Heraclitus the 5th century BC Greek philosopher wrote: Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find truth, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain. He was commenting on the creative thinking required to understand the nature and meaning of life. His wise words make a great deal of sense: many discoveries within science are unexpected; many of our experiences in life are unexpected.

Twelve months ago no one predicted the rise of a novel coronavirus that would impact the lives and livelihoods of millions around the world. Covid-19 has shown us that we are not in control of life and that we should expect the unexpected. Indeed, the discerning will ask, ‘Is there more to life?’

So, how should we respond? Come with me to Colossians 4:2. Paul the Apostle writes: Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.

Prayer. The French philosopher, Blaise Pascal observed: God instituted prayer in order to allow his creatures the dignity of causality. God has made the universe in such a way that we can make an impact with our prayers – within certain limits of course. It’s an amazing thought. God has given himself the discretion to act within his overall plan according to our prayers.

Prayer is not just a means of keeping the lines of communication with God open. God listens to our prayers and answers them in ways that are for our good. Prayer of itself is not powerful. Prayer is only powerful because we are addressing the all-powerful God.

This is why Paul urged the Colossians to be steadfast in prayer. He knew, for example, that effective outreach begins with persevering prayer. To devote ourselves to prayer is to bring our requests to God in much the same way that the energetic widow of Jesus’ parable did. In this parable in Luke 18, the widow gave her local magistrate no rest until her cause was settled.

The first Christians were committed and enthusiastic in their prayer. Humanly speaking it is one of the reasons for their terrific success in spreading God’s good news. Perhaps Paul’s Colossian readers had become apathetic. That’s why he insists, Continue steadfastly in prayer… ‘Never give up praying’, he is saying. ‘Your prayers may not be answered immediately. But never give up.’ Indeed, the Bible tells us it is God’s great passion that people turn to him. This is a prayer we can be assured God will answer.

Notice also the emphasis on thanksgiving. True prayer can’t exist without heartfelt thanks, any more than thanksgiving can exist without prayer. They feed and fuel each other.

In this context Paul wanted the Colossians to pray, not that the doors of his prison might open, but that opportunities might open for him to declare the mystery of Christ – even while he was in prison. Yet how often do we pray that God will open up doors of gospel opportunity for us?

The way we live. But there is more. Consider verses 5 and 6: Conduct yourselves wisely towards outsiders, making the most of the time. 6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.

Paul has two pieces of advice for the Colossians, and for us – about life-style and speech.

We are all obliged to act wisely and graciously towards people we live and work with. We are to live out the new resurrection life that Paul has been writing about in chapter 3, with wisdom and integrity.

We are also to cultivate conversations that are gracious and yet seasoned with salt. We are not to be bland, insipid, and gossipy, in our conversations, but rather we are to start doing the unexpected, pushing back against the culture, looking for, and even creating opportunities to raise questions about the meaning of life. We can do this over coffee or a meal, or online. As we do this, we need to be prepared to answer people’s questions.

With people you know you might ask: ‘How are you really doing in these troubled times?’ You might also consider ways you can bring a comment from a book such as John Lennox’s very readable, Where is God in a Coronavirus World? Remember, our aim is to explore ways to introduce the notion that there is more to life than this material world.

You might look for an opportunity to ask: ‘Do you think there’s anything beyond this life?’ ‘Friends of mine feel we only have one life and we should make the most of it. What do you think?’ If the response is that there’s no future beyond the grave, you could ask: ‘Are you sure about that?’ You could also add: ‘For me the Christian idea of resurrection has a lot going for it’.

If their response is that there’s a future beyond the grave, you might ask: ‘Can we be sure of this?’ It’s worth remembering that Jesus’ resurrection is foundational for Christianity. Every sermon recorded in the Acts of the Apostles refers to it.

Furthermore, be prepared to tell your own story of faith in no more than three minutes. Begin with a brief account of your life and then focus on two or three unexpected events that led you to faith in Christ. Because it’s your story, it’s important.

And don’t forget, it’s worth pointing enquirers to one or two introductory courses: ‘Christianity Explored’ and ‘Word One-to-One’ are very good.

Above all, continue steadfastly in prayer – perhaps for five people you know – that the Lord will provide unexpected opportunities for you to introduce them to the Lord Jesus Christ, whose love and compassion are far greater than we ever dreamed.

