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Written by Michelle J. Goff
Through the pandemic, we have had the blessing of seeing an increase in the number of babies! I love to hold babies, meet their needs, snuggle them, put them to sleep… I love everything about babies. In the U.S., I speak to babies in Spanish. In Latin America, I speak to them in English. I want them to hear another beautiful language. They are sponges and their brains are growing. When they hear another language and learn new things, more neural pathways are opened.
Over time, they learn more and more. Their teeth are formed, and they get to know new foods and flavors. They learn to crawl, to walk, and then to run. They say their first word and then start to form small sentences. When I was eighteen months old, I was riding in the car with my mom. She was always talking to me, narrating whatever was going on in the world around us. That day, I responded to my mom in a conversational way, and two things happened. 1) Mom realized that there was a little person in there! 2) A conversation began that has continued all the way to today.
From the day we are born, we are born. Period. Whether we are eighteen months or eighteen years old, we are no more or less born than the day in which we were born. We grow. We mature. We learn. We transform. But, until we die, we continue to have been born.
Something else that has happened during the pandemic is that weddings have become simpler. The couple has realized that the union through marriage is more important than the party of a wedding. Whether it is a civil ceremony or a large wedding with all their friends and family surrounding them, one couple is no more or less married than the other. They are married. Period.
My parents have been married forty-five years. During their first year of marriage, they went through a lot of challenging times. In many ways, they were (and still are) opposites. My mom grew up in a large metropolitan city and was a special ed teacher. My dad grew up on the farm and got his PhD in analytical chemistry. In spite of their differences and difficulties, they have grown, matured, and learned through marriage. They have been transformed and they continue to be married. From the day they first got married, they were married. At eighteen months and eighteen years, they were no more or less married than the day of their wedding or today.
In the Bible, our relationship with God is compared to birth and to marriage. We are born again (John 3:3-7; Rom. 6:4; 1 Pet. 1:23). And we are married with Christ, the Lamb (Is. 61:10, 62:5; John 3:29; Rev. 19:7, 21:2, 9).
When we are born again in Christ, we are made new. We must grow, mature, learn and be transformed, but we continue to be spiritually born.
When we are married to Christ, we enter a new union. We grow, mature, learn, and are transformed. However, we continue to be spiritually married.
A Christian is no more born nor more married on the final day of her life than she was on the day of her baptism.
There are people who are more mature than others. There are marriages that are stronger than others. The more mature and the less more mature are no more born again than others. Similarly, the married to Christ are no more or less married to Christ. However, we recognize who is acting more married than others.
These analogies allow us to reflect on holiness. From the day in which we are born again, since we committed ourselves in union to Christ, God sees us as holy. From that day to the final day in which we are presented to Him, we are no more or less holy. In Christ, we have been clothed with Christ and He sees us as holy and without reproach.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Eph. 1:3-10)
Later in Ephesians 1, God affirms that we have been given the Holy Spirit as a seal and guarantee of our holiness. Through the Holy Spirit, God helps us to grow, mature, learn, and be transformed through the process of sanctification… then others, by our speech and actions, can recognize that we have been born again, married to Christ, and holy.
True or False? I am equally holy today as I was the day I was baptized.
True or False? I can live out my holiness in more ways through the process of sanctification.
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Written by Deanna Brooks, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Arkansas
“So, do you want a straw or a spoon with this?” the obviously new teenage employee asked as he handed me the hot fudge sundae at Sonic. His question surprised me, and I smiled and said, “I usually use a spoon,” and then he realized that you don’t eat a sundae with a straw. He ran back to get a spoon and just as he reached my car, he realized he brought another straw. The third time he brought a spoon, embarrassed as he kept apologizing. I told him it was OK… he was doing a good job, and he smiled and said, “Thank you for being kind and encouraging me.”
As I sat in the heat enjoying the cool ice cream, two Scriptures went through my mind. “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Ps. 141:3 ESV). “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer” (Ps. 19:14 ESV).
As a disciple of Jesus Christ my speech is being refined to be different from that of the world. At times of inconvenience or frustration or when we are caught off-guard, it is easy to blurt out something we should not say.
As a disciple, I also need to remember cultures are different. When I went to Scotland as a college student, we were given a list of words that have a different meaning in the UK. Even in the United States there are cultural differences from one area to another in meanings of some words, and we need to be aware of these differences.
Paul mentioned how the disciple should speak when he wrote: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up” (Eph. 4:29 ESV).
He also wrote, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Eph. 5:4 ESV).
In Acts 4:36, Barnabas is called “son of encouragement.” While we are not given a lot of detail, I can hear him telling John Mark later in the book, “You can do this… forget what happened last time.”
Jesus told His followers, “On the day of judgment people will give an account for every careless word they speak” (Mt. 12:36 ESV).
Words... are the major way we communicate with others. James 1 and 3 tell us to “bridle” our tongue, which means “restrain” or “control.” What we say and how we say it often leaves an impression that is never forgotten, and just because we think it doesn’t mean we need to say it.
In Matthew 26:73 Peter was told, “Your speech betrays you,” and while this may have referred to a Galilean accent, it is something we need to think on: How can our speech make others aware we are a follower of the Christ?