The Same God

2 Corinthians 4:6-15

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The same God who spoke into darkness and nothingness and created light, a light that never before existed, is the same God who brought light to your hearts in the form of and through Jesus Christ. The same God who brought real light and real truth to our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ.

And lest we think we are gods ourselves, the Apostle reminds us,

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 

THINK--cracked clay pots holding the dazzling brilliance of THE SAME GOD willing to dwell with us, IN US.

If we can keep this in mind, God can do some mighty things in and through us. The moment we think we are SOMETHING, is the moment we begin to lose sight of the LIGHT and who it is who brought it.

PERHAPS, that is why the troubles come. To remind us, not punitively nor with malice, but with a loving Hand, as God ushers us ever closer to Him.

8We are hard- pressed on every side, yet not crushed; 

He will not let us be crushed, though we can often feel the overwhelming pressures of life.

we are perplexed, but not in despair; 

Confusion sets in the moment we look for more than God, He who made us can save us.

9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—

Some truths take an iron grip of faith to hang on to, and this is one. When the entire world including those humans who are most suppose to love us have betrayed, rejected or turned against us, even through OUR OWN failures. WE--who we really are in Christ-- can never be struck down, can never be destroyed for we... 

10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

Just as the true life of Jesus was not revealed until He died and rose again, nor will the beauty of ours be brought into view until we have been battered, bruised, pierced and struck down, for surely, IN HIM, we will rise again here in this life and in the hereafter.

 10For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.

 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 

An attitude worth keeping, just as Jesus did,

15For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Paul wrote, "for your sakes." WE are the 'your' he was talking about, and he was as human as we, and now we go through all of these things for YOUR SAKES that the same grace we know in Christ May spread to you.

If that attitude be in us, it will surely make the bumpy ride here more joyful.

Comfortable?

As I rode in a van across Nicaragua a dear friend with us said, "I'm not comfortable." That was the mid-90's and we were not Contras, Sandinistas nor CIA, we were missionaries there to spread the gospel of the kingdom. On our way to a prison to hold a service, our beat up Mitsubishi van was packed  with 7 guys, sound equipment and food for the inmates (in the US we bring literature, in Nicaragua we bring FOOD) and it was Nicaraguan HOT! The road was bumpy and the place prone to uprisings and sudden Civil War.

Needless to say the other 6 members looked at him with unbelief, like it even needed to be said. One even yelled, "Stop the van! R's not comfortable!" and made a big scene, in fairly good humor.

We were all uncomfortable!

But our sense of mission overcame our discomfort and even made discomfort a pleasure, for the Gospel's sake.

I believe most Christians in North America, including I, have been rocked to sleep in the comfortable arms of the world around us.

After Jesus had gone to such great pains to pass down to us the info of how this is going to all turn out, are we going to give a collective yawn and sigh when we now think of His imminent return?

That means he could come back while I'm writing this.

His disciples came right out and asked, "When are you coming back, and what will the signs be?"

"Wars, plagues, earthquakes and such." 

"Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.-Matthew 24:12

Sound familiar, it's what you read in this mornings newspaper, and even if we can focus our prophetically manic minds on those signs we often relegate the end result to Sunday School classes and once a decade sermons.

Christ's imminent return

We need to shake ourselves as Samson did when he woke up bound and blinded in prison.

We need to not only remember the fact, we need to act on it.

Matthew 24:14

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Some unintentionally foolish preachers have failed to parse the word ALL correctly. The Greek word πασ or transliterated into English pas. That part is useless info until you realize it doesn't mean some magic counter to when the last person hears, but instead going to each people group and ALL means some of each.

I said all that to say that there is nothing else that really needs to happen before Jesus pulls us all out of here.

Keeping this close to our hearts, mouths and feet will change how we act.

How we participate in our local church.

How we give to our local church.

How we relate to our neighbors, strangers, family and friends.

How we behave in secret and in public.

Jesus capped it all off with a tightly cinched knot.

But he who endures to the end shall be saved.-Matthew 24:13

Endures means more than hiding in a secure hole with our lounge chair and big screen.

...and then the end will come.- Matthew 24:14

We cannot fit too comfortably into the world around us. We are to be in it, and to be all things to all people(1 Corinthians 9:22), but we cannot be too close without losing the most important things.

Things are LOOKING UP