Reflections on the EFCA Challenge Conference, Part 2...

This week, I am sharing some reflections on what I experienced with nine High School students and staff as we traveled to New Orleans for the EFCA Challenge Conference. The theme of the conference was "Everything is New" and focused on the fact the Jesus life, death, and resurrection changes everything. Yesterday, I shared what Francis Chan challenged us with from the first chapter of a letter that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the book of Colossians.

Today, I would like to share with you what the second speaker, Bryan McWhite, shared with us as he unpacked the reality that we have a new status as a result of our relationship with Jesus. Bryan began by making the provocative statement that "some of you are dead and you do not know it, and some of you are alive and do not know it".

Bryan then asked the question "What doe sit mean to be alive?" and pointed us to Colossians 2:6-15 for the answer:

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,  having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;  having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

Bryan explained that when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are signing up for a new Lord. We are not praying a prayer to get to Heaven, but to have a new King. Following Jesus is not about getting a ticket to Heaven, but is getting a new King and Lord. Bryan then challenged us with the reality that obedience is hard. While it is easy to be disobedient, striving to be obedient requires submitting our desires and our lives to follow Jesus.

Bryan then reminded us that no external behavior modification can do what Jesus has already done in you if you are a follower of Jesus. Jesus not only gives us life after death; Jesus gives us life before death.

Bryan then illustrated this reality by making a comparison between Superman and Batman. You see, Batman's true identity is Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne needs to work out, train, and put on his external uniform to become Batman. However, Superman's real identity is Superman. Superman is always Superman. He may put on clothes and glasses to be Clark Kent, but at the end of the day, his true identity is Superman.

Bryan's point is that as followers of Jesus, we need to live like Superman instead of Batman. We do not have to try to live beautiful lives because of Christ because we are already beautiful because of Christ.

Bryan then ended our time together by asking a pointed question: How are you walking in the ways of the dead instead of walking alive in the new life and status we have in Christ?

So, how would you answer that question?