Uncategorized – Page 12 – The Blog of Tom Sanders

A Reason for Celebrating

Well it is Easter time again and a time of celebration for many people. There are religious services that last anywhere from 3 days to 50 depending on your background and denomination, and there are secular celebrations as well. Easter is known by most people regardless of your faith as the time that Jesus died and was raised again. But it is also a time where we celebrate the Easter bunny and chocolate egg hunts, and Easter egg painting just to name the most common. Depending on your nationality there may be even more types of celebrations.

This is the time where Christians focus on what Jesus did for us. The fact that He not only came to earth and lived among us, but died in our place and was raised again and is seated in heaven at God’s right hand is foundational to our beliefs. But just how much impact does this have on our lives? How much of what we do is simply religious tradition and how much is what we believe and live.

According to statistics the majority of Christians believe the same things as the world does. And even joins in the celebrations. Now there is nothing wrong with egg hunts and painting. I have done both in my life. The question is do we truly live what we believe? Easter is a time of profound celebration in my life since I encountered Jesus and His love for me. And the more I reflect on how great His love is just for me the more I am moved and the more my heart rejoices. What a joyous celebration, and this is what is supposed to happen for every Christian. Unfortunately most Christians would tell you that they have no experience of God’s love for them personally.

The love of God is so immense that words cannot express. And it is available for each one of us. God loves us each so much that He cannot live without us, so He came and died for us. What an amazing God. God knew each one of us before He created the world, and He knew what it would cost Him to be in relationship with us and He still created each one of us. And His love never changes and never lessens. It is always set on extravagant. And He doesn’t love me any more or less than He loves you.

So how do you get to know His love for you? First you need to have a relationship with Him. It was for this purpose that you were created. So, you ask, how do I get a relationship with God?

First you need to recognize who you are.

We all know our need for God on a deep instinctive level. Whether we recognize it or not it is there. And we try so many things to fill that need that leave us unsatisfied. And if we do recognize the need, we try to work our way into God’s approval. We try to be good people and measure up. But God’s standard is absolute moral perfection, and we simply cannot measure up to this standard on our own. In fact this is the reason God gave us the 10 commandments. So that we could come to understand that we cannot find our way to Him on our own.

Second we need to recognize who God is.

Jesus came to live among us and lived, died and was raised again so that we could have that relationship with Him. Jesus came and paid our penalty. You see the penalty for our not measuring up to God’s standard is eternal separation from Him and eternity spent in hell. But this was not God’s plan. He never intended hell for us, but there had to be a penalty for the choices that we made. All of the things that we do that break God’s moral law mean that we deserve a eternity in hell. But God doesn’t want for us to go there, so Jesus came and paid our penalty. It would be like you being on trial for murder. The law demands a penalty for your crimes. And no amount of pleading or being ‘a good person’ can save us from that penalty. But someone came into the court room and paid your penalty for you so that you wouldn’t have to. His name is Jesus. And He desires to have a relationship with you. In fact this is what eternal life is defined as in scripture. Knowing God and Jesus whom He sent personally and intimately.

Third we need to receive the gift God offers.

If someone offers you a gift and you leave it on the table and walk away it does you absolutely no good. We must pick up and receive the gift offered. And it is the same with the gift of life Jesus offers each one of us. We can say that we don’t believe in God and leave the gift on the table. But this doesn’t change the fact that there is a gift there with our name on it. And Jesus loves each one of us so much that the gift remains there for us should we decide to return and pick it up.

Lastly we simply need to ask God to show us His love.

Now sometimes there are things in the way of Him showing us. The main culprits are bitterness and unforgiveness. If we hold on to them they put up a wall that God cannot get through. So we need to respond to His voice and allow Him to bring down the walls in our lives and then get ready for the flood. When the love God has for you soaks in that is the only words I can give to describe the feeling. A flash flood of love hits you and wow. How great and extravagant is the love God has for you and I. I welcome you to join in the experience. It will change your life forever.

If Only

Many of us have had periods of life that we have simply spun our wheels and drifted through life. Some of us have never been able to do anything else. Many a person, me included has looked at their life and said ‘if only…’

‘If only I hadn’t…’

‘If only I had that new ….’

‘If only I had been born into a different family’

‘If only I had different parents’

‘If only I had lived in another time’

Or we looked at other people and compared our lives to theirs and said

‘If only I had their …’

‘If only I could be like …’

I agree with Mercedes Lackey who said “If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.” To many lives and to much potential has been wasted with the excuse “If only”. Many things in my own life have gone past and I have found myself saying the same thing. And for many people the same could be said. We allow our lives to be governed by the things we wish we had, instead of pursuing life and allowing it to be full of what could be. Someone once said “If we spend our time with regrets over yesterday, and worries over what might happen tomorrow, we have no today in which to live.” If all we focus on is what we don’t have we are powerless to change our situation. We end up with the same problem as ‘happiness is…’ “I’ll be happy when I get …” The remark could be filled in hundreds of ways. But in the end we are never able to achieve happiness because we are spending our time chasing something external and happiness is achieved internally.

