031225 From the banks of Burcham Creek...

From the banks of Burcham Creek…

With the Annual College basketball
Conference tournaments and the
NCAA Tournament upon us I thought
I’d dust off an old article from the archives.

- Hayden Childs

***

JESUS IS LIFE

"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."
(John 1:4)

Rolf Zettersten wrote an article for Focus on
The Family Magazine, June 1993.
He had attended the NCAA Final Four in March
of 1993 at the Superdome in New Orleans, LA.

80,000 excited fans jammed the Superdome to
watch the semi-finals on Saturday night.
Rolf was seated in front of a large section of
Michigan alumni. 

Every time the Wolverines scored,
they applauded, hooted and screamed like their
lives depended on it.

Many of the fans brought with them signs that
conveyed the cleverest slogans they could invent.

After the Michigan team made a comeback,
one man got up from his seat and began parading
up and down the aisles.

He was holding a large cardboard sign above his
head that read:

"THIS IS WHAT WE LIVE FOR"

While sitting amid this incredible sporting event,
Rolf suddenly had a healthy dose of proper perspective.
He turned to his friend and said,
"Man, I'm sure glad this isn't what I live for."

Friend, what are you living for?

Several years ago, a t-shirt came out in sporting goods
stores that read:

"Basketball is life ... The rest is just details"

I never purchased that shirt.
There is more to life than sports!

Friend, JESUS IS LIFE!

CHRIST'S DEATH IS THE BELIEVER'S LIFE.

"For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Romans 6:23)

Because sin brings spiritual death and separates
us from the life with God,
the removal of sin restores life with God.

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new."
 (2 Corinthians 5:17)

God created us for companionship with Himself.

"As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?"
(Psalm 42:1,2)

He gave His Son to pay the penalty for our sin.

"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
(2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus died painfully and shamefully on the cross
and was even separated from God because
He was bearing the sins of the world.

"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice,
saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?"
that is "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
(Matthew 27:46)


His death is the believer's life.


MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE.

Our greatest obstacle to genuine life is
preoccupation with material life.

Jesus asked, "Is not life more than food and the
body more than clothing?
(Matthew 6:25)
He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth
of God."
(Matthew 4:4)

Friend, life is more than food and clothes!

"Take heed and beware of covetousness,
(an insatiable desire for worldly gain)
for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the
things he possesses."

(Luke 12:15)

Without Jesus, who is the bread of life
(John 6:35), worldly living is shallow,
bleak, and hopeless.

Christians consider Christ as our life.

"For you died and your life hidden with Christ in God."
(Colossians 3:4)

The life we live in Christ living in us.

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I life by faith in the Son of God who loved me and
gave Himself for me."

 (Galatians 2:20)

HAPPINESS HERE AND HEREAFTER.


The Christian life is the happiest life both now
and forever.

Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life,
and that they may have it more abundantly."
(John 10:10)
"For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is
profitable for all things, having promise of the life that
now is and of that which is to come."
 (1 Timothy 4:8)

Christians receive a hundredfold now in this time ...
and in the age to come, eternal life.
(Mark 10:30)

It is a tragic mistake to think you must give up
real pleasures in the present life to
receive the life to come.

Consider Moses - (Hebrews 11:24-27).

The faithful Christian receives fullness of
fellowship with God both here and hereafter.

Friend, can you say with the apostle Paul,

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain?"
(Philippians 1:21)

Jesus, Oh, Jesus, Do you know Him today?
You can't turn Him away,
Oh, Jesus! Oh, Jesus!
Without Him, how lost I would be!
 
- Hayden Childs