Category Archives: Christian Life

3 BY THE WAY…WHERE WILL IT END?

Christian life, ,

This is one of those “by the way” posts in which I try to set the record straight. You see, many Christians simplify their understanding of salvation to mean “accepting Jesus so that I can go to heaven when I die,” …like faith in Jesus is their passport to heaven, however they live now and wherever heaven might be then. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.   

There are many hints and many passages of Scripture that tell a very different story.  First, where is heaven? You may say, in reply, “Heaven is where God is,” as though God lives far away, in some place from where He reigns and to where we will go when we die. What does the Bible say?

Solomon said, in his dedication prayer…

“But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built!”

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭27‬ ‭NLT‬‬

David realised…

“I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭139‬:‭7‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

So, where is God? God is everywhere. He cannot be contained or limited to a space. 

Second, God chose Israel to be His people and…He chose to live with them. His dwelling place would be a tent pitched in the centre of the camp where His visible presence would be with them in the wilderness, and later, in the temple in Jerusalem. 

“Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.”

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭25‬:‭8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This was the beginning of where God was going, not His presence in a geographical place but in the hearts of His people. 

“What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭6‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God’s goal is to live in intimate union with His holy people forever. 

Where will this be? In heaven?

Amazingly enough, not “heaven” as some place far away but on the earth where God began the processes and…where He plans to complete it in a union between heaven and earth. 

The earth was corrupted by sin when Adam chose to go it alone. Jesus came to redeem…not only broken humanity but the broken earth on which humanity lives. 

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭18‬-‭22‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Creation shares the pain of our brokenness and awaits the restoration of all things when Jesus returns. God made a perfect earth for human habitation. Therefore, a restored and renewed earth will be the place where God lives with His people forever but…and this is the marvel of His redemption plan…heaven and earth…the unseen realm of God’s dwelling right now…and the earth in its restored perfection…will be united into one. 

John saw the final result in his vision of the new Jerusalem…

“Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal… The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭1‬-‭3‬, ‭9‬-‭11‬, ‭23‬-‭26‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Paul said that God’s people will reign with Jesus on the earth…

“if we endure, we will also reign with him…

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2‬:‭12‬a NIV‬‬

“Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭20‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭5‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It was always God’s desire to live among and in His people. He is moving His redemption plan, slowly, meticulously, towards His goal…a perfect people…a perfect earth…a reunited heaven and earth…under His management…His people ruling with Him…order and harmony… forever! The circle of creation and history will be complete when Jesus returns to see up His kingdom on a perfect earth. 

1 BY THE WAY…MESSENGERS AND MESSAGE

Christian Life, ,

Philippians is done. In the interim, while I wait for the next series to take shape, there are some random thoughts that have captured my attention as we have meandered through Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Following Paul’s unwitting disclosure of his own life and character in his writings, I have gleaned some valuable insights into this life of faith and obedience to which we have also been called.

Did you know that everyone is s messenger? 

There can be absolutely no doubt that we belong to Jesus. We are bound to Him by faith. He has received us. We are forever His and joined to Him for now, in this life, and in the life to come. Whatever we face and experience in this life, Jesus has accepted full responsibility for every detail of who we are, what we need, and why we are here. We are unconditionally loved and treasured, far beyond what we can fully understand or appreciate. 

This close and unbreakable union with Jesus has some spinoffs for us. One that I am recognising with increasing understanding is that we are His messengers and His message. 

 What do I mean? 

Whether we like it or not, whether we are aware of it or not, in every circumstance or situation we face, we are unwittingly saying something to those around us. Yes, we testify to Jesus by our words but…what we don’t say…or what we say by implication…often says much more than our words convey. 

I am realising that I am a walking message about the one in whom I believe. This means that my union by faith in Jesus has moment-by-moment evidence in the nitty-gritty of my life…whether my faith in Jesus translates into a character being transformed or whether my witness is only cosmetic. 

Jesus spoke some sobering words to those who pretended to follow Him. 

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭46‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This question has no answer except in the conscience of those who want to get what they can get from Jesus without the intimacy and fruit of true union with Him. 

