All in Jesus
On one hand, the radical transformation in me is complete when, by my faith, I am baptized into Christ as Paul phrases it—immersed in His Spirit. I am declared in right standing with God. It is that same righteousness by faith credited to Abraham (3:6).
So, why was Paul so astonished (1:6) as to call his friends in Galatia foolish (3:1)? Not wasting words he jumped right in: you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all (1:6-7). He was adamant they understand the monumental personal transformation each had undergone, not by the law but by faith.
Easter came and went with a decidedly different flare this year. Granted, the online services were phenomenal and reached way more than even the usual Easter crowd. A sense of worship was in the air.
When we moved to Texas from southern Ontario some 40 odd years ago, I was so excited about the prospect of planting a vegetable garden, nurturing gorgeous roses, and harvesting pecans from the tree in my spacious back yard. In Ontario I had managed a small plot of veggies and babied along some hybrid teas, considering the short growing season. Why, you couldn’t plant beans until the 9th of June! Sad to say though, in Tyler my efforts were in vain—the pecans were wormy and tough to crack, black spot got the best of the roses, rhubarb couldn’t stand the heat, the carrots were woody. But oh my, how the weeds did flourish. Since I had assigned weed control to my seven-and-eight-year-olds, they hated that garden. After one season of crop failure, we all quit.
As tragic as the loss of the perfection of Eden was, as redeeming as Gethsemane and Golgotha were, as eternal as the garden party in heaven will be, today we live in the garden we are planted in ladies. How best to bloom where God planted me, I ask.
As you well know ladies, the enticing bouquet of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was too much for the happy pair in Eden, once that crafty snake got his way. So God drove the two out, placing a guard on the gate to keep them from the tree of life (Genesis 3:22-24). Purity had lost to desire.
Time for a hike today, ladies. Lady Bird Johnson Grove beckons. In June, or so the park ranger tells us, the rhododendrons are in beautiful bloom. Today we are amazed by all the lush ferns carpeting the forest floor. The trail through the tropical rainforest proves to be extremely refreshing. Some of the old redwoods are monstrous. So are the fallen logs and stumps, purposefully left au naturel by the park service, to do their thing—shoot sprouts of new growth up to the sun. I am intrigued.
Hop aboard, ladies. We’re taking a ride up the Oregon coast this week to see some amazing sights in God’s creation. First stop, a touch of grandeur in Redwood National Park. The California or coastal redwood, scientific name sequoia sempervirens, grows only in a narrow strip of land from northern California through Oregon, close to the coast yet not too close as it doesn’t like salt spray. Plentiful rainfall and summer fog of the region are just what they need—fog drip accounts for 30% of the yearly water supply. The “redwood” name comes from a bright red, fibrous bark when freshly exposed. They boast the tallest—Hyperion, at 379’—but cannot match the 102’ girth of the General Sherman, a non-related sequoiadendron giganteum in the Sierra Nevadas.*
We’ve come full circle from the dust of creation to the “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” of death (Genesis 3:19). One for one we die, that much is certain. Inevitably then, the final big question will hang in the air: where am I headed after I die?
Ladies, all the answers to the big questions seem to radiate out from my God belief. Certainly that is true about the moral question: how does one know right from wrong? Standing on God’s truth gives the believer solid footing, compared with the slippery slope of the flat-out untruths and half-truths of secular insight.
The deliberate “I am” metaphors in John culminate in a peek at the Jesus who not only provides life and light, but who produces fruit in those who believe in Him while they are still on earth.
Jesus’ “I am the gate”, and “I am the good shepherd” metaphors bewildered His listeners. At the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) their questions continued: “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly” (John 10:24). Again they tried to stone Him, and again He slipped away, across the Jordan, where many believed (10:31-42). He was there when news came that His friend Lazarus was sick.
The Pharisees bombarded the “light of the world” with questions, in total denial of His “I am” claims. When Jesus stated, “before Abraham was born, I am!”…they picked up stones to stone him (John 8:58-59). They knew He was claiming to be God; but it was not yet His time so He slipped away, continuing on to heal a man born blind. The man believed and worshipped Jesus; the Pharisees remained in their sin (9:1-41).
The crowd by the Sea of Galilee was mystified. First, they had been fed well the previous evening, all 5000 plus of them, from “five small barley loaves and two small fish” (John 6:9). Then Jesus had sailed across the lake without a boat—how in the world (6:22)? Miracles were foremost on their minds. Give us more they said, manna for this day too, "bread from heaven”, so we can believe you were really sent by God (6:29-31).
Imagine the surprise of the Samaritan woman when Jesus talked to her by Jacob’s well that day, for Jews do not associate with Samaritans (John 4:9). When He told her He had living water to offer, “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (4:14), she was intrigued. That He knew about her five husbands, and that “the man you now have is not your husband” (4:18), she saw He was a prophet. When He revealed that “salvation is from the Jews” (4:22), she indicated she was aware of the expected Messiah who would make all things clear.
How much further could it be? How could I be so foolish as to wander off on my own?
I was lost and fearful in the heart of Washington, D.C. My mission that afternoon was to walk from my work conference to The National Cathedral.
As I read this verse in Ezekiel, I thought, Wait a minute. No one takes a shoot from the top of a tree and plants it. The shoot would surely die! Yet, God declares, On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches (Ezekiel 22:23).
A stroll through the familiar vineyard of John 15 today, ladies, should refresh our sense of the simplicity of life in Jesus.
Perhaps you have heard of the My One Word experiment, designed by Mike Ashcraft and Rachel Olsen to encourage you to live—really live—by the word you pick for the year. Well, look no further. In the first ten verses of John 15 Jesus uses the word remain eleven times, in multiple combinations of: remain in me and I will remain in you; remain in my love; let my words remain in you. Seems to me ladies, we need to take the hint from Jesus and remain in Him.
In 1948 A.W. Tozer (1897-1963) wrote in his classic, The Pursuit of God: “Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us.” Imagine how Tozer would feel if he were alive today. Nothing is simple--our schedules are loaded, our deadlines frantic, and the world distracts, not to mention the complexities of the “religious”.
