Marked People

You may be familiar with this idiom: "a marked man".  It generally refers to someone who is in danger of harm from someone else.  Or, it can mean a person bears some distinguishing mark which sets him or her apart from others.  Jesus was a "marked man" for most of His ministry, and then he showed the "marks" of his crucifixion in His hands, feet and side, in appearances after His resurrection.

What marks do you bear in your body?  In mine, I bear a scar in the middle of my forehead from a tumble I took as a toddler, and one on my knee from one I took as a youth.  My body shows evidence of giving birth, twice....various adventures in the dental office, pierced ears...I could go on with this boring recitation, but won't.

A family friend broke a bone last week.  Now, that bone will heal.  But, when it is viewed on the x-ray, it will always show evidence of having been broken.  The bone is forever changed.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and Ephesians 1:13-14 brought it to the forefront of my mind this morning.  Here are the verses :

3And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) – when you believed in Christ – you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

(NET)

Let me juxtapose here another, related verse, 2 Corinthians 5:17 - -

So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away--look, what is new has come.

(NET)

There is such a thing as "spiritual DNA".  We are born with a flawed type of it, a type that is hopelessly contaminated wtih sin.  But when we hear the gospel (1:13 above) and accept Jesus as Savior, that DNA with which we were born ("born into sin") is forever, eternally changed.

It's pretty amazing, really.  Think of it as a "chemical change".  I took just enough chemistry in high school to be dangerous, (thank you, Dr. Singh!).  But, I did learn enough to know that when two things are merged/combined, they might make a mixture, defined as a combination that can later be separated.  For example, if you combine iron filings with grains of salt, a magnet will separate the iron from the salt for you. A mixture is not a "forever change".  Both (or however many) different entities retain their original properties, clear and distinct from each other.  There is no chemical change that occurs.

When you combine things like vinegar and baking soda, however, there is a chemical change.  You can see it occur, and after it occurs, the chemist is no longer able to separate the vinegar from the baking soda again.  They are both forever altered.

So, what does that have to do with salvation of the soul?  When one accepts Christ, His Holy Spirit enters the body, soul and spirit in some way we cannot quantify or fully comprehend.  The "old" becomes "new", the scriptures declare!  This is a forever change.

In Ephesians, Paul describes the Holy Spirit as a "mark", making Christians "marked people".
Is this a mark that one can physically see?  Sometimes.  Unbelievers or yet-to-become-believers will sometimes remark, "There's something different about him/her..."  I don't know about you, but I've met people I immediately knew were believers, not by their appearance, but rather by the presence of the Holy Spirit in and around them.

This happened to me at a conference, and I'll never forget it.  A lady came up to me at one of the breaks - - a lady I'd never met or heard of - - and asked if I was a Christian.  She said she could see the Holy Spirit in me.  Not so stunning when you consider Romans 8:16 - - -

The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God's children, 

(HCSB)

True Christians all have the same Spirit, the Spirit of their Savior, and that Spirit testifies that they are God's children.

21Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (NET)

We are "God's own possession" because His Spirit inhabits and possesses us.  Christians are as marked for all eternity as Christ's wounds are.  God will keep His Word.  He is unchangeable.  We can rest in that certainty of eternal destiny.

Have we received all of our eternal inheritance in Christ?

Not entirely, and we won't have received all until we are with Him, in glory.  But, because of the Holy Spirit, because He has marked us, we know we have as much of God's wealth that we can possibly handle here on earth and WILL receive all of the riches in Christ Jesus when we step onto the golden shore of that beautiful land called Heaven.

"O say but I'm glad!"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jN-h1wEfyc

Father God, thank you for marking Your children as Your very own.  There is such comfort and peace in that!  We know that our salvation grows and matures as we battle daily the sin nature that continues to be a part of us.  But, we know that we can never be separated from You, from the love that is ours in Christ Jesus.  I'm so grateful to be Yours, and to know that I am forever Yours!  In Jesus' name, amen.

Fly, Firefly, Fly!

