Friends in Christ Message for June 16, 2012

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Friends in Christ Weekly Message
June 16, 2012

Christ's love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do. Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.
Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!
2 Corinthians 5:14-17 (Message*)

As believers, Christ's love should be at the center of our lives. His love was so great that he died for us - all of us. This opens us up to the possibility of living a resurrection life, a life which is far better than anything we could live without Christ.

In fact, this life is not just far better. It actually is a whole new life, replacing the old worldly life. We are granted the great honor of living in Christ, taking on his life.

In our old life, we viewed people through such things as what they have or how they look. This is not how Christ looks at people. In our new life, we see people through new eyes which focus on the inner, not the outer, person.

We should rejoice and thank God every day for the gift of resurrection life freely offered to us. And we should be careful to stay close to Christ so that this resurrection life can come to fullness in us.

Bill Samuel

* The Message version © by Eugene H. Peterson.