Revival of Hope

I don’t know about where you live, but where I live it seems like a lot of people are feeling pretty hopeless about their futures. Everywhere they look bad things are happening, and they don’t feel like they have any control over their own lives and their own futures.

According to Tara Parker-Pope of the The New York Times (May 2013), "suicide rates among middle-aged Americans have risen sharply in the past decade." Here are the stats behind this trend:

“From 1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 rose by nearly 30 percent.
“More Americans now die of suicide (38,364) than car accidents (33,687). That's 3,026 more people who die from suicide each year than in car crashes.
“The most pronounced increases were seen among men in their 50s, a group in which suicides jumped by nearly 50 percent.
“The suicide rate for middle-aged men was three times higher than for middle-aged women.
“Researchers claim that the reasons for suicide are often complex, but this article focused on two factors—the stress of the economic downturn and the widespread availability of prescription painkillers. But it also hinted that deeper issues like failed expectations and a loss of hope might be a root cause for the increase in suicides. Dr. Julie Phillips, a researcher from Rutgers University, says, ‘The boomers had great expectations for what their life would look like, but … it hasn't turned out that way.’ Dr. Phillips warns that future generations will be facing the same conditions that lead to this sense of despair.”[1]

How do you feel about your future? Do you ever feel hopeless? I think most of us do from time to time. What I find though, is that those hopeless feelings catch up with me when I start looking at my life here on earth and forget that Jesus has promised something better.

I often wonder how it would be to live without the hope of Jesus and Heaven. Have you ever thought about that? It’s hard for me to imagine because I don’t remember I time when I didn’t know Jesus – I am grateful for that blessing. There are many of you, though, who have come to know Jesus later and have had to live without that hope.

I read a story about a man named Laureano and his wife, Consuelo. In 1966, they decided they had had enough of Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

They spent several months collecting bits and pieces of scrap metal that they could put together to make themselves a little boat … a very little boat. It was hardly big enough for the both of them – more of a kayak, really. It was powered by a little lawn mower engine.

They left Cuba in September, sitting back to back in their boat, just wearing their swimming suits. They could only fit enough food and water for one or two days.

It turned out that they floated out in the middle of the Straits of Florida for more than 70 hours before the U.S. Coast Guard finally rescued them somewhere in the Florida Keys.

Why would two people take such a risk? They could have starved to death, or drowned, or been eaten by sharks.

When someone asked Laureano that question many years later, this is what he said,

“When one has grown up in liberty, [you] realize it is important to have [freedom]. We lived in the enormous prison which is Cuba, where one's life is not worth one crumb. Where one goes out into the street and does not know whether or not one will return to one's home, because the political police can arrest you without any warning and put you in prison. Before this could happen to us, we thought that going into the ocean, and risking death or being eaten by sharks, is a million times better than to stay suffering under [political oppression].”[2]

Laureano and Consuelo had no hope of a future in Cuba; they had to get to a place where they could have hope.

You and I don’t have any hope of a future on this earth. We are living under the cruel and unreasonable government of Satan. Under his regime, there is no hope for anyone. Our only hope for any kind of future is through Jesus.

Zechariah paints a beautiful picture of our lives in the New Earth in Zechariah 8 (yes the whole chapter – it’s not that long, you can read it.)

Here are some of my favorite parts:

“Thus says the Lord: ‘I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.’
“Thus says the Lord of hosts:  ‘Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age.
The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.’” Zechariah 8:3-5

Isn’t that a great picture? Jesus living with us in a new place where there is no sin. That is certainly something that I hope for.

When this world gets too much for us, there’s something we need to remember.
Sometimes it feels like I'm watching from the outside
Sometimes it feels like I'm breathing but am I alive
I won't keep searching for answers that aren't here to find
All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong
So when the walls come falling down on me
And when I'm lost in the current of a raging sea
I have this blessed assurance holding me.
All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong
When the earth shakes I wanna be found in You
When the lights fade I wanna be found in You
All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong.”[3]

My hope is in Jesus. Is yours?

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[1] Tara Parker-Pope, "Suicide Rates Rise Sharply in U.S.," The New York Times (5-2-13)

[2] Matt Woodley, managing editor, PreachingToday.com; source: From a plaque and display in the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia

[3] Jason Roy, Where I Belong, Listen to the Sound, 2011

Going Home

Probably all of us can remember a time when we were homesick. Can you remember coming home after being away for more than just a weekend? You just can’t get there fast enough, right? I’ve even read that animals can sense when they are going home.