© John G. Mason

New – ‘An Anglican Understanding of the Bible’: https://anglicanconnection.com/gods-word-written-an-anglican-understanding-of-the-bible/

Coming January 2021 – Anglican Connection Online Conference
Details for the Anglican Connection January 2021 Online Conference will be released shortly.

Most of us don’t find it hard to imagine a better world, but the question is, ‘How do we get there?’ History is littered with the theories and experiences of political and economic ideas. But history shows that whatever the system, there is still fraud, injustice, poverty, pillaging, exploitation, sexual harassment, violence and war. The systems may change, the faces will come and go, but the scene remains the same. How can we point the world to a better way?

The heart of the Christian message includes the idea of a new universe that has come into existence and which will continue forever. Jesus’ death has secured this. His resurrection assures us of it. In Colossians 1:13, we read: God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves…’.

And in Colossians 3:1ff we read: If you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts where Christ is, set your minds on heavenly things… Put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature,…   Paul is saying, ‘Let the light of this resurrection state fall on everything that you say and do.’

New Lifestyle. When we truly turn to Jesus Christ our relationship with God changes and, Paul tells us, our relationships with one another are also to change. We won’t achieve this perfectly, because we all still live in the present world. We will disappoint one another; we won’t always be as patient as we should. We won’t always love one another or forgive one another, but we must work at it. When we make these qualities our goal the world will see, and wonder. For when we take on the new lifestyle as God’s people, we will become a signpost in the wider community, pointing others to the realm of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Colossians 3:18 through 4:1, Paul identifies new ways of living within our closest relationships – marriage and family life, and in the workplace. He speaks of wives submitting to their husbands and husbands loving their wives; of children obeying their parents and parents not provoking their children; and slaves obeying their masters and masters treating their slaves justly and fairly. There is a counter-cultural asymmetry about the principles Paul identifies.

Now, we need to understand that Paul is not speaking about a hierarchy in relationships. All men and women, from every race and nation, as well as the unborn, are equal before God. We are all created in God’s image. Paul makes this clear in 3:10: Here there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian and Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.

In the section we are looking at today, Paul is setting out how God’s people, as equals, are to function in their relationships. A good starting point for understanding his words is the Godhead.

God – Three in One. The Apostle John in his Gospel reveals that God exists in Trinity: one God in three persons. God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are equally divine but are eternally distinct persons. There is no hierarchy within the Godhead yet there is an order in which they function. So, the Son of God freely chose to do the Father’s will in taking on human form and serving us by dying the death we deserve (Philippians 2:5-11).

Partners in a marriage – a man and a woman – share an equal status yet are distinct persons. In this partnership there is an intimate relationship of equals, with distinct responsibilities.

Women who have turned to Christ are called upon to recognize and honor their husband’s God-given responsibility to provide leadership in godly love. Paul is certainly not saying that wives are to submit to abuse or be forced to live contrary to the Lord.

Furthermore, Paul does not say to husbands, ‘You rule’. Rather, he says, husbands are to love their wives, honoring and respecting them for who they are under God. One responsibility husbands often overlook is ensuring that the Bible is read in the home.

Relationships between parents and children are also important (as we see in 3:20). Children are to recognise the God-given authority of their parents. Paul is saying that this will only happen when parents do not tease and exasperate their children or give way to their every whim. Rather, parents need to treat their children with love and care and commitment, respecting their individuality, but curbing their attempts to reject authority.

Paul also sets out principles for the workplace. In today’s world responsibility in relationships between employers and employees are an essential part of our living under God (3:22-4:1). For God’s people the balance of selfless and responsible attitudes and actions should be self-evident. Employees are to act responsibly, respectfully and honestly toward their employers. Employers are to be totally fair to their employees, not exploiting or abusing them.

It is this sense of responsibility and accountability to people around us that is one of the gifts of God’s people to the world. We may feel politically powerless, but we must never think we have nothing to contribute to the world. The restraint, the accountability that we show in our relationships, our households, and in our workplaces, demonstrate that we have a Lord to whom we are accountable – and the world will notice the difference.

When our lives are truly being transformed by the Spirit of God, people will see it and, under God, be drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ.

