Afterword

Saturday, August 24, 2013                   Afterword

I began this series of meditations on April 29, 2013 with sweeping affirmations of God’s incredible love and acceptance of you. The glorious truth is that God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth really loves you. In fact, He is quite fond of you. He is head-over-heels, passionately in love with you, His beloved child. I believe the more you allow yourself to be loved and accepted by God, the closer you move toward that place Bernard of Clairvaux calls the fourth stage of love: you love yourself for God’s sake.

The more you love and accept yourself for the Glory of God, because God truly loves and accepts you, the more passionate you will become in seeking the life in Christ as your way of life. This goal of living the Christ-life does seem daunting and from the outside looking in, it may appear to be just another do-gooder philosophy of life. However, from the inside looking out, from the place of kinship and friendship with Christ, the view is altogether different. The Christ-life is not a philosophy of life, it is the real, authentic life you were created to live. These mediations point to different qualities of the life in Christ. However, living the life in Christ isn’t about mastering these qualities. Life in Christ is resting each and every day in God Almighty, your Abba’s smile of affection for you. Life in Christ is learning that even on your absolute worst day, God looks at you with tenderness and love, not being repulsed by your sin and unfaithfulness, but being drawn closer to you for the potential of the authentic life you carry within you.

There are many who say that the life in Christ is not a very realistic expectation for our way of life. When I hear those claims, I recall something I heard Stephen Covey say. (Covey is the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.) While Covey was discussing Habit Number Four, have a Win/Win attitude, a businessman said to him that such an attitude was totally unrealistic in business. Covey responded by asking the man a question: “How long do you think you would stay in business if you were a winner but your customers felt like losers? Or, how long do you think you would stay in business if your customers were winners, but you were the loser in your business deals?”

I respond in a similar manner to the assertion the life in Christ is pie-in-the-sky, unrealistic for our time and culture. What kind of life would you have if it were dominated by the opposite of the Beatitudes? What follows a person with a haughty attitude? What happens when people are demanding, divisive, or critical? Seeking to live the life in Christ is setting a very high expectation for life, but it is so much better than the alternatives. Actually, for the Christian, there are no other alternatives. Jesus died so that we could have his life as our way of life, and the Christian has no other alternative than affirming with the Apostle Paul,

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Yes and Amen.

Sē’lah

(My new series of meditations on Go Eat Popcorn: Galatians; Ephesians; Philippians; and Colossians will begin on Monday, August 26, 2013.)

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  In addition to this BLOG they are distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com. The Kindle version will follow soon.

·        The second edition First Think – Then Pray has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.