Like when the prophet Isaiah reminded me (after visiting a family who made the gut-wrencing decision to turn the life support off for their 6 month old) that "the Lord will swallow death forever."
Like the day I needed to be reminded by Paul that my humanity wasn't a challenge to God: "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive"
Or the day I needed to be reminded that love is to be the dominant reality of the way I interact with people: "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love."
I like being comforted and reminded of God's help and love through Scripture. They all seemed like (and were!) divine interventions in my day. God really does want to speak to me, to you.
But then the other day, Peter reminded me that Jesus "bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness."
Hold the phone. God wants and expects me to live in way that overcomes the still broken parts of my life? That seems a bit much, right?
Do I believe that? Do you? Do you and I really believe (in biblical language, really believe means really live that way) that is true? That God can empower us to overcome our brokenness and sin?
Friday we'll celebrate the fact that Jesus came to do just that.
If we aren't living it, I would venture to say the only explanation is that we don't really believe Jesus. Ouch.
Here's how Dallas Willard says it:
"Anyone who is not a continual student of Jesus, and who nevertheless reads the great promises of the Bible as if they were for him or her, is like someone trying to cash a check on another person's account. At best, it succeeds only sporadically."
No comments:
Post a Comment