© John G. Mason

New – ‘An Anglican Understanding of the Bible’: https://anglicanconnection.com/gods-word-written-an-anglican-understanding-of-the-bible/

Coming January 2021 – Anglican Connection Online Conference
Details for the Anglican Connection January 2021 Online Conference will be released shortly.

Two thousand years ago the angels sang at Jesus’ birth, “and on earth, peace …”  But the world hasn’t got any better. Indeed, while peace is something we all long for, it is one thing the world does not have. So, where is the fulfilment of the angelic promise?

Before we charge the angels with false advertising, we need to read the full text of their song: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, among those whom he favors” (Luke 2:14). The angels were making a promise to a specific group – the people of God.

Over these last weeks we have been trekking through the Letter of Paul the Apostle to the Colossians. Today we come to his words in chapter 3:15: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

Broken relationships. Too often we ignore our deepest human problem – we are all self-focussed. Our relationships with God and with one another are broken. Jesus made it clear that the solution to the human condition, would require his death, for he would die the death we all deserve. It would be Jesus’ divine, costly work alone that could heal our relationship with God. What is more, once our relationship with God was restored, there would also be healing of the broken relationships across social and cultural, racial and national divides amongst his people. No wonder the angels sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, ‘shalom’, ‘peace’.

Indeed, in Colossians 3:11 we read: … there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free, but Christ is all and in all. And in the following section, Paul goes on to write of the inner attitudes that we are to adopt as we relate to others. This includes ‘letting the peace of Christ rule our hearts’.

Referee. The context helps us to understand Paul’s meaning here when he speaks of peace. He is speaking about the inner peace that the Lord Jesus gives to his people, and also the attitude of peace that should now rule our minds and wills as we relate to others. In the flow of Paul’s writing about forgiving one another and loving one another, the peace of Christ is to be the referee. So when bitterness and love battle within us the peace of Christ is to win the day.

Now this doesn’t come easily, especially when we’ve been hurt by others. When we are dealing with injury and conflict, it’s hard to forgive and so make peace. Nevertheless, Paul is saying that God’s people are to be at the forefront of finding solutions to resolve tension and conflict. As Jesus himself said, we are to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).

Bible. Furthermore, we need to know Christ, so that we will have his wisdom to bring into our conversations. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, Paul writes; Teach and admonish one another in all wisdom (Colossians 3:16).

Keeping the peace doesn’t mean simply sweeping our differences under the carpet, let alone putting on an artificial smile. In the 1992 Australian film, ‘Strictly Ballroom’, Scott, the central character refuses to dance the traditional ballroom steps. His mother is furious. ‘Put on a happy face’, she was told. But hiding our feelings isn’t the way to true peace. We need to find a way to express our feelings.

Furthermore, we are not at liberty to give one another a piece of our mind! Rather, we must bring our minds under the direction of the Lord’s mind, and the only way we can do this, is by coming to the Bible together.

And notice, we are to do this with all wisdom. Our coming to the Bible together is not to be an uninformed pooling of ignorance. We must work together at finding what the Bible means, rather than reading into it what we want it to mean. It’s a ministry all of us are to aim at. There is no place amongst God’s people for strong-willed, aggressive individuals insisting on their way. That creates division.

Song. And Paul continues: … with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. We often overlook Paul’s point here, that as we praise God, we are also instructing and exhorting one another. It’s one of the reasons our songs when we meet should be strong on Bible, and not insipid and repetitive. Even in our world of Covid restrictions, we can still reflect on the words. Singing Bible-based songs is an important way to build relationships.

And, there is something else. Gratitude to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, Paul writes, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:17).

Nothing brings about tension and division more than a discontented spirit. And a discontented spirit is an ungrateful spirit. To be thankful is to accept our situation in the loving providence of God. A thankful heart trusts God in every situation, and thankful people are always happy people.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts …, for it is to this that you were called… We begin to see that the promise of the angels’ song at Jesus’ birth was not fake news. Jesus has not only opened up the path to peace in our relationship with God, but also with one another as God’s people. Furthermore, we are now to let this peace of Christ within us become the referee or umpire in our relationships with others.

Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus says, “for they will be called the children of God”.

