Tag Archives: Atonement

Love

Lent
April 12, 2017

Scripture Reading: Colossians 3:1-4

So, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

I wish that I could wave a magic wand over the earth and in one swipe make everyone whole, including myself. How many of the problems in our world today can be traced back to a gap in someone’s self-worth? How many wars happen because of the need for some to prove they are better in some way than others?

The source of wholeness has come. There is no magic wand; there was a cross. There is a man, we call him Jesus, who came to show us the way to wholeness and then took the additional, extraordinary step to fill the gaps in our relationship with God by giving his very life for us. Some call it atonement, making us at one with God. Some identify it as salvation. Some know it as the gift of grace. He called it love.

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul?

Prayer: Thank you Lord for your unconditional love. Thank you Lord for enabling me to love others. Amen.

*First verse of What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul Author unknown. See at http://www.hymnary.org/text/what_wondrous_love_is_this_o_my_soul_o_m

All scriptures are quoted from the new Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Strengthened Weak Knees

nothing-can-separate-you-from-the-love-of-godAdvent
December 5, 2016

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 35:1-10

Strengthen the weak hands,
   and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
   ‘Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
   He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
   He will come and save you.’ –Isaiah 35:2-4

There are other scriptures* about feeble knees or weak knees. Fear described by the presence of “being weak in the knees” has existed for centuries, I guess. I fully understand the imagery for I literally have bad knees and they impact all aspects of my life just as fear causes us to change our behavior. I have strengthened my left knee if you call replacing bone with stainless steel making something stronger. It has a few limitations, but it has opened doors for work and travel I could not do without it.

The surgeon needed to replace fear with fortitude is Jesus Christ. I recently told a friend who was nervous about leading in worship that a little stage fright makes everyone more alert and perform better. God built the fight or flight response into each of us when God created us. Fight does not necessarily mean fisticuffs. Fight in this instance means using our fear to strengthen our stance so that we can face whatever in life tries to break us. There may be a time when withdrawing from a situation is the wisest response, but such a response needs to be about the situation not reactionary to our fear of it.

God not only created us with natural mechanisms for wholeness, but God also gifted us with Jesus Christ with whom we can be at one; the Bible calls this atonement. When we reconcile to God through Jesus Christ, we never face any situation, good, bad or indifferent, alone. In Christ, fear is a strengthening force, not a catalyst for running away.

Prayer: Lord, Strengthen our weak hands, and make firm our feeble knees as we respond to your call to love. Amen.

*Job 4:4; Psalm 109:24; Ezekiel 7:17 and 21:7; Daniel 5:6; Nahum 2:10; Hebrews 12:12

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.

Being One with God

BUTTERFLYLiving in the Spirit
September 18, 2015

Scripture Reading: James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures….

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. –James 4:1-3, 7-8

Just stop doing the bad things that are harmful to you is easier said than done. Truly dealing with what drives us to do the bad things that are harmful for us is even more complicated. We pray for God to forgive us for whatever our laundry list of perceived sins are in the morning. We then go through our day doing those things over and over again. In the evening we pray again for God to forgive us. We repeat this endless cycle because we are holding on tightly to whatever is driving our behavior. We are serving lesser gods.

I use to think the prophets of the Hebrew Bible rather overdid the whole idol thing. It is one of their constants. I rationalized, however, these were ancient cultures who worshipped actual effigies and our monotheistic ancestors in the faith had a real challenge to introduce these people to the God of love. I have decided those prophets were as right for today as they were back then. We are wrong in not seeing how lives are misdirected by their constant desire for things that do not satisfy. Though they may not be made of stone, the things we crave are our idols.

God desires wholeness for each of us. The theological term for this is Atonement defined as a theological doctrine concerning the reconciliation of God and humanity and the means by which such reconciliation is achieved.* Seeking God and being truthful with God and with ourselves are the first two steps to getting our lives back from our own destructive ways.

Living for Jesus a life that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do;
Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.** 

Prayer:
O Jesus, Lord and Savior,
I give myself to Thee,
For Thou, in Thy atonement.
Didst give Thyself for me;
I own no other Master,
My heart shall be Thy throne,
My life I give, henceforth to live,
O Christ, for Thee alone.** Amen.

* http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/Atonement

**First verse of Living for Jesus by Thomas O. Chisholm. The prayer is the chorus of this song. See at http://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Living_for_Jesus_Chisholm/

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Happy New Year!

New BeginningsChristmas
January 1, 2015

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 1:3-14

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, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. — Ephesians 1:3-8

It is New Year’s Day in the United States of America and in most places around the world that follow the same calendar we follow. It is a good day to rid ourselves of the chains that keep us from being and doing that for which we were gifted in creation or gained through life experiences. Whether we celebrate such a new beginning on January 1 or any other date the cleansing of past failures and, perhaps, successes and the setting of new quests are good things. One of my oft quoted favorite scriptures, Psalm 51:10, deals with it: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. To me this scripture elicits a new year every day. But it is also good to look back at blocks of time and consider future actions.

The Hebrew Bible introduced the Day of Atonement and Christians have been struggling with what that actually means to us ever since the resurrection of the Christ. It makes us uneasy. While some are able to hold tightly to the idea that Jesus died for our sins like the sacrificial lamb, others seek broader understandings and some no understanding at all.

There is no question in my mind that Jesus died trying to show the world in which he lived a different path toward relationship with God and among all people. We inherited that legacy of his death. Thanks be to God, we also inherited the legacy of his resurrection. Part of this bequest from God is forgiveness of sin, experiential growth from past mistakes when we open ourselves to learn from them, and the renewal of opportunity to follow that path. Happy New Year!

Prayer: God of New Beginnings, forgive us of our sins, wash us thoroughly, and re-establish our faith compasses toward your future through and in us. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.