Jesus spoke of fruit that identifies the nature of the tree. 

“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, I ask myself as I journey through each day, “What message am I passing on to the people I meet? Does the way I conduct my life…what I say and how I say it, what I do when I’m alone or in company, meet someone I consider beneath or above me…speak of Jesus or of myself…I, me, and mine? 

Being a witness to Jesus is so much more than preaching to an unbeliever. Being a witness means being both a messenger and the message…every moment of every hour of every day…being aware that Jesus and I are one. 

LIFE LESSONS FROM PAUL’S HAPPY LETTER – 18b

Christian life, ,

Somehow, I’m reluctant to leave Paul’s letter to the Philippians without drawing some life lessons from this great old saint’s story… whose personal life shines through all of its pages. 

Against the backdrop of a servant of Jesus…old and worn out from years of travel, hardship, and sacrifice…we see a spirit honed and shaped by fellowship with the Master. We read the life story of a man whose passion for the gospel…the message of life, salvation, and a glorious future…and his obedience to his calling…beckoned him past and through every hardship towards a goal and a prize greater that anything he ever imagined or anticipated in this life. 

i think that the first great lesson we can learn from Paul is that he learned! He was not stubborn or resistant. His heart was never closed to the meaning and purpose of the trials he endured. He yielded to the lessons God intended for him to learn…like pliable clay in the Potter’s hands. 

Paul’s whole letter was full of the lessons he learned…like a student sitting at the feet of the great Teacher…both absorbing and  passing on to his fellow students the deep truths that would prepare him for the final exam. The day would come when he would be called on willingly to lay down his life on the altar of sacrifice for the sake of the One who had saved him and called him to a life of suffering. 

“But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”

‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭9‬:‭15‬-‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Paul made clear his reason for endurance…

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The second lesson I glean from Paul’s letter is his perspective of life. Like a golden thread running through this tapestry of truth and experience, Paul viewed all of life from its destiny. This present life, for him, was going somewhere. There was a goal and a reward so compelling that anything he was called to endure was trivial and transient compared with what was to come, though he could not see clearly what it was. 

With his eyes on the reward, Paul was willing to trust God, to anchor his soul to His promises, and to keep going through the darkest of days because of his hope. One of his many favourite expressions was “we know”. 

Let’s look, for example, at…

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

How did Paul know that God was painting every circumstance in his life into a picture that would be beautiful, perfect, and of infinite benefit to him? Imprisonment? Want? Persecution? Shipwreck? Beatings? Conflict? All of this and much more…

Yes! Paul walked through every detail of his suffering, reliving it from God’s perspective, and came out convinced that every bit was beneficial for him. Why? His heavenly perspective focused on the goal…to be recreated into the image of Jesus. If Jesus learned obedience through suffering, so should he. 

“Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭5‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The third great lesson I learn from Paul is that Paul was not a “Lone Ranger”. He conducted his ministry in partnership with many others. He commended and honoured those who worked with him. He relied on others to help him, to go where and when he could not go. He journeyed with a partner or a team across the Roman Empire, preaching the gospel, establishing churches, and training and leaving spiritual leaders who would nurture the infant believers towards maturity. 

When Paul finally departed, lifeless at the hands of Roman executioners…he left behind a network of churches, connected through his tireless efforts to keep them in touch.  They, God’s people, in turn, travelled and visited…knew each other by name…recognised and acknowledged their leaders…and exchanged letters full of teaching and exhortation…a vast family of people who needed each other against a backdrop of hostility and persecution. 

There is much more we could glean from this one letter from the greatest of the apostles but…let’s take to heart these three observations as of infinite value in our walk with Jesus. These lessons alone can transform our lives from mundane to sharp and useful in the Master’s hands.  

MOLLY AND ME…ABANDONED?

Christian Life, ,

A few weeks ago, Molly, my nine-year-old dachshund, stepped out of line. I scolded her soundly and lectured her on what not to do. She took my rebuke in good grace but, that night, as she lay on my bed…looking at me earnestly with her soft, expressive, brown eyes, I read the words her eyes spoke to me. “Mama,” she said, “if you abandon me, I have no one!”

