Perspectives by Rev. Sue McCullough

There was an alien substance on my living room floor this week.

I studied it intently, puzzled; deep down I had the feeling that I had seen something exactly like it once. Only that occasion had been months and months ago. The puddle-shaped outline was frustratingly familiar, yet it had been so long that I just couldn’t quite place it. 

I noticed the substance was coming through the window and actually beginning to spread. That’s when I had my moment of blinding revelation. I did know what this was!

It was sunlight.

Officially in Canada it has been spring for some weeks.

You could have fooled me.

With the plummeting night time temperatures, the downpours of ice rain, the sporadic snowfalls, the cutting, constant wind and the relentlessly grey skies every day – well, it’s felt like mid February for months.

Why just the other day I glanced out my window and spotted a robin, bundled in a wool scarf and toque, and the Mrs., loading three blue eggs into the back of a minivan with “Returning to Florida” plates on it. A couple of Canada geese were trying to hitch a ride.

I’ve put my winter coat and ear muffs away, then taken them back out of the closet again, six times. My lawn furniture remains tucked away behind bags of Ice Melt. The heating bill has not gone down.

I recently stumbled on to a website calling for the lynching of Wireton Willie and Punxsutawney Phil…and I didn’t report it.

We need spring. We really do. Physically and psychologically. It’s time already. After all, only spring can  trigger those special, experiences that we dream of in the deep, snowy depths of winter.

We crave the chance to once again spend hundreds of dollars buying flowers, with exotic names, that last about two months. We yearn to spend long sweaty hours scrubbing barbecue grills, picnic tables, driveways and patio sets. We eagerly anticipate the ritual of discovering the holes and brown patches under the melting snow where skunks and grubs have torn up our lawns. 

We thrill to the return of Kamikaze mosquitos.

Frankly, many of us are simply anxious to swing our golf clubs without wearing Arctic parkas; taking chip shots, not chips of ice off the greens.

Spring, it’s time to spring!

(I even found myself thinking nostalgically of shad flies last weekend. Scary.)

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Jesus is Lord!

Are you a Christian? Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your life? Too many people say they are Christians without any consideration to the relationship they actually have to the Christ they are identifying with. 

Jesus is identified in the Bible as the Lord. This designation is not to be taken lightly as both the Father and the Son are very serious persons. The fact that even a word of idle talk is subject to judgment necessarily implies that God does not speak or write an idle word (Matthew 12:36), and that the biblical references to Jesus as Lord are not without grave significance. 

The Bible identifies Jesus as Lord in a very concrete and enduring way. Jesus’ designation as Lord is in no way like the often vacant titles we sometimes use in today’s society. Jesus Christ is Lord in fact and whether or not a person has respect for that fact has grave consequences. 

For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. – Romans 14:10-12

Notice that in the scripture quoted above Christ is identified as both the LORD and God being spoken of in the interpretive quote of Isaiah 45:23.  It is Christ the Lord’s judgment seat before which “every knee shall bow … and every tongue shall confess.” It is the Lord Jesus Christ to whom “each of us shall give account of himself.” 

The context of Romans 14 makes it clear that this scripture is referring to Christians in particular. 

As a Christian, Jesus is the Lord over your life, and how you responded to that reality will determine how He will judge your life. 

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. – 2 Corinthians 5:10

Have you ever said to someone, or had someone say to you, “who are you to judge me,” or “you have no right to judge me?” No Christian can say that to Jesus. Jesus has the right to judge you because He is your Lord and your God. (John 20:28) 

When you became a Christian you embraced the confession that Jesus is your Lord? Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

I once spoke to a small group of men about the promises they made to their brides on their wedding day. None of the men were sure about exactly what they promised, and all of them looked guilty because they were divorced and knew they had broken whatever promises they had made. They were all adulterers in the biblical sense violating the covenants they had made. 

I believe the problem began with the fact that not one of these men ever took the promises they made seriously, and from the very beginning they were willing to break those promises. 

How seriously do you take your relationship with Jesus your Lord? What did you say to Him when you became a Christian? Are you faithful to Jesus’ Lordship over your life?

Take time in prayer today to speak to your Lord, Jesus the Christ, and reaffirm your commitment to Him as your Lord.

Rev. George Frey

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