What is Often Missed

I enjoy music in many of its permutations, and I often listen to Christian music because it can be edifying. Listening to a contemporary christian station this morning, the angst and seeming uncertainty really struck me. Why are these christian people struggling to recognize the presence of Christ? Why do they constantly feel that their actions are unworthy of their calling to be Christlike? Why does it seem that the music is a continuous attempt to hype themselves up into the appropriate emotional state? They sing about what Jesus has done for them, but not about what Jesus is doing in them. It brought to mind a passage in 2Timothy 3; "..having a form of godliness, but denying its power,....always learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth". The real revelation began to come for me when I stopped trying to take some hidden meaning out of everything. Some things in scripture are meant to be understood quite literally. I cannot think of any way to logically get around the fact that Jesus was being literal in John 6 when He said "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life". That is a tough teaching. In fact, that is what the people who heard Him said at the time. How does that play out? How can it be literally true? The cool thing about God is that He doesn't have a human mind, nor human limitations. What He says simply is. He said "let there be light" and it existed. How exactly? We haven't figured that out yet. The best our most brilliant minds can come up with, knowing that there was a time when literally nothing of the observable universe existed, is that since it is, it must have caused itself to be. Wow. great insight there, guys. This is the truth that goes over the head of virtually everyone regarding the Gospel: Jesus is an eternal being, existing within the Trinity always, but existing as a man, too, in a finite time. Although He existed as a man who lived, died, and rose from the dead, He was also eternal in nature. When He made of Himself a sacrifice for mankind's sin, the effect was eternal. That means it stretched back to the beginning of time and forward to the end of time. If one looks at the sacrificial process in the Old Testament, one sees that the person who is repenting must take part in the sacrifice. They were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice and renewed their friendship with God by eating a portion of the sacrifice in God's presence. In this way, what Jesus did and said at the Last Supper begins to become clear. Jesus was the word that brought everything into existence, and He can change the very substance of things. When His words bless the bread and wine, the bread and wine become what He proclaims it to be; His body and blood. This substantive change makes it possible for us to receive Him in a real and substantive way. The reality has a further importance, though. When we receive Jesus in substance, we also receive His transforming power. The fallen nature within us can be transformed into the divine nature He gives. We can, through this grace, be the good and perfect creatures we were meant to be. Rather than constraining us, this frees us to be everything good that we are. We do not have to be in constant angst, wondering if we are worthy, wondering if we are forgiven, wondering if anything we will ever do will be good enough. Jesus provided, through His Church the means by which we can be sure we are forgiven, sure He is present with us. This is the truth of the Gospel that seems to so often be missed.