Between The Times.

Galatians 1:3-4
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.

Here we stand between the cross and the tomb.
Between and incredible fact...
And a life changing promise.
You cannot separate the two.
If you do, the entire foundation of Christianity will crumble and fall as one more religious lie.

The cross is the defining moment of a  promise given to all.
That if Christ be lifted up from this earth, He would draw all humanity unto himself (John 12:32). In other words, no longer would we have to live in a world filled with sinful deeds and behaviors..but would be afforded the way back to a real relationship with our creator, God.

All part of God's plan was this death on the cross.
Jesus became sin.
He willingly took on my rebellious nature and heart because sin demands that a payment be made in order to set things right with God. God is just and does not or will He ever change His own standards. But God, in His infinite wisdom, came up with a way to satisfy the sin debt humanity owed. He did so because of His love for His creation. "For God so loved the world that HE GAVE His only begotten Son (Jesus) as payment for our sins, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Not only would our sin/debt be paid, but God would enable us to continue to live in this world that continually rejects Him. He would give some of Himself to every believer. He would empower us with His Holy Spirit. A connection would be established between us and God, through the Holy Spirit, where we could communicate and receive instructions on what to do, when to do it, and where we were to carry out His will. We read about this POWER in Luke 3:16:
John (the baptizer) answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water, but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

Sounds kind of scary doesn't it? Especially the "fire" part. That means that God is going to take away everything that we have embraced in our character that wasn't given to us by Him. All the bitterness, the jealousy, unforgiveness, anger, the lying, cheating, all the deeds of our sin nature that we read about in Galatians 5. His Holy Spirit will fill us (because God doesn't do things in dribbles and drabs) and begin the process of changing our hearts and our character.

So what about the tomb?
The tomb, to me is the hope that I have that drives me forward in this life.
Hope that no matter what happens to me, I have a home beyond what I can see where I will stand in the presence of this Jesus I have given my will and life to. Hope that doesn't fail or leave me empty and broken. Hope that tells me that Jesus defeated death, hell and the grave on that morning when He stepped out of that tomb. From that moment on, things would never be the same here on planet earth. Hope was born on Easter morning. Before that tome, such hope had only been a promise. Now it was complete, alive and breathing, ready to ascend back to the Father to take His rightful place and title as Lord and Savior.

So I do live between the cross and the tomb.
And I do not believe it is a coincidence that Vineyard ReCovery meets on Saturday's. Tonight we will gather to worship. On the calendar, our meeting takes place between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. So in some ways, we are reflective of what I have written about this morning. We stand between the promise of the cross and the hope of the tomb. Come and join us tonight as we celebrate the demonstration of God's promises and power to free us from sin. Meeting starts at 7 p.m. / we are located Downtown Gadsden on Broad Street, between 4th and 5th streets. Hope to see you.

God on you....
mb