Yes, Jesus is the answer. Jesus dies but he is raised from the dead. So, get connected to Jesus and stay connected to Jesus and watch what happens.

Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with the heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm.

Start thinking like Jesus would think if he were in your situation.

Do you think Jesus loses hope? Look at the way he lived. If there was anyone who was a victim, misunderstood, lied to, lied about, hated. But, he didn’t try to blame everyone else for trying to make his life miserable. Of all people who have the right to call himself a victim, it’s Jesus. If anyone could say life is unfair and he is being attacked and he doesn’t deserve it, it’s Jesus. If anyone had the right to strike back, take revenge, attack those who were attacking him, it’s Jesus.

But, he just keeps living. He knows where his power and honor and authority rest. With God.

The world doesn’t have any answers to the dying and rising.

Jesus knew the answer. Knows the answer. Connected to God, you may be dying to some real life right now, but,

Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the tie to this life, and now your true life is hidden away in God in Christ.

Jesus knows this. You can too. Nothing can keep you dead.

Here’s the facts of life.

You don’t belong in the old world or the old world’s thinking.

You are raised with Christ, so you possess a true life in God’s new world, the heavenly world.

The real you is now found in the heavenly world.

You are God’s son. You are God’s daughter. If you don’t see it, you will. 

And as Christ himself is seen for who he really is, who you really are will also be revealed, for you are now one with him in his glory!

Here is the truth. The heavenly world is not a super-spiritual world that is going to leave the created world behind.

The biblical picture is of God one day flooding the present creation with the new life which is currently in the heavenly realm.

In other words, one day Jesus the Messiah, who can’t be directly seen with our old world eyes will appear again. All of existence will be transformed and what is at present unseen will become visible, and earth and heaven will be joined forever in the fulfilled new creation.

When this happens, all those who are in Christ, whose death and present true life is hidden with Christ in God, will appear as well, as the glorious renewed human beings they already really are.

That’s you. That’s me.

Who we really are will be revealed.

So, now that we know this, we discover a new way towards a genuine good life where we learn to think of things from a heavenly perspective, seeing things though God’s eyes, as it were. Not seeing things that belong to the present world of decay. The world of unfairness. The world of suffering.

You think things through rather than just going with the flow of the world.

When you grow in Christ, your mind itself grasps the truth that you have died to the old ways of seeing things and your life has been hidden with Jesus in God.  When your mind grasps this, then your choices, your will, starts to follow through. You begin to live that new creation and you are glad to be doing just that! 

You can live that life right now.

ME

What are some old ways of seeing things you might die to?

Only when you see yourself as a victim do you lose hope. When you give in to the suffering or resentment.

Because there is something else true of life for every single one of us.

Life is suffering and life isn’t fair.

We live in an irrational age. We live in an age where the big lie is life is divided into victims and oppressors.

It’s so easy to blame society, blame our culture, blame somebody else out there for your problems.

That is so naiive.

Suffering is what we all experience one way or another. There is no clean dividing line between victimhood and oppressor.   There is no answer in pointing outside of yourself to find the answer to all of your problems.

Your problems are 100% your problems. No, you can’t always help what happens to you. But, you are responsible for how you respond. If you are a teenager or older, you are 100% responsible for your attitudes and actions. There is only one answer. Jesus.

Yes, he dies but he was raised from the dead.

So, get connected to Jesus and stay connected to Jesus and watch what happens.

ME

How have you been suffering lately?

Colossians 3:1-4

Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection, too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor and authority!

We are closely bound to Jesus as his followers. What is true of Jesus is true of us.
It may not feel like it.

Learning to believe what doesn’t at the moment feel true is an essential part of being a Christian.
And the fact is, we only act on what we believe.

Believe means trust. We might say we believe in something, but we don’t really believe it if we don’t act as if it is true.

That’s why we can’t let how we feel get in the way of the truth.

When it comes to Jesus there are two key things that are true of him that are also true of us.

One he died.
Two he was raised from the dead.

When we think of it this way, we realize all of existence is about this same thing. Mini-episodes of dying and rising.
Life is suffering. There is so much brokenness that goes on in our lives that it is never a matter of if we will suffer, only when.

If your parents are aging, every time the phone rings and it is your immediate family, you instantly have a thought, “Now what’s wrong?”
Dad fell.
Mom has to go back on chemo.
Think of those who are dealing with sick kids right now.
Or kids who are suffering in different ways.
I have several friends right now whose adult children are battling in some really dark places.
Life is hard. Life is suffering and it all has to do with dying to something. Or literally dying.

Now, what do you do about it?
Do you sit back and wait for the inevitable?
Do you give up hope?
No, hope is what is absolutely don’t give up.
What is true of Jesus is true of you.
Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection, too.
You are alive in Christ. He will not let you lose hope and enter despair. He will shine in the dark places in your life.
What you need is in the heavens. From heaven, Jesus is offering you what you need to face the little deaths of your lives at anytime. Not just the big death, where you die physically and leave this earthly life.

O, we are all going die in that way. No, it’s about living. Currently, we are all living and there is so much to live for!
Jesus is about living the heavenly life here on earth.
You see, he has the power, the honor, and the authority.
There is no one who can tell you to lose hope.

ME

What are your greatest concerns right now?