The same can be said about the phrase ‘If only..’ We are chasing externals looking to be like someone else instead of being ourselves, or spending our time focusing on the past and regretting instead of looking to our future. Victoria Holt once said “Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.” Our lives are determined by our focus. And only we can change our focus. To spend our time looking at what we don’t have or what could have been means that we will completely miss the potential future we have in store for us. Alexander Graham Bell said it best when he said “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Only we can determine how far we will go, and how far we will go is determined by what we focus on. We each have infinite and wonderful potential to achieve. God created each one of us and He doesn’t make junk. Our choice is whether we live our potential our waste away chasing all our “If only’s”

Living a Christian Life in a Changing World

Our world is changing rapidly around us. Some would say that it is for the better. Some would argue that we are getting worse not better. We have all noticed things that have and are changing.

The way children speaking to their parents and elders

Programs on prime time tv

Content in our movies

Top 10 books

Our lifestyles – looking for more comfort.

Our worlds motto is fast becoming, as so eloquently put by Jakob Poirer, of Canada’s Worst Driver “I do what I want. If I want to learn, I will learn, and if I don’t I’ll flip you the bird.” We are becoming a society that simply does what it wants, when it wants. The bible puts it a different way “the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” Judges 17:6 And with all that is going on around us how do we manage to live a life pleasing to God? I think there are a few things we need to do.

1. Recognize that Christianity is not about perfection.

To many of us Christians are struggling to “be perfect”. We heard someone teach and use the scripture “Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect” and we try to govern our lives and live a life full of rules and obligations that we feel will make us perfect some how. We put on a good face for other Christians hoping beyond hope that they won’t see through our thin veneer of perfection to the total disaster we are living. We know we aren’t following our “holiness code” and aren’t ‘measuring up’ to what we think God wants for us, and we are hoping that with a little more time and effort maybe tomorrow will be different. This is also why the world thinks we are a bunch of hypocrites. Because we are selling a life that we cannot live ourselves. And it isn’t working. I love what Rick Warren said; “If the horse is dead, dismount.”

Our struggle will never make us acceptable to God. Ever. Only when we truly realize this can the life of God flow in us and bring about the changes that are necessary. This is what Paul was talking about in Romans 7. He fully knew that on his own he could never be what God wanted. It is also how he could say “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” and “Not I that lives, but Christ who lives in me.” Paul understood that no effort of his own could ever make him “perfect”. Only the life of Jesus in him. We are made perfect through the sacrifice of Jesus and only through the sacrifice of Jesus. Time for the church to put down the religious rules and recognize the fact that we cannot attain what we are trying to attain, and stop fighting to get what cannot be got. This was the whole purpose of the law of Moses in the first place. The law was simply there to reveal our inadequacy and our inability to be what God designed us to be on our own. It is also why Jesus came and died. So that through Him we could be who God designed us to be.

2. We need to hear God’s voice.

If we were purposed for something it would stand to reason that we need to hear from the designer what that purpose was. Otherwise we would be buying a coffee maker and trying to use it for a fuel pump and getting very frustrated when it didn’t work very well. It sounds obvious but we try to do the same thing. Christianity is simply a relationship with our Creator and Saviour, simply taking His hand and allowing Him to make us into the very thing He designed and created us to be. Each one of us was made for a purpose. God doesn’t make junk and there are no mistakes in heaven. So we need to hear God so we can learn and fulfill our purpose.

3. We need to picture God’s vision.

Everyone of us is the same. Without vision, we will naturally wander aimlessly and waste our lives on nothing of any significance. And that is not what we were created to do. We all have a purpose and only when we discover it can we focus on it. When we travel it is always good to have a map so we know where we are going, because without one it is very easy to get side tracked by things and lost completely and as a result never end up at our destination. And life is the same way. Without and vision and focus it is easy to get lost completely and never become who we were meant to become. And that doesn’t mean that life is necessarily wasted. What is best in life can most often get completely lost under what is good in life. Only when we have a overshadowing picture of where we are headed can we set aside what is good for what is best and walk away from the distractions and rabbit trails and get to our destination.

4. We need to adopt God’s values.

Christian life cannot be lived out any way we see fit. We cannot pick and choose what we believe and what we don’t believe. And we cannot decide that this religion has good points and that faith has some good points and become an amalgamation of parts of various beliefs. If we are to live a Christian life we need to focus on what God values. A Survey by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life/The Pew Reasearch Center for the People and the Press… a recent survey:

Paranormal Possibilities … The percentage of American adults who say they have supernatural beliefs and experiences…

Have been in touch with the dead
Total adult population – 29%
Christians – 29%

Have seen or been in the presence of God
Total adult population – 18%
Christians – 17%

Have consulted a psychic
Total adult population – 15%
Christians – 14%

Believe in astrology
Total adult population – 25%
Christians – 23%

Believe in reincarnation
Total adult population – 24%
Christians – 22%

Believe in “evil eye,” i.e. the casting of curses
Total adult population – 16%
Christians – 17%

Believe spiritual energy exists in physical things like mountains, trees and crystals
Total adult population – 26%
Christians – 23%

Christianity is about living in a relationship with God and living our lives under His direction and with His values. Christians have gotten themselves so distracted by the life and world going on around us that we have lost sight what is important. Time for us to set aside the rules and regulations, we can’t live up to them anyway, and allow the life of God to invade our hearts and minds and truly become who we were meant to become.