In Him We Have Our Being

for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ ~ Acts 17:28

 

In Him we live, in Him we move

In Him all things are new

The mystery of life in Christ

Is Christ can live in you

I hear the silence, it's clamoring

There is only Christ, He is everything

~ “Live This Mystery” Michael Card, Present Reality

 

I awakened with these lyrics in my blurry mind this morning. They are from a song that is found in an old record album that I listened to repeatedly in the mid-1980s. I experienced a great deal of emotional turmoil in those days. Always a late bloomer, I had reached a season of reckoning as I struggled with the consequences of playing at being an adult while still being very youthful in my spirit. I was fortunate to have avoided major vices and permanent consequences, but there were still wounded relationships and weighty grief to process as my life seemed to be rebooting itself after a critical malfunction - like the infamous “blue screen of death” that was common to computer users in the 1990s. 

I had become more Hellenist than Christian Believer in those days, but as I said, not too far from home. Instinct drew me back to the Word and, thankfully, it was readily available in formats that suited my lifestyle and tastes. My job had me traveling around the region in a pickup truck over countless miles and for long hours. I filled the windshield time with local Christian radio stations and a portable cassette tape player that rested on the long vinyl bench seat next to me. There too was a battered paperback one-year bible in the New Living Translation - It was battered because one day as I drove my Yamaha 650 to church it slipped from under its bungee cord and skidded across the road and was run over by three cars before I could retrieve it. Well, that’s what they call “provenance.”

Where did that instinct come from? Why was I so blessed when many young men’s journey to adulthood was far more costly? It occurs to me that the Lord had been with me at every crossroads moment of my life when the longing of my flesh and the desire to remain faithful to Him was at the height of tension. Two powerful forces pulled against each other in a tug-o-war. The struggle always ended with wounds to my flesh and to those with whom I indulged it - more precisely, frail human emotions, though my literal flesh bears dozens of scars from other forms of risky endeavors. 

Now with the wisdom of my age, knowledge, and experiences, I realize that my early baptism and the prayers of some saints were crucial elements in the shaping of my Christian character. I was baptized as an infant in accordance with my parent’s religious tradition. While I am aware that many Christians believe that such baptisms are inappropriate, I will only say that a formal request that our Lord begin working in and through the being of a new person does have an impact. In my case, it was certainly true. By the time I reached the age of accountability and confirmed my baptism, the Spirit was rooted in me. That, and the prayers of persons like my great aunt Tillie who once told me that she lit a candle for me every time she went to church to pray, need to be acknowledged when I recall the dangerous intersections I’ve encountered. 

The truth of the verse and lyric above is in their affirmation that the baptism of the Holy Spirit marks the birth of a new eternal life in Christ. Henceforth, it is in Him that we live and move and have our being. Take a moment to consider the last bit, “have our being.” There’s the critical change that identifies the new reality of the birth of a new eternal life in Christ. Our being, or soul, that is, the part of you that seems to see, hear and speak to you as if you are two persons. Your subconscious mind that talks to your flesh when you look in the mirror or that judges your thoughts and words. It is that part of you that is given over to Christ when you are born again. That part of you is in Him so that when your flesh its world strives for control it is Him who pulls against it. It is Christ who moves your life away from spiritual danger. 

Beloved of God, have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit? If so, you are a new creation and it is true in you too - “there but for the grace of God go I.” Sometimes, people ask me, as their pastor, “How do I know I’ve been saved and born again?” This is a question formally known as “assurance.” My response to the question is that you consider your whole life. Think about the time when you realized that you wanted an authentic relationship with God and then consider all the ways that your flesh and the temptations of the world were overcome by the Spirit within you. Remember, the struggle, the hurt feelings, and the scars. Can you see those seasons of reckoning when your faith-life matured and your flesh lost some prominence? 

Now, if you have realized that you’ve never really hungered for God so that you cried out for God’s mercy; If you’ve realized that your flesh and the world have won more battles than you’d care to admit, then it’s not too late to be born again. Cry out to God now! Confess to God that you have rejected His authority over you. Repent of it and then feel God’s grace as it washes over you. Hear the clear, gentle voice of your Savior, Jesus Christ as He says, “I have come that [you] may have life and have it to the full.” The fullness Christ offers is found as you begin to live and move and have your being in Him from this day forward.