Even as we approach another Christmas season where countless millions of Evangelicals will celebrate the Birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ of Nazareth as He entered time and space to become the sin-bearer of humanity we do with the perils of living in a fallen world. A fallen world where the 1st curse still reigns supreme. Death is undefeated and though. Christ has won the battle over death we still nonetheless live in the “already but not yet” eschaton.
Unfortunately, the effects of the fall continue with all of its customary ebb and flows. Tragedy has struck the Kyles’ family as I have been informed my first cousin, Randy Kyles, was killed in a traffic accident last night. Randy was 54 years and his departure is a vivid and painful reminder of the transitory and fragile reality we will all face in some fashion.
There are no “do-overs” or “retakes.” We all possess a destiny whereby our human existence will come to an end. Many of us are making plans even as I write and that is well and good. Yet, the sober reminder is all of that plans are “potentially” that may not be realized.
In a very real sense we are all living on borrowed time. Each of us who remain in the Land of the Living do so only because of God’s marvelous and very generous portion of Grace and Mercy.
Each one of us truly deserves God’s righteous judgment of death and damnation. Even as I type these meager word I do so because God continues to lavish His love towards me. Me: a wretched and vile sinner, whose very core is wicked only continuously.
Don’t fool yourself. As bleak a picture as I portray about my actual standing the same is true for you if you come to understand what the Word of God reveals about the human predicament.
The death of my cousin is a sober reminder to get my affairs in order, to tell those closest to me how much I love and appreciate them, to hug them, to cry with them in our times of despair, to eagerly seek opportunities to laugh when times of rejoicing warrant it.
I resolve with more vigor to finish my fourth quarter strong. To maximize every opportunity to speak Christ when the opportunity presents itself, to walk humbly and upright, to seek to be slow to anger and every so quick to forgive.
I aim to love Christ more and more, to crucify my wretched sin more and more, to rebuke the Devil quicker and quicker, to procrastinate less, to acknowledge my sin more readily and more humbly.
I do so fully aware my journey will be fraught with starts and stops, with one step forward and two steps backward. Some days will better than others. Some days will end with more in the negative column than the positive one. That is the lot of the genuine Christian experience. I wish it were NOT so but it is tragically so, in this life.
Yet, this is the part of the wondrous pursuit of our final salvation: our glorification where we are brought face to face with Christ Himself and we become purified and finally fully clothed in the Righteousness of Christ Himself.
I beseech all readers of these fallible musings to come to terms with the truth claims of One Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Either He is the only Wise and True Potentate of the World or He is NOT.
I am further resolved to proclaim whenever and wherever that He is the only elixir that can cure what ails the humans soul and the human condition.
I wish all a Very Merry Christmas. Yet, it will only be Merry who for those who acknowledge the Babe born in the manger over 200 years ago. Yet, there demands the further acknowledgment He is NO LONGER a babe. He is NOW the Very Kings of Kings and The Very Lord of Lords.
All will one day meet Him. Some will meet as a Friend, the rest as Ferocious Foe. It is a very fearful thing to fall into the hands of a Living God.
Until the next time Keep your Hand to the Plow and seek to serve for an Audience of One!