DEAD TO THE PAST, NEWLY ALIVE IN CHRIST

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In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it!

2 Corinthians 5:14-17 (The Message)

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We are so blessed to have the very word of God accessible through the Bible, scriptures that have spanned the ages for well more than 2,000 years now. Over that time, we have seen the emergence of many different translations of God’s word and in my view, they all hold value. Yes, we all have our go-to Bible translations, the one we prefer most (mine is the NIV if you’re wondering) but in my nearly 30 years of Bible teaching, I have come to learn that all translations can have value and we shouldn’t ever rule out reading them. So often, they give us a better understanding of what a passage means.

Today’s scripture verses fall into this category as we look at very important words from the Apostle Paul regarding the transformation that happens within anyone who chooses to accept Jesus as Savior. I love the way The Message translation presents these verses as they come alive for us. Look again at them here:

Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it!  vv. 14-17

Before God’s offer of salvation could be extended, the problem of sin had to be addressed. There wasn’t a single person on earth who was innocent. All had transgressed and therefore fell short of God’s glory. Short of some incredible divine intervention, they were going to face God’s wrath and judgment which would mean a ticket to Hell.

But God didn’t wish for any of His people to perish. He so loved the world that He came up with a way for atonement to happen, a way that had His only Son Jesus at the center. This is the focused center Paul is talking about in our passage today. One man, Jesus, “died for everyone”, one final atoning sacrifice of epic proportion orchestrated by a God of epic mercy, grace, and power.

Why did Jesus die for all people?

Because God wanted every person to have the opportunity to “be included” in His Son’s life, a life that was no ordinary one but a “resurrection life” far better than anyone could achieve “on their own”.

This salvation opportunity comes to a person by grace and faith alone not works. It’s a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8), a Holy Spirit centered blessing. Someone’s value isn’t found in what they have or their external appearance. Rather, it’s about the condition of a person on the inside. If they are in Christ, having accepted Him as Savior, then they are like new, justified from their old sinful past life and pointed toward an eternal future, one that death can’t take away.

Are you new today, assured that death will not be the end for you but rather the start of an everlasting existence free from any and all afflictions of this life?

If not, come to Jesus now and don’t delay. He will transform you forever in the best way possible and ensure the final chapter of your life will have the best ending ever.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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OUT OF OUR MINDS

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

2 Corinthians 5:11-13

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever been framed as crazy by people for what you believe as a Christian?

I know I have.

It’s understandable I guess because people who reject Jesus and live for the ways of the world will never get why Christians are the way they are. In a world where values and sin seem to intersect and even merge with one another, Jesus followers will always be going against the grain and find resistance in doing so.

Yes, most people living for the world see Christ believers as being out of their minds because they aren’t like minded. Through His word, God draws a line between the Spirit and the flesh. Satan only promotes the evil spirits in a person and places no limits on behavior. Anything goes when it comes to worldly living and I guess this what makes it so attractive to people. They see this free-wheeling life as more appealing than surrendering their life to the One who is the life (John 14:6).

As we see in today’s passage from the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians, Christians were seen as out of their minds in first century A.D. too. Look again at Paul’s words here as he writes to the church in Corinth:

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 2 Corinthians 5:11-13

Paul and his associates feared the Lord and this wasn’t a cowering in a corner, paralyzed and terrified kind of fear. Rather, fear here is used as a way to convey a deep rooted respect that the Apostle and the other Gospel missionaries had for God. This respect and reverence were so deep that the Christ believers sought to live in absolute obedience to everything that the Lord had commanded them to do. It was this life attitude that they tried to get others to adopt and in this case, it was the Corinthian Christians.

God sees everything and nothing is hidden from His sight. Paul knew that the reverent, respectful, obedient life that he and the others had adopted would please the Lord who saw the legitimacy in their loyalty as they sought to be Christian role models for others.

So what do we learn here?

When we commit ourselves fully to God, we will find our lives running counter to the world’s ways, most of the time radically so but we should wear our spiritual “craziness” like a badge of honor because we are “out of our minds” for God and pleasing Him through seeking and abiding with His will and way is all that really matters as we live this thing called life.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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DIVINE ACCOUNTABILITY

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In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:6-10

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Christians know and trust that they have been saved by the redeeming work of Jesus on Calvary’s cross and His subsequent resurrection, a salvation plan orchestrated by God the Father (John 3:16). Christ believers carry a confidence that this earthly life is not all there is for a heavenly existence waits that will last for eternity.

