A Fresh New Start

There is something about new year's that gives us an optimistic outlook on life. Perhaps it has something to do with the feeling that we are able to look at the mistakes of the past year and determine that we are not going to repeat those mistakes in the new year. Maybe it is the idea that we get a chance to begin a new year with a fresh start and a clean slate. Whatever it is exactly we tend to think along those lines around the beginning of the new year. I pray that this is something for you that is a blessing to you and a blessing in your life.

The thing for us is that that new fresh start that we feel we have around the beginning of the new year is something that we have in our God every morning. God's mercy's are new and fresh every day. Because of Jesus, the perfect life he lived, his sacrifice on the cross, and his resurrection three days latter, we have the ability to begin each day with a fresh new start. God's forgiveness for us is real. No matter what we have done, no matter how much we may struggle with it, we get to begin every day knowing that the mercy and forgiveness of our God is stronger than anything else in our lives.

Of course this is not something that we take advantage of. It is not something that gives us the ability to do whatever we want without any thought of consequence. Instead it is the freedom and ability to know that the mistakes and sins of our past do not have to continue to haunt us forever. It means that we can live in the mercy and forgiveness and love of our God. This love is bigger than anything that we can imagine and it is for you and for me.

It is my prayer for you that the year of our Lord 2010 would be a blessing to you. I pray that in this year you would see God working in your life. I pray that you would grow and mature in your relationship with him and in your understanding of the great love that he has for you and shows you in Jesus. And I especially pray that you would find joy, comfort and strength in the unbelievable mercies of our God which are new every morning. Have a very blessed 2010.

Sincerely,
Pastor CJ Ransdell

Merry Christmas!

The days that are really important, those that are really big deals, are marked with traditions and activities. I pray that in the midst of all the business of this Christmas you would not lose sight of the importance of this day. It is a holy day because it is the day that we remember that our God, out of great love for all the people of this world, became one of us, became a human being, so that we might have forgivness, and life that never ends. God became one of us so that we would be reconciled to God and be able to live in relationship with him. It is a great and amazing thing, and I pray that you would know the blessings and joys of that relationship and living and experiencing life in it. Take a few moments to sit in awe of the mystery and joy and wonder of the incarnation (God in the flesh). Merry Christmas!!

Christ in Scripture

I'd like your insight on Christ's role as "the Word." I'm confused about this aspect of God's character. Is Christ the one who speaks when God speaks? For instance, was it Christ acting as the Word who spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden? Was Christ the Word that Moses heard from the burning bush?

This is one that may be a little more than what can be handled in the confines of a blog post. But I won't let that stop me from trying. We know that the Old Testament Scriptures point to Christ. After Jesus' resurrection one of the things that he does for the disciples is to open the Scriptures to them. In other places he talks about fulfilling the Scriptures. So this is nothing new. Now where that is seen exactly will always be surrounded by debate.

One idea is that the Angel of the LORD that we see from time to time is the pre-incarnate Christ. This is because the Angel will often speak in words that only God would say; words that would be inappropriate for an angel to speak. This would be like what we see in the burning bush. St. Paul identifies the rock that follows the Israelites in the wilderness as the presence of Christ. Now that one is a little beyond me to fully understand, but St. Paul knows better than I do, so I am willing to trust him on that one.

Now when you get to the prophets, and the Word of the Lord appears to so and so. Well that certainly could be another pre-incarnate Christ. But you want to be careful to understand the context of these writings and be aware that we are not adding to them things that were never intended to be a part of the text.

John's understanding of the "word" in John 1:1 has with it a certain context. It is with that context that he is writing. I am not saying that there is no correlation. There ultimately probably is, but we must always be careful as we do that.

Luther described the Scriptures as the cradle that holds Christ. That is ultimately what is important. All Scripture ultimately points us to Christ. All Scripture shows us him and the work that he did in order for us to have salvation. So in others words, it is all good.

Animals in Heaven?

For all those who have submitted questions, thank you. Here is this week's question.

