I haven’t had time to do much writing recently, but I have been thinking.

Between working our annual Christmas concerts this past weekend, homework, sleeping, working in general, saving the whales, laundry, life talks, and Thanksgiving, life has been nuts. I’m currently in the library (yes, again) hammering out an exegetical study on Colossians 2:6-8 and listening to 80’s music. And of course, clowning around in between paragraphs with my friends.

What else is new? 

Reading Hebrews 13 lifts the spirits. Verses 15;16 state this: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”

God is pleased with these things. By Christ, we can offer such sacrifices to the Lord. His blood covered, and through the Incarnation he has redeemed every aspect of humanity. Jesus was the perfect human, the perfect example. We can approach God because of his salvation. We can live in accordance with what the Lord desires because of Christ working through us.

And we can praise him back. The fruit of our lips can be praise, and it doesn’t have to be poison.

I’ve been challenged recently on my lack of understanding regarding the magnitude of Christ’s identity. He is not just an idea! He is my redemption, and my Lord, and my forgiveness, and my eternal life!

Jesus is Jesus! My relationship with him is not a connection with a divine hero, or a picture, or an idol, or a thought. The reality is this: Jesus is alive, and he is coming back. Because of his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, we can live the abundant life. We can live in him, and that is the only way to live.

This truth ought to affect all my relationships. As I look around the table at Tyler, and Holly, and Jonathan, and Tiffany, and Nate, and Corbin, I see brothers and sisters who have been redeemed by our Lord. I see men and women wonderfully made and valued by our Creator, and broken vessels made whole just as I have been. It’s humbling to realize that we are all three-dimensional and that Jesus has a plan for every single one of us. I can’t wait to see where the Lord takes them as future pastors, missionaries, and counselors. I dearly care for them and this is only because God loved me first.

Knowing Jesus and truly loving him will spill over into our lives, making praises come involuntarily from our lips, and good works coming out of us by him. 

See Jesus for who he is. By him, we can only see ultimate reality of everything else, relationships and otherwise.