© John G. Mason

New – ‘An Anglican Understanding of the Bible’: https://anglicanconnection.com/gods-word-written-an-anglican-understanding-of-the-bible/

Coming January 2021 – Anglican Connection Online Conference
Details for the Anglican Connection January 2021 Online Conference will be released shortly.

Bitterness and anger are the playbook of life around us today – from the bedroom to the corridors of power, from social media to the unrestrained looting in the streets. How should we respond?
Back in 1979 the historian and social critic, Christopher Lasch, published The Culture of Narcissism: There he wrote, ‘Our society has made lasting friendships, love affairs and marriages, increasingly difficult to achieve. Social life has become more and more warlike and personal relationships have taken on the character of combat…’
Even though Lasch was writing some 40 years ago, his thesis is still relevant. Driven by changing and conflicting world-views, society today has become more and more divided. For centuries, the Judaeo-Christian world-view formed the social bond in the Western world. But these days the popular view is to throw God out. And because we are now adrift on the ocean of life without an agreed moral compass, persuasive voices appeal to our basic, albeit unthinking instincts. Profounder, wiser voices of experience that speak to the depths of our souls are drowned out.
Indeed, in a recent book, Dr Greg Sheriden, a respected Australian commentator and author, writes: ‘The primary challenge today is not intellectual but cultural…’
For the last five hundred years or so, Christian theologians and church leaders have seen the need to address the intellectual questions people were asking – questions of the existence of God, authenticity, suffering, and science and Christianity. But if Sheridan is right and the challenge now is cultural, we need to ask, How do other people see us? Is there any difference in my life and my character from people around me?
In the flow of his Letter to the Colossians, Paul the Apostle indicates in chapter 3 the changes of character God expects of his people. Last week we touched on examples of inner transformation. Today we touch on transformed relationships.
In verse 12 Paul writes:  As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
Changed attitudes. Paul tells us that if we are to experience and enjoy good relationships ourselves, we need to change our attitudes towards others. We need to put off the anti-social vices of indifference and thoughtlessness in our relationships with one another. Paul puts his finger on 3 attitudes that can cause conflict.
Instead of compassion and kindness, it is easy to distance ourselves from the pain and the suffering of others – especially in this world of Covid-19. Instead of humility and meekness, how easy it is for us to be so focussed on our own interests and achievements that we, even unconsciously, look down on others who are not as ‘together’. And how easy it is to be impatient with those around us because we’re not prepared to put up with their faults or failures. Indifference, pride and impatience can lie at the root of violence and hostility in any human society.
Forgiveness. Paul continues: Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.
Let me ask, have you forgiven in your heart and before God that person who so badly hurt you? Have you let bitterness take root in your attitude towards them? If we know God’s forgiveness because we have turned to the Lord Jesus in repentance, how can we not forgive those who have offended us?
Clara Barton was the founder of the American Red Cross. The story is told that a friend once reminded her of a particularly cruel thing someone had done to her. Clara Barton didn’t seem to remember it. ‘But you must,’ her friend insisted. ‘No’, replied Clara Barton. ‘I distinctly remember forgetting it.’ Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you, Paul exhorts us.
Love. And put on love which binds you all together, he continues. Paul knew how easy it is for God’s people, indeed for everyone, to be divided. He understood the corrosive effect of wounded feelings. But he also knew of the one quality that can heal, and enable God’s people to grow into maturity: Love.
He is not speaking of a sentimental, insipid love, but of a love that is grounded in truth and is committed to serving the best interests of others.
This is where we who are God’s people are to be so different from the wider society. For the New Testament is insistent that God’s people be the one community where the ethics of love and mercy in serving the best interests of others, prevail. As God’s people, we are to pray for our enemies. God expects us to live out the grace of compassion and care for others – especially for one another as God’s people.
How are we to respond to the vindictiveness and division around us? The starting point is to pray that we might live out the life changes that the Lord has brought to bear on us as his people.
Tertullian, the 2nd century church leader commented of the way the wider society saw the communities of God’s people: ‘It is our care for the helpless, our practice of loving kindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents’, he said. “Only look,” they say, “look how they love one another”.’
A prayer. Eternal God and Father, by whose power we are created and by whose love we are redeemed: guide and strengthen us by your Spirit, so that we may give ourselves to your service, and live this day in love for one another and to you; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

New – ‘An Anglican Understanding of the Bible’: https://anglicanconnection.com/gods-word-written-an-anglican-understanding-of-the-bible/

Augustine of Hippo, one of the great minds of the late Roman Empire, wrestled with the notion of God and the question of evil, before coming to believe that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God.

