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My Two Cents
by Rev Chuck Behrens
April, 2017
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Past Articles |
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Our babies were all born in
nice, warm hospitals. But with the frigid weather systems that blew across
this country during winter, I can't imagine a baby being born outside...on
a city street, no less. But that's exactly what happened in Toronto. As a
20-year-old young woman was trying to walk to the nearby hospital, she
didn't get there in time - the baby came.
It couldn't have happened at a worse time; an extreme cold alert had come
out from the city, the temperature was dropping below five degrees
Fahrenheit. By the time an emergency team could get the fragile little
newborn to the hospital, it was apparently too late. The baby was declared
dead. Just even saying that makes me sad.
Two police officers at the hospital were asked to guard the baby's body
while they contacted the coroner. And that's where it gets pretty
incredible, because the policemen thought they saw movement under the
sheet. They called for medical staff, who con-firmed that the baby was
alive! The police officers have been credited with saving that baby's
life.
Medical folks speculated that it was a case of hypothermia slowing the
baby's metabolism and brain activity to where it seemed like the baby had
died. One way or another, it feels like a miracle to me. And a miracle
that reaches into my soul and says, "Chuck, can't you see yourself here?"
Yes, I can, because of the Bible's startling description of me. In
Ephesians 2:1 it says, "You were dead." Yeah, lungs breathing, heart
pumping but dead - spiritually dead. Because we're so much more than
protoplasm and proteins. When God breathed life into man, Genesis says,
"man became a living soul." Bodies die. Souls keep going - forever. And
that's the part of me the Bible reveals was dead. Spiritually flat lined.
Oh, I didn't know it, but I was still dead. Because I've taken the life
God gave me to live for Him and I've done with it what I wanted to do with
it. Which essentially means enthroning myself as "God" for me. Cosmic
rebellion. "Sin."
So God's diagnosis from the Bible says: "You were dead in your sins."
Separated from the source of all spiritual life, away from God, living
without any meaning here, and then away from God forever. I don't like
God's diagnosis, but I can't change it.
Yet like that "dead" little baby in Canada, I'm miraculously alive. Here's
the miracle we either overlook or simply just don't be-lieve: Ephesians
2:4-5, "God...loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because
of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead." That's
what it took, and only God could do it.
If you're dead, you can't resurrect yourself. If we're just crippled by
our sin-cancer, then a religion could get us to heaven. If we've just got
defects, doing a lot of good things should balance heaven's scales. Right?
But we're dead. There's not one thing a dead person can contribute. So
anyone who's hopeful that being good will get them to heaven is depending
on a life preserver that's got a fatal leak.
No, only God can give life. And this is where it gets amazing beyond
words. Here's the Bible again: "God saved you by His special favor when
you believed. You can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done" (Ephesians
2:8-9 - NLB).
The gift of eternal life was purchased at a hellish price - the brutal
death of God's only Son. It was His sinless life, laid down for my
sin-wasted life. There is no greater love. Then He blew death away; He
walked out of His grave. There is no greater power.
Until I admit I'm dead, I can never be alive. I can't do a thing to
resurrect my sin-deadened soul. Jesus did it all. It's got to be all Him
and no me. But when you pin all your hopes on His life-giving sacrifice,
oh man, that's when life really begins. IT makes you realize that Easter
is not 'a day,' 'a season,' or even 'a lifestyle.' It's a fulfilled
Promise...one we all need to accept and share.
See you in Church
Rev. Chuck
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