A feast is coming!

"Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’”

Revelation 19

I don't know about you, but I love food!

But more than that I love the promise this brief proclamation declares...a feast is coming!

Isaiah tells of it in chapter 25,

“The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;

A banquet of aged wine,  choice pieces with marrow,

And refined, aged wine.

And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,

Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.

 He will swallow up death for all time,

And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,

And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;

For the Lord has spoken.

And it will be said in that day,

“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.

This is the Lord for whom we have waited;

Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

Can you imagine it?  A day when we will sit at a banquet with all the saints of the ages, great men and women of faith, with Jesus at the head of the table.

It will be a feast like no other!

It will be the victory feast of the Lamb of God

A victory finally fulfilled

A victory over

sin, death, pain, suffering, and all that man has done to man.

A feast is coming

Do you have your invitation yet?

Because there are two meals ahead, the feast of the Lamb

and

the banquet of the birds.

You do want to be at the first one

You don't want to be part of the second.

A feast is coming

Do you have your invitation?

12 YEARS!!!!

As of August 1st I have been writing this blog for 12 years!  I am a bit surprised it's been so long.  My sweet wife had to talk me into doing it in the first place and it has developed me as well as refined my thinking.  I can see God using these words to help others and I am thankful.  So, if you are still visiting once in a while, after 12 years of my ramblings, thank you.  I think I'll try one more year.

It's dyin' time

"And He was saying to them all, 

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, 

he must deny himself, 

and take up his cross 

daily 

and follow Me."  

Luke 9:23 

These are some of the most challenging words in the bible. They demand we consider what we are getting into as we follow Christ.  He didn't come to promise us prosperity, success and a good life.  He promised we would die!

This verse is so contrary to our way of viewing the gospel in America.  We look for what we can get out of it.  God is offering us a gospel that demands we give up everything!

We must die!  And we have to deal with that reality daily.

And then there is that nagging phrase at the end...'and follow me.'  What does that mean as I live out each day? How do I do that?  It demands I lay aside all I want...my comfort, desires, ease and prosperity and literally die to it all and then follow him.

This passage is the one we most try to ignore because it demands we choose death over life...a death to me, to self, to what I want, to my comfort, to my plans, to my success and surrender to him and follow him even if it means I have nothing...but much more important...even if it means I keep all I have but live with a completely different attitude towards it all.

I have to be honest...I do not like this verse.  Its demands force me to die to all I want so I can actually live to all he wants.  And it demands I do that daily.  

So, it's dyin' time.  Lord, what must I die to today to follow you?

Built in

It suddenly struck me, as I commented on a friend's experience with another person, that the love of God is built in for those of us who have trusted Christ.  The challenge is to get our flesh out of the way and let the love of God actually reach those around us.

Jesus spoke these challenging and frustrating words in John when he said,"So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

The one defining evidence that we are Christians is that we love others well!  If that isn't part of our interaction with those around us, even those we may not agree with, it speaks loudly to those we encounter that we might not be like the Christ we claim.  

Love for others is not caveated by Jesus with "if they agree with you" or "if they aren't on your list of 'sinners.'"  We are to love others without qualifications, just love them.  Imagine the doors that would open for a conversation about life and the hard things that happen?  

We have missed so many opportunities to show people Christ by how we have failed to love them well.  

Do you know the love of Christ is built in if you are a Christian?  

Are you letting it out?

Sweet words

Words matter

They help,

hurt,

heal,

guide,

or destroy

Words communicate

life

or 

death

I shared in my last post our change in life,

the end of one thing

and

trusting God for what comes next

From those words I was blessed to read dozens

of notes from people we have known, loved

and cared for

Their words were like honey

sweet words, encouraging words 

that told of how God had used us to help them

How glorious is our God

that we can be part of each others lives

hold another's hand

cry with another's tears

How sweet are the words that come

from God working in us

This God we serve is most amazing!

To him alone be all the glory

Thank you, Lord, for using

one like me

May our words to others be sweet, healing balm 
to refresh the weary and worn looking
for a bit of your kindness in their lives.

The End

I'm coming to the end of a part of my life that has lasted for 27 years.

We all deal with endings

The end of school

The end of childhood

The end of a day

The end of life

Endings are part of time and a fallen world

They aren't all bad,

but...

they make us aware that all things on this planet

will end

My current ending is today

As I think about it there is grief

sadness

regrets (aren't there always)

things I would change

things I wouldn't

but

in the end

it was a good day

Now for a new beginning

What's next?

