(...) These questions, and many more like them, are inappropriate. So the question before us, and the question that really matters, is simply, what do you think of Christ? And what are you going to do with Christ? Every question we might ever have can be boiled down to the subject of Jesus Christ. Everybody needs to answer this question of what we are going to do about this man whom God raised from the dead. Christ is the last word of God to humankind.
Some people have been fooled into believing that it was the life of Jesus that saved us. No, He had to die. Some say it was at the death of Jesus that we were saved. No, He had to rise from the dead. All three acts had to be present before we could truly say we have a Saviour we can trust. He had to live among men, holy and harmless, spotless and unveiled. He had to die for man and then rise on the third day, according to the Scripture. He did all three. What the Spirit of God carries back home to the heart the Holy Spirit impales on our consciences, and we cannot escape until we have done something about Jesus.
To those early Christians, Easter was not a holiday or even a holy day. It was not a day at all. It was an accomplished fact that lived with them all year long and became the reason for their daily conduct.
(...) They lived by the fact that Christ had risen from the dead and they had risen with him.
"If ye then be risen with Christ..." The word "if" is not an "if" of uncertainty. The force of the word is "since ye are then risen with Christ." Paul declared in Romans 6:4 Ephesians 2:6-7 and elsewhere that when Christ rose from the dead, His people rose with Him. Mortality rose with Him. Spirituality rose with Him. And this rising from the dead was and is an accomplished fact.
We are always preaching sermons, writing articles and singing hymns trying to equate our country and our modern civilization - or any civilization - with Christianity. It cannot be done. The Christian Church is something apart. It is not black or white or red or yellow. The Christian Church is not for Canadian or Americans or Germans or British or Japanese. The Christian Church is a new creation born of the Holy Ghost out of the stuff of Christ's wounded side, and it is another race altogether.
The Scriptures say "seek" and "set." "Seek... and set your affections on things above" and put off the old ways, forgive everybody in the world and dedicate your time to Him.
Too often, we give God only the tired remnants of our time. If Jesus Christ had given us only the remnant of His time, we would all be on our way to that darkness that knows no morning. Christ have us not the tattered leftovers of His time; He gave us all the time He had. But some of us give Him only the leftovers of our money and of our talents and never give our time fully to the Lord Jesus Christ who gave us all. Because He gave all, we have what we have; and He calls us "as he is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17).
Nicholas Herman, who was commonly known as Brother Lawrence, was a simple dishwasher in the institution where he lived. He said he did those dishes for the glory of God. When he was through with his humble work, he would fall down flat on the floor and worship God. Whatever he was told to do, he did it for the glory of God. He testified, "I wouldn't as much as pick up a straw from the follow, but I did it for the glory of God."
One saint praised God every time he drank a glass of water. He did not make a production out of it, but in his heart, he thanked God. Every time I leave my house, I look to God, expecting Him to bless me and keep me on my way. Every time I am flying in the air, I expect Him to keep me there, land me safely and bring me back. If He wants me in heaven more than He wants me on earth, then He will answer no to that prayer and it will be all over - but I will be with Him over there. In the meantime, while He wants me here, I will thank Him every hour and every day for everything.
The primary difficulty in the evangelical Church is that we have been trying to think our way into God. Nothing could be more futile and frustrating.
It is only through grace that you can have the fullness of the knowledge of God, but of God Himself can no man think. You cannot think around Him, equal to Him or up to Him. But that hunger for Him in your heart will reach out and search until it finds the object of His love, which is God Himself.
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while reading this book, I still constantly ask: "yes, but HOW?" and then I am reminded: the question that really matters, is simply, what do you think of Christ? And what are you going to do with Christ?
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