Hello Dear Reader,
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EUREKA! EUREKA!
“Eureka!”, shouted a buck-naked Archimedes as he ran through the streets. “Eureka! Eureka!”
A Greek word meaning “I have found it!” summed up how Archie felt when he noticed when he slid into a bathtub of water that the level of the water rose. The amount it rose was equal to the mass of his body as he slid into the water, revealing to him the principle of displacement.
He then realized that the volume of irregular objects could be measured with precision, a previously intractable problem. He is said to have been so eager to share his discovery that he leapt out of his bathtub and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse, Sicily.
We might laugh now, but it was the first definition of this principle and Archie was excited about it!
That’s how I felt when I discovered Jesus is not only a “was.”
He IS!
He was not just a historical figure locked in a book written by eye-witnesses that I needed to study about and try to emulate. And He is not only a future figure coming again in the sweet by and by.
When I found Jesus is alive, that HE IS, that He is IN ME, and that I am IN HIM, it changed absolutely everything. My entire life was reprogrammed.
I still had the old programming to contend with in my flesh, but my inner core was ALIVE with His Life, my mind was being renewed as I learned of Him by His Spirit and His word, and God’s project of transforming me into the image of His Son had begun.
Every person in every generation has to discover Jesus for themselves. We cannot learn only from history. We cannot know the One New Man in Christ Jesus merely by outward conformity to creeds and mission statements. We must KNOW HIM!
Have you ever walked into an old religious institutional boardroom, or a religious relic preserved as a museum to past glory? Musty and dusty, it reflects a move of God several generations ago that inspired that building, and men protect it and preserve it, but it is dead.
We cannot camp out on old moves of God. We cannot merely study the gospels and talk about “Jesus, when He was on earth, did such-and-such and said so-and-so. Let’s try to be like that!”
Trying to be like Jesus is the recipe for failure. It is the Old Covenant, outside conformity and religious effort and law repackaged with new language. That is death, it is the written letter on the page, but there is no life there. The word is made flesh in our lives as we surrender to Him and let Him live through us, not written on tablets of stone or on paper but by the Spirit in our hearts! (2 Cor. 3:2-3)
I had a conversation with a Jewish business coach once. He had come into Nashville to do a seminar, and we had a 30-minute visit as I took him to the airport. It was a fantastic conversation that led to this exchange just as we were pulling into the airport. He asked me, “What do you find to be the real difference between the Old Testament scriptures and the New Testament scriptures?”
I told him I call the Old Testament the “outside covenant.” Do this, do that, try your best so you can see how badly you will fail. This makes us desperate for what He reveals to us in the New Testament, as all through the O.T. God kept pointing to what was coming as His solution.
“I call the New Testament the “inside covenant.” God said ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.’
“The law was given to show us our sin. Our sin shows us our need for His gift of righteousness through the Messiah. There is no other way.”
He actually sat there stunned and said no one had ever called the O.T. and N.T. scriptures the outside and inside covenant to him before. He said, “That makes perfect sense!”
When we preach a “gospel” of trying hard, conforming, rule-following and rituals, we are preaching the same religious rhetoric of every other man-made religion in the world.
“Christ is you, the hope of glory!” This is the great secret, the CENTRAL TRUTH of the gospel! “Not I but Christ lives in me!” is the Christian life. Nothing else can be!
Let’s pursue Him! All TRUTH is a Person!
TAVERN TALKS TUESDAY
Each Tuesday morning at 7am you will find 25-40 men gathered to hear each other’s stories, to encourage one another, to teach scripture and pray together.
This gathering is at The Mission Cigar & Social in Spring Hill.
Taverns Talks is about our stories and God’s story. It’s not about perfect people with perfect stories but authentic working out this salvation in our lives.
COMING UP:
Tuesday, April 1- One of the new men who has been joining us, Jack Cottrell, will share his story
Tuesday, April 8- Jeff Cole, another new man among us, will share his story
Come ready to bless and be blessed!
Bring your coffee, your Bible, Febreze if you go to the office after, an open mind and open heart. You can purchase a cigar as well to enjoy your first cigar of the day.
We are really grateful to Mark, Monte and Willie for opening up The Mission early each Tuesday and participating in Tavern Talks!
CHRIST IN CULLEOKA
I have a new relationship as the teaching elder in Sweetwater Church in Culleoka, TN.
I am so honored and blessed by this fellowship to invite Emily and I to be in their midst. And we have had so many friends come out and join us every week!
Culleoka is 10 minutes south of Columbia. We find we are increasingly living our life and community south of Franklin as this area grows and prospers. Our home is in Thompson’s Station, our children’s families all live from 12 to 60 minutes drive, Mission Cigar is in Spring Hill, “Tavern Talks” happens at Mission Cigar, and our new church fellowship is in Culleoka.
We meet at 11:30am in the Glendale Methodist church building at 1423 Culleoka Hwy, five minutes off of I-65 South. Great time to meet for a relaxed Sunday morning!
Some of you have been looking for a New Covenant group to walk with.
We welcome you to come along in our journey with Jesus building His church that overcomes the gates of hell.
Looking Up! (Luke 21:28)
Tod Bell
Chief Tavern Host
P.S. Let’s remember the Grateful Commission: Give thanks in all things!
