How NOT to Lose Your Zest for Life

Mike Hosey, An Elder

In Romans 6, the Apostle Paul writes about the intersection of death, sin and life.  Towards the end of his chapter, he argues that the wages of sin is death (Proverbs 6:23).  That means that the payment for working for sin, or working to fulfill sin, or living for sin, or being alive to sin is funded from the payroll account of death!  Interestingly, that payment of death is most often delivered in a very peculiar but cruel way.  To understand this cruel method of payment, consider the ironically evil benefits of sin. A person derives a certain amount of pleasure from sinning.  There really is no denying this. It is usually the chief reason people sin.  This does not mean, however, that pleasure is bad.  In fact, pleasure is good. It was created by God, and it exists for a good purpose. It is obtaining pleasure in a way contrary to how God intends for humans to enjoy it that is bad or sinful.  As a person pursues the pleasures of sin, his senses become more and more dulled to the pleasures he thinks he is getting. All addictions are an excellent example of this life-stealing sin process.  With addictions, a person gets less and less pleasure, and so needs more and more exposure to the substance or behavior to which they are addicted. As one famous theologian put it, there is an ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure.  And pleasure is a hallmark of full life.  A person who pursues sin is dying. And the more he pursues it, the more dead he becomes. He becomes more dead to pleasure, more dead to general life, and more dead to the joys of Christ.

But if that same person dies to sin, and decides to come alive to Christ, his life becomes new.  Interestingly, the more he pursues Christ, the less he will enjoy the pleasures of sin. That same person will increasingly enjoy Godly pleasures.  In truth, most of the pleasures he might have enjoyed in a sinful context, he can enjoy in a Godly context, and not only can he enjoy them, they become greater as they are transformed to healthy joy. The slaking of lust becomes loving marital intimacy. Those who have experienced both sides of that spectrum will tell you the wholesome side is far more pleasurable than the sinful side.  Partying in selfish wild contexts converts to solid and true fellowship. Pursuit of self-ambition becomes pursuit of the advancement of God’s kingdom, and then witnessing (and sharing in) the joys of changed lives.  The more you live for Christ, the more you will wish to die to sin. Once come alive to Christ and are able to compare the pleasures side by side, you will find that there is no comparison!

What God's Resurrection Power Can Do For You Right Now!

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Many people think that the most important and powerful moment of the New Testament is the birth of Jesus.  It is not. Others think it is the crucifixion.  But it isn’t that either. The most important moment of the New Testament -- in fact -- the most important moment of the entire bible, is the resurrection of Jesus.

The New Testament references it over and over again, by one scholar’s count, more than 200 times.  And even when there isn’t a direct verse related to the event, the concept is often explored obliquely by the New Testament writers. That is because the event was extremely powerful to those who witnessed it. It meant that the chief enemy of man, namely death, had been defeated by Jesus. Jesus had promised that we would be resurrected and that we would live with him with restored physical bodies, not just in some vague spiritual state (John 5:25-29). He also promised that he, himself, would die and be resurrected in a restored body (Matthew 17:22-23). When this event actually occurred, people understood the significance. They knew that the promises of Jesus were true!  It meant that death no longer had a sting, that suffering on earth was more than just temporary, and that a real life in a real body with the real God of the universe was a real eventuality!  Without doubt, it caused them to live differently! It caused them to live boldly.  It caused them to come alive after the depression of seeing their Lord die. So powerful was the event that the Apostle Paul made it the linchpin of the Gospel, stating that if Christ had not been raised that everyone was still dead in their sins and that Christian faith was worthless (1 Corinthians 15:7).

Resurrection was perfectly in line with the nature of God. God is a deliverer. Just think about all the deliverance stories of the Old Testament. Resurrection is deliverance from death. But not only is resurrection deliverance from death, it is deliverance from sin, and even the ultimate consequence of sin. The ultimate consequence of sin is physical, spiritual and eternal death.  But God is so powerful that he can restore a spiritually and physically dead person to eternal life.  Think about it, God is in the business of resurrection and restoration.

The power that God uses to raise the dead is available to you right now. God has the ability to resurrect life in you.  And this is the best part, when God resurrects that life in us, he doesn’t give us our old life back, he gives us new life!  So if you feel dead in any area of your life, give that to God and let him work his resurrection power in you to make you newly alive again. 

