Does that mean John, Bill &Jonathan will be coming back with a vengeance?
We are back -- but it will take a little time to put things in order. I will say that it was one of the most significant journeys of my life. This belief that the Christ event tore down the wall of separation, that in Him is the Trinity, all of creation and all of humanity, that we cannot excape His presense, that if life is to be lived apart from His, we have become gods unto ourselves, that heaven and hell are extentions of our time spent in this world, that human invention and will and activity have nothing to do with our union with God for that union is IN (eis) Him ---- we are placed there by His intervention, by His will to include and by His act of inclusion (the cross and His subsequent Resurrected Life), that His commandments are not grievous, our being called to love God, ourselves and our neighbor (read "all of mankind"), that God in Christ accepted man including his shame and his good times, that "evangelism" is the preaching of the Christ (read "Word") to a world of people bent on self destruction....that in evangelism, God is calling man out of those things that will destroy man (we call this "salvation" and recognize that this service of God is Him saving man from himself) ; that in and through Israel, God has birthed His salvation and extended it to include all those for whom He died. As surely as God will not be defeated in the establishment of His Assembly, so His death for the whole world is not something that can or was defeated in any way. What God sets out to accomplished, that very thing becomes His will and purpose and accomplishment. In Christ, after thousands of years and a world of frustration, God in Christ could finally say with integrety, " It is finished." The notion that God and sin are not joined in any way has forever been defeated, for it is our God who become sin on our behalf and took all our humanity, including the dark side, back to the spiritual realm. God the Father sees us through the Life of Christ. As a result, He is more than approachable, we actually have life in Him as a part of all creation. Because He became like us in every respect, His work as High Priest is eternally effectual, His mediation as priest is without defeat and our salvation is secure because it is the Christ who established this salvation on our behalf and in our place.
I could go on and on -- but not tonight. This Gospel of Christ, the vision of the Truine God, is the most important biblical concept this side of heaven. I have said it before -- if I told you all just how good God has been to me, you all would get jealous !! Never more true than tonight. To God be praise and adoration.
Pastor Smithson
