Geroge Bernard Shaw
Looking to Heaven
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“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” Revelation 22:1-4
Our four-year-old grandson stayed with us overnight last week so we got to spend a day together. One of the things that he loves to do is play the game Mouse Trap. While my wife and I both enjoyed the original game as children, we both find the current version rather tedious. As Liam and I were playing a third round of the game, I began to feel a bit cranky and the hard floor we were sitting on wasn’t helping. His elation and my crankiness caused me to consider the varying views that people have about heaven. You can get a bit of an idea of someone’s spiritual maturity by their expectations for eternity. Similar to the assumptions regarding what a loving God would include in our lives, many consider the wonder of heaven to be the eternal enjoyment of things that brought them pleasure in this life. In that sense, what is reward for one person may be punishment for another. Fortunately, that is not the case. While I generally avoid conversations about heaven and the subject of eschatology because people tend to assume things that scripture doesn’t speak to as well as attempting to predict what God’s word tells us is unpredictable, I would like to touch on a few fairly clear characteristics of heaven.
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God in His Mercy
Part 3 Compassion
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“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ” Ephesians 2:4-5
“Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” Psalm 103:14-15
In the last two posts I discussed my mother’s ability to forgive her father and the relationships with him that it permitted. I also discussed her stewardship, hospitality and integrity and how they encouraged me and benefited others. These are a very few of the high points or strengths in her life. However, as Christ warns us in John 16:33, my mother also bore a fair amount of pain and suffering. Over the years, I watched as my mother endured physical illness, emotional pain and spiritual trials that God included as part of her life. One of the complaints that I often hear from people who are suffering is that they are very alone or have little to no help. Thankfully, I believe that this is the exception in my church home, but within the larger body of Christ, this seems to be a prevalent problem and it was certainly true for my mother. In my mother’s case, she was seen as an outsider as she was not reared within the denomination and she came from an unchurched family. Further, she did not feel called as the pastor’s wife to run the social programs of the church and she suffered from depression. Therefore, for the most part she was condemned for a lack of faith and godliness and, but for a few exceptions and like many, found no real support within the church body.
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God in His Mercy
Part 2 Encouragement
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“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ” Ephesians 2:4-5
“In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.” Titus 2:6-8
My mother was an unassuming woman who was quite intelligent and gifted. As a surgical nurse for roughly 30 years, she had to be precise and accurate. As a student she excelled. She was valedictorian of her high school graduating class and graduated with honors when she had to return to school as an adult while working full time to maintain her nursing licensing after a move from one state to another. She was also an excellent seamstress and cook. All of this was done without calling attention to herself as that was never her goal. For me she was a model of how to live a quiet life minding one’s own business and working with one’s hands (1 Thessalonians 4:11). Three specific areas that readily come to mind are stewardship, hospitality and integrity. God in His mercy put her in my life as an example and teacher as well as in the lives of others for their benefit.
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God in His Mercy
Part 1 Forgiveness
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“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ” Ephesians 2:4-5
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:31-32
This series of posts is dedicated to my mother Ruth as she is the inspiration. She was not a perfect person and certainly did not have an easy life, but she loved well, loved her Lord and clung to His promises.
Sometime around 1945-1946 while my parents were dating, my mother stopped by her home to pick up some belongings. Due to a previous altercation, she attempted to do this while her father was not at home. Sadly, he was. After a loud argument and in a drunken rage he pushed her down the steep flight of stairs between their apartment and the outside entrance. My father, hearing the argument, ran into the house and up the stairs in time to catch my mother from behind while her mother grabbed her skirt from the landing above. Roughly eight to ten years later, my grandmother filed for a legal separation and her attorney made this incident the basis of his case. Having to relive this event would upset my mother and haunt her for years. But in the midst of that pain, God in His mercy caused my grandfather to be so horrified by the details of this event that he stopped drinking and asked my mother for forgiveness. God in His mercy gave my mother the ability to forgive him and allowed the relationship to be restored. It paved the way for my siblings and I to know our grandfather.
