Tag: Christ

Keep Looking Up!

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In the city of Pontiac, Michigan (where I was born), the tallest building since 1929 was once called the Pontiac State Bank Building. Since construction, various banks have purchased it, and now a private investor owns it. Its new name is Oakland Towne Center, but a lot of us still call it “the old Pontiac State Bank Building.”

Not so long ago, I was reminiscing with friends about that building and I mentioned the statues on top of it. 

“What statues?” replied one. “I don’t remember any statues up there.”

Other friends questioned my memory, too, because they didn’t recall any statues on it, either. 

“You know—the statues of Chief Pontiac and other Indians.”

They thought I was nuts. However, a quick Internet search pulled up photographic evidence of my sanity. The designer of the building graced the top with Gothic artwork of Native Americans in tribute to the Ottawa tribe and to Chief Pontiac, the 1700s leader for whom the city was named. (No, the city was not named after an automobile!) 

The reactions from my friends surprised me. “Well, what do you know!” “All these years, and I never even noticed those!”

How fascinating that the images of Native Americans have looked down from on high for 90 years, and even local people are sometimes unaware of them. Perhaps, in people’s day to day lives, many never bother to raise their eyes higher than the first few floors, assuming there isn’t anything worth seeing up higher. 

Reflecting on this exchange reminded me of God. The Creator of Heaven and earth is ever present, and He takes an interest in the earth 24/7. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). Yet, many residents of earth—even those who know His name—rarely pause to look up or think about Him. Of course, that’s a pity, because unlike the statuary in Pontiac, God is alive. When we leave this earth, He is the One who determines where our soul will spend eternity. For those who have accepted His plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, this is a blessed truth and not fearful at all. 

Do you know Him? If so, keep looking up! Your God is watching over you and looking forward to spending eternity with you. But if you don’t know Him, then start looking up. It’s time to realize He exists, He’s alive, and He wants you to join His family through faith in Jesus! 

“But to all who did receive him [Christ], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13)

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'” John 14:6

The Author Who Entered His Own Story

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Like any novelist, I conjure the characters in my stories out of my own imagination. I decide what they will look like, how they will talk, and which talents and abilities each one will possess. In the case of my fantasy novel, Kiriath’s Quest,I even invented the world in which my characters live. But no human author can finish his manuscript and then “beam down” into his story to live inside it and talk among those characters he created.

God is an author, too, but He’s definitely not limited in the way human authors are limited. Out of His imagination, and for His own good pleasure, God imagined what we call “the universe,” and He created it! He further imagined inhabitants called men and women, who would have physical natures (bodies), and would also have non-physical natures (souls). It pleased God to manifest Himself to the first humans (Adam and Eve) and to fellowship with His created beings.

But there came a time when the first two humans decided to distrust God. They wanted to be like Him, to decide  good and bad, and to ignore His one prohibition and to eat the forbidden fruit. After their disobedience, their physical bodies looked the same, but they had corrupted their own souls. They lost the perfect communion they once had with their Creator.

But God—the Author of Creation—didn’t shred His manuscript. In order redeem and restore part of mankind, God did the unimaginable plot twist: He manifested a portion of Himself to “beam down”—to be born of a virgin (the first Christmas) and to grow physically and to walk and talk inside His creation as part of it. What a mind-blowing idea! This is why the angel who explained events to Joseph, Mary’s husband to be, told him the child would be called Immanuel, meaning “God with us” (Matthew 1).

While living on earth in human form, God (named Jesus in this form) taught people spiritual Truth and healed their afflictions. But more importantly, He lived a sinless life, and then permitted flawed and sinful soldiers to capture Him and nail Him to a cross for execution. (Just imagine—an author being murdered when the violent characters in his story rise up against him? Whoa!) In this way, God Himself—in the person of Jesus—voluntarily took on Himself the punishment for the sins of the human race. But humans can’t defeat God. Jesus rose from the dead. Ever since, any person who wants to be reconciled with God and to rejoin His family can do so. “…Whoever believes in him [Jesus Christ] may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Believing in God is good, but that’s not enough. Do you believe and accept Christ’s sacrifice on your behalf? “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).

This Christmas, I wish all of you a wonderful, festive time with friends and family. But don’t let the whole purpose of Christmas slip by without recognizing its importance: our Creator did what no human could so that you and I could have cleansing from sin and rejoin His family forever. If you’ve never prayed and accepted Christ as Savior, let this be the year you do!