“Shepherds say that sheep that have spent the summer in the high country and are on their way back to the shepherd's fold anticipate their homecoming. Even though they have to go through difficult terrain and sudden storms that make them cold and wet, you can sense in the flock an excitement and enthusiasm as they come nearer and nearer to the shepherd's fold.”[1]

My first year out of college I got a job teaching at the junior academy in Indianapolis. I packed up all my worldly belongings and moved into an efficiency apartment in a tall apartment building all by myself. It was one of the loneliest years of my life! As the school year came to an end, I realized just how much I did not want to spend another year so far from my family, but I also felt like I was failing at the whole adult, living on my own, thing. I hated to make the call to my folks to tell them that I wanted to come home. My mom had redone my bedroom so that it actually looked like a guest room and I was messing up all of her careful redecoration, not to mention not letting my parents enjoy the whole empty nest thing. Even so, as soon as I called, my mom was on a plane to Indianapolis to pack me up and move me back home. I still felt kind of guilty though – until about a month or so ago.

My older son moved to Loma Linda about a year and a half ago. Just about four months ago, we redecorated his room into a sewing room – filled his dresser with lengths of fabric, moved in my sewing machine and a table to cut patterns on, moved a couple of the things he’d left behind into the garage. Then he called and said he’d put in his two-week notice and he wanted to move back home.

I flew out to meet him, packed up his car and headed for Texas. I teased him a bit about changing my sewing room plans.  My younger son suggested that I lay out a pattern on his bed, asking him not to disturb anything, and sleep on the couch, but I don’t want him to ever think that where my sewing machine sits is more important than he is.

I think sometimes when we think of going to Heaven, we think about how we will feel. But try to imagine for a minute how God will feel. He’s been separated from us since Adam and Eve sinned. We forget that God has been holding our rooms ready in Heaven all this time, just waiting for the moment when He can come to bring us Home.

“The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Savior [Who saves]! He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest [in silent satisfaction] and in His love He will be silent and make no mention [of past sins, or even recall them]; He will exult over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17 AMP

STOP! Go back and re-read that verse – try to let it sink in. Get a mental picture of God…GOD, Himself, rejoicing over you, singing with joy because of you. Can you wrap your mind around that? I’m not sure I can. It’s hard for me to imagine the enormity of God’s love for each of us, no matter what we’ve done.

I have to come back to the story of the Prodigal Son again. Remember the reaction of the father? He didn’t tell the son he could come home, but he’d better straighten up and fly right from now on. He didn’t tell the son he had to go take a bath before any of the neighbors saw him.

“Little did the … thoughtless youth, as he went out from his father’s gate, dream of the ache and longing left in that father’s heart. When he danced and feasted with his wild companions, little did he think of the shadow that had fallen on his home. And now as with weary and painful steps he pursues the homeward way, he knows not that one is watching for his return. But while he is yet ‘a great way off’ the father discerns his form. … He ‘had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck’ in a long, clinging, tender embrace.
“… In his restless youth the prodigal looked upon his father as stern and severe. How different his conception of him now! So those who are deceived by Satan look upon God as hard and exacting. They regard Him as watching to denounce and condemn, as unwilling to receive the sinner so long as there is a legal excuse for not helping him. His law they regard as a restriction upon men’s happiness, a burdensome yoke from which they are glad to escape. But he whose eyes have been opened by the love of Christ will behold God as full of compassion. He does not appear as a tyrannical, relentless being, but as a father longing to embrace his repenting son.
“Do not listen to the enemy’s suggestion to stay away from Christ until you have made yourself better; until you are good enough to come to God. If you wait until then, you will never come....
“He will bring you into His banqueting house, and His banner over you shall be love. (Song of Solomon 2:4) ‘If thou wilt walk in My ways,’ He declares, ‘I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by’ even among the holy angels that surround His throne. (Zechariah 3:7).
“‘As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.’ Isaiah 62:5. ‘He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; He will joy over thee with singing.’ Zephaniah 3:17. And heaven and earth shall unite in the Father’s song of rejoicing: ‘For this My son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’”[2]

Even though it’s hard to comprehend with our sinful, human minds, God is more anxious for us to be with Him than we are! He has been planning our “Welcome Home” celebration and making sure our mansions are just right. He’s ready for us. Are we ready to go home?

