Riverside Community Church Blog

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  (Colossians 1:13-14 ESV)

 

     "Stranger Things" became a social phenomenon this summer as Netflix allowed this 80's inspired television show to be binge watched by the masses and talked about all over the internet.  The series is dark, coarse and intense.  In it, a creature emerges from another dimension, known in the show as the "Upside Down".  This "Upside Down" dimension is exactly like the world that we inhabit, but it is dark, broken, toxic and corrupted.  In the show, the two realities exist on top of one another, but most people in the town are unaware of the existence of the Upside Down.

 

     In some ways, our reality is the opposite of this.  We are by nature children of wrath, born into a broken and sinful world, marred and stained by sin (Ephesians 2)...we are born into the Upside Down and we are unaware that another world exists.  Yet, the Bible tells us in Colossians that God has delivered all who have placed their faith in Jesus from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son (Jesus), in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  Nothing may look different on the outside, but we now walk as citizens of the kingdom of God.  We live in the same homes, drive the same roads, do the same work...but everything has changed. Little by little we begin to see His kingdom unfold here before us, where we walk in obedience to Jesus and allow Him to live through us.  Our ultimate hope rests in the future when God's Kingdom will fully come and the broken, marred, corrupted world that we have known is restored by it's Creator.  The Upside Down will be no more and all that will remain is the Kingdom of His Beloved Son.

 

     C.S. Lewis said, "“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”  

 

     If you would like to learn more about who Jesus is and how to receive this redemption and forgiveness of sins that He offers, I encourage you to read through the accounts of His life in the Bible...Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John provide four different views into the life of Jesus.  I also invite you to join us at church this Sunday or find another local church where the Bible is studied and taught.  

 

     If you are a follower of Jesus, are you living in your new identity or are you still going through life as if you remained in the Upside Down?  Read through the book of Colossians and allow it to encourage you as you set your eyes on Jesus and His greatness!