Adjusting the Contrast

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Contrast is a word that means to be strikingly different.  For instance, if you were to stand Shaquille O'Neal next to Mike Hosey, you might notice a contrast in personal elevation.  On the other hand, if you were to enjoy a spoonful of sugar, and then try to enjoy a lick of lemon, you would notice a strong contrast between sweet and bitter. There is an enormous contrast between the comfort level of a Walmart parking lot in Gainesville, Florida on a mid-August day, and one in Anchorage Alaska on the same day.  The bible very frequently illustrates truth by using contrast. One of the biggest illustrations it uses is the contrast between light and dark.  Consider the prophet Isaiah.  The prophet calls for Israel to rise and shine. He proclaims that when they do, the glory of God will show on them, and it will contrast with the darkness of the peoples of the world. This contrast will draw those nations to God’s people (Isaiah 60:1-3)!

In Ephesians 5:1-16, Paul makes a similar claim. In fact, in verse 14 he likely is referencing the above passage from the prophet Isaiah.  He describes to the Ephesians the behaviors of people who are not saved, and reminds them that they are no longer like those people because they have been called out of that kind of darkness (Ephesians 5:7). Paul warns the Ephesian church not to partner with those people. Instead he charges them to expose them. To expose means to convict, confute, or to point out a flaw. His use of the word leaves room for Christians to point out with their mouths or other direct methods the darkness of the unsaved. However, his primary and larger method on how to expose them is found in his second use of the word (Ephesians 5:13).   His greater implication in the whole passage is that when we live a life that originates from an awareness of our salvation, then the contrast between those of us who are saved, and those of us who are not will be so great that the darkness of the unsaved will be exposed by how we live.  

Now notice in Ephesians 5:14-16 that he calls for the church at Ephesus to wake up! Arise from the dead, he tells them.  He is telling them to quit walking around in a slumber, to get some life in them, so that Jesus can shine on them, and they can be contrasted by life and light with the rest of the world. Instead of looking and living dead or asleep, they can demonstrate life, and the nations can be drawn to them, and darkness can be exposed and forced to flee.

Then he follows up with something even more important. He tells them to make the best use of their time, because the days are evil. Consider Paul’s command here, and think about the last time you slept in when you had a whole day’s worth of things to do, then contrast that with days that you arose from your sleep early and attended to your tasks!

You Don't Have to Be a Bag of Dry Bones

Mike Hosey, An Elder

In measurable terms, we tend to equate life with certain parts of our bodies.  Most often we do this by how we declare death, and thereby assume a lack of life. For instance, one doctor might declare a person dead if there is no heartbeat.  Another doctor might judge a person to be dead if there is no basic brain activity.  Of course, these organs (and others) need to be functioning for our bodies to be considered alive.  But life isn’t in any particular organ or group of organs. It’s not in our hearts. It’s not in our muscles. It’s not in anything physically attached to our bodies.  Dead bodies, after all, can be kept “alive” by artificially causing a heart to pump and lungs to work.  Instead, life is in the very breath or spirit of God.

Consider the story of Ezekiel and the valley of the dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14).  In this story, the nation of Israel has suffered in exile because of her sins, and because of the military conquests of her enemies. The nation is, in fact, dead and separated from life, culture, history and activity.  God powerfully takes Ezekiel in a vision to a valley full of scattered bones.  The bones are dry, meaning that the bodies they belonged to had been dead for quite some time. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones that they will come alive.  He does, and the scattered bones come together, form skeletons, and grow tendons, muscles, and skin. Standing before Ezekiel in the valley is an army of bodies, but they are not alive until the prophet, obeying God, calls for breath to fill them. God fills them with breath and they become alive.  This was God’s way of showing Israel that he was serious about his power to resurrect and restore them as a nation (Ezekiel 37:11-14). He tells them that he shall put his spirit in them and they shall live.

This kind of power applies to us as Christians as well.  When we are down, and out of hope, or when our activity has kept us from serving God as we should, or when we have moved our minds and hearts away from God, he has the ability to breathe life into us again. In those moments when we are down, we equate life with a lot of different physical things like money, spare time, recreation, a relationship, or any host of things.  But real life is only life when we are breathing in the breath of God (Genesis 2:7, Acts 17:25). In fact, the Old Testament Hebrew word for spirit, and the New Testament Greek word for spirit (as in the life giving Holy Spirit) are words that mean breath!