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,

Calling for you and for me;

See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,

Watching for you and for me.

Refrain:

Come home, come home,

You who are weary, come home;

Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,

Calling, O sinner, come home!

Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,

Pleading for you and for me?

Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,

Mercies for you and for me?

Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,

Passing from you and from me;

Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,

Coming for you and for me.

Oh, for the wonderful love He has promised,

Promised for you and for me!

Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,

Pardon for you and for me.[3]

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[1] Leith Anderson "Next Life in the House of the Lord," Preaching Today, Tape No. 157.

[2] E.G. White, A Call to Stand Apart, page 13

[3] Will L. Thompson, Softly and Tenderly, 1880

Anticipation

Do you remember the Charlie Brown Halloween special? Linus, Lucy’s little brother spends the entire program going on about the Great Pumpkin. He tells everybody he meets about how the Great Pumpkin will appear. He even convinces Charlie Brown’s little sister, Sally to wait in the pumpkin patch with him, while all the other kids make fun of him. Throughout the night he repeats his belief of how the Great Pumpkin will appear and reward those who have waited for him for his loyalty. (Sound familiar?)

He and Sally spend the whole night in the pumpkin patch but the Great Pumpkin doesn’t come. Sally gets furious with Linus because she missed all of the Halloween fun. Charlie tried to console Linus by reminding him that everybody does stupid things sometimes. Linus gets mad when Charlie characterizes his sincere belief in the Great Pumpkin as stupid. One more time he repeats what he believes about the coming of the Great Pumpkin.

Ouch! That plot line could be Charlie Brown’s The Great Disappointment. I never noticed that before. Anyway, Linus found out something that many of us already know. It’s hard to build up and maintain anticipation for something we don’t really understand.

When we talk about the New Earth or Heaven, it’s sometimes hard to build up some lasting excitement or anticipation of those places because of our very limited frame of reference.

“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9

On top of that, Satan has done a great job of dumbing down what Heaven will be like. Just this week, one of my clients asked me what we would be doing in Heaven. His picture of eternity was baby angels sitting around on clouds play harps. That’s not an eternity that looks very interesting. In fact, it looks downright boring!

On top of that, lots of folks don’t see the New Earth as anything different than Heaven because the New Earth doesn’t make much sense alongside the widely held beliefs of the immortal soul and eternal hell. What I found out this week when I tried to explain it to my client, is that I had to deal with those other concepts before we could make any sense of what the New Earth was all about.

That’s a whole lot of ground to cover to answer a simple question about eternity. One thing I realized was, without the New Heaven and the New Earth, the story of Salvation has no ending. The New Heaven and the New Earth are the period at the end of fallen humanity’s sentence – our “happily ever after.” It’s where God finally is able to permanently reverse the effects of that bite of fruit in the Garden of Eden. It’s a guarantee that we will never have to deal with the effects of sin ever again. It’s confirmation to all of the universe that God does play fair and Satan lied.

Can you imagine living with the realization that the Great Controversy is over? Take a minute and try to see if you can get a taste of what that might feel like. It’s really hard! It’s probably like having lived all of your life in an active war zone and trying to imagine living in peace. Imagine trying to explain to a child in Israel, whatever their religion, what living in peace is like. It would sound nice, but they wouldn’t really have any frame of reference for such a concept.

What do we do with all our time in the New Earth? When my client and I were talking about it, he had a hard time understanding that having streets of gold wasn’t about greed. Think about it, with our sinful minds, if someone isn’t greedy, why would they show off all their gold by paving the streets with it? Can you imagine living without always wanting something more? without needing to sleep? without deadlines?

My father was 48 when I was born so I was still in high school when he retired. He was interested in so many things that once he was free of necessary work, he finally had time to do just what he was interested in doing. He was busier in retirement than he had been when he went to work every day.  I can imagine that! Can you? So, can you imagine spending eternity gardening and not having to worry about bugs, fungus, drought, freezes or (in my case) so much heat that the tomatoes and green peppers practically cook before you can pick them?

For those of us who aren’t gardeners, what will we spend eternity doing? I know I want to spend time singing and not worrying about being on pitch. I’ve always enjoyed Sandi Patti and when I was younger, I remember praying for her so that I’d be able to spend eternity being one of her backup singers.

