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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

(Col. 2:6-7, 9-13).
December 28, 2008

    At the end of the year, most of us stop a moment to look back and to look forward.  This can be either helpful or harmful.  An unknown poet wrote:

    I’ve dread for the future
    Regret for the past;
    And meantime the present
    Is leaving me fast.

    So what can we do about the past, the present and the future?

I.  FIRST, WE CAN LEAVE THE PAST.
    Most of us allow our past mistakes and failures to hold us back and weight us down.  We feel we can’t be different.  We let our guilts and our regrets keep us from growth and productivity.  The greatest theme of the gospel is that we don’t have to be what we’ve always been.  Christ frees us from the shackles of conditioning and the prisons of habits.
    Furthermore, the change is permanent.  Once a plane was in trouble in the Swiss Alps.  Many Americans were aboard, including comedian Bob Hope. The pilot spent some time hunting for a place to land.  As is often the case in such emergencies, there was fear and prayer—perhaps in that order.  Finally, the plane came in to a safe landing.  Bob Hope stood up in the quietness and said, “Now, folks, you can go back to the same old life you gave up twenty minutes ago.”
    That’s not what Paul meant when he said, “You were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self.  But God made you alive with Christ.  And God forgave all our sins” (Col. 2:13); he was describing a drastic change from death to life.
    In the closing days of World war II, there were people in Auschwitz who were destined to die in the Nazi gas chambers.  It was the law of the authorities who operated that prison.  It was not a just law.  It was not even a reasonable law.  Nevertheless, these prisoners knew that they had only a few more days to live.  Then came the invading armies of America and Europe, overthrowing the empire that Hitler had established.  The old law became null and void.  These people, who were prisoners condemned to death, suddenly became free with their entire lives before them.  They could leave the past behind.  That’s true for Christians today.

II.  NEXT, WE CAN REDEEM THE PRESENT.
    Each of us has this opportunity to change.  Each of us comes to a point in our lives when we can grasp a spiritual treasure.  We must not ignore that moment.  Many stories and dramas describe missed opportunities.  Recently a famous jewelry store displayed treasures that were found in a sunken ship off the Florida coast containing millions of dollars worth of diamonds, silver coins and gold bars.  One of the most amazing finds was that along with the gold, divers found several modern fish hooks snagged on the three-hundred-year-old ship wreckage.  This showed that fishermen had fished that spot and doubtlessly cursed their luck for losing their hooks, unaware that they had been so close to discovering an immense treasure. 
    Many believers never discover the true joy of a deep personal spirituality.  Instead, they are content to fish on the top when they could find much more by going deeper.  Paul said, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation” (II Cor. 6:2).
    A Persian poet put it this way:

    A thousand years did one man wait.
    He sat outside of heaven’s gate;
    Then, while a moment brief he dozed,
    It opened wide, and then it closed.”
            —Adapted by Maralene Wesner

    He didn’t take advantage of his opportunity.  This decision must be personal.  Once a patient was in pain and a nurse came to his bedside with an analgesic.  Strangely enough, the old man made no effort to take the medicine from her.  Instead, he hesitated for awhile and then said, “Would you drink it for me?”  “Drink it for you?” she questioned in a startled manner.  “What do you mean?  That wouldn’t do you any good.  You must take it for yourself.” 
    That’s true of us.  Others cannot do this for us.  We must redeem the present.  That means we must make it meaningful.  That means we must take advantage of the opportunities it offers.

III.  FINALLY, WE CAN PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE.
    Paul said, “If we have left our past behind and made a Christian commitment in the present, the future will be great” (see I Cor.  2:9).
    His promise to us is as extraordinary a thing as if you were able to say that the lowly caterpillar is really a beautiful butterfly.  That is exactly what God does with us.  He comes to us in our “caterpillar status” and declares us to be “butterflies.”  In nature, God has given us this remarkable analogy, that which goes into the cocoon as a worm comes out as a butterfly.  For it lives part of its life in one state and part in another.  We call this process metamorphosis.  It is very interesting to note that this is the very Greek word Paul used when he said, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed [metamorphosed] by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2).
    God declares us to be butterflies while we’re still caterpillars because He knows our potential.
    At some time in our lives each of us comes to a place where we need to shed the baggage of the past and start over.  Paul certainly did.  That’s why he said, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him . . .  having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.  And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions”(Col. 2:6-7, 9-13).
    Here Paul describes in symbolic language the crucial moment known as conversion.  He says those who receive Christ walk or act through him.  He makes us complete.  All is forgiven.  All is new.
    One theologian said, “When I was converted, religion ceased being a duty and became a privilege and a pleasure.”  In the new Testament, Paul was one person whose life was dramatically changed and he told about it over and over again.  “And it came about that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’  "And I answered, ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’  "And those who were with me beheld the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.  "And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me,  ‘Arise and go on into Damascus; and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do.’  "But since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus (Acts 22:6-11).
    After this, Saul’s name was changed to Paul and instead of killing Christians, he was serving Christians.  Paul may have been drawing on his own personal memories when he said, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Cor. 5:17, kjv).
    Then, as new creatures, Christ is living in us.  He is living in us in order to live here on earth!  He wants to be in you and me exactly what he was when he walked among men two thousand years ago.  In principle, he wants to do in us and through us exactly what he did when he was here in the flesh.  When he was here, he went about doing good.  He lives in us, and he wants to go about doing good in us and through us.  When he was here on the earth, he extended a helping hand to the needy, spoke words of compassion to the fallen, and introduced people to the Father.  “As he is, so are we in this world” (I John 4:17).
    He is living in us to do these things today.
    So, as 2008 ends, let’s leave the past behind; let’s redeem the present by making any decision or commitment God is calling us to do right now; and let’s prepare for a great future!

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(WC1492)
Copyrighted 2008 by Miles and Maralene Wesner, Idabel, OK.  PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE THIS MESSAGE IN ANY WAY YOU THINK IS APPROPRIATE.  The only thing we ask is that you give credit for original material in PUBLISHED works. 

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Miles E Wesner