We had a 14 week old puppy that we had to put down a few weeks ago b/c of a failing liver. He was a very loving puppy who we grew very close to. Although puppies don't have souls, do you think puppies (or animals in general) will make it into heaven?

First, I am sorry for your loss. That is something that is so hard to go through.

When Jesus comes back, creation will be restored. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. The current heaven and earth are corrupted by sin. They are twisted and distorted, and that this why they will have to pass away. But in the new heaven and new earth there will be no more sickness or suffering or death. This new heaven and new earth is a way of talking about the creation being made new. That is, it is a way of talking about the creation being restored.

You can read throughout the Scriptures, but especially in the prophets, that God will make the creation the way that it was intended to be. This includes the presence of animals. Animals were part of the creation before the fall into sin. Animals were saved when the waters of the flood covered the earth. I believe that animals will also be a part of the creation in the new heaven and new earth.

God loves his creation and cares for it, and will restore it at the end. And on that glorious day when we get to see this amazing sight, it will be awesome. And so we pray, "Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Amen."

I pray that the promise of the restoration and the new heaven and new earth would be a source of comfort and strength for you in this Advent season, and always.

Sincerely,

Pastor CJ

A Question about Creation

Here is the question for the week. Thanks for the post.

This isn't about speechless pastors, but rather a question that has been in the back of my mind for a while...

I think I'm a good steward of the earth: I recycle, don't litter, am conscious of fossil fuels and mindful of innovative energy sources. And so forth.

However, if it's all going to burn up in the end anyway, and we will have a new heaven and a new earth, isn't it a fantasy to think that we can prolong the life of the earth by our efforts--or that it's even worth it? I'm all for honoring the earth because it is God's creation, I'm just thinking that our intervention is not going to make any real difference in the end. As in The End.

Now I'm going to reveal my ancient status by saying that I lived through the "Go green" (and I'm not talking Spartans!) era of the 70s. It was a fad that passed. In the meantime, lots of folks made lots of money by promoting "green"...

So what part of this is godly admonition and what part is sociology?

I expect this fad to pass by, oh, about 2012. Unless Jesus comes back first. Your thoughts?

Who exactly can say how much is godly admonition and how much is someone trying to make a quick buck, or many, many quick bucks as the case may be? There is no doubt that some will use this as a way of manipulating and hurting other people, but that does not mean that the idea is bad in and of itself. Will our efforts at "being green" prolong the life of the earth? No. Not really. No. I've even seen some good evidence that recycling and all that jazz requires more energy than just throwing stuff away. The problem is that this is a debate. There are two sides and both claim that they are right and the other side is terribly misguided.

Without wanting to get caught up in the midst of the debate, let's talk about why caring for the earth would be a good thing. Because, as you noted in your post, the creation is important to God. Part of caring for the creation is a way of honoring the creator. We care for the earth, in the same way that we care for the other things that God has given to us, because we know that they are important to our God. Caring for them is a way of loving the lord our God with all that we are and have.

Another way that I see it is in the light of making a confession about what we believe about the future of the creation. Scripture tells us that there will be a new heaven and a new earth. That is there will be a new, material, real, physical creation. It will not be a bunch of spiritual beings floating around on clouds, but real life in real bodies on a real earth. Therefore we care for the creation because we believe that the creation will exist after Jesus returns in that time that is everlasting. Our caring for the earth, does not get the earth to that point. But it does make a statement about what we believe about the earth at that time. The reason why the earth will be first destroy is not because we threw our beer cans in a landfill, but because the fire will be a purification. The earth as we know it is corrupted by sin. The new earth will not have that same corruption.

I hope that I have shown that caring for the creation is important. When we adopt this viewpoint, there is one other benefit. That is it gives us common ground to share with people who are dearly loved by God, but do not know of his grace and mercy and forgiveness in Jesus. Not that we would ever use it to manipulate them. But it would give us common ground to build real and genuine relationships and friendships and give us opportunities to show to them the love of God in Jesus.

Good question. Thanks for sharing. Please feel free to continue this discussion. See you next week. God bless.

Sincerely,

Pastor CJ