Alive
Some times I think of Jesus as though He were dead and gone to heaven. I know this is not true but this is how my mind tends to think of it. Much like a relative that had passed away and went to heaven. There is kind of a type of distance, between us. They are in a good place, heaven, happy, but totally unconnected from where I am and what I am doing. My memories of them are in the past and make me smile, distant still though.
Now I know this is not true, but some times that is how my mind frames it about Christ. The thing that I know but I don't tend to let sink in all the time is that he is not dead.1 No I mean it. He is not in heaven because he died. Pretty much everyone else that believed in Him is there for that reason. I mean when everyone dies they go somewhere right. And really there is only one of two places they can go, and people that are in heaven had to get there some how.
But the reason He is in heave is because he chose to go there. I mean He had died here on earth, but he beat death and came alive again, and chose to stick around and talk and eat and hang out with people for a while after that.2 And then one day He decided to float up to heaven, with a bunch of people watching Him. I mean that day He chose to go up to heaven. He didn't die, He chose to go there. He ascended there, alive, and is still alive today. And not only that but He can choose to come down to earth physically at any point. In fact He is going to come back down here some day, probably sooner that most of us think.
I know this may sound a little weird, maybe even a little fictional, someone coming back to life and then floating away. I have got to admit as a kid I tried to fly and it didn't really work out so well. And the people watching Him were a little amazed at this odd site because they just stood there watching Him float up. But maybe it wasn't all that odd because he had been doing amazing things His whole life. After all He was God. But anyways they stood there so long staring at the sky that He had to send someone down to tell them to stop staring at the clouds and start doing what he told them to do.3
And that is to take this hope that He has given us to the rest of the world. I like it how Neil Cole puts it. He came naked through the birth canal, just like the rest of us. He had to have someone change His diapers (or swaddling clothes, depending on which translation you read) and for a time could communicate only by crying, just like all other people since Adam and Eve. He was poor and lived among us. He got his hand s dirty and served the people. Eventually, He even came to me somewhere in the twentieth century after his life, death, and resurrection. We need to let Him come to the lost today as well.
Jesus is still incarnate; we are now His feet, His hands, His eyes, and His mouth. We are the body of Christ. We are His temple and His Spirit dwells with in our flesh (1 Cor. 6:19). We are not deity, but Deity dwells in us, and I propose that this truth is such a dramatically life-altering reality that all should notice.4
He is still alive today. In fact is because He is alive that I can truly be alive.5 He’s the way I can have Life in this life. He is still giving hope and changing lives. I’m not going to live today in memory of Jesus. I am going to live today with Jesus.
Now I know this is not true, but some times that is how my mind frames it about Christ. The thing that I know but I don't tend to let sink in all the time is that he is not dead.1 No I mean it. He is not in heaven because he died. Pretty much everyone else that believed in Him is there for that reason. I mean when everyone dies they go somewhere right. And really there is only one of two places they can go, and people that are in heaven had to get there some how.
But the reason He is in heave is because he chose to go there. I mean He had died here on earth, but he beat death and came alive again, and chose to stick around and talk and eat and hang out with people for a while after that.2 And then one day He decided to float up to heaven, with a bunch of people watching Him. I mean that day He chose to go up to heaven. He didn't die, He chose to go there. He ascended there, alive, and is still alive today. And not only that but He can choose to come down to earth physically at any point. In fact He is going to come back down here some day, probably sooner that most of us think.
I know this may sound a little weird, maybe even a little fictional, someone coming back to life and then floating away. I have got to admit as a kid I tried to fly and it didn't really work out so well. And the people watching Him were a little amazed at this odd site because they just stood there watching Him float up. But maybe it wasn't all that odd because he had been doing amazing things His whole life. After all He was God. But anyways they stood there so long staring at the sky that He had to send someone down to tell them to stop staring at the clouds and start doing what he told them to do.3
And that is to take this hope that He has given us to the rest of the world. I like it how Neil Cole puts it. He came naked through the birth canal, just like the rest of us. He had to have someone change His diapers (or swaddling clothes, depending on which translation you read) and for a time could communicate only by crying, just like all other people since Adam and Eve. He was poor and lived among us. He got his hand s dirty and served the people. Eventually, He even came to me somewhere in the twentieth century after his life, death, and resurrection. We need to let Him come to the lost today as well.
Jesus is still incarnate; we are now His feet, His hands, His eyes, and His mouth. We are the body of Christ. We are His temple and His Spirit dwells with in our flesh (1 Cor. 6:19). We are not deity, but Deity dwells in us, and I propose that this truth is such a dramatically life-altering reality that all should notice.4
He is still alive today. In fact is because He is alive that I can truly be alive.5 He’s the way I can have Life in this life. He is still giving hope and changing lives. I’m not going to live today in memory of Jesus. I am going to live today with Jesus.
1.Luke 28:5-10
2.Luke 24:13-53; John 20:16-21:25
3. Acts 1:8-11
4.Neil Cole, Organic Church
5.Colossians 3:1-17
Labels: Jesus
