4 August 2013 - return on investment

4 August 2013 - return on investment

If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Ever since the garden of Eden this entire universe is like a clock that is winding down.  Nothing here is permanent.  Entropy is the only law.  Everything is breaking down and falling apart.

But this isn't what the universe is meant for.  And Jesus comes to set it right.  In his rising from death he does set it right.  He begins the process of making all things new in himself.  The matter of his risen body is literally the only thing in the physical universe not subject to the laws of death and decay.  What a great joy and blessing, then, that we are united to him!

For you have died,
and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.

We still live in an unredeemed physical universe.  Even our bodies don't yet participate in the glory of the resurrection.  But our spirits can and do.  There are old tendencies even here, but they belong to the old order.  Let us be rid of them.

Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly

There are so many opportunities to be distracted here.  Everything clamors for our attention promising an immortality that only God can provide.  The world tells us that for a small promise it can provide products and experiences that can give us the perfect feelings that we long for.  And they imply that we can dwell in these feelings forever.  But even if they can offer fleeting pleasures they cannot offer lasting joy.  There is always in undercurrent of anxiety and fear when we pursue this path.

‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’

Even laboring "with wisdom, knowledge, and skill" won't endure beyond the grave unless it is done in Jesus for the building of his kingdom.

For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart
with which he has labored under the sun? 

The "anxiety of heart" in such toil is because we know deep down that it is fleeting.  We know that we are racing to build sandcastles before the tide sweeps in.

Let us try to be "rich in what matters to God."  Such riches endure forever.  We can pursue them without anxiety and with peaceful hearts because their source is beyond these shifting sands and his permanence is made present even within our own hearts.

Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!