Jesus, All for Jesus

Meditations for Ragamuffins

October 17, 2023

Jesus, All for Jesus 

For in him we live and move and have our being.

Acts 17:28a

Just as I started to write this, Robin Mark’s song, Jesus, All for Jesus, began to play on my iPod.  I think I can hear Saint Paul giving Robin a “Yes and Amen” because his lyrics certainly parallel Paul’s comments at Areopagus (Mars Hill) in Athens. (Acts 17) Although Robin’s praise song has some catchy lyrics, Paul was pointing to something much deeper in his comments to the philosophers of Athens. Paul was pointing to the almost incomprehensible foundation of Christianity. The very core of our faith is a personal relationship between mere mortal human beings and the eternal God, Creator of all that exists, and revealed in Christ Jesus.

All religions share three basic elements. They all have intellectual elements, that is, their doctrines and beliefs. All religions have sacramental elements that provides for their manner of worship and sacrifice. All religions have personal elements that determines the relationship between the individual and their god. The uniqueness of our Christian faith is that Jesus stands at the center of all three of these elements.

John’s Gospel affirms that Jesus, the Word, and God, stands at the center of all we believe about God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-4, 14).

Saint Augustine rightly observed that it is Jesus alone who baptizes, confirms, forgives, and heals. Jesus is the host, and the meal itself, in the sacrament of Holy Communion, and, thus, Jesus is the very heart of worship. Jesus is all our beliefs about God, he is the very substance of our worship, and he is our relationship with God the Father Almighty because, “In him we live and move and have our being.”

My Takeaway: As I contemplate my life in Christ I sing these words from Robin Mark’s song, Jesus, All for Jesus:

Jesus, all for Jesus
All I am and have and ever hope to be
Jesus, all for Jesus
All I am and have and ever hope to be

All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into your hands
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into your hands

For it's only in your will that I am free

For it's only in your will that I am free

Jesus, all for Jesus

All I am and have and ever hope to be

Sē’lah

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(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.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.