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Pastor's Blog May 28, 2020
"A Review"
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Up to this point, we have unpacked a great deal of what our friend Ellen has to tell us about relating to our best friend Jesus. It has been heady stuff for some of us. Church members have let me know that what Ellen describes has sounded very different from the Christianity to which they were originally introduced. Maybe some of us have intellectually known what Ellen has been talking about, but experientially it has alluded us. In light of this possibility, I think it is appropriate to take some time this week to summarize what Ellen has presented so far, in order to get our bearings for what she will continue to present about knowing Jesus in "Steps to Christ."
First, Ellen makes clear that God is love; he is a loving God and he is the foundation and definition of love. Love and grace are God's default toward us. He doesn't relate to us first with wrath and then with mercy; instead, God always relates to us with love because he ACTUALLY loves us!
Second, we have a problem: our default is to be far away from God. Due to sin, which ultimately is rebellion against the One who loves us, we have found ourselves in various places that all have one thing in common - they are far from God and result in us being torn away from him and broken. But God wants to put us back together and heal our brokenness. Through Jesus' death and resurrection and the Holy Spirit's work, the Father invites - and even slowly draws! - us into a relationship with himself. And this relationship is also with Jesus, who wants to be our best friend; and with the Holy Spirit, who also acts like Jesus toward us and wants to make us like Jesus!
Third, our difficulty is trust. We struggle to trust Jesus, which is why we fail at making ourselves "be good," or try to work on a relationship with God apart from Jesus and the Holy Spirit, or perhaps turn away from God in our despair at our failures to live up to how we think God wants us to live. What Jesus wants us to do, however, is daily surrender our hearts to him and let him make us like himself. And since we don't really know how to make ourselves surrender to Jesus, what he wants us to do is simply spend time with him - he'll do the rest!
So where do we go from here, friends? I suggest we continue on with Jesus, who has ever been with us on this journey.
(*) Steps to Christ 1977 edition
God Bless.
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
