See Beyond Sight

We have not fully recognized how great the work is that Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross.  He not only took within Himself the Sins of the World, He destroyed the construct of Sin as a World order.  Before Golgotha, Sin was the universal condition of all creation.  Its poison reached into every particle until the sinless Son of Man came to us.  His body contained the damage of sin but not its presence.  When our Lord was crucified, Sin filled Him and corrupted His body but not the being of God.  Christ's death took Sin with it so that as Resurrected Lord not even the damage of Sin could be found in Him.  For the first time since Adam, the Created Order had a Sinless place and He is the beginning of the Sinless universe.  From Christ Resurrected comes Life not only without Sin but Life undamaged by Sin.  We find in Jesus Christ raised from the dead the beginning of the wonder of living without Sin.  Can we begin to picture life without temptation, without depression, anger, fear or selfish craving?  Have we taken time to think of what it will be like to walk without Sin boundaries and barriers; to be united with God and one another yet still ourselves?  No force of nature will hinder us for once more as it was before Adam, nature will be our dominion and not our master.  Like with Jesus, the wind and waves will obey us.  The earth will be our home and we will no longer struggle with it.  Work will be our pleasure and not our curse, the days will not exhaust us and nothing new will usher in pain.  Memories will only bring joy and dreams will never turn into nightmares.  We will never be betrayed by ourselves or others and the knee and elbow and back will forever be our friends.  The light won't reveal sorrow and the friend will remain a friend.  For the first time, we will see God and really see Him and we will never turn away from Him.  The Cross is the unveiling of Life without Sin and the uncovering of our Lord's Love for us...we now begin to see it; soon enough that Love will be the source of all sight.

Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that."   John 1:50 NIV

Birthdays And Dreamscapes

Tomorrow is Hannah's birthday. When she was born, I thought she was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. Of course it wasn't like I was an obstetrician or pediatrician so my sample size wasn't in the thousands but she was as perfect a baby as was possible. Nineteen years later Hannah has cleared the way to become a vocational missionary and it seems as though she is the obvious and desired compliment to what can come of years of praying, loving, training and encouraging. It is true that you can become a mechanic or cab driver and have God's heart but few mechanics and cab drivers sought Jesus when they turned to those vocations but almost no one becomes a Christian missionary without an earnest pursual of Jesus. Which brings me to Hannah. All of us should have our birthdays celebrated; certainly someone should be remembering us somewhere and it would be great if we all were mentioned in blogs but with Hannah, I think of everything I once dreamed would be my point as pastor and see it wrapped up in this niece of mine I do this pastor life because I am certain God called me to it but what drives me in it is the thought that from the womb a child can be carried through the church into something noble, something that truly makes our parts of the world more lovely. Can we say it? More Christian. Hannah is kind and generous and bright and certainly godly but she is more than that. She is one light shining who has been lit by a forgotten class...the praying faithful. Hannah's name is Hebrew and not so surpisingly means prayer...or more specifically mercy prayer. Whatever God does with you Hannah, you are set apart but not moved apart. You are within this big family that dreams even bigger things for you than you are capable. No need to try to make anyone proud of you because we all love you more than that and besides missions isn't your goal, it is your being. Follow your calling Hannah but wherever your mission field is, it will always be within your home! Happy Birthday Hannah!