Crossing Over

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 

John 5:24 NIV

About a week ago I was at a training with a few others staff members from the school I work at. We were working on a presentation and one of my colleagues Air Dropped me a video we created. I forgot that you could do that. When I got home I Air Dropped my wife a few photos I had taken of our son and I hiking. 

It may not be news to you that when you believe in Christ you have eternal life, you won't be judged, and you'll cross over from death to life, but, maybe you might need to remember a truth or two. Maybe you might have forgotten that Christ's death on the cross means he bore the judgement for you sins on the cross so, now you don't have to live under condemnations' cloud. Perhaps you need a gentle reminder that life in Christ is abundant life, true life, eternal life. Or you just need a firm, tell like it is message: "You're a Christian, live like one." Remember, in Christ you've crossed over to a new life.  

It's Not About the Bling, It's About Jesus

We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

1 John 5:20 (NIV)

Back in the late nineties the Lakers had a pretty good team but they just couldn't break through in the playoffs. They won a lot of games during the regular season but always faltered in the playoffs. Then they hired Phil Jackson and one of the first things he did was invite Shaq to his Montana ranch. Jackson showed him his championship rings and then Shaq was like, "It's all about the bling!" Whatever Phil said to Shaq and then the team gave them an understanding of what it took to win. 

In a similar way, when we come to a saving knowledge of Christ, we gain an understanding of the truth. We come to know Christ who is the truth and we gain eternal life. It's all about knowing Jesus. 

It's about knowing Jesus as he truly is, not as we make he out to be. Christ is who he says he was, who his death and resurrection declare him to be. He is the true God and eternal life. If you know Christ, you have eternal life.

Lord Jesus Christ, we acknowledge is the only True God, our Savior and Lord. Show us yourself. Praise be to us in you today!

Ask Anything...

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him

1 John 5:13 -15  (NIV)

What's the point? The point is that we know we have eternal life. The point isn't that we know the secret faith formula to get whatever we want. 

To know we have eternal life is to know we are in Christ, receiving his love and loving others with his love puts us securely in his will. If we seek his will and pray accordingly, his word says he will give us what we ask. Since Christ loves us enough to die for us, he surely listens to our prayers. 

OK, so let's get real here. I have prayed and not gotten what I have asked for. It is easy to say, "Well, that wasn't God's will then." Maybe. I have prayed for people's salvation and they seem to reject God and I know it is God's desire that all men be saved (I Timothy 2:4). I think we must consider that God's will is ultimately that we are made new in the image of Jesus Christ and sometimes waiting in him to answer prayer shapes our faith in ways we cannot perceive or imagine. He may hear us but may be doing something we just don't understand or see. 

Faith is believing that God loves me and is working out everything for my good according to his will and in his faithful timing. 

Father, help us to pray and wait upon you to work you will in our lives. Praise be to you in us today!

Have the Son. Have Life.

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

I John 5:12

It's pretty straightforward isn't it? If you want to have eternal life, you must have the Son of God. 

In John 10:10 Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." There are a plethora of religious and spiritual offerings out there that appeal to a lot of different emotions and inner needs. But, unless they believe that Jesus, the Son of God came as a real person, died and rose again, they are just thieves seeking to steal your soul and keep you from eternal life in Christ. 

There really isn't much to say after that. Some beliefs may offer self satisfaction through works. Some may deny all deity and look only to themselves and so called reason for answers. But, all are deceptive lies that will lead people away from the truth, from eternal life in Christ. 

Do you have the Son?

Eternal Life is Now

For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

1 John 3:11-15 (NIV)

Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, once started off a new season of football by placing a football in front of the team and pronounced, "Gentlemen, this is a football." He, of course, was not insinuating that his players didn't know what a football was, he was making a point that they needed to get back to the fundamentals of playing football. 

The Apostle John takes us back to the beginning, the foundation of our beliefs: Love one another. He contrast love with murder and takes us back to the book of Genesis where Cain, because of his own evil actions, killed his brother whom God was pleased with. It is a pretty stark contrast between love and murder. If you don't have love, your hatred has a logical end: murder. That is not to say that everyone who hates murders, it does mean that hates end is murder. 

Love passes us from death to life. Notice that verse 15 says that "has eternal life in him". It does not say that eternal life is in the future, it states that it is something in us now. When we pass from death to life because we love one another that is eternal life. Sometimes we miss things because we simply don't know what we are looking for. When I love others life opens up. Tomorrow we are going to talk more about this (God willing) but I just want to start us thinking about how love frees while hate restricts. 

God loves us. We loves as he has loved us. That shared loves opens us to eternal life in our lives in the here and now. Enjoy.

Father, help us to love one another and enjoy the eternal life your love gives us. Praise be to you in us today!

GOD THE BUILDER

"For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything." Hebrews 3:4

Before I began my career as an educator, one of the first jobs I had was in construction. So, when I enter a house I notice things like how the molding was finished in the corners or if the walls are plumb. I can't help it. My dad was a general contractor and he had some brothers who did his framing for a while. They were very good. Once when I came home from college my parents had moved into a new home built by his framers. I looked at the fireplace and asked him why it was off-center. Dad told my mom, "I told you he would notice!"  Normally a house built by that crew was pretty good. You could tell that a house built by them in comparison to someone whose motto was "close enough".

God is the builder of our lives. He knows how to put things together and how to fix things that are not right. Philippians 1:6 reminds us that, "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Sometimes we forget that God is eternal and his plan for us is from eternity. Before we were born, before the world was created God knew what he would do with us. He knew he would send Jesus to die for our sins. 

The truth is that God is building my life and your life with expert craftsmanship, making us into the image of Christ Jesus. He is faithful, he will do it. 

Thank you Father, for building my life. Help me to abide in you as you abide in me, building my life. Praise be to you in us today!

GET LIFE TO THE FULL: II Timothy 1:10

"But it has now been revealed through the appearance of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." II Timothy 1:10

Jesus proclaimed, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). 

Here is the bottom line: to be truly alive you have to be in Christ, everything else is just prolonged death. All joy, all sorrow, all life finds its' reality in Christ. From the fellowship of his sufferings to the hope of the place he is preparing for us in heaven, there is life, true life. If you think you understand suffering, think about the cross. If you think you understand being let down by your closest friends, think about all the disciples deserting Christ. If you want to know giving, Christ gave his very life. If you want to know life, it is found in Christ.

Father, open our eyes to see life, life to the full, that you have given us in Christ! Praise be to you in us today!

GRAB SOME LIFE THAT IS TRULY LIFE: I Timothy 6:19

True story: A general contractor had just finished the foundation on the house he was building and was starting on the first floor. I gentlemen drove up and told him, "That looks real good but that's not where I want my house." The contractor looked at him and asked, "Who are you?" The gentleman said, "The owner of the lot you're building on!" 

"In this way they will lay up for treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life." I Timothy 6:19

In the same way that the contractor started to build a house on the wrong lot, many people invest a great deal of their resources in things that will turn out to be off-target at best.

What is essential as far as God is concerned is what should guide our decisions. Taking hold of Christ. Living by faith. Trusting God with all that he has given us and seeking to be a servant of all, that is where life, life that is truly life will be found.  

So, if you find yourself sort of grasping at air, seeking fulfillment for you life, seek it where it is truly found. Life that is life, eternal life is found in Christ. Seek him. 

Father, help us to take hold of life in Christ. Praise be to you in us today!