This coming Friday, 17th October, marks 30 years since I became a follower of Jesus. I still remember the day like it was yesterday, but 30 years feels like a long time to a 45 year old!
I am grateful for all the things those 30 years have taught me about life, but I am even more grateful for the 30 years of companionship with Christ. Whilst there have been seasons where I’ve been further from him than I should have been, he has been ever-faithful and ever-present.
I still feel like a complete rookie as far as this whole thing is concerned. As life creeps on, it’s easy to have a sense of the preciousness of the time we are given and I don’t want to waste any of what he has given to me. I’m fully aware that every breath is a gift and that none of it is guaranteed.
It truly is a beautiful thing to remember that we are being saved for an eternal future in the New Creation. But do I allow that to shed appropriate light on my existence here? If my life is but a blink and eternity is forever, eternity is the guiding framework for my life.
It is only here in my average three score years and ten that I have the privilege of being called to be a sign of Christ’s redeeming work in the world, and to participate in recruiting NOT for the church, but for ETERNITY.
Yet, like many of us, I still spend far too much time worrying about what people might think of me…which is crazy. It is nonsensical. The ‘fear of man’ is a demonic device to disable us from bold gospel living. The Word of God asks us to believe things about life that the world rejects entirely. The zeitgeist of the day remains ‘did God really say…?’, just like the serpent in the garden. To proclaim that Jesus demands repentance and faith in him for salvation is unpalatable to the sensitivities of the world. And yet, there it is. As Paul says, the cross is foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block for the Jews. What is it for the Scots? Well…I don’t usually type obscenities here.
One of the great mistakes I believe I make is trying to create the impression that I am a ‘normal person.’ I am not normal. I am someone who believes that the Divine Creator stepped into time and history in the person of Jesus Christ to reverse the results of our rebellious fall from perfect communion with God in order that we can be restored to relationship with him. And he did that through crucifying our sin in Christ on a Roman cross, and by declaring victory over the curse of death through the real bodily resurrection of Jesus from the grave. Not only that, I believe that he ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to abide in me, and all the redeemed….AND that he is coming back to judge the living and the dead, bring our world to an end and bring Heaven and Earth together, where I’ll live and reign with him forever.
This is not ‘normal’. Normal in our world is do as you please, follow the desires of your heart, make up your own identity, stuff everyone else, and pick your own morals as long as it seems true to you.
We allow ourselves to be intimidated by the status quo, as if faith in Christ is something to apologise for. We daren’t mention our faith in some settings for fear of consequences. We know we sit with biblical views that you can get arrested for these days. Great wisdom is no doubt required, we don’t head out to just wind people up or seek to be nasty and argumentative, but if ever there was a time to live and speak for Christ it is now.
Thirty years in, I love Jesus more than I did then, and I long even more to live for him alone.
It was William Booth who said ‘Your days at best cannot be long, so use them to the best of your ability for the glory of God and the benefit of your generation.’ He started the Salvation Army around the age of 45, so I guess nothing is too late!
Andrew S M Clark 