]]> http://ccmblife.com/2010/02/15/kidz-konnect/feed/ 0 http://ccmblife.com/2010/02/15/kid-zone-ministries/ http://ccmblife.com/2010/02/15/kid-zone-ministries/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:30:58 +0000 admin http://66.147.244.192/~ccmblife/?p=130

To contact one of the pastors:
•russ@ccmblife.com- Russ Bennett, Lead Pastor
•kevin@ccmblife.com- Kevin Hill, , Minister to Children and their Families.
•scott@ccmblife.com- Scott Moody, Minister of Member Care and Administration.
•nathan@ccmblife.com- Nathan Moore, Minister of Community Outreach.

Join us as we discover God’s plan for restoring marriages and families.

Come join us March 21 & 28, 2010 for our preview services, and then Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010, for our official launch service!

Everyone desires a friend who is willing to do this, but does not necessarily want to repay the favor. Not that we do not care, we are often overly busy and sometimes the effort is just too difficult. Now add 2 or 3 more individuals into the mix and you can begin to see why true community is so hard to achieve. Now add in our American individualism and all this seems quite impossible. Yet none of us is truly willing to abandon this community project. We have as Paul Tripp says, “A love hate relationship with relationships.”

Our problem is that what true relationship requires exposes what is inside us all, a sinful self-centeredness. The same self-centeredness would cause us to remark that it is right to look to our own needs first, but we all inherently know this to be wrong. C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, “Christ did not come to preach any brand new morality. The Golden Rule of the New testament (Do as you would be done by) is a summing up of what everyone, at bottom, had always known to be right.”

Any good theologian will tell you all proper theology begins with God. This discussion does as well. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:4-6, “There is one body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (NASB).

Paul is teaching that true community is best expressed by the inner working of the trinity. “Notice how the word one is used. Each use is attached to a member of the trinity. There is one Spirit at work in the body. There is one Lord through whom we have one hope, faith, and baptism. There is one father who is over one family, the church.” (Tripp/Lane, How People Change)

All this is important because we have been created in the image of this Triune God (Gn. 1:26) who is constantly living in community. Our desire for this selfless community is deep within our beings. The reason we do not enjoy the same is that sin has corrupted us, (Rm 3:23) and our desires for community have become just that…OURS, again revealing our selfishness as opposed to selflessness. We must draw our example from the redemptive nature of the trinity. “God is a redeeming God who does something utterly amazing to reconcile us to Himself and others” (Tripp/Lane). At the core of our faith we know that Jesus dying on the cross has put us right with God. When you dig deeper you begin to realize that the very community existing between the Father, Son, and Spirit was ripped in two as Jesus bore a bloody death so that we could have a chance to be put right with God, and once again rightly relate to our fellow brothers and sisters.

I told you relationships were a messy business, and they delve right into one of the deep mysteries of our faith. The community of our triune God was broken so that ours do not have to be. The next time we are tempted to complain about the inconvenience of relational living may we remember the inconvenience our God bore on our behalf, praying for His spirit of selflessness to be at the center of our community life.

“What is the Christian redeemed from?”
Ransom/redemption presuppose captivity or bondage and the Bible teaches that Christ redeemed His people out of two types of bondage: bondage to the Law and bondage to sin.

The Law. I must state immediately that Christ did not redeem us from the law, but from the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:13). It would be absurd to claim that we are redeemed from the obligation to love God and others, rather the Scriptures teach we were redeemed bondage to the law. This is expressed in several dimensions.

First of all, we are redeemed from the curse of the law, namely the consequences that breaking the law brings with it (Gal. 3:10). Those who break God’s law inherit the curse of God’s wrath. Christ delivered us from this curse by becoming a curse on our behalf. Secondly, we are redeemed from the ceremonial law. Ever wondered why we don’t slaughter animals in church? According to Galatians 4:4-5, Christ was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. By being born under the Mosaic law, Christ satisfied all of the law’s conditions. Finally we are free from the law of works (Rom. 5:19). John Murray puts it rightly, “Christ has redeemed us from the necessity of keeping the law as the condition of our justification and acceptance with God.”

Sin. Christ has redeemed us from both the guilt and power of sin. In speaking of redemption from the guilt of sin, let us consider that Christ specifically saw His work as a substitutionary ransom for sin (Matt. 20:18; Mark 10:45). Let us also consider Romans 8:33, who will bring a charge against us? Not even Christ himself will, for He is interceding for us. Dear Christian, rest assured that you are free from the guilt of sin.

However Christ also redeemed us from the power of sin. Much could be said here but let it be sufficient to draw your attention to the teaching of new birth (Jn 3:3-21). Those who are in Christ are new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17). Additionally consider how the Scriptures teach that Christ did not only die for us, but that we died in Him, and if we died in him then we have surely risen with him (Rom. 6:1-10; 2 Cor. 5:14-15). This truth, that Christ redeemed us from the power of sin is the basis for the process of sanctification. Take heart poor Christian, wearied by sin for “sin shall not be master over you” (Rom. 6:14).

“To whom was the Christian’s ransom paid?”
The observant reader might now ask, “If redemption references paying a ransom or purchasing, then who was paid?” The short and simple answer to this question is that the Christian’s ransom was paid to God. But here is what is even more amazing, it was paid TO God, BY God. Romans 3:26 describes God the Son as both the just (God the Father as righteous judge) and the justifier (God the Son as the ransom for many) for all who believe. Do not think dear Christian that redemption is merely deliverance, for then Christ would not have had to die. Rather Christ ransomed you, He purchased you, He redeemed you. You owed the Triune God a debt that only eternal wrath could satisfy and God the Son purchased you from God.

Conclusion
Though we may not know the mystery of the Cross fully, what we are able to know part… is real. The events of the cross of Christ are the center of history and the most romantic display of love the world has ever known. Even in flawed human love, we say that love is indescribable, how much more indescribable is the cross of love? You will forever fall short of comprehending the love displayed on the Cross of Christ so it would be foolish to think that four new words are sufficient to “speak” of the cross. Yet God has revealed the work of the cross as a work of sacrifice, propitiation, reconciliation, and redemption. May we never cease to speak the language of the Cross.

“Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable His ways.” (Romans 11:33)