Above All Else
The following is a column I write weekly for our church bulletin. I like doing this. It makes me think about some point of teaching that I want people to think about throughout the week. I wanted to share this one with my readers.
Beloved Friends, I wish sometimes that you could see the Christian faith through the same I eyes I do. I am afraid that many people hold such a low and sub-christian view of the faith that they find their greatest pleasures in other places. Now, when you think through that last sentence I wrote, you will see that ... yes ... I said people find pleasure in places other than the Christian faith.
Let me be more specific. Our greatest treasure (and hence our greatest joy and pleasure) is Jesus Christ. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ! Beloved, I want to teach our church to love Christ above everything else out there. I want us all to learn to love Christ more than sex, more than sports games, more than books, more than our spouses, more than our children, more than sin, more than food .. more than anything that competes in our hearts for our affections.
Jesus Christ is the Lord our God, who left His glory in heaven to become a human being. He lived a sinless life. He died on a cross for our sins. He rose from the dead to validate everything He said and did. He sits today, at the right hand of God the Father, forever making intercession for us. That means He is always talking to the Father on our behalf. He did all this because He loved us, personally, from before the foundation of the world. He sent the Holy Spirit for find us and bring us to him for salvation. He gave us the Holy Spirit to live inside us as a down payment of the glory that will one day be ours when He comes to take us all home to Himself. He did this for us!
He loves us as the most perfect husband loves his perfect and beautiful wife. Friends, are we not the Bride of Christ? He yearns for us. He fawns over us. He showers us with His love day and night. He calls us to return that love. We are to return His love so much that we find living on this earth to be a burden and we wait eagerly for the day when we will be in his presence forever. Just as a young bride waits zealously .. jealously .. for her husband when they are separated, we wait in the same way for the day when Jesus comes to take us home. He is called the "Fairest of Ten Thousand" and "The Bright and Morning Star." He is called the "Altogether Lovely" by the Puritans.
When God opened our hearts and gave us spiritual minds He gave us a hunger and thirst for the presence of Christ in our lives. We need Him, yearn for Him, desire Him ... we must have Him ... our Blessed Christ!
To be a Christian is not only to be a follower of Jesus Christ but also to be a lover of Jesus Christ and of all things connected to Him. We love His word, His people, His works, His Church, His laws, everything! I wish I could make you see Christ like that. As your pastor, that is my deepest heart .. that I could teach us all to be lovers of Jesus above all else. Help me do that. In that day, when we all meet Him face to face, we will be able to hear Him say to us "Well done good and faithful servant. Come and enter into the rest of your Lord." May it be so with all of us. Amen.
The following is a column I write weekly for our church bulletin. I like doing this. It makes me think about some point of teaching that I want people to think about throughout the week. I wanted to share this one with my readers.
Beloved Friends, I wish sometimes that you could see the Christian faith through the same I eyes I do. I am afraid that many people hold such a low and sub-christian view of the faith that they find their greatest pleasures in other places. Now, when you think through that last sentence I wrote, you will see that ... yes ... I said people find pleasure in places other than the Christian faith.
Let me be more specific. Our greatest treasure (and hence our greatest joy and pleasure) is Jesus Christ. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ! Beloved, I want to teach our church to love Christ above everything else out there. I want us all to learn to love Christ more than sex, more than sports games, more than books, more than our spouses, more than our children, more than sin, more than food .. more than anything that competes in our hearts for our affections.
Jesus Christ is the Lord our God, who left His glory in heaven to become a human being. He lived a sinless life. He died on a cross for our sins. He rose from the dead to validate everything He said and did. He sits today, at the right hand of God the Father, forever making intercession for us. That means He is always talking to the Father on our behalf. He did all this because He loved us, personally, from before the foundation of the world. He sent the Holy Spirit for find us and bring us to him for salvation. He gave us the Holy Spirit to live inside us as a down payment of the glory that will one day be ours when He comes to take us all home to Himself. He did this for us!
He loves us as the most perfect husband loves his perfect and beautiful wife. Friends, are we not the Bride of Christ? He yearns for us. He fawns over us. He showers us with His love day and night. He calls us to return that love. We are to return His love so much that we find living on this earth to be a burden and we wait eagerly for the day when we will be in his presence forever. Just as a young bride waits zealously .. jealously .. for her husband when they are separated, we wait in the same way for the day when Jesus comes to take us home. He is called the "Fairest of Ten Thousand" and "The Bright and Morning Star." He is called the "Altogether Lovely" by the Puritans.
When God opened our hearts and gave us spiritual minds He gave us a hunger and thirst for the presence of Christ in our lives. We need Him, yearn for Him, desire Him ... we must have Him ... our Blessed Christ!
To be a Christian is not only to be a follower of Jesus Christ but also to be a lover of Jesus Christ and of all things connected to Him. We love His word, His people, His works, His Church, His laws, everything! I wish I could make you see Christ like that. As your pastor, that is my deepest heart .. that I could teach us all to be lovers of Jesus above all else. Help me do that. In that day, when we all meet Him face to face, we will be able to hear Him say to us "Well done good and faithful servant. Come and enter into the rest of your Lord." May it be so with all of us. Amen.
posted by John | Monday, May 04, 2009
4 Comments:
Amen John, amen. Again, very good words. Words the church needs to hear day after day, a constant reminder to remember Him. I praise God that He is teaching me this very thing, especially over the past year or so, He is so good!
This past Sunday i was blessed to be able to bring the sermon in our little church. The Lord prompted me to preach on the Lords Supper, and then we partook of it for the first time. The first 1/2 i spent on the warnings found in 1Cor.11...the second 1/2 i spent on a time of remembering our Savior and His great act of love for us and how we are to love Him in return.
I am going to post this in my blog (with a link to your blog of course).
In Him
Mark,
An old friend, eh? Who are you? What Mark do I know in Corpus Christi? I have looked at your blog site and at your church's website and I don't find any hints. Help me out here.
Oh, and thanks for the kind words about the blog post.
Confused,
John
Paltalk... aka TruthMatters
Pastor John, I've been recently doing JUST this, finding my pleasure outside of the Christian faith. A friend of mine asked me to download a video game and then play it with him over the Internet, and I thought it would just be a little fun, a good way to relax.
And at first it was, but before I knew it I was playing the game for four hours at a time, staying up late at night and then going into work the next day very grumpy.
So I think it's amazing how I've just been going through this, and then I read your blog. :)
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