Life in Christ

The late pastor and preacher Tim Keller truly lived out the teachings in his popular book, The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy. In other words, he demonstrated true humility and teachability.

For instance, in 2011, Pastor Tim Cox had accompanied Keller on a trip to South Korea. Cox reflected on the trip later and wrote:

I traveled with Tim to Seoul. Tim was speaking at a conference for pastors, and Tim kept saying ‘Look at what Jesus has done for you! If you see that, you will be changed!’ At one point I asked Tim if even that could be a legalistic thing. That I’m not looking hard enough at Jesus, so I just need to pull up my socks and try harder. When in reality, the Holy Spirit does that for me.

Tim told me, ‘Yes, of course, only the Holy Spirit can do that!’

That was the end of our conversation. The next day, Tim got to the part of his talk where he said ‘if you look at what Jesus did for you . . .’ and he looks straight at me, ‘then by the power of the Holy Spirit, you’ll change!’

Sportswriter Jason Gay wrote an article about a rare baseball card of the famous Babe Ruth.

At first glance, it looked like an ordinary, unexceptional, very old baseball card. It was not. It was a missing link. This was him, alright. The Babe. The most famous player baseball has ever produced … Even I knew this Ruth card was valuable, extraordinary, worth a visit. If I wanted confirmation, I needed only to look at the armed guard sitting on a stool next to its display case. This card was precious cargo, protected like a Picasso, making a brief pit stop at its former home, the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, before being auctioned off and sold to the highest bidder.

[Here’s why it] is such a big deal: One, it’s the first known card depicting the towering lefty slugger. The card … is extremely scarce: There are only 10 of them known, and one hasn’t hit the market in more than a decade. But also: It’s the Babe! This is a charismatic cultural figure with a reach far beyond sports; who once justified making a salary higher than President Hoover by saying, “Why not? I had a better year.”

The auction began November 16, 2023. Within hours, bidding had hit $5.25 million. It eventually sold for $7.2 million.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Jesus Christ - The card was so valuable because of the name on the card—Babe Ruth. The name means everything. But the name of Jesus is worth infinitely more than any name in heaven or on earth. 2) Christian - Christians are also valuable because we bear the name of Christ on us.

What is the goal of life? To accumulate the most money. This is what one can learn from reading the obituary of Reuben Klamer, the creator of the board game, The Game of Life, who died September 14, 2021, at 99.

When The Game of Life was introduced, in 1960, the purpose was to earn the most wealth. The way you got there was simple enough—by going to college, getting a job, buying insurance, saving for retirement. That was “indicative of what sold in that era,” a former Hasbro VP said.

Over time, designers realized that the game didn’t reflect consumers’ changing views of #lifegoals. So they gave it a big update in 2007, allowing players to score points for virtuous deeds like saving an endangered species, opening a health-food chain, and recycling. And instead of starting the game at point A and finishing at point Z, there is no fixed path: You decide how you want to spend your time.

One question that popped up is: If the popular view of what matters in life changed so much in less than 50 years, who’s to say it won’t shift again in the next 50? How will you win life in 2057?

But as Jill Lepore wrote in The New Yorker, the redesign teams always had a hard time addressing the fundamental criticism of the game — that the only way to reward a player for virtuous acts was with money: “Save an Endangered Species: Collect $200,000. Solution to Pollution: $250,000. Open Health-Food Chain: $100,000.”

And so, the company’s 2007 overhaul, the Game of Life: Twists & Turns, was almost existential. Instead of putting players on a fixed path, it provided multiple ways to start out in life — but nowhere to finish. “This is actually the game’s selling point; it has no goal,” Ms. Lepore wrote. “Life is … aimless.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

What is the meaning of life? This is the question that many of today’s young people wrestle with. Many of them do not find a truly satisfying answer that satisfies their deepest longing for significance. Only in Christ do we find the answers to life, our purpose in the universe, and what awaits in eternity.

Before the discovery of insulin, diabetes was a death sentence. Here’s the life-saving story of how scientists discovered insulin. The American Diabetes Association reports:

In 1889, two German researchers, Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering, found that when the pancreas gland was removed from dogs, the animals developed symptoms of diabetes and died soon afterward. This led to the idea that the pancreas was the site where “pancreatic substances” (insulin) were produced. In 1910, Sir Edward Sharpey-Shafer suggested only one chemical was missing from the pancreas in people with diabetes. He decided to call this chemical insulin.

So what happened next? In 1921, a young surgeon named Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best figured out how to remove insulin from a dog’s pancreas. Skeptical colleagues said the stuff looked like “thick brown muck,” but little did they know this would lead to life and hope for millions of people with diabetes.

