who can save us from ourselves?
Thougts springing from Exodus 2:1-15
Moses found as an insignificant baby became the leader who would save his people from slavery and lead them into freedom and a land where they could be their own masters and masters of their own destiny.
Today there is another form of slavery that holds people captive and makes them toil and labour. Millions die in poverty and the earths resources squandered on the wasteful life styles of the rich as they spend themselves pursuing a dream that seems to evaporate like a mist, they waste their lives trying to fulfil their veracious appetites for more and more and yet are never satisfied.
We are this people.
Who can save us from ourselves? How can we be saved? How can we be free of the tyranny of modern life? How can we escape the clutches of this carnivorous capitalistic consumerist profit machine that seeks to use us and consume us?
Can Christ save us? How does some chap hanging on a cross 2000 years ago make any difference? What power is there in this? Jesus Christ, like Moses, comes to us as a child, through his teaching, life, death and resurrection he calls us to follow him to freedom. But we are not to use that freedom to indulge the sinful nature or we end up as slaves of our own ineptitude and sin and miss the opportunity to be a blessing to others. Like the waters that flow in the river Jordan into the Dead Sea, the life giving power stagnates and evaporates and what remains is devoid of life or life giving power.
The cross is the sign of Gods love and commitment to us and the power is the power of the resurrection, the proof that Jesus is the Christ – the son of God – God in the flesh; the proof that not even death can stop God. If this is true than nothing, absolutely nothing can separates us from God and his power is more than a match for our sinful nature.
Thus by Gods power at work within us, to will and to act according to his good purposes, he can do immeasurable more than we could possibly ask or imagine in us and through us. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
How then can we be free of the power of sin? By submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit! Being renewed and transformed by the Word of God in the hands of the Holy Spirit, bringing life and hope.
By giving ourselves as a living sacrifice to the Living God and thereby crucifying the sinful nature with all its passions and desires.
God has to change the appetites of our heart so that we no longer crave those things that we hoped would make life worth living, that would give us joy, bring us peace and give us a home. The Holy Spirit redirects our cravings to find fulfilment in a pattern of life that is wholesome, holy, honouring to God and a blessing to others and the world we live in.
Come Holy Spirit and help us. Help us to submit to your transforming power. Change the desires of our hearts to want to follow and live the way of Christ. Empower us to follow, to deny our selfish sinful nature, to take up our cross and follow. Amen.
Moses found as an insignificant baby became the leader who would save his people from slavery and lead them into freedom and a land where they could be their own masters and masters of their own destiny.
Today there is another form of slavery that holds people captive and makes them toil and labour. Millions die in poverty and the earths resources squandered on the wasteful life styles of the rich as they spend themselves pursuing a dream that seems to evaporate like a mist, they waste their lives trying to fulfil their veracious appetites for more and more and yet are never satisfied.
We are this people.
Who can save us from ourselves? How can we be saved? How can we be free of the tyranny of modern life? How can we escape the clutches of this carnivorous capitalistic consumerist profit machine that seeks to use us and consume us?
Can Christ save us? How does some chap hanging on a cross 2000 years ago make any difference? What power is there in this? Jesus Christ, like Moses, comes to us as a child, through his teaching, life, death and resurrection he calls us to follow him to freedom. But we are not to use that freedom to indulge the sinful nature or we end up as slaves of our own ineptitude and sin and miss the opportunity to be a blessing to others. Like the waters that flow in the river Jordan into the Dead Sea, the life giving power stagnates and evaporates and what remains is devoid of life or life giving power.
The cross is the sign of Gods love and commitment to us and the power is the power of the resurrection, the proof that Jesus is the Christ – the son of God – God in the flesh; the proof that not even death can stop God. If this is true than nothing, absolutely nothing can separates us from God and his power is more than a match for our sinful nature.
Thus by Gods power at work within us, to will and to act according to his good purposes, he can do immeasurable more than we could possibly ask or imagine in us and through us. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
How then can we be free of the power of sin? By submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit! Being renewed and transformed by the Word of God in the hands of the Holy Spirit, bringing life and hope.
By giving ourselves as a living sacrifice to the Living God and thereby crucifying the sinful nature with all its passions and desires.
God has to change the appetites of our heart so that we no longer crave those things that we hoped would make life worth living, that would give us joy, bring us peace and give us a home. The Holy Spirit redirects our cravings to find fulfilment in a pattern of life that is wholesome, holy, honouring to God and a blessing to others and the world we live in.
Come Holy Spirit and help us. Help us to submit to your transforming power. Change the desires of our hearts to want to follow and live the way of Christ. Empower us to follow, to deny our selfish sinful nature, to take up our cross and follow. Amen.
posted by Tim Coleman @ 1:00 pm
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