OBJ: Overcome By Jesus

As we remember the 10th anniversay of 9-11, I'm reminded of a message I preached last year entitled: 'A Sure Fire Way To Let The Terrorists To Win!" In line with the 9-11 anniversary, I thought it fitting to post a portion of that messsage, I am entitling for this entry: 'Overcome By Jesus.'

"Sure, there are chapters in life when evil appears to win. But those are only chapters. The full story is: God wins, God is victorious -- yet! Paul is adamant in this regard as he ends Romans 8. In all things we are more than conquerors through [the God] who loves… [and wins. For] “…neither death, nor life, neither angels, nor demons…neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation is able to separate us from the love [the power, the strength, the courage, the victory] that is [ours] in Christ Jesus our Lord…” (Romans 8:37-39).

A key word in these verses is the word: separate. It’s a wrenching word which means literally: to divide, to put asunder, to tear apart. But that’s exactly what evil does: it tries to divide, to put asunder, to tear apart. Specifically it tries to tear us apart from the triumph of God. But, Romans 8 is right: nothing is able to separate us from the triumph of God.

Oh, it might feel that way. I mean when evil people tear apart the World Trade Center, it feels like evil people will tear us apart, even from God. But evil people can’t do that unless we let them, unless we cave to our fears. But there’s no need to cave to our fears; we can cave to Christ, claiming His triumph over terror, overcoming all!

Persons have communicated through abbreviations for eons: smoke-signals, Morse Code, short-hand, smiley faces. But recently the craze is to abbreviate through letters; specifically three letters, either in correspondence, e-mails, text messages, even face to face conversation. The abbreviations vary: LOL – laughing out loud; GTO – got to go; TMI – too much information. Or my favorite: XOX – hugs and kisses. But the other day, I heard an abbreviation, I’d never heard before. Asking a church member how her day went, she blurted out: “OBE.” “OBE?” “Yes, OBE - overcome by events!! Well it dawned on me: she’s on to something! We are OBE, we are overcome by events, the trauma and terror of our day. And so I decided to do something about it. I decided to invent my own abbreviation: OBJ - overcome by Jesus!! For yes, we do live in an OBE world, no doubt! But we’re called to be an OBJ people – overcome not by events, but by Jesus who ultimately overcomes all!

Are you an OBJ person? Are you overcome by Jesus, who overcomes all? I pray you are, for trauma and terror are not to have the last word. God is to have the last word, as we claim the triumph that is ours through Christ Jesus, our Lord."