In God's Presence - part one

This blog emphasizes the value of going through tough times, how to handle these challenges and focusing on the results – the benefits of the experience. This attitude toward life could be perceived as an exercise in masochism, the enjoyment of pain. Not!

Living includes adversity. How we handle suffering’s stress determines our outlook on life – either frustration, self pity, anger and cynicism; or, “whatever my lot in life, I’ll build on it.” I’ll be diligent to process any pain appropriately, then my focus is the gain through the loss – the benefits.

I’ve mentioned my stuttering in a previous blog series. I don’t like the inability to have fluent speech. But having worked through the frustrations of stuttering (an ongoing process), I endeavor to focus on the gain, reiterated in the previous series.

Today, let’s examine the ultimate loss, Christ’s life on the cross. The loss of His life brought those who walk in faith three “gains.” Let me elaborate.

1. The death of Christ provided for our forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him. John 3: 16-17 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Forgiveness and eternal life is the point most emphasized by Christianity. But there is more. Another gain.

2. Christ was not the only person who died on His cross. The follower of Christ died there also. Galatians 2: 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
The “old man”, the person I was before becoming a Christian died. There is now a “new man” who is permeated with the Holy Spirit, who can live empowered supernaturally. Ephesians 3: 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us… This concept is not mentioned as much from today’s pulpits as the first point listed above. But there is even more. More gain. That will be demonstrated in our next blog Monday.