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Checking Our Baggage
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But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 1 Corinthians 11:28
Some of my family members tease me about the amount of luggage that I take on a trip. In my younger days before the health issues took center stage, I used to be able to pack rather efficiently. However, things are a bit different now. Because I no longer tolerate cold weather or changes in weather well, my luggage often contains everything from shorts to winter sweaters. Further, in addition to a case for my toiletries, I have another one just for the medicines that I need or may need. Consequently there is some concern when we’re flying as I’m worried about the weight limit for checked luggage. It requires a bit of scrutiny to make sure that I take what I need but not so much that I’m over the limits. I am most efficient and discerning when I have time to lay everything out that I think I need and then carefully examine it and evaluate what I truly need versus what I can leave behind or risk going without. If I’m not careful, it’s easy to go over the limits and find myself weighed down with luggage and additional expense. Life is like that too. If we don’t examine ourselves and sort out our lives, we often carry around a lot of unnecessary and even harmful baggage. In the book “The Emotionally Healthy Church, Peter Scazzero compares us to an iceberg. “About ten percent of an iceberg is visible to the surface. That is the part of our lives of which we are consciously aware. Note, however that the Titanic sank because it collided with a section of the submerged 90 percent of an iceberg.” In other words, many of our problems with other people and how we handle difficult situations is greatly impacted by the 90 percent of which we are unaware. That is why several passages in scripture, including the one above, call for us to examine ourselves. It’s not intended to make us feel bad about ourselves, but rather to deal with negative issues so that we can walk more closely with our Lord, enjoy better relationships and, in general, have a better quality of life spiritually and emotionally.
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I Don’t Feel Like It
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“Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:17
For those of us who live with chronic illness and/or pain, it’s often a real balancing act trying to figure out what we can or should do and what we need to avoid. We must be careful not to exacerbate our problems by being reckless, but we don’t want to stop living either. Unfortunately, too many times, it’s easy to avoid doing something we are called to by saying that we don’t feel up to it. However, this isn’t just about our illness. It goes much deeper to our attitude and what’s important to us. Whether we are ill or not, we all face life’s challenges, physical limitations and mood swings. Too often we find an excuse not to do something and that’s what James is referring to in this passage. Today is one of those days for me. I need to write to be faithful to God’s calling, but I don’t feel like rising to the occasion. Between the weather changing and traveling over the weekend, my body has been crashing and I’m just worn out. It’s not that I am unable to write, I would just rather not do anything…and there’s the rub. I’m able but would rather not. To write will not threaten my wellbeing or overall health so there really is no risk. So here I am, writing, because it is the right thing to do. In that light, let’s consider overcoming laziness, using discernment, facing risk, and looking for strength.
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The Comfort of God’s Love
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“For if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness. For He does not afflict willingly or grieve the sons of men. Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth? Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins?” Lamentations 3:32-33, 37-39
As I lay on the doctor’s exam table over 25 years ago, I was hard pressed to reconcile what I had been taught about the love of God with the extreme pain that I was experiencing with no definitive cause. The physical pain was intense, but the spiritual pain greatly exceeded it.
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Dropping the Ball
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“Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian, that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slavery. I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land.”’” Judges 6:7-9
It’s that time of year again when we move from one calendar year to the next and anticipate the dropping of a well-lit ball atop a skyscraper in New York City. While some see the change in years as a new beginning, the reality is that it is a continuation. Many of the New Year’s memes reflect the idea that 2017 will be better than 2016. Overall and statistically, it will be roughly the same because, as Solomon put it, “there is nothing new under the sun”.
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Pregnant Words Pt. 2
The Message
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“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.’ And Mary said: ‘My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed. He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.’” Luke 1:41-5
As one might guess, the title for these two posts carries a double meaning. The words exchanged above are between pregnant women but they also carry much weight. That weight comes in the character of the women as discussed in part one as well as the content, which is belief, God, and the acts of God.
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