United With Christ

Sunday was a great day! For there was a young man in our church, named Caleb, that was united with Christ at baptism, sharing in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. He is now dead to sin and to the law and is alive to God in our Lord Jesus. For him there is now no condemnation, for his old relationship to sin has been crucified; his old self has passed away and he is free from sin.

Therefore, there is no condemnation for him, for he is now in Christ Jesus. He has been given the Holy Spirit so that he he may no longer be controlled by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit, and with the Spirit he will begin to live the Christian life by putting to death the misdeeds of the body through the Spirit that lives in him.

The Spirit that he received has made him a son of God--an adopted son, who receives all the benefits of a natural born son. He is both our brother and a brother to the firstborn of our new race of mankind, a race of man that will one day be resurrected to a greater plane of existence where death will have no mastery, where we will exclaim that we are alive forevermore. Together we cry out with all of our enthusiasm, emotion, and joy, "Yeah Abba, Father: Yeah Dad."

Together, now we walk in this environment of grace as we become what God has always dreamed we would be--a people formed in the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. While we still experience hardship, may we be reassured that the pain we experience won't be worth comparing to the glory we will experience when we are wholly formed and living in the presence of our great God.

So let us live victorious lives, knowing that God is for us, and that he has revealed himself to us, on the cross, as a God of self-giving love. And let us rest assured that nothing, absolutely nothing can seperate us from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6-8)

I am so excited for Caleb. It has been my honor and privilege to have been his pastor and to see him grow and mature on his way from third grade to the ninth grade, and I pray that his life will always be Spirit led. I praise God for all the adults that gave of themselves during a week at Church camp, for their effort made an eternal impact in the life of at least one young man, who will never forget one of the most important weeks of his life.