Do you like history? Wouldn’t it be amazing to study the entire history of the earth, not just as we know it now, but with the added insight of being able to study God’s hand in historic events? What about being able to interview people who were actually there? How fantastic would that be?

Do you like sports? You’d be able to run any kind of scenery you choose – and not get tired or dehydrated. Skiers could ski without having to worry about falling and breaking something. Swimmers, what would it be like to swim with dolphins and not have to worry about sharks or jelly fish? Do you think you could hold your breath for a really long time? Or maybe you wouldn’t have to come up for air at all. Can you imagine deep sea diving without any scuba gear?

Can you think of something(s) that you love to do that you could happily spend eternity doing? How do you think that thing that you love will be better, more fun, more interesting without the effects of sin to make it harder? Do you think that quilters and other stitchers will be able to find some way to do that activity? What about mechanics? Architects? Is there something that you love to do that you would love to have unlimited time to do? Ok, those of you who would love to sleep for about 3 weeks, wouldn’t it be wonderful to not feel that tiredness – to feel like you have the energy to do whatever you wanted to do?

There will be an infinite number of things available for us to do in the New Heaven and the New Earth. Some of the things we love to do now and think we would love to spend eternity doing, we won’t even care about. It doesn’t matter. We will never run out of things to do.

Most important of all, no matter whatever else we do or don’t do, we will have unlimited contact with Jesus Christ, our Savior. Actually, can you imagine wanting to do anything else ever, if you could spend time with Jesus whenever you wanted and for as long as you want?

Come to think of it, that’s really all I need to think about to start getting excited about the New Earth. I want to spend eternity living from Jesus.

“We are living in a most solemn period of this earth’s history. There is never time to sin; it is always perilous to continue in transgression, but in a special sense is this true at the present time. We are now upon the very borders of the eternal world and stand in a more solemn relation to time and to eternity than ever before. Now let every person search his own heart and plead for the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness to expel all spiritual darkness and cleanse from defilement.

“To us who are standing on the very verge of their fulfillment, of what deep moment, what living interest, are these delineations of the things to come—events for which, since our first parents turned their steps from Eden, God’s children have watched and waited, longed and prayed!
“Fellow pilgrim, we are still amid the shadows and turmoil of earthly activities, but soon our Saviour is to appear to bring deliverance and rest. Let us by faith behold the blessed hereafter, as pictured by the hand of God.” (E.G. White, The Adventist Home, page 549)

Why? Why not?

I love to think of those first days in Heaven. I try to imagine the wonder of seeing my Bible heroes visiting with people of every age. It will be so exciting to have the opportunity to go back over our earthly experiences with our guardian angels. That’s all going to be amazing and, I believe, will never lose their excitement. But let’s imagine just for a few minutes, that as you’re walking past the Tree of Life and you see Stephen and Saul/Paul walking toward one another. You see the spark of recognition on their faces as they recognize each other…and then you see something else.

Remember that the last time Stephen saw Saul was the day that Saul held the cloaks of the folks who stoned Stephen. He missed the whole Damascus Road conversion bit. What thoughts do you think are going through Stephen’s mind at the moment he recognizes Saul?

Not too much later you’re strolling around, just enjoying the scenery and you come face to face with the grown up version of that kid who stole your lunch money every single day of your third grade year? What if you see that cranky old man who lived at the end of your street who was always calling and complaining to the city the instant your grass got a millimeter too long, or that professor who seemed to take great joy in humiliating any student who was brave or silly enough to admit to being a Christian? What if you look around Heaven and you see people who you think of as completely evil – Kim Jong Il, Idi Amin, or Saddam Hussein?

At the same time, you look around and see some noticeable absences. Where’s that teacher who seemed to know all the answers to your spiritual questions? or that man who greeted every person who walked through the door of the church with a smile and big handshake? Why haven’t you run into that kid who won the Bible Bowl three years running; he knew his Bible forward and backward!?

It’s not hard to imagine, then, that if you have questions like that, other people will too. And from there it’s a very small step to thoughts of God playing favorites or being arbitrary and unfair…and then we’re right back where we started and the whole seven thousand years of the great controversy has been a complete waste of time.

How is God going to make sure that everybody understands why the people who are in Heaven are the people who will enjoy being in Heaven? Well, we find out that those thousand years, the Millennium, are going to be more than just hanging out beside the Sea of Glass. We are going to have at least one job to do – we are going to be reviewing all the God’s records of the lives of everyone who ever lived. No wonder we’re going to be there for a thousand years!

