Barnabas revisited

VII. ALIVE IN CHRIST
The text is taken from the scripture Galatians 2:20.

What is it to be alive? If you listen very closely to my heart, you’ll hear a click sound that indicates blood is flowing through my heart and through my arteries and veins. It is indicative of function. Does it mean I’m alive, really alive? You can touch me here and now, and I am warm, I move, I show emotions. Is that what is meant to be alive? Or am I alive because the LORD in His infinite wisdom granted all those who believe (and consequently obey) His Son and know that His Son gives life. He has given me and others unconditional love and said, “Now, take the ball and run.”

Would it surprise you if I say that both conditions are necessary for life, real life, the kind that can go on forever? Christ grew in physical strength, in wisdom and in Spirit. God created us in His image, which is Christ. Indeed God is a Spirit (John 4:24), but He came down to earth in physical form. The fact is that one condition doesn’t exist very long without the other. If one tries to exist without the other there is a warping effect. Either there is too much focus on meeting physical needs and being dependant on others because of that, or the neglect of the physical needs leads to a poverty that God does not want for us either.

There are a lot of people out there who haven’t got a clue. I attended a Wellness Seminar once that kept saying “you must gain control”, that every human must take control of their own lives because their stability is dependant on whether or not they can exhibit self-control. The whole point of our Christian lives is that humans are not in control at all, ever. The minute we say, “OK God I can handle it without You, thanks for your help.”, is when God cries. I hate making God cry, but that is exactly what happens. I have just hurt his feelings by telling Him I am the one in control, not Him and I created me, He didn’t create me at all. I am at that point too blinded to see God not only loves me, washes my dirty, tired feet at the end of a grueling day of work, feeds me when I am hungry, comforts me in prisons that I may or may not have created for myself, shelters me from the elements when my body cannot handle stress. In essence God provides me a way out of any situation. At the point I take control from God and place it in my hands is when I have allowed Satan to convince me that God wanted to hide the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil from Adam and Eve because of the power it would give them, and He is trying to hide that same power from me now. And that is a lie. It was a lie in Genesis and it is a lie today. To think that God would create a very structured but free-ranging universe, to think that God would provide a way for us to enjoy this universe forever, to think that the blessings that God gives daily, is so that He can snatch them away to say, “Gotcha!” is exactly what Satan would have us believe. Satan wants us to think that God wants all the power for Himself and wants us to have none of it, like the lie Satan told Adam and Eve that God doesn’t want men to be as powerful as He is. But, you see, God does want to give us the power, He does want to share it all. After all, He calls us His children. What we must realize is that no matter how much or how little we have, how much physical, spiritual, intellectual power we have is nothing and will fall to nothing unless we realize that none of it is actually generated by us. It is, in fact, the Creator’s power, and He is only using us as reflectors of Himself. He is offering us the gift of a lifetime, eternal salvation, eternal sharing in His inheritance as His children. All we have to do is allow Him to be in control.