JESUS IS THE ALPHA AND OMEGA

I like the concept of Red Letter Christians; taking the words of Jesus as a guide for living.  But I believe in order to truly know Jesus, one has to know the full counsel of God, for that is who he is.  To understand Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets, one has to know and understand the Law and the Prophets.  Jesus fulfilled them.  He did not replace them.

The whole Bible from beginning to end will manifest Jesus, who is himself the Alpha and Omega.  To neglect the conflict in the Old Testament because it doesn’t meet with one’s sensibilities or concept of God is to miss the full meaning and substance of Jesus and of God.  The Old Testament speaks to the consequences of people not doing well and suffering the result of the sin that was crouching at the door waiting to devour them, just as God spoke to Cain as a warning.  The Old Testament also speaks of the drive and desire of God who loves His people and rescues them again, and again, and again; eventually sending His own Son to die on a cross to rescue them once and for all.

Without all of that knowledge and background Jesus just becomes a good teacher with some good ideas on living life. 

IT'S ALL RELEVANT

I was pondering on the word relevant this morning.  I hear that word a lot in the many discussions about why “the God hypothesis” is no longer necessary in our 21^st century thinking, or why the churches must change the way they do things.  The goal is to make things relevant, useful, and meaningful to the world’s needs today.

I was looking out the window at my Tree that is glowing like gold.  This is an old tree and has been planted there, doing what trees do for many years.  It’s pretty much doing the same thing that all trees do, even the century old tree I used to sit under at Pendle Hill.  It’s pretty much doing the same thing that all of the trees in the ancient forests do, in the same way they have done since the creation of time.  But then most of nature is that way as well, when left untouched by human hands.  It’s how God made them in the beginning.  The sun appears every morning and disappears every evening; the oceans tides rise and ebb everyday; the rain falls and waters the earth.  Those things don’t change.  Are they still relevant?

My tree goes through the seasonal changes.  In spring the buds blossom and the leaves develop.  In fall the leaves turn beautiful colors and then die and fall to the ground.  The following spring the cycle begins again.  Every spring and fall are different yet very much the same.  The fruit of the tree may vary but the foundation of the tree remains the same; the paradox of being different but being the same.

There are things that can change without destroying the foundations and I believe the church needs to hear that more than ever today.  God is not a hypothesis.  God is the Creator of everything created and that needs to remain True as the foundation.  God is relevant, yesterday, today, and forever for the entire world.  Jesus is relevant, from the Alpha to the Omega for the church.  The foundation does not need to change to be relevant to the people.  The people need to change to be relevant to the Foundation.

There is a lot of building on sand these days that will be washed away with the first storm; and that storm is coming.  This world has become godless by choice, which is very foolish.  The picture that Paul paints of the people in the last days, that he warns Timothy about, is much like a picture of contemporary society.  “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unforgiving, slanderous, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:2-5).

It’s time for all who call themselves Christians and lovers of God to wake up and listen.  Now is not the time to turn away from the Foundations of the faith that Jesus taught and lived out. Now is not the time to turn our ears away from the Truth.  Now is not the time to be deceived.  Now is the time to turn to the God who is Relevant throughout all time, not out of fear but in faith and love.

Paul exhorts Timothy to, “Continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (II Timothy 3:14, 15).

There are many good examples throughout the centuries, of godly men and women who built on the foundation of the Rock and who knew God to be relevant in their lives.  I want to listen and learn from them.

Golden Calves of Our Own Creation

Books upon books

Words upon words

It all gets overwhelming

And becomes a tower of Babel.

All of our gold

Provided by God

Is tooled and fashioned

And becomes a Golden Calf.

Offerings upon offerings

Feasts upon feasts

Worship and praise

 To our own creation

MOVEMENT NOT INSTITUTION

A pattern that I have observed and experienced many times in the life of the church is an organic organism becoming organized, and then the life slowly drains out of it.  It begins in a delightful way with people getting together to simply talk about their life with God; to sing and worship and just be together and enjoying the company and companionship of one another.  The numbers grow and then the gathering becomes bigger so organization develops, formality increases and soon the problems arise.  The normal pattern is meeting at a larger facility and then the building project begins and another Church Building is erected.  Eventually the building (container) becomes the focus, changing the content and conversation away from God and people, to the maintaining of the building.  Hence the institution is fixed and the original movement is ceased.

Institutions require control and control requires hierarchy.  Soon money is needed to support the institution.  Fund raising, buying and selling, and all the things that Jesus spoke against find their way into the mix and in my opinion we have as a result a Golden Calf.  In most of these cases the people began in innocence and with good purposes.  But something happens and both are transformed into something that does more harm than good.  When I read that a minister of a church makes a salary of $250,000.00 in my spirit I know something is not right.  I don’t see this in the teachings or mission of Jesus or the Apostles.  What I do see is the pattern copied over and over again.

Jesus tended to keep things simple, not spectacular. Jesus began a movement to a better life, not a bigger life; transformed individuals not necessarily tremendous buildings.  Even the event at the very center of a Christian’s life, the Resurrection, was treated in a simple manner.  Jesus showed himself to his disciples.  It would have been a sensational event if he had gone to Pilate or to the Pharisees.  Being a celebrity or a superstar was not his motivation or God’s plan. He had warned his disciples against this very thing many times.  He left the earth as he had come to earth, in humility and hidden except to those who were closest to him.

Jesus rose from the dead to give us life.  Life is moving and growing and needs the freedom to do that.  Institutions are stationary; they become needy and demanding.  Christians are to follow their Master and tend to the needs of living souls in people, not the lifeless stones of buildings.  To expand and build is always in the mix and seems to be a well used pattern.  But I believe we need to look at the original plan of Jesus and keep to his task.

EYES ON ETERNITY

The many churches today are very active in supporting the rights of people who are Gay to obtain the privileges that married people receive from the government.  But are they equally concerned about the rights and privileges people receive from being a child of God?

“Jesus came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:11, 12).

The Church of God has a mission.  It is to reestablish a broken relationship between God the Creator and His creation so that we, as people, can live in right relationship with our Creator.  The coming of Jesus and the work of Jesus gives everyone that right, but it is each individual’s choice to choose to accept or reject. 

I would ask that the Church keep its eye on the goal line, on the one thing that is important.  There is no marriage in heaven.  There is a relationship with God. 

“Behold the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).

The fight between Gay Marriage will never be settled.  The Church needs to render unto Caesar’s what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. The Church needs to look above and beyond this world to what matters for eternity.