He goes on in his Confessions to say that as a young adult his prayer was, “God, give me chastity and self-control, but not yet”. One day he heard a young child’s voice singing, Tolle lege; tolle lege – ‘Take up, read; take up, read.’

He had been reading Paul the Apostle’s Letter to the Romans. Going back to the place where he had left the text, he let it fall open and his eyes lit on the words from chapter 13: Let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

As he read, he found the solution to his heart’s longing. “How sweet did it suddenly become to me to be free of the sweets of folly: things that I once feared to lose, it was now joy to put away. You (Lord) cast them forth from me, … and in their stead you entered in, sweeter than every pleasure…” (Confessions VIII)

Paul’s advice in Romans 13 is similar to that in Colossians chapter 3:1-11. In the opening verse there he says: Since you have been raised to a new life in Christ, set your hearts and minds on the things above… And in verse 5 he writes: Put to death therefore what belongs to your earthly nature…

He is saying that God’s people should let the light of our new relationship with the risen Lord Jesus fall on every aspect of life. Everything is to reflect our new identity. Let me touch on three examples that Paul gives us – sexuality, the tongue and relationships.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Passions. If you know the Lord Jesus, Paul is saying, then sex is for marriage only. ‘You used to do what you wanted to do,’ he says, ‘but now having linked yourself with the Lord, put to death such behaviour.’ People often insist that they are ‘making love’, but with Paul’s reference to greed in this context, he is saying that really it’s lust.

In recent years studies suggest that the internet is having a negative impact on marriages. People are so consumed by it, especially pornography, that they have less time and inclination for their for their marriage partner. What a strange paradox: ogling at pictures more than enjoying the precious gift of the personal, intimate relationship of marriage.

As Augustine came to realize, God is not interested in spoiling our fun. Rather, as our Maker, he’s providing the framework for our pursuit of the good things of this world as he prepares us for a new world, where we’ll have more true pleasure than anything we can begin to imagine.

Paul also speaks about the tongue: But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.

It seems strange that Paul writes about controlling the tongue in the same context as he writes about our sexuality. What we forget is that the New Testament sees the tongue as our most sin prone organ. In his Letter, James says that the tongue is a restless evil.

You may think that to get on in life you need to express yourself with vehemence and an edgy vocabulary. But malice, obscenity, and rage constantly damage and destroy relationships.

Sometimes people tell me that nobody likes a saint: they’re so self-righteous. But to say this is to forget what true humanity is. To be truly human is to be like Jesus. Let me ask, ‘Do you get the impression that he was a dull, anaemic personality?’ He was man as men and women are meant to be.

Which brings us to Paul’s further comment – Relationships:

In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

Here in Colossians 3:11 Paul is telling us that God’s people need to recognize the unity we have in Christ and, in turn, provide a picture to the world of God’s new society. One of the significant features of New Testament Christianity was the breakdown of racial and cultural barriers – especially between Jewish and non-Jewish Christians.

Paul’s words set the agenda of unity across the social and racial divisions for God’s people. Yes, we’ll disappoint one another, we won’t always be as tolerant as we should be, we won’t always love one another, or forgive one another as we should. But we must try. That should be our goal.

Put to death therefore what belongs to your earthly nature… Paul writes.

You may find it helpful to remember Augustine’s words as he read the Scriptures: “How sweet did it suddenly become to me to be free of the sweets of folly: things that I once feared to lose, it was now joy to put away. Lord, you cast them forth from me, you the true and highest sweetness, … and in their stead you entered in, sweeter than every pleasure…”

Augustine could sum up, “God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.”

A prayer. Lord if we are honest, we find our consciences pricked by the lofty standards you have set, of sexual purity, in our speaking, and in our relationships. We know that this failure in us affects the whole world, creating injustice and protest, conflict and war. Please forgive us. Lord, we also want to thank you for the new world you have made, to which you have given us title. Help us to fix our gaze on you and your promises. Turn our hearts to love you and to honor you. Help us to live for your glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

At midnight in Sydney as the year 2000 and the new millennium began, the word Eternity lit up on the Harbour Bridge.

