Posts tagged: Christ
“But it is funny, because after Pat’s sermon I realized how often I prayed for God to change things with (this), or make it stop upsetting me and hurt so much. He did neither, but He sustained me. And now, a week after the realization, He made circumstances worse, made them hurt a whole lot more, but His love is still there holding me. It actually puts a sharper focus on how powerful His mercy is in endurance. I’m continually reminded of something Piper said in regards to the story of Lazarus in John: It is more loving for God to reveal Christ for who He is and how valuable He is that it is for God to keep us from pain and suffering; even death. And I know that, and am continually grateful for God’s grace and mercy in sustaining me.”
Things will always suck. Something will always be going wrong in one way or another. And occasionally things will get really bad, really bleak, really dark. And things will hurt. And things will make me sad. But God is always a sound foundation. And He has to be.
Imagine you are sprawled out on the ground, feeling like death. And you need to try and stand back up. Weak knees, weak will. And you begin to rise, just a bit. If that foundation under your feet sways even a little, you will end right back on your face. And you tremble and try to stand more, and stabilize. And again, you need that foundation to be solid. Because it takes a long time to stand tall again, but eventually you do have to stand up.
And the worse things get the more clearly we see Christ. The brighter that light shines. Now anyone who knows me knows that I hate suffering, and that right now sucks. But at the same time, there is a bright beacon of hope in things. And it would be stupid and counter-productive to ignore it. Suffering produces hope (with some steps in the middle). And God’s love is more pronounced in our appreciation of Christ even more than it is in His keeping us from suffering.
For so long it has been one of my major issues. There is no doubt that God loves me. This is made clear from scripture. But how often have I felt it? Not too often to be honest. The problem has always been one of a real feeling. I mean, I cannot feel God’s embrace. And so I look for some temporal pleasures that I can see, feel, touch, and taste.
But something has been revealed to me. As I have been reading more about the sacraments of the chruch, communion and baptism, something is coming to light. I had never really thought of the fullness of these sacraments, especially communion. Today at church we took communion and things I had been reading clicked. The sacrament of communion is a great gift and means of grace. It is a sensory representation and assurance of something we did not see: Christ’s crucifixion. As surely as I can see bread and wine, I can know Christ’s sacrifice. As surely as I taste the bread and feel the wine going down my throat, so surely can I FEEL God’s love for me in Christ. It is more than a simple remembrance. It is more than a proclamation. Though it is both those things (not SIMPLE, but a remembrance). But it is an actually, hope-giving, visual, sensory, perceivable representation of the love of God. I know that “God shows His love for us in this: That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:8. That knowledge is there all the time. But again, I never could feel it. I never could sense it. But that is where this struck me today. As the bread and wine were consumed, as they nourished, as surely as they were there in my hand and in my body, so surely am I wrapped in the love of Christ who died for me. So surely is the love of God real and evident in my life.
Maybe this is one of those things everyone else knew about, and I am late to the party. I don’t honestly care. This is a great answer to a constant prayer. To feel the love of God, His care enveloping me, through this sacrament, is amazing and something I am eternally grateful for.
Should we worship the cross? This question may seem simple or perhaps foolish, but it is an essential one we must consider, especially now. Is it proper to bow down before the cross and venerate it? No. The cross is not God. Jesus is God. Jesus was crucified, hung on the cross, and paid for sins there. But we must be careful to make the distinction between the cross itself and Christ. Even if we are attempting to worship the true Christ by worshiping the cross, we are in damnable error. The Israelites worshiped a golden calf that represented the one true God. They had the right God, but worshiped Him in the wrong way, by representing Him as something created. This is an important error to note and fight against. In communion, some people believe the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ, and they bow down before it. Even if the idea is to worship Christ through these things, the fact is you are still bowed down before something created. It is the same with the cross. It is the same with the golden calf. It is also important to know that Christ’s death is only one aspect of who He is. His resurrection, His ascension, and so on, are all important aspects of who He is. It is not only about his meekness and sacrifice. This same Christ will return in glory to conquer. This is also an essential part of who He is and His mission. It is dangerous to focus so much on one part of Christ and ignore the rest. Yes, the cross is the culmination of all history, but it is not the cross itself that matters, it is the God-man who was hung there. There is an important distinction there, and one that ought to be considered today and all days.
