You're Already There

Greetings everyone,

Today we begin what has been said is going to be the hardest week of this coronavirus pandemic yet. Last week the Surgeon General said this week will be our “Pearl Harbor” moment – the peak of this disaster. Indeed, the numbers are already rising and will probably continue to do so throughout this week.

In the midst of this there is some good news. One of our number at Rocklane, Stuart, who spent roughly 15 days in the hospital with COVID 19, came home yesterday to his wife and 3 daughters! Yesterday, New York reports the first lowering of numbers since this whole thing began. Also, many who are dealing with the financial side of this crises are receiving help they need in various ways. 

As we begin this week, I want to share with you a profound passage from the Apostle Paul about what you and I already have in Christ. 

1 Corinthians 1:30-31,

“And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Watchman Nee, in his book “Changed into His Likeness” uses the following illustration to explain the meaning of being in Christ.

“I have a bus ticket here, and I put it into the pages of this book. Now I put the book into the fire and burn it. What happens to the ticket? Or I throw the book into the river. What happens to the ticket? Or again, I make the book up into a parcel, and take it to the post office and mail it to Europe. Where is the ticket now? You can answer each question with absolute assurance; and yet it is a fact that, once it was in the book I did nothing more with the ticket as such. I did not send the ticket to Europe, I sent the book. Because the ticket is in the book where the book goes the ticket must go. It has a part in everything that happens to the book. When I tell you what has happened to the book, you do not have to stop and think what has happened to the thing that is included in the book. 

We have been placed into Christ. When Christ was put to death, we died in Him, because we are in Him (Romans 6:6). Moreover, the work of God did not stop there, for the Lord Jesus rose and ascended to His right hand. But because we are in Christ Jesus, we also were made alive with Him and raised and seated with Him in the heavenly places.”  

I think too often that we Christians are trying to be “in Christ” and failing to realize that we already are in Him. Nee suggests that God’s work in us after we become a Christian is to weaken us that we might rely on Him more-that we may stop trying to earn it and realize we already have it. 

My (and Watchman Nee’s) message to you this morning is this: no matter what happens you are already in Christ, right now. You have died and been resurrected and you’re living your eternal life. Rest easy in His grace and look upon this current situation in light of eternity. Instead of worrying so much about survival be thinking more of how to spread this Good News, this profound opportunity for deliverance to those you know that don’t have it!

See you tomorrow.