For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10.
The death He died, He died to sin – once – for all – but the life He lives He lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin – but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:10-11.
And continuing our 351 Old Testament prophecies, promises of God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, we come to number 154: The rejected stone is Head of the corner. Psalm 118:22-23: The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone. This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. And, Matthew 21:42-43: Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the LORD, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.”
In Hearing God by Dallas Willard today, he expanded on being dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus: “As men and women of the additional birth, we stand at the intersection of the merely natural (fleshly) and the spiritual. St. Thomas Aquinas coined a word to express this state: aevum. It is the mean between eternity and time, sharing in them both. It is two lives, two streams of awareness and power, mingling together in the individual who must choose which one he or she will truly be. To focus on entering new life with Christ requires that we take a stand as to who we are in this new life, that we identify with the Christ-life in us and against the sin still present in our selves and that we settle in our will the question of who we intend to be. This is what it means to “count (ourselves) dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). Pray: Talk to God about the two lives, two streams of awareness and power, mingling together. Ask God to show you what you need to know about how to untangle them and choose more to be “alive to God in Christ Jesus.””
In our Friday Zoom Retreat, we talked about the lies we believe. Our presenter shared several quotes that were so helpful. From Sarah Young: Jesus smooths out all the tangled-up places, including those in your mind and heart. Another: Worry can turn a pebble into a mountain and a passing cloud into a storm. Trust returns each fear to its true size. And this: “Sometimes your mind plays tricks on you. It can tell you you’re no good, that it’s all hopeless. But remember this, you are loved, and important and you bring to this world things no one else can. So hold on.” (The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy).
We each shared ways that we all relate to the question of why we believe the negative lies we believe, and where those beliefs come from, and indeed, from where they originate. As we talked and shared together, I couldn’t help but think about Jesus. When He began His public ministry, that is everything He did. He devoted everything to showing us the Father and His Kingdom, to showing us the truth and healing bodies and minds and spirits weighed down with all the lies we believe. In prayer as I thought about the Father sending His Son, and of Jesus coming to live with us to teach the truth of God, and of the Holy Spirit continuing this great work God has begun – He shared that He came to give life with Him now. He came to bring hope. He came to bring the light of His truth for those bound in darkness. He came to show life with Him as it is and will be. And it was so radically different from the way of life the people then were living and experiencing, and indeed, from the way of life we live and experience today. And the truth of Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, is liberating for everyone – and I pray for everyone that they will respond to the love of God because it is His love that brings the healing so needed by all of us. As one of our group pointed out, for people of “religion” who take a stand on a cause, be it against homosexuality or abortion, the question becomes, what next in that stand? And I thought about Jesus. Those very people the religious authorities and lay people condemned, tax collectors and prostitutes, sinners – were the very people Jesus Himself went to, ate with, taught and loved. They couldn’t see they were sinners too. The woman caught in adultery and brought for judgment leading to stoning, Jesus did not condemn. He told her go and sin no more. The lies we believe are killing us. Can we listen to our Creator and trust His voice speaking truth to us now? Can we trust Him for the wisdom we so desperately need? And below is a beautiful reminder shared with our Zoom group of just how different is the voice of God who loves us – and the voice of the accuser who knows nothing of love or hope or help – or – of redeeming for salvation in Creator God.
***O GOD, WHOSE HAND – O God, whose hand has spread the sky and all its shining hosts on high, and, painting it with fiery light, made it so beauteous and so bright. Illuminate our hearts within, and cleanse our minds from stain of sin; unburdened of our guilty load, may we unfettered serve our God. Grant this, O Father, ever One with Christ, Your sole-begotten Son, whom with the Spirit we adore, one God, both now and evermore. Gregory the Great (AD 540-604), Coeli Deus Sanctissime, Liturgia Horarum, trans. J. M. Neale, 1854. Adapted.***
