“‘Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?’Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’” John 14:1-6
There is something deep within the human heart that values the place called home. The crown of the gospel’s good news is that heaven is the future home of the believer. It has been, is, and forever will be the abode of God; and one day He will share His home with us.
What a home it will be. Our dream home will pale in comparison to what the Chief Cornerstone and Architect of the universe has prepared for us. Its beauty and glory will light our hearts and minds with unending joy and bliss. In our heavenly abode, all pain - emotional and physical - will be extinct. The Great Physician has washed every corner with His shed blood, eliminating any defilement of sin. We will serve the Risen Lamb with delight and find our work completely satisfying. Perhaps the most important feature of our home is the presence of the eternal King - Jesus Christ - in whose radiance we will all bask.
Heaven is worth the wait. It is where God and man will dwell together in perfect union and harmony for eternity. When things on earth seem vile, think on heaven. You will be encouraged and strengthened for today’s journey.
“But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth...” 2 Peter 3:13
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
The God of All Comfort
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
God not only stooped down from the heavens to rescue us from sin, He continues to extend His hand to us each day to soothe our damaged emotions, our frayed nerves, our broken dreams, our heartaches.
“But He seems so distant, so remote, so detached at times,” you say. While this is often how we may feel, it is not the truth. God says that He will not “in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]” Hebrews 13:5 (Amplified Bible) What a promise! And God certainly keeps His Word. He performs this divine pledge through the Person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God inside you. He is called the comforter, meaning “one called alongside to help and aid.”
When you are down, the Holy Spirit knows exactly how to encourage you. When you are grieving, the Holy Spirit knows the balance between shedding tears of grief and gently wiping them from your cheek. He is at work to comfort you through every trial and adversity.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
God not only stooped down from the heavens to rescue us from sin, He continues to extend His hand to us each day to soothe our damaged emotions, our frayed nerves, our broken dreams, our heartaches.
“But He seems so distant, so remote, so detached at times,” you say. While this is often how we may feel, it is not the truth. God says that He will not “in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]” Hebrews 13:5 (Amplified Bible) What a promise! And God certainly keeps His Word. He performs this divine pledge through the Person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God inside you. He is called the comforter, meaning “one called alongside to help and aid.”
When you are down, the Holy Spirit knows exactly how to encourage you. When you are grieving, the Holy Spirit knows the balance between shedding tears of grief and gently wiping them from your cheek. He is at work to comfort you through every trial and adversity.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Being Conformed to Christ
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” Romans 8:28-30
The compelling goal of the Christian life is to be like Christ. For some, however, that spiritual objective seems unreachable, unattainable. The harder they try, the less like Christ they become. Despair sets in and, too frequently, the Christian life is abandoned as being too difficult.Perhaps that is how you feel or may have felt. But the encouraging good news of the gospel is that God cares enough to make you like Himself.
There is only one Christ, one Savior, one Lord. You are called to be like Him, not to be Him. The wonderful news is that Christ lives within you through the Holy Spirit. Christ commits Himself through the Spirit to make you like Him. It is not a hopeless struggle but an adventure of trusting Christ and allowing Him to live through you day by day. You can be Christlike, for Christ is faithfully at work in you to conform you to His image. He will do it. Trust Him, and rely on His Spirit.
“...He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
The compelling goal of the Christian life is to be like Christ. For some, however, that spiritual objective seems unreachable, unattainable. The harder they try, the less like Christ they become. Despair sets in and, too frequently, the Christian life is abandoned as being too difficult.Perhaps that is how you feel or may have felt. But the encouraging good news of the gospel is that God cares enough to make you like Himself.
There is only one Christ, one Savior, one Lord. You are called to be like Him, not to be Him. The wonderful news is that Christ lives within you through the Holy Spirit. Christ commits Himself through the Spirit to make you like Him. It is not a hopeless struggle but an adventure of trusting Christ and allowing Him to live through you day by day. You can be Christlike, for Christ is faithfully at work in you to conform you to His image. He will do it. Trust Him, and rely on His Spirit.
