Real Truth for Relief  for paper Nov 24

Every living soul must come to grips with the fact that our lives are temporary, and we all have an expiry date. None of us knows when that date is, when our lives will end. Everybody is looking for something to fill the holes they have inside them. Deep down in places that no one likes to talk about, we all have them. Loneliness, insecurity, fear,  and need are common to us all. There are some who are afraid of the future. There are widows who are grieving the loss of their spouses. There are women who feel unappreciated and men who are afraid they’ve failed their children. There are those who feel at times as if they want to die.  ….     Everybody has holes of some kind to fill, and everyone is looking for something to fill in those holes.

To fill in those holes, we need something real. The problem is, we spend too much time trying to fill them in with something unreal. We humans seek every kind of diversion our fallen hearts and minds can devise in order to try and fill these holes within us. Entertainment, and technology, and achievement, and money, and false spiritualities, and sex, and drugs, and alcohol, just to name a few. We do everything we can to try and fill these holes, to ease our loneliness, to answer our questions, and to ease our pain.   …    But none of it works, does it? For a moment, it might seem to work but they do not heal the holes. After the temporary remedies vanish, we’re left again with those holes.

Again, to fill those holes, we need something real. The real thing that fills the holes is truth. Not lies or half-truths. Real truth. To hear the real truth, we must listen to the Word of God. The Word of God is real truth. And all scripture, inspired by God gives us that truth that heals. Our Lord and Savior knew that you were going to need something to hold on to in this life, things that would sustain your faith, tangible things that you could look to for comfort and truth. God knew that the world would try to kick the stuffing out of you. Satan and his demons are not partying it up in hell, friends. They are roaming about the earth, looking for souls to devour. They are looking for you. As a Christian you have a big bulls eye on your back that screams “target” to Satan and his cohorts. You have been afflicted before, and you will be afflicted until your time here on earth is done. They create and then manipulate us by these holes. To comfort your weary souls and to strengthen your faith, the Lord has given you some real truth to hang on to.  Paul wrote:

“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life”.  Romans 6: 3, 4

Here, the apostle Paul, one of the greatest pastors and missionaries who has ever lived, directs the weary hearts of the Romans to something they can hold on to. Paul tells them that they are connected to Jesus in their baptism. He reminds them that they have been washed with real water that was connected to a very real word. He proclaims that this was a real event and that something real has happened to them. In a sacrament – our baptism – we are doing something natural while God is doing something supernatural!

The truth Paul communicated here was not just to the Romans. He speaks to you today and to your Baptism. The old you died that day, and someone new was born. This really happened. Real physical water combined with God’s true Word has changed your entire future. You were forever connected to the death and resurrection of Jesus. When he died, you died. When he rose from the dead, you rose from the dead. Now, everything is different. Now, when you feel the pressure of Satan via the holes in your life, you can look to that moment when Jesus joined himself to you with water, and you were changed.

It is hard for Christians to live in this fallen world but the reality of our baptism gives us forgiveness, identity, salvation, and hope. This is what is real that can fill the holes we all have and are searching for to find true relief.

Blessings,