Good morning,

Right in the middle of "life" this week, one of my best high school friends "moved on up".  The last time I saw her was about five years ago.  Although we were close in high school we lost touch after graduation, except for infrequent high school reunions.  She went on to serve God faithfully for more than 40 years, as a wife, mother, school teacher.  Her testimony was to God's grace in her life.

What I remember most about her was her calm and gentle spirit.  She was naturally quiet and reserved.  While we were in high school, she lost her mother to sudden illness.  Her mother had been a beautiful, precious, vivacious soul.  We all grieved over this loss.  But, her mother would have been proud of the godly life my friend lived.

It is my loss that we did not remain close over these 40 years.  I guess that such parting-of-the-ways is a result of going out to fulfill one's calling.  However, there is a "tie that binds", as the song goes ... the Holy Spirit of God who lived in her and also in me. Later today, I will be traveling with my best childhood friend to pay my respects and to rejoice with her loved ones. We are secure in the knowledge of where her soul now resides.

I heard a conversation yesterday between someone I dearly love and a second person I greatly respect. They agreed together that neither one of them "is religious".  With great difficulty, I kept my mouth shut, because it was "neither the time nor the place", if you know what I mean.  Do you see, though, that they most certainly ARE religious?  They are merely worshipping something or someone else other than the One who created them.

The god of this world, Satan, has blinded so many to the Truth.

Even if you read this and scoff at that statement, let me ask you this.  What if you are right and I am wrong?  Well, I will have lived a life of peace and joy, even in the middle of various trials along the way, and when I die....nothing.  I will have lost nothing except, you may argue, a few years of temporary, earthly pleasures.  But, what if you are the one who is mistaken...about the meaning and purpose of life, about there being an eternity of either Heaven or Hell?  Are you really willing to gamble your eternal soul, based on what someone else has told you, without doing a thorough investigation of the matter?

C.S. Lewis was a tremendously intelligent man, a professor of English at Oxford University, London. He reached that point of saying, "I've got to check this Jesus stuff out, to see if it is true."  He wrote a book about his journey of discovery.  It is entitled, Mere Christianity.  Here is some of what he wrote:
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” 

In so many ways, we are like a lightning bug trapped in a jar.  Did you ever do that, as a kid?  Trap a firefly (we call them "lightning bugs" here in the South) in a jar, with holes in the lid?  The bug knows it does not belong in the jar.  There is something within its very DNA that cries out to that fact.  It is in a hostile environment.  Its entire existence is spent trying to get to that world where it belongs, and it won't find any true satisfaction until it does.

We are not mere flesh and blood and bone.  One of the unbelievers I mentioned above said yesterday, "We really have very little understanding of how the human brain works.  It is a miracle."  Yeah.  A divinely created miracle.
There is a soul within each of our bodies, and that soul is the "real us", and it will live somewhere forever. 

As a Christ-follower, I know where my eternal home will be.  I know this, beyond all doubt.   It's not because I'm "good".  It is because Jesus Christ was and is and ever will be perfect.  As His child, His righteousness has been conferred to me, forever.
 Again, C.S. Lewis - - 
“[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” 
That taste of Heaven, like the light in the firefly is, thanks to Jesus, already inside me.  The Holy Spirit cries out, "Daddy! Father!" to God. 

So my friend, who is newly arrived to Heaven, got there the same "one and only way" I will.  There IS but one way there, and His name is Jesus.  Don't be deceived.  There is a place.  She is there with others I have known here and whom I'll see again, when it comes my turn to "fly, firefly, fly!"

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.

Acts 20:24

7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

2 Timothy 4:7-8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r2Hn8fBYbA

Father, I thank you for the privilege of being Your child.  Thank you for possessing me and transforming me by fusing my spirit with Yours forever.  Being in this present world, I have Your downpayment of eternity within me.  That light of life, Your Spirit, will never be extinguished.  And, when it is my time to "move on up", to "fly away", Your Spirit will take me to my forever home.  I thank You and praise You, because You have done this marvelous thing...something I could never achieve or do.  To You is due all the honor and glory and eternal praise.  In Jesus' name, amen.


Source:
1  https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/801500-mere-christianity