Time is Meaningful.

There are many doctrines out there that have to do with time and its meaning. In some religions and cults, transcendence of time is the main goal. As we get older, we all naturally feel that time is more elusive and consequently more precious, so the focus becomes getting the most out of out time as possible. Jesus Christ lived in time, and he lived with the restrictions of time. Because Jesus is God, he was able to redeem time for us. Because of his life, death, and resurrection, he changed the course of time, this is why the early church was able to say they were living in the last days.

As Christians we remember the past, and anticipate the future, but the present is where the past and the future meet. God’s kingdom is always coming to us in the present, and its fulfilment will be in the present, not in the past. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he transformed meaningless time to have meaning. Because of his death, Jesus Christ has given meaningless time meaning because human suffering is redemptive.

During what appeared to be meaningless suffering, Jesus Christ redeemed the world, which in essence gives our lives purpose. Suffering now becomes purposeful or meaningful because of the passage of time of Jesus dying on the cross, and rising again, up to the present moment, whether it has meaning for us or not, Christ has redeemed the meaninglessness of time through his death, so that our suffering doesn’t have to be in vain, but purposeful. We accept this by faith, and we can perceive it through the hope that comes from living with a living trust in God.

Comments

Catholic Identity.

I was born into the Catholic Church and was baptized as an infant, I had my first communion and reconciliation as a child, and was confirmed as a teenager. Although I was never devout, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour when I was 21 through an evangelical Christian radio ministry, which in turn gave new life to my Catholic faith. Although I remained a Catholic, I identified as a born again Christian. It wasn’t until much later in my life that I learned the difference between the two denominations and what they taught about being born again. Regardless, there was a significant change in my life back then, which continues to this day. Being Catholic is much like an identity to me and I remember growing up under the papacy of St. Pope John Paul II. The culture I grew up in was largely affected by his papacy, and the way the culture viewed the church was significantly different from the way the current culture views it. Growing up, the pope didn’t try to be rele...

Age of Brokenness.

We are living in an age of brokenness, no matter what age you are, you probably have been touched with relationships falling apart, which causes more and more people to live in isolation. In this generation there is less of an incentive to heal and reconcile relationships, but that doesn’t excuse the amount of people who are broken. Why people don’t seem to be motivated to heal relationships is because our beliefs about faith and God have changed, really giving us less of an incentive to do what our religion says. If I act from my personal beliefs, but the person that I am responding to has abandoned religious beliefs, than the response to my wanting things to be better can be misinterpreted and rejected then by someone else. Generally when a society has expectations about broken relationships, loneliness and isolation, and the beliefs are generally accepted, society becomes a more compassionate society, because all value the same things. When religious values are undermined and ...

The Biblical Meaning of “Life in the Spirit.”

“Life in the Spirit” is an example that the Apostle Paul gives in the book of Romans starting in chapter 5 and going through to chapter 8. He begins by telling us we are justified by faith (5:1), and have gained access by faith into the grace of God (5:2). We have been delivered from God’s wrath (5:9) and we have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son (5:10). He goes on to explain that through Adam all die (5:12), and that the free Gift of God brings justification and righteousness to the believing sinner (5:15-17). Through our conversion we are baptized into Christ and into his death, which frees us from the law and makes us dead to sin (6:2-4). He explains that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we are given new life in Christ (6:4). Our old unregenerate self was crucified with Christ so that our body of sin might be done away with (6:5-6). Because we have died to sin, we now submit ourselves to God being that we are now under grace, not the law (6:8-1...

The Super Blogosphere of a parallel word.

Search This Blog