 “During the thousand years between the first and the second resurrection the judgment of the wicked takes place. The apostle Paul points to this judgment as an event that follows the second advent. ‘Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.’ 1 Corinthians 4:5.

“Daniel declares that when the Ancient of Days came, ‘judgment was given to the saints of the Most High.’ Daniel 7:22.

“At this time the righteous reign as kings and priests unto God. John in the Revelation says: ‘I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.’ ‘They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.’ Revelation 20:4, 6.
“It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, ‘the saints shall judge the world.’ 1 Corinthians 6:2. In union with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion which the wicked must suffer is meted out, according to their works; and it is recorded against their names in the book of death.
“Satan also and evil angels are judged by Christ and His people.” (E.G. White, The Great Controversy, 660, 661)

Isn’t God good? There won’t be any, “Because I said so!” coming from God. Instead He will open all of His books and records to us. Isn’t that crazy?

We will have the opportunity – the responsibility, of going through God’s records and seeing for ourselves that God is the epitome of fairness. We will have the chance to review every second of every person’ life and see their walk toward or away from God.

We will have the opportunity to see the evidence of God’s love for His creatures and His complete freedom of choice – allowing each one of us to choose to walk away from Him.

It’ll be like a Heavenly audit carried out by the redeemed. And at the end of the thousand years, no one will ever be able to doubt the motives of or second guess the fairness and love of Jesus. There will never be another question about what kind of God we have served and with whom we’re fixing to spend eternity. By the end of the Millennium God will finally be able to wipe away every tear from our eyes and we will have the assurance that doubt will never invade our thoughts.

Even better, the other created beings will see once and for all see that Satan’s claims against God are false and without basis of any kind. God’s character will have finally been cleared.

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4, NKJV)

I think that text includes God too. He will be able to put behind Him the heartbreak of having to allow people who He created to choose someone or something else.

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.” John 3:16-17

I love to think about spending eternity with Jesus, don’t you?

Finally Home

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson for 9.29.12

You know that feeling you get when you’ve been away from home and you walk into your house for the first time in however long – that feeling that says, “Aaah, finally home.”? I imagine that’s the feeling we’ll have when we first step into Heaven – only so so much better.

Lots of songs are written about it. The first three that come to my mind are “I Can Only Imagine” by MercyMe, the hymn, “Face to Face With Christ, My Savior,” and a song by Chris Rice that you probably haven’t heard called “Circle Up” (The title has to do with the chorus that I didn’t use here).

“Hear the hum of angel curiosity

The children of the Lord are gathering

Finally the Day we’ve all been dreaming of

Caught up forever in His love!

Hear the thunder of unfolding wings

Feel the mighty wind their beating brings

Rain your grateful tears and flood the floor

Rise up and worship like a storm!

Now hear His golden voice above it all

He’s saying, "This tear is the last to fall!"

A few simple words, another storm He calms

Invites us all into His arms!”[1]

I’m not sure why these particular lyrics speak so strongly to me, but I love the thought that the angels are almost as excited to welcome us Home as we are to get there. And, of course, I love the mental picture of Jesus inviting us all into His arms.

Have you ever tried to imagine what those first few moments/days/weeks in Heaven might be like? I believe it’s good that we’re going to have a thousand years, because I’m pretty sure that for the first good while, nobody’s going to be doing anything but just looking at Jesus. We’ll be trying to wrap our minds around the idea that we won’t ever be separated from Him again.

But after that, there’s going to be so much to do! We’ll have to pick up the directions to our mansions at some point, but, again, I can’t imagine we’ll be that interested in that right at first.

I know one of the very first things I want to do is meet and talk to my guardian angel. What about you? Have you ever thought about how interesting that will be – to sit down and hear about all the times your angel protected you when you didn’t even know you were in danger?

Next I’d like to find all my family and friends and do a head count and a group hug. But then I’d like to start making my way through visiting with all my Bible heroes. I don’t know, maybe they’ll each have their own meeting area and we can just move from group to group. However it works, I’d love to ask Noah how he managed to keep building the ark even when absolutely nobody else except his family believed him.

