The Omagh Church of Christ

The very concept of christianity is positive! Sin with all it produces is negative. Forgiveness with all that it affords us is positive. It would be a horrible thought to consider how it would be if there was no forgiveness, if there was no assurance of divine association, it there was no route which leads to heaven. It all resolves into hope. And hope is by it's very nature positive.

Christians should be the most positive people in the world. They are the people most connected to hope. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the ressurection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:3-4). God's reservation for you is sure. His abundant mercy is true. What a blessed assurance!

It is impossible for God to lie. Talk about positive. Dertermined to show His complete resolve to those whom He made the promise of a great reward, He confirmed it with a great oath ". . . . this hope we have as an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters the presence behind the veil" (Heb 6:19-29). This hope is forward looking; it reaches those greatly desired areas where we can not go yet. It does for us what no other thought process can do. Hope reaches into eternity.

Love is the most positive thing in life. It is the supreme motive. It is a progressive force for good, for reason, for peace, the activator of all that is noble. It behaves in a positive manner. It is patient, suffers long. It has a quiet confidence about it, never rowdy or boisterous. It is always strong and abiding, helpful and harmless. It enhances every situation it touches and strenghtens every relationship where it resides. Love is personal, yet it's best work is done when it is spread around. It is inexhaustibly forgiving even though it will discipline without hesitation. It is the object of the king and the joy of his subjects. It condemns sin but welcomes the sinner. The majesty of it is to grand for man to adequately describe and yet the smallest child understands it. It elevates the spirit and puts spring in a step, yet it can tear apart the heart of the lonely left behind. It is a wonderful paradox.

God made us humans for such optimistic concepts. Christianity is a powerful force - the power of the christian. It is a grand community were christianity is practiced. Where affirmative, positive, edifying thinking is the rule, the Lord will be there.

There are risks involved in positive thinking. The risk of self-righteousness can accompany such thinking (Romans 12:3). There is the potential for preoccupation so that we can become unrealistic (Luke 14:28-33). And than there is the potential problem of being swept away by the :"rah-rah's" that we will forget what the project really is (Mathew 23:23-24). But as the old song use to say, "You gotta accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, and don't mess around with mister in-between."

    We like it here, on this earth. Probably to much! We spend our lives as if this world is our home. Far to often we have inclinations towards this world, which limit our view of what is really important. We surrender our minds to things that take us away from eternal things. The things of this earthly existance, the things we give our attention to have no real substance, compared to eternal things. Too many christians have no constitution for private worship, we are far to busy with the mundane, fleshly affairs of this life. We act as if we will be here forever!

   Christians are pilgrims, strangers, wayfarers, sojourning. The Old Testament Law protected the pilgrims among the children of Israel (Ex 22:21, Lev 19:33-34), but they were required to keep God's law as long as they were amoung his people (Lev 24:22, Deut 14:29). So it is with the christian in this world (Rom 13:1, 1 Peter 2:13).

    This concept of being a pilgrim gains new brilliance in the New Testament which relsults from the legal distinction between citizens of Rome and those who were not her subjects. Paul sums up this concept in Phillipians 3:20 by saying, "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence we also look for the saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." We are pilgrims and we ought to act like it.

    In the first place, christians are non-citizens, submitting to a higher authority. That does not argue asceticism, nor rebellion, "for then we must needs go out of the world." The christian rather shines as a testimony to a standard more excellent than man's worldly genius can devise. Abraham was a sojourner; he looked for a "city which hath foundations" and so do we!

    "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:11). The word pilgrim is a term which means to "settle along side pagans" aptly describing the christians relation to the world. He is, for the present, tenting amoung aliens, those who would have him become one of them. Rather, he is just passing through, he can never be one of them and get home, and he know it.

    Secondly, the christian has higher values, adjusting his life to the authroity of God. His life is turned to godiness, not worldiness. He is in the world, but he is not like it. His views are different. Right is put before popularity, people before profits, excellence before success. His eyes have learned to look out not in. His enemies are as important as his friends. His mind looks up not down. Love to a christian is more service than satisfaction. The world to a christian is a good place for his hands but not his heart.

    The christian is a pilgrim with an elongated view, not they myopic view of the temporary, impermanent, transitory; but the real, the substantive, the lasting. He is the person who lives by faith. The christian is headed toward heaven and the clear perception of it is ever before him, on his mind. Let's get together and go home!

Happy Fathers Day...