Calvin Synod Herald, 2016 (117. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2016-01-01 / 1-2. szám

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CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

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That’s what the world says. The world says that it has all the answers. The world says that it can satisfy your every desire. Let’s not forget our lustful desires now. The world has an answer to that too. The world has pornography and sex. Sure all those Christian do-gooders say wait until marriage but sex feels good, enjoy it. Go on, you do not have to be married, you don’t even have to be serious. Sex is fun, you had a long hard week, go out, have some fun. That is what life is all about. Having fun, getting what you want, and living it up. The world boasts that the happiest people are those who satisfy their desires.

But the world is full of all kinds of lies. People say to take time off, schedule a vacation. Want to take a light week, get people to cover your shifts. So people start drinking and partying because it was fun.. .but now, they do it just to cover up the pain, just to get away from it all. All of these things that the world promises will satisfy...but they don’t. They drain instead.

Here is a testimony you may have heard many times. For the sake of not naming the real person, I will use the name John. John has gone through a lot in his past. He tried pretty much all of the things the world says satisfy. The thing that strikes me the most though is that he is here. John had tried drinking but he is here. John tried drugs, but he is here. All of the things the world loves. All of those things the world says satisfy left John feeling empty and void. It is in the house of God, in the presence of his fellow believers that John comes to find his satisfaction.

You see John said, I am a church kid. I was bom into the church and have lived in the church my whole life. If you cut me, I bleed church. There are good things to this, and some bad things. But stories like John’s reaffirm the real life. Whenever you might be tempted to try something, whenever you might wonder what it would be like to get drunk or do drugs think of John’s testimony and know that of all the places he has been he found no satisfaction. You can take strength in knowing that John tried everything else and in the end he came back to church to find what he needed. Do you see? The world offers so much, but it is all a lie. Drugs, sex, alcohol.. .all of these things the world says will fill that void in your life only end up deepening it. They satisfy at first sure, they satisfy just long enough to get you addicted to get you needing them, until you fall so far that now you do drugs to hide the pain that you feel because you started doing dmgs. You drink to wash away the hurt that you caused yourself by drinking. Don’t you see? This is the life. Right here, right in front of you. These people, your brothers and sisters, the fellowship, the worship, the service, this is the life. We have it right at the church, we have had it all along. The life is not out there, that is the lie, the church.. .this body

of believers... we are the life.

It is at the church walking by Jesus that we find our satisfaction, that we find our peace. It is at the side of Jesus that we find meaning and joy and strength. The church, not the building, but the fellowship of believers, that is the life. You want the life, find it in the fellowship of those who came to know the real life with Jesus.

This world has nothing to offer us. Their lies do not satisfy, their appetites do not please. We do not belong to this world, as Jesus said: we are strangers, aliens here, what we need, the world does not have but Christ does. He is the life. Every breath, every thought, every step that we take with Him will bring us greater satisfaction than the wealth and things of this world ever could. Jesus is the life.

But this means more than that. Not only is Jesus the life here and now, He is a greater life as well. This is a statement with a dual fulfillment. Jesus is the life here on this earth, but He is talking about so much more than that.

Jesus says: I am the Life. But He is saying more than we think He is. Jesus is not saying that He is the way to this life, He is talking about so much more. The word He uses for life always means ‘future life’. It refers to a life that is given by God. The life that Jesus is, the life that He embodies is eternal life. Not some existence like a clock ticking down as our bodies slowly decay away to death. Jesus is eternal life. He is the life that is entered into through the narrow gate. Jesus is not saying that He is life here, but that He is the life to come. He is the future, eternal life. But that life is not limited to the future. It is not a life only for the age to come. For the one who believes the life that Jesus offers can be realized on this very day. We as Christians can share in the life that Jesus offers right here and right now. We have a better life. As if that was not enough, we get eternal life thrown in. A life that is far too greater than anyone can ever imagine. A life without pain or suffering or hardship or loss. A life of infinite joy, happiness, and intimacy with God. With every breath we should hunger and eagerly await the life that is to come when we may enter into the glorious presence of our maker and dwell in His house forever.

Jesus is not only the creator of life, He is the sustainer through which all life exists. He made life and continues to enable life to exist. We have life, because we have Jesus. He is the source, He is the sustainer. He is the life. In Him and in Him alone do we find the way to eternal life. In Christ we find our hope. In Christ we find life. In Christ we have access to eternal life with the Father. No one else offers that. No other religion, no other man, no other ‘god’ truly gives what Jesus offers to all of those who believe in His name. Eternal life. Jesus is the only way to salvation. He is the only way to eternal life. The question is, will you follow Him? The way to God is not a road, it’s not a ritual, and it is a relationship. A relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the