Can you imagine talking to David and hearing him tell about his life? What would you like to ask him? Who else would you like to talk to? Do you think Jonah will be there? We don’t know if he ever made peace with God over the whole Nineveh thing. I’d absolutely have to talk to Moses! How did he ever keep his sanity? Mary and Joseph would be a must, wouldn’t they? Along with Jesus’ disciples – John the Baptist, Samson, Elisha and Elijah. Oh, and Daniel! He and his three buddies would really have some amazing stories!

Is there a special person who guided you into the truth? You’ll definitely want to find that person! Maybe they don’t even know what kind of influence they had on your life. Won’t it be fun to tell them?

At some point we’re going to have a banquet and we’ll all sit down around a mile long dining table and be able to see and talk to anyone along the table as we eat the best food we have ever eaten. Do you think we’ll recognize everybody we see or will we be making introductions along the way?

I don’t know about you, but one of the things I want to do is go find the animals and spend some time petting and getting to know the big cats and all the other animals we don’t dare touch here on earth.

What do you think the first Sabbath in Heaven will be like? Can you imagine someone up front teaching/ preaching, or discussion groups? Would we even have a formal meeting place or would we just enjoy being in Heaven – walking around and visiting with everybody else?

At some point, though, Jesus will sit us down and open the books of the judgment with us. That’s going to be our primary job doing the millennium, to review God’s books so that we can understand exactly how God’s justice perfectly fits what each person did or didn’t do. We’ll also be helping the beings from other planets understand that God is truly a just and perfect God so that no one will ever again raise the question of whether or not God is fair.

Then, too, there’s going to be singing! What kind of music do you think we’ll experience? I know we’ll have a song to sing that only the redeemed can sing. There won’t be any “pitchy” singers or disagreements over which kind of praise music is appropriate.

We’ll want to experience what our new and improved bodies will do. Some people, like Joni Earickson Tada will be walking for the first time since she was a youngster.

I remember hearing a story about the hymn writer, Fannie Crosby. Someone asked her if she wanted to be healed of her blindness during her lifetime. Her answer was ‘no’. She said she would rather stay blind because she wanted the face of Jesus to be the very first thing she saw.

I’m sure we’ll all be experiencing our new bodies as though we had been crippled here on earth. We’ll have to spend time traveling the galaxies, visiting other worlds that Jesus made.

There are so many things to do in Heaven, so much more than Satan wants you to think about. He wants you to think Heaven is just sitting on a cloud, playing a harp, for eternity – how boring! Who would want that? Instead we have eternity jam-packed full of friends to visit, things to learn, music to make, animals to play with, new people to meet and, most important, Jesus. We get to spend eternity with Jesus. Wow – just wow!

“The nations of the saved will know no other law than the law of heaven. All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming. ‘There shall be no more sin, neither shall there be any more death.’“‘And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me,’ saith the Lord. ‘The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.’ ‘The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.’ ‘In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of His people.’” (E.G. White, Heaven, p.188)

[1] Chris Rice, Run the Earth... Watch the Sky (2003)

Mirror? Mirror!

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson dated  11.5.11

Have you ever seen someone and found yourself thinking, “Did he (she) look in the mirror before he left the house?”  Ok, I know it’s wrong to judge people by the way they look, but sometimes I have to wonder…

 Anyway, the reason I thought of that was that I’ve heard/read some folks describe “the Law” as a kind of mirror.  A mirror can show us what we look like; it can show us if we have a piece of broccoli in our teeth or smudged mascara, but it can’t do anything about it.  The Law can’t save us, but it can show us our need for Jesus.

I’ve also seen the law compared to a microscope and to a light on a windshield.

“On a warm, summer night, my wife and I were traveling in our car with Micah, our 3-year-old son, who sat in the back seat. After many miles of driving in the darkness, we came to a stop in a remote area. The brightness of the traffic light revealed all of the dirt, dead bugs, and insects on our windshield. Micah said, ‘Look, how dirty!’
“My wife and I didn't think much of his comment until a moment later when we drove on—away from the light and back into the darkness. Upon reentering the darkness, we could no longer see the mess on our windshield, and Micah quickly piped up and said, ‘Now the glass is clean!’
“Before the law came, the dirt within us hid under the darkness. But when God gave the law, its light shined on the windshield of our hearts and revealed the filth of sin we'd collected on our journey. The law, then, is a light that shows us how sinful we really are. It cannot cleanse us or make us whole. But it does starkly highlight the true situation of our souls—and thus can lead us to Christ.”[1]

I love the way D.L. Moody said it: 

“Law tells me how crooked I am; grace comes along and straightens me out.”[2]  

Isn’t that great?  I really like that.