With this murky concoction, Banting and Best kept another dog with severe diabetes alive for 70 days. The dog died only when there was no more to extract. With this success, the researchers went a step further. A more refined and pure form of insulin was developed, this time from the pancreases of cattle.

In January 1922, Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy dying from diabetes in a Toronto hospital, became the first person to receive an injection of insulin. Within 24 hours, Leonard’s dangerously high blood glucose levels dropped to near-normal levels.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The discovery of insulin, brought life to those near death, giving hope to those at death’s door. We are all sick with sin but the discovery of the gospel and Christ Jesus brings life, and hope.

The news has been relentlessly grim since last Easter. Any glimmers of light were quickly vanquished amid rising pandemic deaths, the social depression of distancing, racial violence, (and) political discord. With all we’ve suffered, who dares risk delight?

In a New York Times interview, noted sociologist Zeynep Tufekci attributed our current collective pessimism in part to the media’s and public health officials’ failure to sound the pandemic alarm early on.

Early predictions had any vaccine taking at least 12 to 18 months to emerge, with a modest goal of 50 percent efficacy against infection. Here at Lent’s end, we’ve achieved not one but as many as four vaccines, pushing 95 percent efficacy, an undertaking unprecedented in the history of medicine. Easter 2021 dawns bearing much brighter light.

Rather than celebrating humanity’s remarkable accomplishment, however, Tufekci noted that the media and public health officials were wary of misinforming again. So, they focused their reporting on the threat of variants, the need for continued mask wearing, and concerns about things unknown, despite the amazing fact we do know: The COVID-19 vaccines are an almost perfect defense against dying from the disease.

Of course, vaccinations or not, we all eventually die, but here is where the amazing news of Easter should not be downplayed. “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said. “The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25–26). If (we get hope) from mere vaccinations, how much more with the Holy Spirit who ensures us eternal life?

In the Middle Ages the sea route to India seemed an impossibility. it was often discussed in the great economic and political centers of Europe. They used to wonder whether there would be a route around the bottom tip of Africa to that rich land of the spices. Many had tried and all had failed. The tip of Africa had become known as the Cape of Storms.

Then an explorer called Vasco da Gama decided he was going to try again. He succeeded. Ever since he returned to Lisbon it could never be doubted again that it could be done. He proved that to use that treacherous way wasn't inevitably disastrous. The Cape of Storms eventually became known as the Cape of Good Hope.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Jesus has done that for death. The treacherous route has been transformed. Jesus suffered and went through death and rose victorious. This means that his people follow, and likewise the storms of death hold no fear for us. He has conquered.

Author Russell Moore writes:

A few years ago, I stood at the grave of Thomas Jefferson, and I was prompted to give thanks for his life and legacy. After all, if it weren’t for Jefferson and his majestic Declaration of Independence, there might not even be a United States of America, and certainly not a country quite like it is now.

But standing at Jefferson’s grave prompted me to realize that Jefferson is, well, in a grave. Jefferson’s anti-supernaturalism is seen in visual form in his famous Bible, with the miraculous parts cut out, most significantly the bodily resurrection of Jesus. I love Jefferson for standing up against King George, but not for standing up against King Jesus.

And yet, two hundred years later, belief in the resurrection of Jesus persists. Just days after I was at this hero’s grave, Christians from all over the world, despite all this science and all this progress and all this technology, confessed what the earliest believers in the catacombs of Rome cried out: “Christ is risen indeed.”

Thomas Jefferson is still dead. I thank God for him, but standing at his grave reminds me how limited even his legacy can be in the grand scheme of trillions of years of cosmic time. It also reminds me of the contrast with (the One) whose monument isn’t a house or…even a simple grave-marker. It’s instead a borrowed tomb that isn’t filled anymore.

That empty tomb is, itself, a declaration of independence. By raising Jesus from the dead, God declared him (and all who are in him) to be free from death, free from the curse, free from Satan’s accusation. I suppose you could say that Jesus was endowed by his Father with certain unalienable rights, among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness … except that these blessings don’t end in a graveyard.

The South West Africa People’s Organization party (SWAPO) made headlines when their candidate was elected to parliament. That a SWAPO candidate won was not news, as the party’s had a stronghold in the area for years. What caught everyone’s attention was his name; Adolf Uunona, whose legal name includes the middle name “Hitler.”

Uunona said in an interview, “As a child I saw it as a totally normal name.” Given Germany’s colonial influence, the name Adolf is not uncommon in the region. Still, he’s uncertain why his father included the infamous Hitler name as a middle name. Uunona said, “I didn't have a choice. I don't know what was going on. I was a baby when my father gave me that name. It wasn’t until I was growing up that I realized this man wanted to subjugate the whole world. I have nothing to do with any of these things.”

