The Good News Is Always Relevant (by Amber Sweeney)

Why is Jesus so important? Do you know the significance of what He did on the cross? What did His life represent? What does this all mean for you? Why do you call yourself a christian? Who is the Holy Spirit and what is It's role in our daily lives?

These are questions that put us on a path towards understanding, towards truth. We have to be willing to ask these questions in order to understand why we worship this God who so desperately wants us to know that He created us to love us. Why do you love your spouse, your kids, your friends? What is it about them that makes you so excited to see them? You know them and they know you. You have the privilege of getting to know the things about them that make them tick, and likewise they get to know those things about you. From there, we're given the opportunity to enjoy and relate to each other in those ways. For instance, if my best friend likes sushi, I get to take them to their favorite sushi restaurant and enjoy their company, get to know them more, and bless their socks off by letting them know that I get them -- and I like them. We bless our children when we give them gifts that speak to their hearts and then we get to relate to them in that blessing. This is what the Lord has always wanted with us. So, what if you were unable to give your best friend that gift because there was something preventing you from being in relationship? What if they were kidnapped, forced into slavery, and brainwashed to think that you were now the most horrible being in existence -- or worse... they're convinced that you don't even exist?

We've heard these analogies many times before... in our churches, on television, in movies, songs, and unfortunately, we've seen them happen in reality. What we forget, however, is that God has always been out to see us reunited. There is an epidemic of human trafficking in our culture at present. When one of these precious souls are rescued from the horror that they've encountered, they cannot simply return to their everyday lives. There is time needed to heal, recover, and relearn how to live as free and whole people. They have to be reprogrammed, so to speak. In many ways, this is parallel to what God does with us when He rescues us from the grasp of the enemy who has stolen us from Him.

The fight God has been fighting on our behalf since the beginning is to show us that He is who He says He is. He is Love. We were stolen from Him. We were made to believe that God is not good and that He hates us. There is a liar pulling on our eyelids and polluting our hearts with accusations against God and against us. In Genesis 2, we read the story of God creating man and woman. In chapter 3 verse 4 we read about the deception and first moment of disbelief. The serpent tells the woman when she clarifies that they can eat from any tree but the tree-of-the-knowledge-of-good-and-evil, "You won't die. (saying God is a liar). God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll see what's really going on. (saying that God is keeping something good from us; he's saving the best for himself and giving us the scraps) You'll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil." Suddenly, both the man and the woman were faced with a choice to believe that either God was good and true, or a liar and a tyrant. Let us remember that in chapter 1:26, God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of the Earth." Later we read that God brought each of the animals to man and let them be named by man. He let US name the creatures. We were given dominion over all the earth! We were in charge of it's care. So, we were made to reflect the nature of God and given the opportunity to manage creation like He would. The serpent tried to convince us that it wasn't enough. So, when the man and the woman ate and suddenly became aware of good and evil, the first thing the man did was to tell God that the woman He gave Him was a bad thing. He pointed the finger at God saying that He isn't good because He gave Him a companion who could not be trusted, therefore God cannot be trusted. The woman replied that she was deceived and ate. The serpent succeeded in convincing us that God was a liar.  Since then, the Lord has been working to restore our understanding of His nature, because He made us to reflect His nature. He is Holy. We were made to reflect that Holiness.

We once walked with God in the cool of the day. He would talk with us and enjoy our company and we would enjoy His. We lost that for a time. There was a time when in order to be in the Presence of God, you had to be a male of the tribe of Levi, shave all the hair off of your body, fast and pray for a week, and slaughter a calf or a lamb before entering a movable tent that housed His presence. We take for granted the freedom we're given in the gift of living intimately in His presence. We don't have to be of a particular bloodline and go through a week long ceremonial cleansing that ends with an animal sacrifice. On top of that, there was one person, the High Priest, who could enter the place where God dwelled on behalf of an entire nation, and ultimately on behalf of all humanity. This is no longer true.

Why? Because of Jesus. The miracle of Jesus starts with Him becoming like us. Where we were created in His image, He took on the likeness of that which He created. He lived like we did. He will always bear this image. He breathed air, ate food, experienced the tearing of flesh when it's beaten. He knows what it's like to walk a great distance and feel the ache in your bones. He laughed, he danced, and He held deep and profound conversations with people He loved. He needed us to know that He understands us. He was fully human and fully God at the same time. Then, He took it on Himself to make things right for all of humanity... He stood before the Father and said, I believe in You. He let Himself be the one that God poured His wrath out on and now we get to live in the Joy of the Lord. Now, I can walk with God all day long. Now I can hear Him tell me that He enjoys my presence. He enjoys having meals with me, laughing at the things I find funny, and singing with me in my bedroom as much as He enjoys singing with me in crowds. He shows me that I can be all the things I hope deep in my heart I want to be. He shows me how I reflect His image. This is the miracle; He overcame the death that became the result of humanity's disbelief so that we can know the glory of the Life He always intended for us to have.

It is through the relationship we have with the Holy Spirit, who reveals to us the nature of God; that we get to re-learn how to live as the intended beings that reflect Him -- as His beloved. That's what Paul is saying in Philippians 2:12&13, "... work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

This is the good news! This is why we get together and encourage each other. This is what we have to be grateful for. This is what keeps us going, what keeps us hoping, keeps us believing; "... that I  may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." Philippians 3:10-11.

He wants us to live as new creation freed from the terror of an existence void of knowing Love. He wants us to know who we really are.  So let's take full advantage and ask God what part of His nature He longs for us to reflect. Let's take full advantage of knowing that salvation brings with it an eternal friendship with Christ that starts here and now. We get to know Him which in turn helps us know ourselves. Let us seek Him with our whole hearts so we can find new freedoms with each day.

~ Amber Sweeney