“...He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
The Good Shepherd
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
Psalm 23
The Scriptures furnish several tender analogies of how God relates to His people. God cares for us as a shepherd looks after his flock: “Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand...” Psalm 95:6-7. Our God looks after His flock. He protects us, guides us, nourishes us. He comes quickly to our rescue when we are in need. He is the Good Shepherd whose eye is ever upon us and whose hand is ever ready to deliver and save.
God also cares for us as a father cares for his children: “Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him” Psalm 103:13. God is our heavenly Father. Once saved, we are adopted into His family and share in the inheritance of blessings that come from His generous, benevolent hand.
The Bible stresses both the compassion and the discipline that are ours. He relates to us as children in need of direction, understanding, and correction. Let nothing dissuade you of God’s yearning love for you.
“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Matthew 10:30
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
Psalm 23
The Scriptures furnish several tender analogies of how God relates to His people. God cares for us as a shepherd looks after his flock: “Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand...” Psalm 95:6-7. Our God looks after His flock. He protects us, guides us, nourishes us. He comes quickly to our rescue when we are in need. He is the Good Shepherd whose eye is ever upon us and whose hand is ever ready to deliver and save.
God also cares for us as a father cares for his children: “Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him” Psalm 103:13. God is our heavenly Father. Once saved, we are adopted into His family and share in the inheritance of blessings that come from His generous, benevolent hand.
The Bible stresses both the compassion and the discipline that are ours. He relates to us as children in need of direction, understanding, and correction. Let nothing dissuade you of God’s yearning love for you.
“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Matthew 10:30
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
God Who Relates to Us
“You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.” John 15:14-17
Christianity is not a religion, a liturgy, or a creed. It is the eternal dynamic of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You have the opportunity to spend your life on earth and in heaven in unending, progressive, deepening communion, with your personal God. As your faithful High Priest, Jesus understands the full range of your emotions, desires, and hurt. Because He became man, He can relate to every human need you experience.
Your relationship with Him can be as intensely personal as you desire. God will reveal Himself to you as you seek Him in prayer, read His Word, and set the sail of your heart toward Him. Think of it this way: You are uppermost in God’s mind today. That is a staggering thought, isn’t it? But it is true. God’s chief desire is to be glorified, and it is men and women rightly related to Him who reflect His glory most brilliantly.
Your response is simply to receive, by faith, all that God is. You can speak with Him, listen to Him through His Word, and construct an intimate relationship that will last forever. This is life’s greatest privilege. Are you pressing on to know Him?
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
Christianity is not a religion, a liturgy, or a creed. It is the eternal dynamic of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You have the opportunity to spend your life on earth and in heaven in unending, progressive, deepening communion, with your personal God. As your faithful High Priest, Jesus understands the full range of your emotions, desires, and hurt. Because He became man, He can relate to every human need you experience.
Your relationship with Him can be as intensely personal as you desire. God will reveal Himself to you as you seek Him in prayer, read His Word, and set the sail of your heart toward Him. Think of it this way: You are uppermost in God’s mind today. That is a staggering thought, isn’t it? But it is true. God’s chief desire is to be glorified, and it is men and women rightly related to Him who reflect His glory most brilliantly.
Your response is simply to receive, by faith, all that God is. You can speak with Him, listen to Him through His Word, and construct an intimate relationship that will last forever. This is life’s greatest privilege. Are you pressing on to know Him?
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
Monday, October 25, 2010
The Plan to Rescue
“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting so they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:1-3
Before the creation of the world and its inhabitants and the fall of man from perfect communion with Himself, God had formulated a divine rescue plan to deliver man from his helpless state. The plan was quietly launched on a still night in Bethlehem when a gentle teenager named Mary gave birth to a child. Not just an ordinary child, but a babe conceived by the power of God. His name was Jesus, Greek for the Lord saves. His full title was Jesus Christ, Christ being the Hebrew form for Messiah, the Anointed One. He was the Son of God, fully human and fully God; and it was in Him that God’s deliverance was achieved.