As simple as that is to say, the relationship between law and grace can really give us fits sometimes.  I’m surprised at just how much I take “justification by faith” for granted.  But then I’ll hear somebody say something like Mohammad Ali said in a Reader’s Digest article.  

"One day we're all going to die, and God is going to judge us—[our] good deeds and bad deeds. If the bad outweighs the good, you go to hell. If the good outweighs the bad, you go to heaven."[3]

The idea that we can earn our way to heaven is shockingly prevalent in Christianity, the one place where it has absolutely no business!

“In What's So Amazing about Grace, Philip Yancey recounts this story about C.S. Lewis:
“During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith.
“They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death.
“The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. ‘What's the rumpus about?’ he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, ‘Oh, that's easy. It's grace.’ “After some discussion, the conferees had to agree.
“The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, … , and Muslim code of law—each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.”[4]

So, how does it happen that we wander off into legalism so often when, if you think about it, living under grace is so much easier?  I mean, most of the time, we choose the path of least resistance, but when it comes to Salvation, we try to slog through the hard way…what’s up with that?

Talk about doing it the hard way, check this out: 

“It's amazing what some people will do to be spiritual. On September 18, 2003, Genshin Fujinami, 44, a Buddhist priest nicknamed the ‘Marathon Monk,’ finished a seven-year, 24,800-mile journey in the Hiei Mountains of Japan. It was intended to be a trek to enlightenment.

“Once a monk starts this journey he must finish or kill himself. According to an Associated Press article, for the first three years the pilgrim must rise at midnight for 100 consecutive days to pray and run 18 miles per day, stopping 250 times to pray along the way. During the next two years, he must up his schedule to 200 days. In the fifth year the pilgrim must sit and chant mantras for nine days without food, water, or sleep in a trial called doiri, or ‘entering the temple.’ In the sixth year, he must walk 37.5 miles every day for 100 days. In the seventh year, he must run 52.5 miles for 100 days, 18 miles for another 100 days, and then complete a 234-mile trek back to his home base.”[5]

It’s really easy for us to read that and shake our heads because we know that even a ritual that extreme will not earn anybody a spot in Heaven.

“Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’  So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.  For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith.’  The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, ‘The person who does these things will live by them.’  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’  He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”  Galatians 3:8-14

Have you looked in “The Mirror” lately?  What do you see?  Are you covered with sin?  What will you do about it?

We all have a choice to make, the moment the Law shows us our sin.  We can either bash ourselves repeatedly with the Law, or we can turn our sins over to Jesus.  Which choice is less painful?  easier?   the only choice that leads to Salvation? 

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”  Galatians 3:26-29

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[1] William Wimmer, pastor of Grace Chapel Church of God, Benton, Arkansas

[2] D.L. Moody, Christian History, no. 25.

[3] "Ali," Reader's Digest (December 2001), p. 93

[4] Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing about Grace? (Zondervan, 1997), p.11

[5] 'Marathon Monk' Ends Seven Years on the Run, Chicago Tribune (9-20-03)

Under New Management

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson for 10.1.11

Let’s start with a story told by Stuart Briscoe in “Christmas 365 Days a Year:”

“Let me put it to you with the story of a simple, illiterate man who was converted through the work of the Salvation Army. He went regularly to the Salvation Army citadel. One day he came home rather disconsolate.
“His wife said, ‘What's the matter?’
“He said, ‘I've just noticed that all the people in the Salvation Army wear red sweaters, and I don't have a red sweater.’
“She said, ‘I'll knit one.’ So she knitted him a red sweater.
“The next Sunday after he went to the citadel, he still wasn't happy.
“His wife said, ‘What's wrong this time?’
“He said, ‘I just noticed all their red sweaters have yellow writing.’
“They were both illiterate, but she said, ‘Don't worry about it. I'll embroider some writing on for you.’
“She had no idea what the yellow writing on the red sweater of a Salvation Army man said--Any of you know what it is? They have a yellow circle, and in it, BLOOD AND FIRE. That's their motto. (Unbutton the jacket of a Salvation Army man when he's ringing his little bells sometime; tell him you're just checking.)
“The man's wife had no idea what the letters said, and she couldn't read anyway. So copying a sign from a store window opposite their home, she embroidered the words of that store sign onto his red sweater.
“When he came back the next Sunday, she said, ‘Did they like your sweater?’
“‘They loved my sweater. Some of them said they liked my sweater better than their sweater.’
“What neither of them knew was that the sign on the store window she had copied read, THIS BUSINESS UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT.
“That's what it means to get saved. That's what it means to get converted. That's what it means for the Holy Ghost to come upon you: this business under new management.”[1]

