We Are the Answer to the Question

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matthew 27:46 NKJV). Jesus has already been hanging on the cross for hours when this howl of desperation is heard. I don’t think it’s too hard for us to feel the depth of His misery, but what exactly is the answer to His question?

WE ARE! The agony of the cross was planned “from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). God gave us the right, the freedom, and the liberty to make choices for ourselves. With that, He knew that sooner or later we would make the wrong choices. Enter: a solution, or rather, The Solution (John 14:6)!

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’)” (Galatians 3:13).

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9).

Christ has “borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6).

Did you get all that? God made the Gospel plan and Jesus carried it out to its conclusion on the blood-stained cross FOR US! It’s a load of guilt for us to bear, that God made Jesus “who knew no sin, to be sin for us,” but only if we don’t respond as God hopes. He tells us, “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27).

Yes, God forsook Jesus on the cross, because He was bearing OUR SIN. But, dear reader, now that you see all the love God has shown you through His Son, He has a question for you: Are you now living a life that is worthy of Jesus’ wounds, sorrows and death? What’s YOUR answer?

Jeff Greene, minister for the South Stokes Church of Christ (First published in the Stokes News, the local newspaper.)

Hopeful or Hopeless

Maybe it’s just the general positive or negative attitude people have toward all of life. I don’t know, but I find it especially frustrating to see the varying reactions we all have toward the prospects for another’s future. 

Summertime is coming and that means family-time. I have six grandchildren. What do we think when we observe these little ones? “They’ll never turn out to be anything,” or does their future look bright. I’m not talking about their circumstances and environment, but the decisions they’ll make regardless of what they have to deal with.

What about people who have made some mistakes, even let us down? They might be teenagers, or our aging parents who are a bit forgetful. Do we give up on them? I’ll never forget one of my first days as a prison minister; one of the jail staff told me, “You know you’re wasting your time. These idiots will never change.” Really? Is that what God thinks and is hoping for?

“For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!” (Ezekiel 18:32 NKJV). In Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, when the son who has been a total disappointment desires to return home, Jesus explains, “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). What does that tell us about the father and The Father? Not only does He have hope, but He anticipates that desire from the wayward to “turn and live.” Do we?

In the descriptions of love in 1 Corinthians 13 we find three important ingredients: love thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, and hopes all things! Does that sound like your thought process regarding others? Romans 5:8 makes an intriguing statement, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” If God has no hope in us, why bother to send Jesus?

I know that it is hard to have hope in some people, especially those who have repeatedly hurt us, but we dare not give up on them. The irony in fact is when we become the negative “grumblers” against those around us, we are the ones who are hopeless (James 5:9).

 Jeff

The Spin Cycle

We invite you all to the Gospel Meeting we are hosting next week, October 8-11, with Jack Honeycutt speaking. Jack has been traveling to India to preach for over twenty years. He is my old friend.

On my first trip to India’s tribal areas (around here we call it “living in the country”), the local ladies would gather up our dirty clothes for washing. They didn’t have washing machines in those places back then, so they would take them to the river and wash them by hand, then they would use their ingenuity for the spin cycle. They would flip the clean wet garments into the air and then crash them down on the biggest rock they could find, over and over. Viola – mission accomplished! Your socks would end up twice as long, but that was okay, they were clean.

What’s that spin cycle for, anyway? Whether in a machine or a river, the idea is to rinse the soapy water and the remaining dirt from the clothes, and begin the drying process by getting as much water out of the clothes as possible.

The Spiritual Spin Cycle works in a similar fashion. Frequently the Bible speaks both literally and figuratively of sin’s effects on people. “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 NKJV). What are we to do? Revelation 1:5-6 tells us Jesus “loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father”!

How can we partake of God’s washing process? In Acts 2, Peter convinced his listeners that they had crucified God’s Son, Jesus Christ. That sounds like too deep a stain to be washed, but think again. When they asked, “What shall we do?”, he responded, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” There you go – stains gone! The washing process works the same today for you!

My wife likes the smell of clothes hung outside to dry. She says they just smell fresher. When you go through the Lord’s washing process, you come out the same. “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). I smell better already!

Stop by next week to hear from Jack on how you can wash your spiritual clothes. We’d love to see you!

Jeff

This article was first published in the local newspaper. Feel free to copy/reproduce/post this article, but only in full.

The Leaves Are Falling Already!

Did you see them? Say it ain’t so, Joe! Last week I started noticing leaves from the tulip poplars falling into our yard; then when I cut the grass there they were: walnuts under my blades. I’m anxious for cooler temperatures, like most everyone else, but it seems too early to see the lush greenery around us decaying!

God thinks so, too. Oh, it’s not the beginning of the change in seasons that He set in place originally, that bothers Him (Psalm 74:12-17); it’s the fall of humanity. When God observed “that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually . . . He was grieved in His heart” (Genesis 6:5-6 NKJV). He is heartbroken when even one of us chooses to wade into the undertow of sin (2 Peter 3:9).

Will God throw us a rope? He already did. When Peter’s faith wavered on the sea and he began to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Who was there “immediately”? Jesus (Matthew 14:30-31). That pretty much sums up Jesus’ mission. He came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10)!

What do we need to do to grab God’s rope? Jesus said we need to believe in Him (John 3:16), and confess that belief (Matthew 10:32); repent of our sins (Luke 13:3); be baptized (Mark 16:16) so that those sins might, as Ananias told Saul, be “washed away” (Acts 22:16); and lastly, “be faithful unto death” (Revelation 2:10).

That last thing is the challenge. How many people, who are pulled out of the sea, decide to fall right back in? Who would do such a thing? We would!

Fortunately, God has a continuous escape-from-sin plan for every Christian. Actually, I’d say most of the New Testament was written to “keep you from falling” (Jude 24), but let’s consider a short recipe. “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). If we diligently and continuously add those ingredients to our lives, we will “never fall” (1:10)!

What about “going to church”? Did you know that one of the reasons we are to gather together is so that we can help each other “hold fast” to the Rope (Hebrews 10:23-25)?

The saddest pictures I’ve ever seen are of fallen soldiers on the battlefield. What if we could see what God sees and grieves: the fallen souls whom were thrown the saving rope of Jesus to grab but they “would not” (Matthew 23:37)! I hope you’re not in that picture. Come join us at the South Stokes Church of Christ.

Jeff Greene, minister, South Stokes Church of Christ