Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Heaven is for Real--Really

Death seems a little closer during this time of Covid-19.  And with the thought of death follows the question of heaven.  Everyone wants to know what comes after this life on earth (or if this life is all there is).  This probably helps explain the booming popularity over the last decade of a genre of books sometimes labelled Heavenly Tourism.  The basic storyline goes like this:  a person dies, they go to heaven, they come back.  Then they write a book to tell us what heaven is like.  I’ve read a few of them--perused some others.  

For what it’s worth, here is my conclusion:  at best, who can know if these things are true?  At worst, some people are pulling in lot of money by making up stories about the dwelling place of God.  Just a few years ago the young man who wrote The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven recanted his whole story saying, “I did not die.  I did not go to heaven.… I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible.”

The Bible is enough.  Amen.  If you want to know heaven is for real then read God’s Word.  And what will you find there?  Interestingly, the Bible does not give us a lot of details about heaven (maybe this is why we want to know more).  The Book of Revelation pulls back the curtain somewhat.  However, there is no doubt that the most glorious and central aspect of heaven is made abundantly clear:  Luke 23:43 (“Today you will be with me in paradise”); John 14:3 “I will take you to be with me, that you may also be where I am”); 2 Corinthians 5:6–8 (“be at home with the Lord”); Philippians 1:21–23 (“depart and be with Christ”); and 1 Thessalonians 4:14 (“God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him”).

What do all these Scriptures say?  In heaven, we will be with Jesus.  Being with Jesus is what makes heaven “heaven.”  And, believe it or not, that is enough.  That’s all we need to know.  Jesus is the greatest longing of every heart—whether we know it or not.  To gaze upon His beauty, to know His love, to find our joy in Him for all eternity, that is the heart of heaven.  If you truly love Jesus now, you will adore heaven then.  Jesus makes heaven “heaven.”  It is not the streets of gold or seeing beloved family members or even having no more pain.  We will be with Jesus—that is heaven.

But Jesus is not only the true destination in heaven.  He is the only way to heaven.  “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” It is not by our good works, but only by trusting in the goodness and work of Jesus that we become members of the Father’s heavenly house.

Do you want to know more about the glory of heaven?  Then look to the glory of Jesus in God’s Word.  He is enough. Do you want to know the way to heaven—how to become your Father’s child?  Then look to the glorious Jesus of God’s Word.  He is enough. 


Thursday, July 9, 2020

Gospel-Shaped Citizens


Does God’s Word have anything to say to us in the midst of the current upheaval in our country?  What I find amazing is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ--that Jesus by his life, death and resurrection has gained victory for His people over sin, death, and Satan--gives us direction in every circumstance.  This good news does not just affect us in church or in private; its effects are meant to spill over into every area of our lives.

Listen as the apostle Paul tells us how to live as followers of Jesus in our culture today:

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,  (2)  to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.  Titus 3:1-2

Christians need this reminder again and again.  This is your calling . . . today.  In verse 1 Paul calls us to be good citizens.  So we don’t withdraw as Christians from politics and government.  We are salt and light for Jesus as Democrats or Republicans or Independents—seeking to do good works for the glory of God.

But now look at verse 2 and, perhaps, let it soak in for a while:  to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.”

Right now, there are all kinds of opinions and debate--yes even rancor and hostility--in our country, and individual believers and churches are being caught up in it.  Some of it has to do with the proper response to COVID-19; but most of it now has to do with the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter; it has to do with how much racism is still at work in our country and in our own hearts.  It has to do with the looting and lawlessness that has happened in many major cities.  It has to do with an upcoming election that is dividing our nation once more.

And God’s Word says, “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.”

But we turn on the news to listen to what is happening, and we listen to commentators on Fox or MSNBC or CNN, or various places online.  I’ll simply state from my own experience, I find that listening extensively to the media on the right or on the left doesn’t help me to live for and love others for Jesus.  What I usually find is the more I listen to these media outlets, the more my heart hardens towards others; the more I start thinking of other people as my opponents; the more I find anger, bitterness, and contempt for those I differ from rising from within me.  When God is saying clearly, “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy to all people.”

My advice:  listen to the news to get the news, but it is dangerous for us as followers of Jesus to let the media (right or left) tell us what we should be feeling and doing.  That is not the place of the media for us as Christians, for we have something better-- Jesus and His Word.  It is good to ask right now, in the midst of this time of turmoil and division in the country, how much am I listening to the media, and how much am I listening to Jesus and His Word? How much is Christ’s Word informing (and forming) my heart and mind compared to how much MSNBC or Fox is?  We need to be reminded again and again.  It is easy to get caught up in the rhetoric and talking points of the culture . . . and forget to abide in Christ and display the faith, hope, and love that He won on the cross for us to receive and share with our broken and hurting world.


Thursday, May 21, 2020

The Incomparable Jesus

There is simply no one like Jesus.  Maybe you know this already.  I hope you do.  After more than 40 years of reading about Jesus, studying his person, listening to his words in the Scriptures, and hanging out with other Jesus-admirers, I am still astounded—still in awe.  I believe that I will be for all eternity.  I think the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 thought and felt the same way.

Do you know the story?  Jesus is travelling with his disciples and at mid-day they come to a well in the land of Samaria.  The disciples leave Jesus alone as they go to a nearby village to look for food.  As Jesus is waiting, a Samaritan woman comes to the well to draw water.  He asks her for a drink of water.  Other Jews considered Samaritans “unclean” compromisers of the Jewish faith.  Worthless people.  Not worth your time.  Not worth your energy.

