Dead and Alive

We all know that we serve a loving God. We read it in scripture, we hear it in church and we sing about it in praise songs. This is something that we know. But recently I’ve been reading a particular passage of Scripture quite a bit. Romans 5 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, and it says so many great things about God’s love.

Verses 1-11 say this:

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings. Because we know that sufferings produce perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His son, how much more shall we be saved through His life. Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

I highlighted two verses there for emphasis. The entire chapter is beautiful, but I’d like to focus on these two verses for a second. The first one I highlighted there is Verse 8. Think about this for a second. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Even in our sin, God loved us so much that He sent His only son to die for us. But in the next few verses, it uses the phrase “how much more”. Check this out. In Verse 10 it says “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His son how much more shall we be saved through His life.” When we were in our sin, we were God’s enemies. Even then, Christ died for us, and we were reconciled. Think about this. How much more will we now be saved because of Jesus’s life? Jesus is alive! So we rejoice in Him, because we have now been reconciled, and made clean. All because of this incredible and loving God that we serve. It’s something good to chew on.

Blessings,

Mitch

I wanted to share with all of you something that has been on my mind lately. I guess the chain of events that led me into this thought process is kind of odd, but either way I think it’s something cool to think about.

I recently had surgery to have my gallbladder removed. Part of that meant that my diet was very restricted leading up to the surgery, because my doctors didn’t want me to eat anything that would irritate my stomach. That meant no spicy foods, no chocolate, and much to my dismay, no coffee. The diet I was on was pretty bland, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how rich in flavor a cup of coffee would be. I went about a month craving the bold flavor of a cup of black coffee. I didn’t even care where it came from. I just knew I wanted it.

I had to stay a night in the hospital after my surgery to ensure that I was healing up well. This added a new factor into my craving, because I was given hospital food. As we all know, hospital food kind of gets a bad rap. Well, that’s because it’s awful. I think that tasting all of that bad food just made me want a cup of coffee so much more. 

I left the hospital and, no joke, immediately went to a Starbucks and ordered a grande Yukon blend cup of coffee. I think I burned most of the skin off of my tongue because I drank it down so quickly. It was absolutely delicious. I only had one problem with it. Once it was gone, it was gone. This is the point I’m getting at. See this craving was quenched with a cup of coffee. However, at some point that cup of coffee is going to be gone. That’s the way that earthly fulfillment works. We know we want something, so we get it and we’re fulfilled by that thing. After that, that things gone, and eventually, so is that fulfillment  that you experienced. But let’s think about eternal fulfillment.

Heavenly fulfillment looks a lot different than earthly fulfillment, because heavenly fulfillment is eternal. Picture this. I’m in Heaven, and I really want a cup of coffee. I get that coffee and feel fulfilled. But the kicker is, the fulfillment that I get from that coffee doesn’t end. Ever. How awesome is that? How awesome will it be to experience that kind of fulfillment? It gets better. We get to experience that fulfillment with the Creator of the Universe. Whoa. Think about that for a second. That’s not your average Starbucks-goer. 

I’m not even going to attempt to say what Heaven is like. Because I don’t know. In fact, I don’t think it’s even humanly possible to be able to fathom how great Heaven is. Don’t get me wrong on this, because that’s not what I’m attempting. But I do think that eternal fulfillment is something that comes along with Heaven. This is something cool to think about, because as followers of Jesus Christ, it’s something that we will experience one day. But for now, we’re here on Earth. So right now, let’s focus on making sure that as many people as possible experience this fulfillment one day.

Blessings,

Mitch

Most of the blogs that I’ve ever read or followed have started with an explanation of why the blog is being started. I decided that I would start my blog the same way. However, soon after making that decision I ran into a problem: I don’t exactly have a reason for starting a blog.

That being said, I suppose this blog will simply exist to give me an outlet for sharing things I’m being taught and things that I’m learning. But most importantly, I want this blog to exist so that I can share the amazing things that the Creator of the Universe is doing in my life and in the lives of the people around me. Because let me tell you, it’s amazing.

So join me. Let’s tell each other about what God is doing in us and through us. My name is Mitch. And if you’re reading this, I’m glad we’re in this together.