I'm ready

So Lord, 

what do you have for me next?

Forgetting God

"You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; 

you forgot the God who gave you birth."

Deut. 32:18

"No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side."

Judges 8:33-34

I have often forgotten something. I forget my keys, my phone and sometimes the very notes I plan to teach in an hour.  We humans are really good at forgetting....

...but to forget God?

How is that possible?

As I think about Israel coming out of Egypt walking through the sea on dry land, seeing miracle after miracle, eating manna for 40 years, seeing water come from a rock in the desert and so much more only to forget God I realize how easy this is for us as well.

We forget the most important one in our lives, 

the one who made us and loves us.

We forget to remember all he has done.  A day comes when things get hard, when money is tight, when sickness is our reality and we forget the very one who has cared for us every moment of our lives!

How do we forget so easily?

David, the psalmist, realized how easy we forget, how often we turn away and wrote down what God had done for him so when depression came, when doubt rose he could remind himself of God's amazing faithfulness.

One of my favorite quotes from the early church is from an old martyr who, being offered clemency for denying Christ, said...

When we remember the amazing God we serve it makes any situation a chance to serve him.  He never leaves us or forsakes us. 

So, I wake up each morning with these first works, "Good morning, Father, how was the night?"  as I begin a new day in the presence of the one who cares for me every moment.

May I never forget the one who died for me.

Thirsty for God

This morning one of our pastors taught on Psalm 63. The first verse in this wonderful Psalm begins with these words,

O God, you are my God;

I earnestly search for you.

My soul thirsts for you;

my whole body longs for you

As he spoke I thought about my own life and wondered....when have I been so thirsty for God that I could think of nothing else? Am I so thirsty for him today that nothing else matters? We need water or we die. Our bodies crave it. Oh that I might be thirsty for God as I am for water on a hot and dry day.

Mud & Miracles

It doesn't take much for God to do great things...

"For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.

He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, 

rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, 

“Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam." The man went and washed—and saw." John 9

The stories of the God were written to show us how much God can do with little things...

Little things like mud

Yes mud!

Jesus made mud and turned it into a miracle

It wasn't magic, it was God

What stories like this are meant to do is show us how big God really is!

This amazing God can use mud and change a blind man's life

Imagine what he can do in your life 

if you would give him your little things

give him your all

As one old saint wrote years ago...

"The world has yet to see what God can do with a man who is fully his."

mud and all.

An upside down lifestyle

"Finally, all of you, be like-minded, 

be sympathetic, 

love one another, 

be compassionate and humble.  

Do not repay evil with evil 

or insult with insult. 

On the contrary, 

repay evil with blessing, 

because

 to this you were called

 so that you may inherit a blessing."

1Peter 3 

In the midst of a culture much like Peters he invites us to live a lifestyle that flies in the face of the way everyone around us lives.  It's upside down, others focused and God driven.  It's a lifestyle that isn't looking for the things we can gain, but a lifestyle focused on people as objects of love.

This upside down lifestyle isn't after titles, rewards, money or power.  It's not after personal satisfaction but is focused on loving others well, for their good.

That is so completely contrary to all that happens around us that if a few people ever lived this way it would quickly change the culture they live in, the lives they touch and their own hearts.  

Peter invites us to live as Jesus did and trust the outcomes to an amazingly big God.  He challenges us to avoid personal gain and pursue the gain of others first.  It's a lifestyle that would make those around us ask one simple question, "Why?"

And with that question we can smile and reply, "Jesus."

Two things

There are really only two things 

we must do to live well-

1. Love God

2. Love others

If we focus on these two things

everything else will work out.

The nearness of God

"But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,

That I may tell of all Your works."

Psalm 73:28

The nearness of God is a scary thing if you don't know him. In fact most of the world runs from the real God for fear of the encounter, but there are a few who know him and know that his closeness is the best thing that can happen in their lives.

For Peter walking on water the nearness of God kept him from drowning.

For the leper near death the nearness of God meant the touch of the Savior and a new life.

For many in the stories of the bible the nearness of God meant they were seen, loved, cared for and heard.

For millions since the first century the nearness of God has meant hope, home, love and relationship.

For me the nearness of God has been my good.  Without him my life has no meaning, my days are empty and a reason to live is hard to find, but because there is a God who is near, who sees me, I have purpose, hope, love and a future.

The nearness of God is my good.  How wonderful to have a God who is near to those who seek him.