“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” – Philippians 3:10-11
We have snow again today… Even though the weather is not warm enough yet, but we know that spring is around the corner. How do we know that spring is coming? Because it is the nature that we all know from our life experience.
According to Genesis, God created all plants and animals to live with the weather on earth. During the winter, all plants and insects look dead. It is hard to identify if they are dead or not. However, when the temperature goes up, we will know which one is alive. The one, which was not dead, would hatch from its capsule and start growing. Likewise, the plant starts sprouting and growing.
God made the human in His own image and likeness. God breathed His breath into the human, and he became a living soul. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, He could not keep them in the Garden of Eden and had them separated from God.
However, God did not want His likeness human to be under the eternal condemnation. To call us back to His Kingdom, He sent Jesus Christ to this world and had Him die on the cross. So, whoever believes in Jesus Christ as their Savior, God has cleansed their sins and given the new eternal life in Christ.
April 16 is Easter this year. We Christians celebrate the day as Christ was raised from the dead and showed His transformed body to His disciples for 40 days. Since they saw and experience His resurrection and ascension, they could keep up the faith and the assurance of the salvation from the sin in Christ. Christ’s resurrection made them endure and overcome persecution. They stood firm on the promise of the eternal kingdom.
Since we have the same faith as the disciples, we also know that we will have eternal life and will resurrect as Christ did. When we look around, we may not know who has the faith in the eternal life or not. However, we are sure that whoever has the life will resurrect as Christ did and live in the Kingdom of God forever.
We are having baptism on the Palm Sunday. Let’s congratulate the newly born-again children of God because they have decided to believe in Jesus Christ as their LORD and Savior. They have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light in Christ as we are. Let’s welcome them to the Kingdom of God.
I pray that all of our congregation with no exceptions can have the assurance of the salvation in Christ. – Pastor David C.