Pastor's Corner: September 2015

by Pastor Lehmann

Posted on September 18, 2015 4:17 AM

Where does Jesus Christ fit in your life? Where does he fit in your thinking, feeling, and speaking - your motivations and priorities, your worldview, your decisions - your schedule, your week, your year? Chances are that as soon as you read that question, you started forming an answer - "Jesus fits ..." - and you wanted it to be the best, godliest, and most spiritual answer you could come up with. But you could never answer it correctly, because to answer it the way it was asked would be to accept a completely wrong way of looking at Jesus and your faith. (Remember how often Jesus would take a question from someone with the wrong way of seeing things and answer not was asked but what the more important question behind it was?)

You see, we have to remember that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, meaning he is all-powerful and all-knowing, present everywhere, eternal, and perfect in every way. In him "all the fullness of the deity" dwells (Colossians 2:9) and he "fills everything in every way" (Ephesians 1:23).

So Christ doesn’t "fit" anywhere. If you have a nice spot in the back of your heart or mind where you keep all your "Jesus stuff", then you have a Savior who is too small. If you have an opening on your calendar a few times a month for spending time with him, then you’re not dealing with almighty Lord of the Universe. If you find that reason, science, or popular opinion has as big a role to play in your view of the world and your understanding of it as Jesus does, then it may not actually be Christ you are following.

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Colosse and told them what their lives should look like because of the salvation, freedom, forgiveness, peace, and new identity they had from the Lord through the gospel, he reminded them just how big and how significant their Savior is. He told them: "Christ is all, and is in all" (Colossians 3:11).

That gives us our theme for this 2015-2016 ministry year: Christ Is All in All. Our services this fall will place the "allness" of the Son of God before the eyes of our faith so that we might better appreciate who and what this marvelous Savior we have really is. Our first topic in Sunday morning Bible study will be a "biographical" study of Jesus, and our midweek class that begins this month will study the "Everything in Every Way" letter of Paul to the Ephesians. Even our midweek Lenten series in February and March will promote this purpose of both centering our thoughts on Jesus and expanding our understanding of everything that he has done and does for us, making him everything to us and everything for us.

So please join us every step of the way for this wonderful journey we’ll be taking this ministry year! It’s going to be exciting and eye-opening to get to know Jesus better, and your understanding, witness, and faith will all grow as a result of spending that time with Christ, who Is All in All.