Skip to main content

What I Learned on Sunday, 2nd Edition

I enjoyed fellowship this past Sunday  at church. I was sitting next to a good friend. After the sermon, I asked him what he found helpful in the sermon. This is a new practice I have adopted. I want to increasingly speak to people sitting next to me about what I just heard before turning to world matters.

I believe this is important for three reasons. First, I want to see if I missed an angle in the sermon that my friend may have picked up. I am also keen to hear, as a preacher, how certain truths were understood. Secondly, it allows me to hear how God is working in his life. Thirdly, it allows me to share any challenges I have with another Christian and how that scripture spoke to them.

I wont say what my friend shared, but it was very good and encouraging. But here is what I shared with him as we spoke. The sermon came from this verse:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3 ESV)
The preacher reminded us that the thrust of Paul's statement is that we have a lot to praise God for. First, we can praise God for who is. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, we can praise God what he has done for us!

It is during the second part where the Preacher made a piercing statement that made me pause. He said that Paul is reminding us here that "we have everything we need in Christ". Or as Paul puts it we have "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places".

I sat there thinking, what a revolutionary statement : I have everything I need in Christ! This is certainly encouraging, but also worrying! The problem is that I can say "I have everything I need in Christ", but do I actually believe this? Do I live my life consistent with the truth that "I have everything I need in Christ"?

The simple answer is no. And if I am terribly honest, it is not easy to actually believe and practice this truth for many Christians. I know this is controversial but I fear too often we forget just how revolutionary the gospel is. We forget that it makes statements that are ground breaking! And sometimes we assume it is straightforward.

My point is that it is genuinely hard to believe that you have everything in Christ when you are jobless and desperately seeking for work. I don't care how long you have walked with Christ. You will find it difficult!

It is hard to believe that you have everything you need when your spouse has just walked out on you after 10 or 20 years of commitment. You may be the saint of the local town but that is hard!
It is hard to believe that you have everything in Christ when your loved one is terminally ill. It is hard to believe you have everything in Christ when you are failing interview after interview. It is hard to believe you have everything you need when your President is Assad and you are surrounded by Islamists. And the list goes on!

The truth is potentially easier to accept when you are at the top and God answers every prayer you pray, especially if the latest answer is for a bumper pay rise! But even there, I wonder! How long will it last?

With every material blessing comes more dicontentment for me. Ours is an existence that screams for more and more! So even for Christians blessed with 4 vehicles, a well paid mortage, children who can recite the Bible in Arabic, Spanish and French, it is perhaps even harder to believe "I have everything I need in Christ".

But imagine if you believed and practised this truth. What would it look like? What would knowing you have everything in Christ look like on a daily basis?

Knowing you have everything in Christ changes how we eat! Lol! Seriously, it means that we don't eat to satisfy every appetite, we eat as people already full with Christ. I use that example because it closer to home!

Knowing you have everything in Christ changes how we write on social media. It means that we are not writing for approval or to be noticed. We write as people already blessed by God. You write now as an expression of how God is at work in your life.

Knowing you have everything in Christ changes how you hunt for a new job! Yes, you may feel that you have not yet arrived at your ideal area of vocation. But this verse says that Jesus has blessed you with himself. You have everything. So you hunt for a job because you want to be a channel of his blessing already in your life for other.

Knowing you have everything in Christ changes how you relate to people who have caused you hurt! You see because you have Christ in your life, your love is now joined to eternal love of God shared between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Your love is now big enough to forgive. You no longer seek vengeance because you have enough from circle of God's love.

I can go and add some more. But the point is surely clear. This truth is revolutionary. It is also impossible to live it out by human effort. And as I look at my own life, I see little evidence of living it out.

In short, it is a thought worth meditating on time and time again. And this week I will be praying that God makes it possible for me to really live in light of this earth shaking truth : I have everything I need in Christ.

Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Am Mother

I think it is true to say that the Netflix film I Am Mother is one the most disturbing movies I have watched for a long time. The film is set in a near future. Human life has been wiped out. An artificial intelligence (AI) called Mother is living inside a bunker where thousands of embroyos are stored. It selects an embryo and initiates a program to grow a baby within 24 hours. The AI then goes on to raise the child as its mother over the next few years.  After 16 years, the girl, who now goes by the name of Daughter (Clara Rugaard) is a teenager. She has never been outside because Mother has told her that the air is toxic. Her time is spend being home schooled in science and ethics so that she can become a perfect human being. The bond between Daughter and Mother is unusually strong. To our surprise there does not appear to be any mental or pyschological trauma of having a machine as her mother.  The strength of the bond between man and machine is tested when a nameless Woman (Hilary
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

What is the best preparation for preaching?

The best preparation is not to be too anxious about it. Anxious care hinders liveliness and efficacy. It leads to too little dependence on the Spirit. Be not didactic. Aim at the conscience as soldiers aim at the faces. Consider I may be preaching my last sermon. This leads to setting forth Christ as The Way, the Truth and the Life . .. Make Christ the prominent figure…Pay less attention to dear self. JOHN NEWTON
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

White Fragility, A Review

Robin DiAngelo has a sermon to preach. It is in form of a short popular book called White Fragilit y. Straight off the bat she tells us not to expect balanced analysis but a forceful argument “unapologetically rooted in identity politics”.  She understands identity politics as “the [political] focus on the barriers specific groups face in their struggle for equality”. The group she wants to save is black people, whom she blankets under “people of colour”.  So what is White Fragility about?  DiAngelo is sick and tired of white racism in the western world, and specifically the USA. She believes every white person, including babies, are guilty of racism by virtue of being white. So she wants to use her “insider status” as a white American woman to challenge this white racism by getting her fellow “white progressives” to force forward her thesis. In her words, “I am white...and I am mainly writing to a white audience”. I was immediately tempted to put down the book because being black Afri
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →