A Future to Cherish

Let the Lord in His Temple rise

His greatness flow down from within

Succor to the suffering

Entreaty to the proud

Why do we long for heaven?

Why does the beauty of this earth cry for release?

Rejoice for that longing rests in the promise

We will have the contentment of sated appetite

And remaining capacity for neverending wonder

The mystery of the Almighty delights

His infinitude draws us onward on

Faster, never tiring

Exertion feeding strength, not draining

Always familiar, always wondrously new

Drink deep

Breathe deep

Rest deep

Run long

Laugh long

Exult longer still

Labor without toil

Care without pain

Rejoice without weariness

All our tomorrows exist in the everlasting today

SDG

Clothing Optional

“And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.” Genesis 2:25

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands…” Revelation 7:9

“’Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride, has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” Revelation 19:7

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.” Revelation 22:14

The above parallel never occurred to me before tonight. We often talk about heaven being Eden restored—a new heaven and a new earth and all of that. Genesis makes a big deal about our nakedness being a symbol of our innocence and freedom from shame, yet strangely, Revelation doesn’t mention a restoration to innocent nakedness, and makes several references to our being clothed in robes. Ponder this for a minute.

There are several significant things to unpack here.

The Consolation Prize of Heaven

“On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:17-26

Based on the above context, how do you read Christ’s question at the end of the passage?

One possible interpretation is illustrated by the following story. A woman loses her husband of many years. As she is grieving, Jesus appears, puts His arms around her shoulders comfortingly and says, “My daughter, I am so sorry for your loss. To help, I will introduce you to another man, who will please you so greatly that you will completely forget about the husband you have lost.”

The Things We Can't Talk About

“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

I Corinthians 13:12

Have you ever thought about how, even though we live in a free country, there are many things that we just can’t talk about?

I’m not just talking about “religion and politics” or politically correct speech, though those are certainly a large part of it. There are many things that we cannot or should not reveal about ourselves or discuss with others.

Some health ailments, we are taught, have taboos associated with them, so don’t discuss them, even if you are concerned about the health of someone who obviously has one. Are you considering looking for a new job? Better keep quiet or be very careful. Family history should be “kept in the family.” Trade secrets are just that, secret. And so on.

Future Shock

Today I was talking with a friend who is soon to return to her native country after a year at Texas. While here, she had some experiences that led her to becoming a Christian. One of the things we discussed was culture shock, and how much worse it usually is returning home than leaving, a phenomenon known as “reverse culture shock.”

Muddle Choice Test

Someone once said something to the effect that “For the believer in Christ, this world is the most of Hell they’ll ever see. For the unbeliever, this world is the most of Heaven they will ever see.”

That sounds like a pretty easy T/F question, A or B. Simple. However, to us educators, test making is an art. A ‘well-designed’ multiple choice question will have a variety of plausible answers. If you make this common mistake, you will get “A,” this other mistake will be “C,” and so on, such that only the student who really understands the material will pick the right answer. Neither guessing nor partial understanding will help. Students tend to hate this kind of question because they feel like they are being tricked, when really the instructor wants to see how well you really understand the material. On the occasion when I’ve done this technique and had the time, I would set up the key so that these partial answers would receive partial credit, and the closer you got to the right answer, the more points received. However, few take the time to go to this extra step because it does take a LOT more effort, and I only did either occasionally.

Some people perceive this is how God has stacked the deck against them.

Rewards in Heaven

In yesterday’s post, I said, “It is a cause both for thanksgiving and holy fear, that our good deeds would be found to be primarily for our glory not His, and we will have small rewards in heaven.”

A few months ago, I offended a wise and godly sister in the Lord and friend. The primary source of her complaint was that in a presentation, I had remarked something to the effect that the, or one of the, primary motivations for New Testament martyrs and saints was the rewards of heaven. She passionately maintains that our primary motivation is Christ Himself, and not the promised rewards.

I’m not here to use the bully pulpit of my own blog to trumpet my view louder than hers. I largely agree with her. As I wrote the above quote yesterday, it reminded me of the issue, and I wanted to clarify to any who might react similarly to my friend that I do view eternity with Christ as our primary reward, though not our only one. I find it interesting that the Bible does spend a rather large amount of time on various heavenly rewards and mansions, so they must be important.

Throughout Scripture, we do see, in both Old and New Testaments, that one of God’s biggest desires is to dwell with us that He may be our God and we may be His people. When you think about it, that is probably one of the most profound and amazing statements in all of Scripture. Consider how we get tired so easily of our favorite people sometimes, so how much more the ‘vast, unwashed masses?’

Yet God desires to be with us so much, He went to the extraordinary lengths of crucifixion so that He could bring us together with Him. The cynic calls it a psychosis. God calls it Love.

SDG