Power.

Day 9.

Trying to hit 1000 words here in Ferguson, Guisad, before we set off to go home.

Today, I’ve needed to sacrifice one or a couple of tasks, because I slept at around 2am early morning, and consequently woke up at around 9am. I had to watch over our dog, Akira, who just gave birth to 4 pups. So far, 2 have died, but I believe the last 2 are strong and will make it.

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Fearless

Today, I’ve been thinking about the salvation that a Christian holds on to. I’ve come to believe that, more than anything, this salvation is no less than Christ Himself, alive in us, as we are alive in Him. And because Christ lives forever, so we live. Even to the end of our mortal bodies, which is only a temporal part of our being, and even to the end of time itself, all that remains, remains, and endures, forever.

I’ve always enjoyed the thought of being free from oblivion. I continue to revel in the Truth in Christ’s words, that though we may die, we would live forever. The way I understood this, is that our mortal bodies may return to dust, but our being beyond our bodies and all our senses perceive would bask in the glory of Christ, who is our infinite and eternal Savior.

To know that I am free from death, and the fear of death – that’s something that just continues to minister to me, to this day.

I suppose that this also drives me to encourage anyone and everyone within my influence, that they would also know of Christ, who would also free them from this crippling fear of death.

It led me to thinking, however, that though I understand what I am free from – certainly something easy for one and all to see considering how fucked up this world is – I have still to grasp what I am free towards.

I tell my the administrative group of the afternoon service under my supervision, that our deal is all about celebrating Christ and His finished work. I tell them that celebrating Christ is in creating, curating, connecting, and/or collaborating, that all would see the same Christ through us as individuals and when we work together… But I feel as if I still need to keep an eye out for the passion towards living, much as I am thrilled of that Truth that I will never die.

Perhaps, in these coming days, I would see how our celebrations shift from us not dying, to us really living. I couldn’t say it’s a matter of increased activity or communications – God forbid that people would see we’re trying too hard, people would certainly see through that instantly.

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Life

Christ has rescued me into eternal life, just as much as He has taken me out of absolute darkness.

Perhaps this is what I ought to meditate on these days, in the pursuit of appreciating the eternal life and the everlasting love I say that every believer has, through Christ and His finished work.

So far, this is how I see it:

I hold it close to my heart to understand that as Christ is, so are we in this world. So when Christ died, we died with Him. Our old being, from our mind to our body, and our spirit, being fully saturated in sin and doomed to death, was crucified with Christ, rendered defeated, immobile, and lifeless.

When Christ rose again, so we rose with Him, as new creations. I like to call us temples of the Holy Spirit in this regard, and that we’ve been made new wineskins. So as Christ ascended, so we ascended with Him. Consequently, heaven descended upon us. The Holy Spirit dwelled upon the apostles as tongues of fire. We, as new wineskins, have been filled with a new Spirit; we, as temples, have been filled with the Holy Spirit, celebrating the ministry of reconciliation.

Our reality has been shifted from what we see which perishes, to what we do not see, which is eternal. And while the finite could not come anywhere close to the infinite, I am led to think, that which is eternal influences the temporal. This gives me reason to say that as we celebrate this ministry of reconciliation – which has us in Christ as He is in us not only for a season, but unto forever – it manifests in and through our being, that anyone and everyone we influence could not deny the everlasting love that gives us both power and peace.

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Power

There it is. If there’s anything that Christ is for me, personally, it is power, and peace. And that’s another way to sum up what I want to say here, in so many words. I understand how Christ is the peace that holds me together even if everything in this reality that our senses perceive tries to tear me apart…

But I have to be honest with myself in this time that I am still on the ropes as to understanding the power behind the finished work of Christ. I believe that a key to understanding it from my perspective is to know, as I mentioned, that my reality is no longer bound to what I see, but what Christ has won for me.

It gives me peace during the death of a loved one, even my Dad, in the sense that I was to believe that the finished work of Christ brought me to at least two distinct possibilities from his affliction: (1) that he would jump out of bed fully healed of colon cancer and everything else that ails him, and that the life of his body would be extended, and/or (2) that he would be in that proverbial ‘better place’ which Paul also mentioned, that is, to be in eternity with Christ.

I am certainly at peace during other times of calamity, not out of being smug or naive, but just knowing that Christ will never leave me, no matter what. When the world moves around me, I am at a peace beyond understanding…

…but when it comes to power to move the world, I am not at peace, because this is what I am far from understanding.

Or maybe I’m overreacting because I’m already doing it. Either way, to not be sure is a sign that more learning is needed.

Or I should just keep on going, all this time keeping an eye out for what to learn and what to notice.

After all, some things are better left unnoticed, so they would grow.

30+ years has me believing that this is true with love and marriage, as it is with money. But is this the case with power?

The Magic 8-Ball seems to answer, ‘Signs point to yes’.