This article was first published in the July 2020 print edition of the Owensville First Christian Church Newsletter.
Half of 2020 has past and what a six months it has been! In light of what we’ve experienced and read or viewed in the news of recent events, it’s quite apparent why the Word came into the world and took on a human body. Jesus is The Answer. Let’s keep in mind, as someone rightly said, that the Christian’s allegiance must not be to a donkey or an elephant but to the Lamb of God. So here are a few sets of quotes for us to slowly ponder in view of the reality in which we are living:
The God-Human Gap:
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard (Romans 3:23, NLT).
For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly… But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6, 8, CSB).
“The God-human gap always exists in two forms:
• The Actual Gap – the infinite moral, spiritual and relational gap between God and humans that requires grace.
• The Perceived Gap - we live as if the God-human gap is smaller than it really is.”—Dr. Jody Owens
“The grace of God that affects us (grace as God’s transforming and healing power) generally does not exceed our perceived need for grace. People who assume the gap between them and God is small will conclude that they need little grace and thus will receive little transforming grace.” --James Wilhoit, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered
Two Kinds of Sorrow:
For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death (2 Corinthians 7:10, NLT).
• “Godly Sorrow and Brokenness: broken, humbled and softened. Encounter the tragic with wisdom, appropriate acceptance and reliance on God.
• Worldly Sorrow and Brokenness: Wounded, hardened and cynical. Understand themselves as being wounded and hurt, they desire to escape the pain and respond with a bitter spirit marked by making excuses, defending self and blaming others.”—Dr. Jody Owens
From Out of Our Hearts:
For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander. (Matthew 15:19, CSB )
“The ‘sudden’ failures that appear in the lives of some are never really sudden, but are the surfacing of long-standing deficiencies in the ‘hidden person of the heart.’—Dallas Willard
The Need for Spiritual Transformation:
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2, ESV).
But we Christians have no veil over our faces; we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him (2 Corinthians 3:18, TLB).
“The quality of our souls will indelibly touch others for good or ill. So we must never forget that the most important thing happening at any moment… is the kind of persons we are becoming.”—Dallas Willard
May the peace of Christ be with you all!
Bart Newton,
Preaching Minister