As the Family of God, we need to know each other. We are told that we should weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, Romans 12:15. We are also to bear one another’s burdens, Galatians 6:2. In addition to these, we are to think of others more highly than ourselves, pray for one another, treat others as we would want to be treated, and express brotherly love and kindness among other good things. In order to do these things we have to share our lives with each other.

In hopes of helping us to grow closer as a family we are going to get to know a different family each week through our bulletin article. I am hoping that each week as you read about other members you will know them a little better and feel a little closer as a result. I hope that each week I can provide you with some interesting facts that you didn’t know about your fellow brothers and sisters at Blue Ridge. Of course, I am looking forward to getting to know you all better as a result of these interviews and articles as well.

In both Ephesians 6:22 and Colossians 4:8 Paul tells these churches that he is sending some one to tell them how he and his companions are doing and that this person will encourage them. There is encouragement in sharing with others how we are and how they are and having something in common as we do in the church can certainly be encouraging as well. Knowing others care about us and that they are thinking of us and praying for us is not just helpful when catastrophe strikes, but all of the time.

Let’s get to know one another better so that we can better encourage one another, help one another, be closer to one another, and pray for one another. In 1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul says there is coming a time when we will know fully, but for now we only know in part. Let’s try to know as big a part as we can until we can know fully.

It is always good to have a little evidence that a promise will be fulfilled. We like a down payment on something we are selling, an earnest check on a house sale, free taste tests of foods before we buy, a try it before you buy it, and many other things like that. It should come as no surprise, then, that we would really like something to help us trust some of God’s promises, too. He has promised many things in the past that came to pass already, but we still wonder about the future promises sometimes. 

God has promised eternal life. He has promised that even if we die he will raise us back to life. Does he give us a free sample to help encourage us? Yes, he has. He raised Jesus from the dead to show us that he has the power and the desire to raise us as well. Jesus being raised from the dead is referred to as the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” in 1 Corinthians 15:20. Now if y’all have read your Bibles then y’all know that Jesus was not the first person to come back from the dead. There were even people in the Old Testament that were brought back to life hundreds of years before Jesus was on Earth. Jesus even during his ministry raised some people from the dead, so why is he the firstfruits instead of any of them? The simple answer is that there is something unique about his resurrection.

All of the people in the Bible who rose from the grave died again, except Jesus, who rose to never die again. That is why his resurrection is so much more important than the others and that is why we can trust God when he promises us resurrection and eternal life. Jesus’ resurrection is the free taste test. His is the down payment. Rom 8:11 “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” 

His resurrection is also a promise of Judgment day. Act 17:31  because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Are you ready to be raised like Jesus at the last day? 

Have you ever stood on unstable ground? Maybe the sand that washes away from your feet in the ocean, or mud that you sink down into, or maybe slippery ice or gravel on the side of a hill, or maybe you have been in an earthquake where the solid ground wasn’t solid anymore. In any of those cases people wish they had something solid and safe on which to put their feet. The Psalmist felt this way spiritually. He says in Psalm 73:2 “But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.” A solid spiritual foundation is even more important that a physical one, because our eternity depends on it.

If we tried to make our own foundation it wouldn’t be very trustworthy, so it’s a good thing for us that God didn’t leave it to chance or to us. He provided the best foundation that we could have. Now when we talk about our foundation, sometimes we are talking about the truths that are spoken in the scriptures and how believing and knowing them gives us something to build our lives on. We see this kind of idea when we are told to add to our faith, virtue and then knowledge, etc. 

But most important is what those scriptures tell us our faith is to be built upon and the church is to be built upon. Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God and Jesus praised him for that statement of truth and explained that this fact was the rock on which he would build his church, Matthew 16:16-18. Paul drives this point home in 1 Corinthians 3:11 where he says, “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Our foundation for life, faith, the church, salvation, and eternal life in Heaven must be built on this solid foundation of Jesus or it will crumble. 

Is your foundation Jesus? Is he the one that is holding up everything you are building in this life and for the life to come? No other foundation will hold up, build on the only eternal foundation, Jesus.

Revelation 21:6 and 22:13 both say that Christ is the beginning and the end. Of course this is equivalent to what is said in the song, “He Is My Everything”. There is no doubt that Jesus is the beginning of all things. In Hebrews 1:8-12 the Father says of Jesus, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;” We know Jesus created all things and in the physical world he is certainly the beginning of all things. 

1 John 2:13-14 John refers to Jesus twice as the one who is from the beginning. And in John 1:1-3 he makes it clear that Jesus, the Word is God and has been from eternity.

Paul tells the Colossians in 1:18 that he is our beginning in a spiritual sense because he is the firstborn from the dead, in other words, his resurrection will make ours possible. 

In so many ways he is the beginning. He is the beginning for the church and the new law. He is the beginning of all physical life and all spiritual life and hope for eternal life.

On the other hand, he is the end in so many ways. He brought an end to the power of death. He brought an end to Satan’s power. Romans 10:4 tells us Christ is the end of the law (the Law of Moses) for all who believe. He is or will be the end to this world as well when the time comes according to 1 Corinthians 15:24 at that time Christ will end his reign and return the kingdom to the Father.

​Christ is without a doubt both beginning and end in these ways and many other ways that we don’t understand or know about. He can end your old way of life and give you a new life of righteousness. Is Christ your beginning? Is Christ your end?