The back story is the personal story of Arthur Stace. Born in poverty to alcoholic parents, he had little education and became a petty criminal, an alcoholic and homeless. In the aftermath of World War II, he joined the lines outside St Barnabas’ Broadway, an Anglican Church in Sydney that provided food and shelter for the homeless. However, to get a meal involved first hearing a sermon! Stace turned to Jesus Christ.

One night, at another church, he heard a sermon on Isaiah 57:15: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits Eternity, whose name is Holy;… “I wish that I could sound or shout Eternity to everyone in the streets of Sydney,” the preacher said. “We’ve all got to meet it. Where will you spend Eternity?” Taking up the challenge, the almost illiterate Arthur Stace, started chalking Eternity, in a distinctive copperplate script, on the streets of Downtown Sydney. Over 35 years he chalked it 500,000 times. Eternity became the mystery and the fascination of Sydney.

And how important this word is for our world today – a world challenged by a pandemic with its drastic health, social and economic consequences. Eternity opens up a new way of looking at life.

New life. In his Letter to the Colossians, chapter 3:1 Paul the Apostle writes: So if you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. In Colossians 1 and 2 Paul tells us that with the coming of Jesus Christ the new age of God’s kingdom has dawned. This new age co-exists with the old which the New Testament refers to as the world. For the present a door is open, allowing people to pass from the old age to the new. In Colossians 1:13 he puts it this way: God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves…

When we come to our senses and turn to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our whole relationship with God changes. In Colossians 2:20 Paul speaks of everyone who turns to Christ as dying with him. Now in Colossians 3, he says: So if you have been raised with Christ…

New perspective. While physically we are still in the old world, God’s people now move in the sphere of resurrection life. And Paul wants the light of this sphere of eternity, to fall on everything we say and do. ‘Live,’ he says, ‘as though you belong, not on the earth, but in heaven.’

Now, it’s natural to let the concerns of this world dominate our hearts. But Paul urges everyone who has this new life in the Lord Jesus, to see the challenges and troubles of life through the lens of their new resurrected and eternal life.

Because Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God, he sits on the throne of holiness and great power. No longer should we feel that we are helpless victims of a troubled world with all its faults and failures, disease and death. And when we truly see that life now is fleeting, we will experience a greater joy and peace as we center our lives more and more on the Lord Jesus.

Paul develops this: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God, he says in verse 3. From God’s perspective, everyone who lives without him is dead. We may be healthy and enjoying life, but as far as God is concerned, we are dead. However, when we truly turn to Jesus Christ, God raises us up to a new life with Christ.

For the present others only see our physical bodies. The reality of our new and eternal life is hidden. Indeed, because those around us cannot see, let alone understand the life we now have, there will be misunderstanding, mockery and even anger at the lifestyle changes they observe. But, because our faith is grounded in the God who keeps his promises, what is now hidden will one day be disclosed. Everyone will see it. Paul puts it this way in verse 4: When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

In today’s world of scientific progressivism, the idea of Christ bursting through the skies in a blazing display of power and glory, seems pure science fiction. But the Bible leaves us in no doubt. From cover to cover it tells us that the world is going somewhere and that the final outcome will be the return of God’s king.

Do you realize that it is only some twenty-eight life spans ago – a life span being 70 years – since the events of the death and resurrection of God’s Son? During the course of his public life Jesus had predicted these events. He also spoke of his return. In the same way that his death and resurrection were fulfilled, is it not conceivable that his third prediction will also take place?

And when he returns, what a day that will be! This present age will be seen for what it is – passing. And the pure joy and glory of God’s people will be manifest for what it is, an experience of life in all its fullness, for all eternity.

Eternity awakens our minds to see life now through the longer lens of a time without end – of God’s country.

It is nothing short of a miracle that Arthur Stace’s one-word sermon on New Year’s Eve of the new millennium was seen by an estimated four billion people around the world. In this troubled world, let’s live in the light of eternity and the return of God’s King.

A Prayer: O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: do not leave us desolate, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to where our Savior Christ has gone before, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for evermore.  Amen.