Now, no one has actually seen this for themselves. Nobody has gotten a temporary trip to heaven complete with a God-led tour of what’s to come. And yet Christians believe because they live by faith and not by sight, a truth affirmed by the Apostle Paul in our passage for today. They know they are away from the Lord as long as they are “at home in the body” because a person can’t co-exist in both places. Heaven is a place we look forward to, a place where we will be made new and freed from all the afflictions of this worldly life.

In yesterday’s message, we looked at what happens as we wait. We long for Heaven but understand we must wait. In the interim, Jesus has given us plenty to do and expects us to get to work continuing His Gospel ministry until that time when we leave this body behind to be “at home with the Lord”.

We do this with another understanding which fits under the “live by faith, not by sight” category. For as we find the Apostle Paul discussing in today’s passage, divine accountability is going to come just as sure as the gift of Heaven. All people, Jesus followers or otherwise, are going to “appear before the judgment seat of Christ” where we will “receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad”. And trust that there will be bad for everybody because we all have sinned and therefore fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). No one can get to Heaven without being saved by Jesus and that call will be made at the judgment seat.

This is absolute truth as we live by faith and not by sight. Divine accountability will happen.

And so we need to be prepared in advance. We need to “make it our goal” to live in a way that is pleasing to our Lord while at home in this body and we can do this best by living as He lived. Yes, we have justification through Jesus who makes us just as if we had never sinned but that doesn’t give us license to go ahead and live any way we want to. Paul writes on this in the opening verses of Romans, chapter 6:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:1-4

When we emerge from the waters of baptism, we are symbolically committing ourselves to a new life. We show that we are ready to become a new creation in Christ Jesus and through scriptures and lead of the Holy Spirit, we can become that new creation more and more every day. We are all works in progress when it comes to this and the good news is that the Lord isn’t finished with us yet. We have a fresh opportunity today to let the Lord make us better than we were yesterday and if you let Him, He’ll do just that. Keep stringing these days together like that, allowing Jesus to conform you to His image, and you can be assured that your life will be seen as pleasing to Jesus when you come before His throne of judgment on the coming day of divine accountability.

My prayer for you is that Jesus will be happy with your life and the way you lived it in Him when you come before Him face to face on the way to your heavenly dwelling.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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WHILE WE WAIT

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

2 Corinthians 5:2-5

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Death is not the end for anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as Savior. This is truth.

In yesterday’s message from the opening verse of 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, the Apostle Paul reminds us that we have an “eternal house in heaven” which wasn’t “built by human hands” but rather the hands of God. For Jesus followers, it will be one last move, one final address change.

But what do we do until then while we wait?

As we continue looking at the next verses in chapter 5, we find Paul giving us a few things and I will add one to it.

First, let’s look again at what the Apostle had to say:

Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.  2 Corinthians 5:2-5

Here we find Paul using an illustration of two states of dress, being naked and being clothed, to explain the delineation between living in this temporary worldly life and the eternal one to come.

In this present life, the pre-heaven existence for Christians, we groan and feel burdened because of our “nakedness” while abiding “in this (earthly) tent”. We grow increasingly dissatisfied with this world and the evil we see within it every day. We yearn for the better life, the best ever life yet to come, the life where we will see that death does lose its sting as it is swallowed up by a victory that leads Christians to everlasting life (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). As I grow older, I find these verses mean more and more to me as I begrudge my nakedness and look forward to be clothed in my “heavenly dwelling” with other Jesus believers. 

This is how Paul sees Christians as they live in the world waiting with the promise of heaven after death assured.

But is this all we are to do, sit around and wallow naked in our earthly tent, impatiently waiting for glory?

Jesus certainly didn’t tell us to do that. Rather, He called us to be busy carrying on His work. Here’s His tasker for all believers:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

Our Savior called us to action here. He commissioned all Christians to go and make disciples, baptizing them in His name as well as the name of God the Father and the Holy Spirit while teaching them to obey what He commanded which includes carrying out this great commission themselves.

This is what we are to do while we wait and note we don’t do it alone. Jesus promised He would be with us until the end of the age, the day when He returns to judge the earth and everyone on it. He guides us, convicts us, comforts us, encourages us, and loves us through the Holy Spirit, the Counselor and Advocate sent by God to help us, the Spirit given to us by God “as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come”.

Jesus tells us to labor in our nakedness as we live in this earthly tent while we wait to be clothed with the splendor and majesty of our heavenly dwelling once we leave this temporary life for the exponentially better one to come.

This is our call from the Savior who saved us, the call we are to answer while we wait.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com