Flesh of our Flesh – Advent
With all my heart and soul I believe that the Church is the Body of Christ. I also believe that the Church is the family of God and that I am bound to every man, woman and child of the Church because of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. I believe that in Christ I am a part of every member of the Body of Christ and that they are a part of me. I believe that this relationship in the Spirit is as real and as profound as the bond of the flesh and blood. I believe that I am truly part of the Body of Christ. But just believing all these beautiful things about the Church is not enough. If they are to have the influence on my life that they are meant to have, I must also experience what it means to be part of the Body of Christ. Knowing and believing are just not good enough.
During Advent the Church proclaims the mystery of the Incarnation. Christ took flesh in time and He continues to take flesh in the lives of people today. We are the continuation of the Incarnation. As we look back to the joy of the Lord’s birth in Bethlehem we also expect and celebrate His birth in each one of us.
We are a people who live in response to His coming to us as a child in the past, as Spirit in the present and as the King in the future. He has come, He is coming and He shall come again. Advent is a very significant time of the year. It is a time to emphasis the holiness of our relationships and family life. It is a perfect time to lead families to claim their holiness and their beauty by reflecting on the life and family of Jesus that is the result of His coming to us and our adoption into the Father’s family.
Remember, it is our task to remind our people that they already have everything. They are holy because He is holy and He has chosen them. Our holiness is in the ordinary. Our holiness is in loving with everything we’ve got, and in loving the way Jesus loved. Their holiness is to live out their relationships with great love and fidelity. The Church doesn’t make our people holy; it reminds them of what they already possess. It is their commitments, relationships and love in which their holiness is revealed.
The more the Church stresses the meaning and the holiness of family life, the more this holy time becomes the new incarnation of God’s people living out their identity. They are a part of the family, the Body of Christ. He becomes one with us so that we could become one with Him and His family. His coming reminds us that we are no longer individuals living alone but we have been grafted into a community of the Father’s Love.
He came to create a family. He is continually sustaining His family and He will come again for His family. During Advent we are to remind each other that we are alive because of His coming and that we live for His coming.
3 comments:
AS I read this article, I was reminded of the scripture in Hebrews 12:14, Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" then I began to try and undestand what holiness really means. I came across the following quote by J C Ryle
"Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing in God's judgment - hating what He hates, loving what He loves - and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word. He who most entirely agrees with God, he is the most holy man.... He will have a decided bent of mind toward God, a heart desire to do His will, a greater fear of displeasing Him than of displeasing the world, and a love to all His ways. ..."
" And this I do boldly and confidently say, that true holiness is a great reality. It is something in a man that can be seen, and known, and marked, and felt by all around him. It is light: if it exists, it will show itself. It is salt: if it exists, its savour will be perceived. It is a precious ointment: if it exists, its presence cannot be hid.
My next question would be "Am I Holy?"
Garlan,
If we are in relationship with He who is Holy then we are holy. He became like us so that we could be like Him. He took our sin so that we could have His righteousness. Therefore to be accepted and grafted into His family is to take on His attributes .... again if we are in relationship with Him, united to Him, then we are according to Peter, "partakers of His Divine Nature" .... Thus we are not holy because we have earned or acquired holiness as a result of our behaviour but rather as a result of our union with HIm who is Holy.... thus it is by relationships that we are changed...into His image...
Quintin
Gods quest for union with man has been premeire from day one. He created us in the image and likeness so we were as he is, Holy.
Gods quest to reunite man with Himself through his love and to seperate the world and its nature from his devine creation has been his drive. In Leviticus 11 we read "For I am the Lord your God: You shall therefore santify yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. This was a statemant to the people after handing out the laws of purification. Those laws or guidelines were unnatainable even as much as they tried. In vs. 45 that Holy love seems to state something a bit different when He says "For I aam the Lord that brings you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. Ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy."
His quest to bring mankind out of the bondage of there own thoughts and beliefs has been the driving force to complete every good work in each of us. Can I be holy? Not in this world. But will I be holy even as He is holy, amne I believe that is His goal.
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