TO LIFE!

TO LIFE!

Monday, January 09, 2017

John [ESV] 17:1-8  When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

  “To life!” does not mean having the goal of not dying. A clinging attitude that adversely affects personal outlook on self, others, community, business, world, and includes local churches and whole denominations; focusing on keeping alive preempts the more important eternal matter of being. For the followers of Christ, the Apostle Paul summarized the godly attitude to life ”For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.“ (Phil.1:21) Further on in his epistle he explained “… whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, … “ (ESV chapter 3)

  In explaining his desire for the believers in Ephesus Paul wrote “… that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.“ (ESV chapter 3)

  If we are asked a question I’ve been pondering lately “What is the prevailing attitude of our church?” how would we respond? Is our candid answer centered in our doings to live or our being in Christ?

EBB4