Jesus Blessed Jesus
by Barrett Vanlandingham (August 24, 2006)

For me, there is not a more encouraging song than "The Great Physician." Four inspiring verses... each ending in the chorus "Sweetest carol ever sung, Jesus, blessed Jesus. These great words were penned nearly 150 years ago by William Hunter in 1859.
Have you thought about it lately? I mean have you really thought about the perfection of Jesus Christ... the fact that He has the ultimate power, but yet He can relate to each one of us, no matter what our age, income level... no matter what our illness, or aches and pains. Jesus understands. He truly is "The Great Physician." Not only can He celebrate with us, and cry with us because He lived for us, died for us, and was raised for us! (Eph.1:18-20) He can also heal, console, guide, and offer us a greater reward for our obedience than we can possibly imagine.
Jesus, Blessed Jesus! Amen?
Jesus is quoted as saying this in Luke 4:18... "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,
In this passage, it becomes very obvious to me that there is a direct link between God’s Spirit living in us, and our willingness as Christians to have a servant-heart like that of Jesus Christ... a heart that looks out for the spiritual well-being of those in humble circumstances.
Think about where Jesus was before He came to earth... difficult to imagine, isn’t it? (John 1:1) But for Christ, the Son of God, to leave His home in heaven to come and live with the likes of us for 33-years, knowing we would eventually crucify Him (Isaiah 53), can you even begin to comprehend the love He must have felt for the men and women He created, and the never-ending selflessness He must have possessed in order to follow through with His decision to save us? So when we think of it that way... any song, poem, sermon, lesson, illustration, thought, word, action, or deed that portrays the indescribable attitude of Jesus really is the "Sweetest carol ever sung."
His power fed, healed, and saved people by the thousands in the first century even though his actions and results ran counter to worldly logic. In that regard, not a lot has changed in 2000 years. And thank the Lord that He also has not changed in 2000 years. We can depend on Him as a constant... to guide us safely home, even when the world continues to try to show us a happier life... and even during our darkest moments when God seems so far away. Remember, Jesus knows what that feels like, too. That’s why He will always be Jesus, Blessed Jesus. Love Him today, serve Him today, obey Him today, live with Him forever.

So Now What Do We Do?
by Barrett Vanlandingham

Our summer series based on the book "Honesty, Morality, and Conscience" by Jerry White challenged us in many ways. We dug into questions of how to stay true to God while at home, at work, with friends, with family, as a student, with yourself, and in any other areas of our lives. We explored what the Bible has to say about those issues as they relate to morals, cheating, lying, our example, and who we really are. One of the most eye-opening thoughts I ran across in my studies on these matters became my opening statement: "Sinning wouldn’t be so popular if its wages were paid immediately." A big thanks to whoever came up with that. This is a reference to Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death..."
As with any good series of lessons, seminar, church camp, mission trip, or Gospel meeting, the challenge is always to apply what we learn. I guess the fact that oftentimes old sayings are true... are how they become old sayings. For instance, our prayerful plea that we might "apply to our lives the lesson we learned today."
So, now what do we do? Will we actually put into practice what we’ve learned about honesty, morality, and conscience? We have a responsibility as Christians to grow spiritually, not just in our knowledge of God’s Word, but also how we apply it.
2 Peter 1: 5-8 says this regarding God’s promise that we can escape corruption in the world by participating in His divine nature:
"5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Let us each prayerfully live out our lives honoring God in the ways we obey Him and love each other (two points from Dan’s sermon). Let us open our eyes to what God’s Word tells us in James 4:14...
"Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. "
When your time comes to vanish away, your opportunity for decision-making will be over. Romans 14:12 tells us... "So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God." No excuses, no covering up, no dishonesty will be able to change our destiny when we each kneel before God (ref. Rom. 14:11). Stay strong in the faith!