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Sitting in traffic is frustrating…mind-numbing…make-you-reconsider-your-life-decisioning. In those moments when you are crawling along at under 5 mph…going 15 seems amazing, let alone going 55. But that is all context related. If the expectation is to be stopped, going 30 is awesome. But when the speed-limit is 75, going 55 feels as irritating as going 5.
In life like driving, our “speed-expectations” significantly influence our “contentment-meter”. “Shouldn’t I be further in my career by now?” “Why aren’t I married yet?” “When am I going to have children?” But in those moments of impatience, it is truly our expectations that should change. It’s not so much, “Why haven’t I achieved my life-goal?”, but rather, “God what would you like me to do today?” Dear Father, Please adjust my life-meter today so that I am able to achieve everything You have prepared for me to do. Jesus Christ the Righteous. Fully God, He was without sin. Holy, holy, holy, Jesus was fully able to take on Himself the just wrath of God against wickedness…and He did. Jesus Christ the Son of Man. Fully human, He lived a complete human experience. He withstood temptation without fail. He felt hunger, sorrow, and fatigue. Humbled to the point of death, Jesus took our form and life as our perfect example and bridging our relationship with God to make us His children! Jesus Christ the Just One. Death is the wages of sin. But Jesus being infinitely perfect and yet having suffered the full penalty for sin, death could not hold Him. Instead, He rose again in victory – conquering death forever for those who would trust Him as Savior and follow Him as Lord. Jesus Christ. His life, His death, His resurrection are hope – hope for triumph over sin, hope for a full life and restored relationship with God, hope for a home in heaven with a perfected relationship with God -- forever sons and daughters of God!   There is a reason a picture is worth a thousand words: our abilities to describe things are pretty limited. You know this if you have ever tried to describe a piece of outdated technology to a younger person or attempted to describe a scene for a blind person.
But our words and concepts truly fall short when it comes to describing Christ's unsurpassed gift. The Creator became creation because He loved us. A King served His rebellious peasants because He loved us. A Lion offered Himself as the sacrificial Lamb because He loved us. What kind of love is that? Does any language even have a word that encompasses that mind-blowing degree of devotion? We try, but our words and even our punctuation (!) cannot capture the grandeur of this overwhelming and scandalous love. "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be call children of God!" -- 1 John 3:1 I have diagnosed more people with COVID than I care to remember or recount. Many hear the news that they have COVID as though they are receiving a death sentence. They see themselves as death men walking -- awaiting the inevitable outcome. This may or may not be accurate, but what is true is that every member of the human race carries in themselves a death sentence. Everyone breathing today is a dead man walking. Not merely in a physical sense -- thought physical death should awaken us to the reality of looming spiritual destruction -- but in a spiritual sense. The wages of sin (rebellion against God and His law) is death (Romans 6:23) and all have sinned (Romans 3:23). And without a doubt, these wages include physical death, but the true problem is that this death is also spiritual. The soul that sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:20). The body dies once (Hebrews 9:27). But the soul dies forever, separated from God (2 Thessalonians 1:9). And that is the true death sentence -- but thanks be to God for His indescribable gift: Jesus.  |
The AuthorCome with me as we grow in fellowship with each other and our Savior to whom belongs the Amazing Escape from sin and death and the Amazing Journey into glorious life. Archives
September 2023
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