Feria

Friends in Christ,

Therefore , He, Christ, is not ashamed to call them brothers - Hebrews 2:11

This reading in Hebrews once more reaffirms Christ's true divinity and His true humanity, Jeus chose, for the salvation of humanity, to live in a flesh and blood body like our own. He was like us in all respects, even to being tempted by the devil, but unlike us He resisted evil and remained without sin. Jesus, in His human body, placed Himself temporarily ' lower then the Angels', but obedience to His Father in accepting suffering and death for our sakes revaled His Dvinity and crowned Him with eternal honor and glory. His exaltation now places Him above all creation, thus subjecting all things and peoples to Him. Let us recall that man, created in God's image and likeness, lost dominion over this earth when he sparated himself from God's wisdom and power through sin.

The fact is that apart from God we have lost the ability to prudently care for and govern ourselves and this earth created for our sustenance. The present world situation amply attests to this. If we deny God, Father, Son and Spirit, and believe that we can live perfectly good lives apart from Him, we essentially reduce ourselves to an accidental combination of elements, organized by wild chance into a high functional creature without a soul. Then all the concepts we speak of such as love, truth, justice, compassion, peace, joy, forgiveness, sacrifice, etc, are simply the imaginings of our fevered brains and have no possibility for reality. The coming of Christ to this earth elevates humanity by putting our sin to death and enabling us to actually live these illusive concepts, all divine attributes, and win eternal glory, to become beings worthy of being called His brothers and sisters.

Mark 1:21-28 summarizes for us the power the resides in Christ, who has conquered sin, and death. He is ever calling us to take possession of this great God given blessing.

Loving Father, make our humanity complete by opning our eyes to our need for spiritual rebirth, when receiving Thy sacrificial gift given us through Christ and His Spirit. Amen.

Ed Bakker