THE PURPOSE OF ENDURING

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
(Colossians 3: 1-4)

Abide. Endure. We are partakers of the promise of the Christ, of the Good Shepherds. That is the reason for perseverance in our commitment to the Lord.

We launch ourselves into a new calendar year, using the date as a dividing point between what was and what we want to do and achieve. We hope for better things to come in our daily lives. And we think less and less about what Christmas was about. We pick up the wrapping paper of the gifts we've received and put the trash out. We take down the holiday decorations. We remember fondly the parties and fellowship we had during the holiday season, but we get ready to buckle down to work in the new year.

But for believers, the real dividing point should always be the coming of Christ into our lives. Every day is always a new day. Our "old life" wasn't what was "last year", it was "before Christ came."

Remember, we are called into the celebrations of Christ in His kingdom. We are given the witness of the angels of God, and told we can come see the face of the Christ, God made manifest in flesh and blood. We are assured that we will be watched over, protected, led in safe places. We have been told that the very Creator of the Universe abides within us - and with that in us, we are asked to endure, to wait upon the movement of the Lord.

The glory of our lives is that we are to be found in the glory of the Lord. As Christ stands in Heaven, we stand in Him.

What does that mean in our daily lives, though? I mean, it's a pretty picture for some vague time in the future when Judgment Day falls upon us. But what does that mean this morning, this day, as I settle back into the mundane pursuits of doing what is in front of me to do, the small jobs, the hunting for gainful employment?

I think it is far too easy for us to think of "God business" as being "out there" or in a "time to come." But as I look back over all these readings from the beginning of Advent through today, what I see is something far more immediate. Christ is about the here and now. Jesus wasn't talking about vague futures, He was talking about this very hour, this very minute, this very second.

If Christ abides in us each and every moment, then we bring the glory of God with us to every thing we do. When we take the trash out, God comes with us. When we try to nose our way onto the packed freeway at rush hour, Christ is with us. When we move among the people of the world, we bring Jesus with us.

Do we remember that the glory of God sits upon us? If we can't even remember that Christ abides in us in order to give ourselves reassurance, how can we show Christ to others?

Are we like Zacharias when the angel told him the news of his coming child? Do we laugh at the idea that we would be that significant to God? Oh, for ourselves we do want to be that important, because it means that we get invited in to God's party. But do we consider that there's more to God's purpose than that? Do we consider that we might be like the Bethlehem shepherds, that we should be telling everyone we meet about the wonderful things we have seen?

Do we let others see the glory of God on our faces? Or do we hide from the world the fact that we abide in the Lord? Do we cover up God's presence?

I admit that I don't always think of that. Even when in the ordinary course of events I try to behave "as I ought to" as a believer, I don't think about the possibility that my face and my voice might be the only visible thing of God that the people I encounter might see. That's a lot of responsibility. But ... it's also an intriguing idea. God comes with me everywhere, not just for me. If I abide in HIm... what do others see?