GodReflection: Power Words

The temptation is ever before me to compartmentalize my life into spiritual and secular.

I often use polarized terms to describe reality. I may think of life in terms of the present world and the world to come, or I may describe life as a simultaneous experience of living on earth while I live as a resident of God’s kingdom.

I want to resist the idea of living between two worlds. I don’t want to have to place labels on my actions as to whether they are secular or spiritual.  As a Jesus follower, I cannot live a divided life.

A more accurate concept is to think of life as uniting everything in Jesus. Jesus is my reality. I live in the world of Jesus. Every action and every reaction of my life should reflect my Jesus reality.

I smile when I think back to my first church employment. When it came time for Vacation Bible School, I learned that cookies and Kool-Aid needed a separate funding source from outside of the church treasury because church money was holy while cookies and Kool-aid are secular.

I find it sadly amusing when I attend a worship service where a prayer brings the sacred to a close before proceeding to the secular to honor Fire Department workers or Public School Teachers.

Does God not also care about Fire Department workers and Public School Teachers? The crucified life is a new reality. It is living the integral life.

On a raised cross near Jerusalem, perfect God died for sinful man. The new reality emerged from the tomb.  Because of that historical act, I—a sinful man—have access to perfect God through Jesus. By my entrance into the death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus, I now live in God’s world to honor him and to be a witness to others.

Since the crucified Jesus lives in me, I too live the crucified life 24/7. It matters neither where I am nor where I may be, my life has only one purpose.  I live the crucified walk at the grocery store, at the ball game, on the freeway, and with others in corporate worship.

Living with crucified energy, I don’t live outside of Jesus in the world and with Jesus in the Kingdom. Rather I live integrated into Jesus.

With the blood of Jesus covering my mistakes and my lack of maturity, I experience eternity now. The crucified life no longer sees vocation as secular. The crucified life no longer views money as secular. The crucified life desires for the authenticity of Jesus to flow from my soul toward every relationship and every act.

As I move down the backstretch of my race on earth just as floaters race across my eyes, I want the cross ever before me.  For the power-flow from the crucified Jesus, allows me to live a focused and undivided life.

 I want to declare with Paul the Apostle, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

There is power in crucified to guide my walk as one who follows the Way.

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – A GodReflection on Crucified as a Word of Power

Gary@GodReflection.org