God is as he paints the sky with clouds and color.
Is it possible that our God spends each moment making our world a beautiful and stunning work of art, using all the elements he put into motion millennia ago? What if he intentionally breathes into our world each moment, bringing into our existence his new life in some new form or fashion? What if, while his mercies are new every morning, so are his sky, his clouds, and the breathing of his breath of life on all he has made?
Before Jesus came, it seemed the Spirit’s active intervention in human affairs was only in inspiring particular prophets, priests and kings to do a specific work in preparation for the coming Messiah. But the silent, unobtrusive, self-effacing Spirit was also holding all things together, even though humanity had chosen the path for all things to return to the nothingness from which they had been made.
During the long history of the nation of Israel, God was known as the Helper of Israel (Psa. 146; Isa. 41) In the coming of the Son of God into human flesh, we find Israel’s Helper is present and real here on the earth in Jesus Christ. He lived, died and rose again, and in the ascension which we celebrated last Sunday, we find Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, with all humanity—even all things—reconciled to God in him. Our Helper is the Living Lord Jesus Christ, who is always at work in this world and in our lives and hearts.
The apostle John shares in his epistle: “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). There is an Intercessor present with the Father, intervening for us moment by moment in every situation and circumstance. There is no reason any of us should fear coming before God and sharing ourselves fully with him, even if we have fallen short in some way. We can trust Jesus Christ is praying for us, interceding for us, and helping us no matter how bleak things may look to us at the time.
Here we see the amazing goodness and love of God at work. It was not enough that he would give us his own beloved Son in this way, to help us and to intercede for us. But he also gave us Someone who would be even more intimately involved in our world, our lives, and even in our very being.
Jesus said before he returned to his Father he would send another Helper like himself (John 14:16–17). This would be an Advocate who would intercede on our behalf with God and with others. Jesus returned to his Father and sent us this Helper, the Holy Spirit (John 16:7) to be with us forever.
If the Spirit has been present and involved with creation and our cosmos since the beginning—hovering over the waters and acting when the Word spoke all things into existence—what was so special and necessary for the Spirit to be sent by Jesus? If God has sustained all things for all these millennia, then why did Jesus have to go so the Spirit would come?
We need to pay attention to the details here. This universe would not exist except for the grace and mercy of the living God. The breath of God, the Spirit, gives life. (Acts 17:25; Psalm 104:29–30) Apart from God, all things return to nothingness. The life-giving Spirit is ever and always at work in this cosmos to breathe God’s life into all things.
God in Christ reconciled all things to himself, whether the things he has made, or every one of us human beings—nothing is excluded (Colossians 1:19–23). Even the evil which acts as a parasite on all that is good and holy was taken up in Christ and overcome. Jesus is the Victor over sin, death, and the evil one!
In Christ all things were made new and are being made new—in and by his Spirit at work in the creation. The decay into nothingness has, in Christ, been reversed. And part of that reversal involves us as human beings. We were created for intimate relationship with the God who made us out of nothingness. But we turned away from this God to the creation and to one another, as though we had no need of him. We fell into the evil one’s trap of trying to be lord of the universe ourselves. But God has other plans for us.
Before any of this came into existence, God intended for us to be his image-bearers. We were to bear his image, not only in our relationships with God and with others, but also by having the very presence of the living God within us—in our very hearts and minds. We were to be the bearers of God’s living Presence, the Holy Spirit. And remember, where the Spirit is, so are the Father and Jesus Christ. So God himself was to dwell, or take up permanent residence, within the human beings God would and did make.
God, in Jesus Christ, took on our humanity, in its brokenness, shame and rebellion. God encountered the worst of who we are, even within his being in Jesus, and was not altered in the least. No, in his life, death and resurrection, he translated us from the kingdom of darkness into his kingdom of light. Jesus forged a perfected humanity in which the Spirit would permanently reside. And when he ascended, he poured out from the Father his Spirit on all humanity, so all could receive and participate in this perfect gift.
So we find ourselves in this place, living on this amazing earth, wondering where our next meal will come from, how we will pay our bills, and what to do about the fight we had with our spouse this morning. And we pay so little attention to what really matters—we are living in God’s presence, breathing in the very Breath of God himself. We are God’s children, made in his image, redeemed in Christ, meant to have an intimate relationship with him, and to live in the truth of the humanity forged for us in Christ.
There is a way of living and being we were created for—a humanity we see in Jesus which lives in total dependence upon the Spirit and in perfect obedience to the Father. We can embrace this truth of our being and fully participate in the relationship with the Father by the Spirit Jesus brought us into, or we can stubbornly hang on to our independence of God and our rebellion against his ways of living and being. God protects our freedom to choose.
Either way, the Spirit never ceases to breathe his life into us and the world around us. God’s mercies continue to be new every morning. Every sunset sky is a new expression of God’s creativity. And we never stop having an Advocate and Helper in Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit who also intercedes for us when we cannot express the deepest yearnings of our heart (Rom 8:26).
Our Abba continues to hold a seat for us at his table, loving us unconditionally as he does, and he expectantly watches at the door for us to come over the horizon so he can run to meet us. We have nothing to fear, and everything to hope for. Life in the Spirit through Jesus with the Father forever—it is ours right now.
I don’t know about you, but I’m heading home—there’s nothing in this world worth hanging on to. One day it will all be gone and all that will be left is what God intended in the first place. I’m thinking his plan is a lot better than mine, and a whole lot more fun in the long run. And the best part? Having these amazing relationships and this loving family to hold and embrace for all eternity. Now that is something worth going home for.
Abba, thank you for drawing us to yourself through your two hands of love, Jesus and the Spirit. Thank you for saving us a seat at your table and a place in your heart. Grant us the grace to surrender to your will and your ways, and to turn away from ourselves and the world around us, and to turn to you in faith, through Jesus our Lord and by your Spirit. Amen.
“You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground.” Psalm 104:30 NASB
Our Life in the Trinity 