And she was not only a Samaritan--she was probably an outcast even among Samaritans.  Women did not normally draw water at mid-day.  They usually came in the cool of the morning or evening to get water and talk together about their lives and the latest news.  But this woman stays away from the other women of her village.  Why?  We’ll get to that.  First, simply take a moment to see Jesus, and his intense concern about an unclean outcast of the outcasts.  He wants to know her and, more importantly, he wants her to know him.  Who is like that?  Who has a heart of compassion for “the least of these” like Jesus?

In our day we are told that loving and compassionate people are those who will simply accept others, as they are.  But Jesus is too loving to leave this woman as she is.  In His love, he wants to change her.  He comes speaking the truth to her and to us.  He asks her to go get her husband.  And the woman says that she has no husband.  She is being truthful but evasive.  Jesus answers her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." (Jn 4:17-18).  By the way, this is probably why the women of the village don’t want to be around her.  She had a bad reputation. We don’t learn the details. But whether she was widowed five times, or divorced five times, or some combination of the two (plus a live-in boyfriend), no woman can go through that many intimate relationships without either beginning with a sense of great emptiness, or ending with a great sense of emptiness.  And this is what Jesus is putting his finger on.

The woman at the well was seeking satisfaction and worth from men—and she ended up empty—drawing water from a muddy cistern, instead of the Spring of Living Water.  In a very real way, that is all of us.  Going through life seeking that one thing or one person who will finally satisfy our longing hearts.  And Jesus tells her and us that He is the One that our hearts long for.  “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  Who talks like this?  Whose words penetrate our souls like the words of Jesus?  Who can truly satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts?

The woman believed.  Her eyes were opened to the glory of Jesus.  She was so excited, she was set free from her shame and told her whole village to come and see this Jesus who knew everything about her and yet, still loved. They did, and many of them believed in Him as well. 

There is no one like Him.  The Samaritan woman knew and felt this.  Jesus changed her from worthless, to a worshipper, and finally to a witness.  Who else can do this?  Truly, there is no one like Jesus.


Sunday, April 12, 2020

Easter Destin Log Article

At this time when many stores and shops are shuttered and still, when many churches are empty and silent, when choirs will not gather and sing, the proclamation of Easter yet rings forth . . . “He is Risen!”  Perhaps, this Easter, it sounds forth even more loudly in the surrounding stillness, “He is Risen!”

In this time of loss, sorrow, uncertainty, anxiety and pain, God is not silent.  C.S. Lewis spoke truly when he said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

Too often we are deaf to the voice of the One who made us, who sustains us, who gives us life and breath and everything else.  Surely it is not wise for the creature to ignore the Creator.  But we do.  We get caught up in life and busyness and smartphones, and we tune out our Sovereign and Gracious Father.  This is foolishness.  For He is the only one who can give us hope—real, lasting hope—when the foundations of life seem to give way.

And what is God shouting to us in this COVID-imbued Easter season?  Just what He has said every Easter, “He is Risen!”  Do you hear it?  Jesus by His cruel death upon the cross and glorious resurrection has broken the bonds of sin, Satan and death itself.

Sin does not have the last word this Easter.  Sin says, “You are condemned.  You have ignored God.  You have trusted in yourself and not the Savior.  If you lose your health or your job then you are getting what you deserve.”  But Easter proclaims, “He is Risen!”  Jesus bore the condemnation of all who trust in Him.  Yes, we all still struggle with sin.  But sickness or affliction are not God’s judgement on His children.  Instead, they are God’s peculiar servants that He sends in love to purify us and help us cling more tightly to Him—our true and everlasting Treasure.

Satan does not have the last word this Easter.  Satan says, “This suffering is meaningless.  God is not in control.”  But Easter proclaims, “He is Risen!”  The greatest calamity that has ever struck the earth was the death of the very Son of God.  But this death was not meaningless, and God was not powerless.  Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23), and “he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25).  Jesus’ Easter resurrection demonstrates God’s purpose and power to save in the midst of this broken world.  Corrie ten Boom, a Holocaust survivor, reassures us, “There is no panic in Heaven! God has no problems, only plans.”

Death does not have the last word this Easter. Death says, “This is the end. This is your end.” But Easter proclaims, “He is Risen!” Jesus by his indestructible life shows us that in Him the cycle of sin and death has been broken. Death no longer must be our final destination. Jesus tells us, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

The most the coronavirus can do is take your life. For the one who believes in the Jesus of the Scriptures, death is not the end, but a doorway to happiness for eternity in the presence of the glorious, living Christ.

“He is Risen, indeed!”

Monday, January 13, 2020

How Head Truth becomes Heart Truth

Image result for from the head to the heart

This past week was Prayer Week at Safe Harbor.  For the last few years we have distributed a "Prayer Guide" to help with prayer as the week progresses.  Following is Mondays prayer help.  It unfolds the truth that God uses prayer to move His truth from our heads to our hearts . . .

As we begin this week of prayer, it is good to remember two truths:  first, God’s Word feeds our faith in Christ (“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ” Rom. 10:17).  Without regular, personal time in God’s Word our faith in Christ—in His person, in His work, in His promises—begins to wane.  As followers of Christ we need His Word if we are to truly live for Christ and His kingdom. (“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” Matt. 4:4).

God’s Word nourishes our faith, but it is prayer—as John Calvin once said—that is the “chief exercise of faith by which we daily receive God’s benefits.”

Calvin uses the illustration of a field in which God has buried a precious treasure. God points out the treasure in His Word, faith believes what God says, and prayer is the spade with which we dig the treasure up and make it our own.  “We dig up by prayer the treasures that were pointed out by the Lord’s Gospel, and which our faith has gazed upon” (Institutes, Book 3, Chapter 20).

How vital this is!  How do the truths and promises of the Gospel become our truths?  How do we move from knowing that we are loved in Jesus to truly experiencing that love?  How do we move from knowing that we need to forgive to forgiving the one who has hurt us?  The answer is. . . prayer.