Newsletter - From One Degree to Another

Here’s an article I wrote for our church’s newsletter, the Edifier:

As we near the end of the book of Hebrews on Sunday mornings, it’s been interesting to note how the theme of gratitude has popped up a few times. And, as we end another year at Crestview, it’s good to be reminded that gratitude is the attitude we must employ, as well.

In Hebrews 12:28, we were urged to “be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” Gratitude in Christ’s work for us propels us to be a worshipper rightly relating to God in fear and adoration. In Hebrews 13:15, we were called to “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name.” These words “sacrifice of praise,” also occur in an ancient OT translation of Leviticus 7:12, speaking of the highest form of a peace offering that was offered under the Old Covenant. The purpose of this offering was to express gratitude to God for removing the sin of the worshipper. Offering up gratitude to God, then, is seen as we acknowledge who God is (Hebrews 13:15) and give ourselves in service to others (Hebrews 13:16). In light of all that God’s done for believers through Christ, we should respond with gratitude, with grateful hearts that God’s given us what we don’t deserve.

All of this is very timely for us as a people. First, there’s the political arena. We have a huge election coming up in our country. On November 6, we have the privilege (and responsibility!) in our democratic republic to make decisions and select leaders. And, if our heart is not oriented to God properly, we can easily become anxious, worried and wonder what will happen if something we didn’t vote for is passed. I’ve also found that when I’m grumbling, complaining, finding fault with other people or the various processes inside and outside the church, my heart hasn’t been well-nurtured in the streams of gratitude. God, in His grace, then, allows our hearts to be exposed in things like a national election. Guard your heart. Nurture it in gratitude to God and make decisions at the ballot box accordingly.

Secondly, this also relates to end of year decisions in the church. While we are led by elders, the congregation gets to participate in affirming leaders and a budget each year. On December 9, after the AM service, our members will gather to affirm recommendations from the leaders. Hebrews 13:17 urges us to “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” How is this possible? Again, we can only live rightly in the church with a spirit of gratitude to God. Recognizing the blessings He’s given will help us to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Without gratitude, we’ll complain and voice our opinions in ways that might not be the most helpful for the good of the whole. With gratitude, our words will be seasoned with grace and, hopefully, bless the ones who serve us so joyfully.

Finally, we have Christmas. I know it seems like it’s a long time from now, but it will be here soon. Gratitude to God for Christ will keep our hearts and minds directed to glorify God through a busy holiday season. When we are consumed with the presents and activities and not mindful of all that God launched into motion in sending His Son, we will be grumbling, complaining Scrooges. But, hearts nurtured by gratefulness to God will truly be able to celebrate the good news of great joy for all people: a Savior is born.

Therefore, I hope you are full of gratitude as this year comes to an end so that we might be a people who glorify and enjoy God, forever.

Here’s my Edifier article from the March/April 2012 Church Newsletter of Crestview:

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

I know it may be difficult to wrap your mind around this, but Easter is just around the corner. And, if you’re like me, I often find myself needing help to be able to praise God for what He’s accomplished in raising Christ from the dead. It was with great joy, then, that I read these words from Octavius Winslow:

“The resurrection of Christ is a vital doctrine of Christianity. It sustains an essential relation to the spiritual life of the believer. Viewing it in connection with the union of Christ and His people, the two facts become identical— standing in the relation of cause and effect. Our Lord, in His great atoning work, acted in a public or representative character. He represented in His person the whole elect of God, who virtually were in Him, each step that he took in working out their redemption. In His resurrection from the grave this was preeminently so. The Head could not be resuscitated apart from the body. Christ could not rise without the Church. Thus, then, the new or the resurrection life of Christ, and the inner or spiritual life of the believer, are one and indivisible. Now, when the resurrection of the Head is spiritually realized, when it is fully received into the heart by faith, it becomes a quickening, energizing, sanctifying truth to each member of His body. It transmits a power to the inmost soul, felt in all the actings and manifestations of the spiritual life. Blessed are they who feel, and who feel daily, that they are indeed “risen with Christ,” and who find every new perception of this great truth to act like a mighty lever to their souls—lifting them above this “present evil world”—a world passing away.

“Perhaps no circumstance connected with the resurrection of Christ conveys to the mind a clearer idea of its bearings upon the happiness of the Church than the part which the Divine Father is represented as having taken in the illustrious event. His having committed Himself to the fact at once stamps it with all its saving interest. “Whom God has raised.” “Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father.” “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead.” By this act of raising up His Son from the grave, the Father manifested His delight in, and His full acceptance of, the sacrifice of Christ, as a finished and satisfactory expiation for the sins of His people. So long as Jesus remained in the grave, there was wanting the evidence of the acceptance of His death; the great seal of heaven, the signature of God, was needed to authenticate the fact. But when the Father released the Surety from the dominion of death, he annihilated, by that act, all legal claim against His Church, declaring the ransom accepted, and the debt cancelled. “He was taken from prison,”—as the prisoner of justice—the prisoner of death—and the prisoner of the grave; the Father, in the exercise of His glorious power, opens the prison door, and delivers the illustrious Captive—and by the door through which He emerges again to life, enters the full justification of His whole Church; for it is written—“He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”

“A more important truth— where all are of infinite moment to the happiness of man—is not found in the Word of God. As it forms the keystone to the mighty arch of Christianity, so it constitutes the groundwork of spiritual life, upon the basis of which the Holy Spirit of God quickens the souls of all, who are “the called according to His purpose.” It was a knowledge of this truth which awoke the ardent desire of the apostle’s soul, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection.” (Evening Thoughts, Feb 8)

I hope you find the truths found in this brief excerpt helpful. The resurrection is not some insignificant, meaningless event. No. In the resurrection, believers are united with Christ and now truly live, not for ourselves but for Him who died and rose again for us. Blessed to celebrate this with you once again…