Aram Martin, councilor for a neighboring constituency, said Uunona is a good person who possesses a good character. “He is a good person. He is a very hard-working person with a rare personality.” Uunona has worked hard to disassociate himself from the notoriety of his namesake. Still, the responses from social media indicate a wary, cynical public response. Uunona said, “I’m not striving for world domination.” A Twitter user responded, “This seems like the sort of thing Adolf Hitler would say.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Though names are important because they convey a sense of character, we are not chained to the reputations or heritage of our family names. All who have accepted the gift of salvation have access to the glory and authority conferred to Jesus, the name above all names.

Chicago is 800 miles from the nearest ocean, so when the world’s largest salt water aquarium opened there in 1930, its director decided that the ocean must come to Chicago. The Shedd Aquarium sent a series of railway tank cars down to Key West, Florida. There, they siphoned up a million gallons of ocean water for Chicago’s “magnificent marble home for fish.” Visitors in the 1930s were greeted by seahorses, sawfish, baby sharks, and a 585-pound manatee.

Today, the Shedd Aquarium uses a salt blend called Instant Ocean. It is mostly sodium chloride, the same stuff that makes up table salt. It also contains smaller amounts of other chemicals such as sulfate, magnesium, potassium, and calcium.

Aquariums that can pipe saltwater directly from the ocean do, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in California, is the prime example. Monterey is in a fantastic location. The bay is ringed by protected marine areas, so its water is exceptionally clean. At the back of the aquarium are intake pipes that supply all the building’s saltwater tanks. “We’re literally physically connected to the bay,” says Kasie Regnier, the director of applied research at Monterey Bay Aquarium. The pipes can bring in almost 2,000 gallons of water a minute.

Possible Preaching Angles:

Christians also need a constant supply of “living water” to maintain our spiritual health. Though far from home, we are literally connected through the life-giving ministry of the Holy Spirit who applies the living Word to our lives.

Benjamin Schreiber is very much alive. But that hasn’t stopped him from arguing that he died four years ago. After the convicted murderer collapsed in his prison cell, doctors restarted his heart five times. Recovering back at the Iowa State Penitentiary, Schreiber filed a novel legal appeal. He claimed that because he died before he was resuscitated, he had technically fulfilled his life sentence when his heart stopped. Schreiber filed for post-conviction relief, claiming that he was being held in prison illegally.

Judges, however, aren’t buying it. A district court judge wasn’t convinced by his creative attempt to find a loophole in the law, saying that Schreiber’s argument was “unpersuasive and without merit.” The fact that Schreiber was able to file a legal motion petitioning for his release, the judge added, “in itself confirms the petitioner’s current status as living.”

Dying for a brief amount of time doesn’t amount to a get-out-of-jail-free card. The Iowa Court of Appeals said that the 66-year-old will remain in prison until a medical examiner determines that he is dead for good. Judge Amanda Potterfield wrote, “Schreiber is either alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is dead, in which case this appeal is moot.”

Noting that they couldn’t find any case law that would back Schreiber’s position, the appeals court judges also ruled that he couldn’t have it both ways—claiming to be dead as far as the criminal justice system was concerned while simultaneously going on with his life.

Possible Preaching Angles:

This creative legal claim was of no help to this convicted criminal. He is bound by the law as long as he lives. In contrast, however, this is the certain hope of every believer. Because we are connected in a living way with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ we are dead and forever free from the demands of the law. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). “You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). “Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ” (Rom. 7:4).

Death Valley, renowned for its hot and arid climate, has been experiencing a rare surge of life. Hikers and photographers have been flocking to the California region to capture the beauty of a "super bloom," when all the seeds and wildflowers in the area bloom at the same time. These tend to average once a decade, with the most recent superbloom years being 2016, 2005, and 1998.

Park rangers say the timing only works out like this about once a decade. "Death Valley really goes from being a valley of death to being a valley of life," explained ranger Alan Van Valkenburg.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The desert bursting with vibrant color is a wonderful visual of how Christ has taken our sinful, parched lives and breathed new life into them. But there's one big difference: the super bloom will eventually end, but new life in Christ will last forever.

Source:

Reuters, “Death Valley comes alive with super bloom of flowers,” Yahoo News (3-8-16)

How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. ... For those out of Christ, time is a devouring beast; before the sons of the new creation time crouches and purrs and licks their hands.

I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day; I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.

Look for yourself and you will find in the long run hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find him, and with him everything else thrown in.

Someone said that the mind is a marvelous instrument. Unfortunately, it did not come with instructions. We could say the same for life. All of life. And the more we miss the key to living a full life, the more people invent guide books that tell us how to "find life."

Too much of our orthodoxy is correct and sound, but like words without a tune, it does not glow and burn; it does not stir the heart; it has lost its hallelujah. One man with a genuine glowing experience with God is worth a library full of arguments.