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Words for the New Year

01.19.17 | Words from the Elders | by Rick Laymon

    Dear Ones,

       As we greet yet another New Year, we are faced with many uncertainties. In the realms of politics, economics, culture, morals, education, religion, family, we see many things moving and many things changing, some for better, some for worse. In the midst of all these changes, one thing is changeless. That is our Father's unfailing love for us, and his wish that we would apprehend the potential he has given to each of us in his son Jesus Christ.

       When someone speaks of potential our minds quickly turn to what we might be able to accomplish or accumulate? When God speaks of our potential he looks at us, then points to Jesus and says, "That's what I want for you, that is your potential!" Paul tells us, "That the first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam(Jesus) was made a life giving spirit." He goes on to say that, "The first man is of the earth, earthly: the second man is the Lord from heaven." He concludes by saying, "And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." That is the image of Christ.

       The first heresy in the church was that Christ came to earth as deity and not as a man. As deity, we can be certain that he would have been able to atone for the sins of man, but as deity, he could never have been a role model for what God created man to be, nor could he have shown mankind the potential God had in mind for man. This first century heresy is however, still unconsciously present in the church today. We look at the life of Jesus, and say to ourselves, "I can never live a life like that, for he was supernatural and I am merely a man!" Yes, Jesus was supernatural for he was God, yet he never lived beyond his resources as a mortal man. Jesus's every temptation was to live out of his deity, yet he always said, "No," to this temptation. Had Jesus drawn power from his deity, he could never have been an example to you and to me. Jesus, who was the creator of the universe, was the most uncreative man who ever walked this earth. Continually he took dictation and instructions from his Father, "What Father tells me to say, I say." "What Father tells me to do, I do." "The words that I speak are not mine, but the Father's." "The works I do are not mine, the Father who dwells within me does these works." The teaching, the wisdom, the works, the miracles we observe in the life of Christ came not from his deity. They came rather from the very life, the deity of the Father, being expressed and flowing through the Son, as the he lived a life of total surrender unto the will of him who sent him. A life of abiding in and depending wholly upon, the almighty resources and the very life of God abiding in him. "..as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you. "

       As 2017 begins, our Heavenly Father would like for each of us to grow in apprehending the potential he has given to each of us in Christ. That potential is the very nature and life of Christ being expressed through our own unique personalities as we sojourn in this world. It is a life of abiding in Christ, the True Vine, and the life of the Vine flowing through us. It is not a life of asking God to help us, it is a life of asking Christ to live his life and accomplish his purposes though us.Let us commit in 2017 to pray for and encourage one another at CCC to abide in Him, that we might as individuals and as a body, apprehend all that for which we have been recreated in Christ to experience. His life in us, our potential!

    Your brother always,

    Rick


    1Cor 15:45,47,49. Jn 14:10. Jn. 17:21. Jn 15:1