Dakota Beacon

Easter offers a time to reflect on the reality of Christ and the blessings flowing from a Christian culture. You may find the following instances refreshing to ponder. A Christian culture spawned these blessings.

            --Set up a multitude of hospitals throughout the world from the Middle Ages onward.

            --Founded many universities and centers of learning also dating from the Middle Ages.

            --Fostered literacy and education for all people across cultures.

            --Developed the economic basis of what is today known as free-enterprise.

            --Gave the world the foundation of representative government.

            --Provided the genesis of civil liberties.

            --Started the centuries-long struggle against slavery.

            --Laid the foundation of modern science.

            --Set up many continuing charities and benevolent organizations.

            --Laid the groundwork for higher standards of justice.

            --Provided a sense of value of human life especially for the elderly, infirm, and unborn.

            --Codified and wrote many of the world’s languages.

            --Inspired some of the world’s greatest works of art, music, and literature.

This rich endowment comes from the impact of the Gospel spread by those who believed in, lived by, and sacrificed for that Gospel. They accepted Jesus Christ for who He said He was. Collectively and corporately over the centuries they formed a culture.

Today, whether from naiveté, historical illiteracy, or the voiding of traditions and conventions, western culture has become separated from an awareness of its own roots. Even Easter has become a casualty. Faced with mounting criticism and reproach, the Christian significance of Easter morphed into something rather secular.

Implications persist from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was not raised to institute a social welfare system or establish a university of wellbeing. The scripture record makes clear that God’s Son, Jesus Christ, came to restore and preserve a relationship with His creation. No preaching or theological diatribe here. Just recounting the written record, the New Testament, pointing to a mystery being revealed within believers every day.

John 14:20 “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”

II Corinthians 4:6 “For God … hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, …10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”

II Corinthians 13:5 “…Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you…?”

Galatians 1:15 “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, 16 To reveal his Son in me … I conferred not with flesh and blood …”

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Philippians 1:20 “According to my earnest expectation and my hope … Christ shall be magnified in my body …”

Colossians 1:26 “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory … 29 Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”

These are just a few verses. There are more, many more.

A wayward and rebellious people could be restored to a right relationship with their Creator if only the kingdom of Self would be replaced by the kingdom of God in the hearts of people. The sin nature of rebellion against God, of “doing your own thing,” could be expunged and replaced by Christ’s nature. All sense of placing oneself first above God could be overcome.

And Jesus said, “…The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21-22) Paul’s definition: “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 14:17)

When allowed Christ rules in that kingdom and God the Father may be glorified by each believer through His indwelling Son made manifest day by day. The resurrection of Jesus Christ signifies far more than joining a religious club and going to Heaven in the sky in the sweet bye-and-bye. It starts now.

This should not be offensive to anyone. May the reality of the indwelling Christ be genuine start point for all people this Easter.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).