The rescue plan culminated with the blood, agony, and death of Christ on the cross where God placed the sin of the world upon Him, extracting the penalty of sin - death - and making forgiveness and reconciliation possible. Christ’s resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven validated His deity and completed the rescue.
God has done His part. You can be forgiven. You can be saved from sin. All you must do is admit your sin, receive Christ’s forgiveness, and ask Him to invade your humanity with His deity.
The Hand that rescues you from sin is forever scarred.
Before the creation of the world and its inhabitants and the fall of man from perfect communion with Himself, God had formulated a divine rescue plan to deliver man from his helpless state. The plan was quietly launched on a still night in Bethlehem when a gentle teenager named Mary gave birth to a child. Not just an ordinary child, but a babe conceived by the power of God. His name was Jesus, Greek for the Lord saves. His full title was Jesus Christ, Christ being the Hebrew form for Messiah, the Anointed One. He was the Son of God, fully human and fully God; and it was in Him that God’s deliverance was achieved.
The rescue plan culminated with the blood, agony, and death of Christ on the cross where God placed the sin of the world upon Him, extracting the penalty of sin - death - and making forgiveness and reconciliation possible. Christ’s resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven validated His deity and completed the rescue.
God has done His part. You can be forgiven. You can be saved from sin. All you must do is admit your sin, receive Christ’s forgiveness, and ask Him to invade your humanity with His deity.
The Hand that rescues you from sin is forever scarred.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
God to the Rescue
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 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 (by grace you have been saved)...” Ephesians 2:1-5
We ordinarily think of rescue operations occurring in distressful circumstances - a man trapped in a burning building, a child swept down a torrential stream, miners trapped and aching for breath in deep coal shafts. However, a man at work in an office, a child fishing from the creek bank, or miners routinely extracting coal from black mining veins are not typical rescue scenarios.
It is difficult for many to view man in extreme need of rescue from God. We appear to be self-sufficient and bale to muddle through even precarious situations. But that is not God’s view. From his perspective - the right one - we are in desperate need of rescue. Our wealth, position, or status in our culture cannot deliver us. Our wisdom is barren, our technology useless.
Christianity is a rescue religion. It is the hand of God reaching down and pulling man out of his helpless state of sin. The Scriptures describe the unbeliever as dead in sin, a captive of the devil, and living in spiritual darkness. Such is the helpless state of mankind apart from God. But the God who cares will not leave us in this predicament if we will but take His outstretched arm and be pulled to safety.
“Return, O LORD, rescue my soul; save me because of Your lovingkindness.” Psalm 6:4
We ordinarily think of rescue operations occurring in distressful circumstances - a man trapped in a burning building, a child swept down a torrential stream, miners trapped and aching for breath in deep coal shafts. However, a man at work in an office, a child fishing from the creek bank, or miners routinely extracting coal from black mining veins are not typical rescue scenarios.
It is difficult for many to view man in extreme need of rescue from God. We appear to be self-sufficient and bale to muddle through even precarious situations. But that is not God’s view. From his perspective - the right one - we are in desperate need of rescue. Our wealth, position, or status in our culture cannot deliver us. Our wisdom is barren, our technology useless.
Christianity is a rescue religion. It is the hand of God reaching down and pulling man out of his helpless state of sin. The Scriptures describe the unbeliever as dead in sin, a captive of the devil, and living in spiritual darkness. Such is the helpless state of mankind apart from God. But the God who cares will not leave us in this predicament if we will but take His outstretched arm and be pulled to safety.
“Return, O LORD, rescue my soul; save me because of Your lovingkindness.” Psalm 6:4
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