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Mankind seems to be
caught on a perpetual merry-go-round. The piped music plays, as most go
through life being carried continuously up and down by the circumstances
of life. Finally, when all is said and done for most of their lives, it
seems they have merely gone around in circles. Up and down, round and
round life seems to have little, if any, meaningful direction.
One does not have to look very far to recognize that something is amiss
in the world. From the catastrophe events of natural disasters to the
personal turmoil of the individual, it seems, at best, people must put
forth tremendous effort merely to survive. Even with the technological
advances of modern man survival is still the primary issue of living.
Man with seemingly great creativity will forge ahead to catch his moment
in the sun, only to find the moment lacking and briefly gone. Often as
man nears the top of his quested summit, an event out of the night
plunges him back to the valley to begin once again his endless search
for meaning and life. Something seems to be flawed in the very fiber of
the existence of man.
If Christianity is abundant life, why does it seem that so many
Christians actually do not reign in life? Also, if ". . . the gates
of hell shall not prevail against [the Church]" (cf Matt. 16:18),
why do so many local churches actually struggle to stay alive. Although
Christians are to be, "Strengthened with all might, according to
his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness
. . ." (Col. 1:11), the characteristic of "all patience and
longsuffering with joyfulness" definitely is not evident in the
life of most believers.
Circumstances seem to dictate to most Christians and local churches the
quality of life they experience, just as they do to the heathen or
secular organizations. The reality of these statements is bad news! What
many Christians, many local churches, and in many cases the visible
Church as a whole has done is turned the good news of life in the
Creator into the bad news of life in the creation.
The faulty concept that life itself can exist in the creation has as its
foundation the awakening of the created to itself. Creation only has
life in its oneness with the Creator. Paul, through the workings of the
Holy Spirit, revealed that ". . . it pleased the Father that in him
[the Son of God] should all fullness dwell" (Col. 1:19). All that is
exists in and through the Son of God: ". . . all things were
created by him and for him: and he is before all things and by him all
things consist" (Col. 1:16,17).
When the events of creation materialized, the creature had life because
it existed in God and God in it. This is not to say that God became
creation and creation became God. The distinctiveness of the Creator and
creation must always be maintained, for to do otherwise is idolatry (see
Exod. 20:3-5). It is to say that, although God, as distinct Creator and
that which God produced as distinct creation are two separate entities,
they exist in so much oneness that the life that is in the Creator
becomes the life of the creation.
Somewhere along the line of man’s existence, he began to perceive the
experience of living as if he could produce life himself. Man began to
glory in the life that was in him as if it was his life. Instead of
keeping his distinctiveness in the oneness with God, he awoke to the
perceived distinctiveness of himself. The awakening of man to the
identity of himself separated man in his mind from the essence of life.
Man’s quest for life in himself actually brought death in his life.
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