O, how my heart broke. How true! I am her whole world. I do everything for her. I anticipate her needs. I treat her ailments, sometimes at great cost. I feed her with the best food. I take her for walks. I sacrifice for her. Without me, she is lost. She would die. 

What a message for me as a child of God! Without Jesus, I am nothing. I am lost. I would die. “Jesus, if you abandon me, I have no one!”

Before I left my home of eight years to relocate, going into the unknown, I told the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I will lean my whole weight on you.” …and I have. The first few months of settling into my new home have been a bumpy ride. Without Jesus, I might have given up…but I have leant on Him…and He has not failed me. 

I have His promise, spoken to His disciples before He left them to go to the cross. 

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭13‬:‭5‬

There is no disaster, no worry or concern big enough to separate me from His love. 

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭38‬-‭39‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus sent His Spirit to take His place…not just with but in me. 

So, just as I reassured Molly that night, “My Babygirl, as long as I am alive, I will never abandon you,” so, Jesus reassures me that, as long as He is alive, He will never abandon His child…and that means forever. 

GOD STILL SPEAKS…ETERNAL LIFE – 13

Christian Life, ,

I have traveled a long road…seventy years with Jesus. What can I say? 

In Jesus’ high priestly prayer on the eve of His death, He defined for us, for me, the true meaning of eternal life…

“And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.”

‭‭John‬ ‭17‬:‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

…not one day when I die but a powerful reality here and now…in this fallen, broken world…under divine authority and divine supervision. 

Did Peter remember Jesus’ prayer when he concluded his second letter with these words…

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”

‭‭2 Peter‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If knowing God…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…is the essence of eternal life, then, all of life’s experiences…including failure, brokenness, and loss…are the arena in which He reveals Himself as gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and full of covenant love. 

Looking back over seventy years of life…raw, rough, and full of every kind of failure…I can say with utmost confidence that I know Him. I have seen and experienced a tiny fragment of the God who rescued me from self-destruction, loved me in my worst and darkest moments…when I was utterly unlovable…and has been faithful to His Word and to me beyond my wildest imagination.

The God whom I heard about in Sunday School, and read about in His Word, is the God who met me in a marquee tent on 1st April, 1956…raised me from spiritual death to spiritual life, and set my feet on the Way…in Christ…to know Him. 

Do I know Him? Yes and no! I know fragments about Him because He has spoken to me…in my spirit across the span of seventy years…in my ignorance…in my disobedience…and in my feeble efforts to follow Him. 

I knew Him whenever I took a wrong turn and headed in the wrong direction, He gently steered me back to the path. 

I knew Him when He blessed me way more than I could ever deserve. 

I knew Him when He gave me rest from my futile self-effort and reassured me that it was okay just to be me. 

I knew Him when I fell…hard…when He forgave my sin, time and again, picked me up, washed me clean, held me close…and walked on with me…at His side. 

I knew Him through the years of peaceful work in the company of His people…safe and tranquil…as well as the years of labour and learning in the rough and tumble of an evil world.

I know Him now as the God who loves the elderly, who causes me to flourish in the environment He  has chosen for me.  

I know Him when hears my prayers for my wayward family and my suffering nation and the nations of the world, patiently unfolding His plan in mysterious ways that reveal His wisdom and power. 

I know Him when He reassures me that He rules on the earth and that His kingdom is here now, and coming in its fullness when Jesus returns. 

I know Him when I dwell on His goodness, mercy, and favour that have followed me all the days of my life. 

I know Him when I anticipate with great joy the prospect of being with Him forever…my eyes on the glories of the yet unseen that await me and all those who long for His return. 

Do I know Him? Yes, I do…because He has revealed Himself to me in my short life.  Do I know Him? No, because He is more than time and eternity can ever reveal. 

And so…the prospect of knowing Him stretches before me into the eternity that awaits me and all who love and follow Jesus. 

My eighty-sixth birthday is just around the corner. Will I reach it? I have no idea. One thing I know…God will finish what He started!

“…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you (me) will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Concluded