Isn’t that great?  When we see an “Under New Management” sign on a business, doesn’t it bring hope?  It lets us know that no matter what our experience has been with that business in the past, it will be different from now on. 

It’s the same for people too.  Of course, we don’t have to hang a sign around our necks, but when we’ve turned our lives over to Jesus, we can let people know that their experience with us will (hopefully) be different from now on.

Think about Saul, for example.  He was an extremely loyal and steadfast Jew.  So much so that he was kind of in the frontlines of the Jews who were trying to eradicate the new Christian believers.  The first we hear of him in the Bible is when he’s guarding coats at the “trial” and execution of Stephen. 

“…, they all rushed at [Stephen], dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.” 

That is the last time Saul and Stephen saw each other.  Now imagine this, Stephen is walking around Heaven and coming the other way he sees the man he knows as Saul.  What do you think would go through Stephen’s mind at that point?  (Of course, this is earthly thinking here.)  Do you think he might, for just a fraction of a second, entertain the thought that this must be some kind of joke?  that there must have been some huge mistake?  After the initial shock, Stephen and Saul/Paul would have a good talk and it’d be ok, because Stephen would find out that Paul is “under new management.”

Even more amazing though is that Paul would be able to thank Stephen for having a part in his conversion.  “Wait, what?” you say.  “Saul was with the guys who murdered him.”  Well, true, but check this out:

“The martyrdom of Stephen made a deep impression upon all who witnessed it. It was a sore trial to the church, but resulted in the conversion of Saul. The faith, constancy, and glorification of the martyr could not be effaced from his memory. The signet of God upon his face, his words, that reached to the very soul of all who heard them, except those who were hardened by resisting the light, remained in the memory of the beholders, and testified to the truth of that which he had proclaimed.          
“… Saul seemed to be imbued with a frenzied zeal at the scene of Stephen’s trial and death. He seemed to be angered at his own secret convictions that Stephen was honored of God, at the very period when he was dishonored of men.”[2]

Having read that, I thought, for the first time, that even though we talk about sudden or Damascus Road types of conversions, that’s not really the way it works.  The Holy Spirit was working in Paul all along.  The Damascus Road experience was just the culmination of that work…the “under new management” sign hung in the window. 

That gives me so much hope!  God never gave up on Paul, even when he was running around actually supervising the killing of Christians.  The Holy Spirit stuck with him, even when Paul was at his absolute lowest point.

What an amazing God we believe in.  He sends the Holy Spirit to work on our hearts and to convict us even when we are doing absolutely everything we can to avoid surrendering our hearts and minds to Him.  And another thing I just realized is that even though my conversion experience or your conversion experience doesn’t look as dramatic as Paul’s, we are each led to that exact point in time where we can make our own Damascus Road decision to either walk with or walk away from God.  Do you realize that Paul could still have chosen to continue to work against God?  Paul could have decided he’d been struck by some freak bolt of lightning.  But praise God he didn’t!

“There comes a crisis, a moment when every human soul which enters the kingdom of God has to make its choice of that kingdom in preference to everything else that it holds and owns.”[3]

I believe when we compare notes in Heaven, we’ll find that we share the experience described by Francis Thompson the author of the poem, “The Hound of Heaven.” 

“I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; / I fled Him, down the arches of the years; / I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways / Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears / I hid from Him, and under running laughter.” [4]

We’ve all run from Jesus because we weren’t ready to surrender, but now it’s time to put a sign on all our hearts:  “UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT.”

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[1] Stuart Briscoe, "Christmas 365 Days a Year," Preaching Today, Tape 135.

[2] E.G.White, The Spirit of Prophecy, Volume 3, page 299.

[3] Catherine Booth. "William and Catherine Booth," Christian History, no. 26.

[4] Francis Thompson, “The Hound of Heaven”