gospel

One United Choir in Heaven

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“Blessed be God for this. Some of all sorts are saved, some of all colors, ranks, nations, and ages are saved; some of all conditions of education and morals, some of the poorest, and some of the richest are redeemed so that when we all assemble in heaven, though we make a motley throng on earth, we shall constitute a united choir, having all our voices tuned to this one note, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain'” (Charles Spurgeon).

I confess that I’m often distressed by the discord in this country. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like America has never been more divided than it is right now. We’re to the point where we can’t even have rational discussions with those on the opposing side. It’s all about name calling and inflammatory rhetoric.

But that’s now how it is with God’s people. At least that’s not how it should be. But if I read my Bible right, that’s not how it will be. One day, we will be one united choir, singing one song to one Lord and King over all. The older I get the more I long for that day.

There will be no more Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal. There will only be those who have been redeemed and washed in the blood of the Lamb. There will only be those who were lost sinners far from God who have been brought near by God’s grace and are now new creations in Christ Jesus.

I believe there will be people in heaven representing every single people group, even those who are as yet unreached. I believe that every language will be represented in heaven. I’m not sure if we’ll all speak one language in heaven or if we’ll be able to understand each other’s different dialects.

I know it will be glorious not for the golden streets or jewel-encrusted gates or the presence of all the saints who have gone before but because Jesus will be there. The Lamb slain from the foundation will be there still bearing the scars in His hands, feet, and sides. Suddenly, our petty squabbles won’t mean anything anymore because we’ll all be focusing on the King of Kings and Lord of Lord.

Lord, I long for that day more and more. Even now, make us one in You as You are one within the Trinity. Help us to draw outsiders into faith by how we love each other well. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!

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I ran across this poem today and thought it was worth sharing. It’s a beautiful picture of the unfailing love of God toward His children. It’s written from God’s perspective, and feels very biblical in the way it describes God’s tender care toward those He has loved and redeemed. I pray these words will sink deep into your soul, and you will know beyond doubting the amazing love of God for you tonight.

“My beloved child,

I AM …Yahweh …
the One who is always with you,
the One who does not leave you.

I am not distant from you.
I have drawn near…
closer than your breath …
closer than your own thoughts.

And I am your Go’el …
your Kinsman-Redeemer.

I am not a stranger who rescues from afar.
I have bound Myself to you as family.

You are not alone in your story.
You never were.

I have taken full responsibility for you.

When something was lost …
I saw it.

Every place where your heart was left unprotected …
every place where fear entered …
every place where love should have held you and did not …

I did not turn away.

I became your Family-Redeemer.
I say to you:
What was lost, I will restore.
Not only what can be seen…
but what was taken deep within you:
your sense of safety …
your tenderness …
your ability to rest in love.

I am restoring these …
gently… patiently … surely.

Where you have felt bound …
by fear,
by anxiety,
by striving.

I do not stand over you in disappointment.

I come close to you.

And I say to you …

I have paid for your freedom.
You do not have to carry this alone.

I am not asking you to free yourself.
For I … Yahweh …
am your Redeemer.

Where your heart has felt alone…
where you have wondered if anyone would truly stay …

Hear Me:

I, Yahweh … am your nearest One.

I do not withdraw from you.
I do not grow weary of your need.

I draw nearer … still.
I hold you … as My own.
I am the One … who restores your future.

Nothing in your story has disqualified you.

I am weaving beauty …
where there was sorrow …
fruitfulness …
where there was loss …
legacy …
where there was fear.

You will not end in lack.
You will end … in fullness.

And I stand for you.

What has wounded you …
matters to Me.

I am not indifferent to your pain.

I am your Defender …
not with harshness,
but with steady, faithful love.

You are safe with Me.
My dear child …
You do not have to strive to be redeemed.
You are not reaching for Me …
I have come for you.
I have always been the One who comes.

So rest …
in Me.

Let your body learn what your spirit is beginning to know:

You are not alone.
You are not unprotected.
You are not forgotten.

You … are Mine.

And I … am your Go’el …

the One who comes close …
the One who takes personal responsibility for you …
the One who restores all that was lost.

Stay with Me, My beloved.

I am here.

I will not leave you.

I never have.

I have loved you …
with an everlasting love …
and you …
are Mine.

Your loving Father,
Almighty God” (Kirk Dearman).

The Difference

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I’ve been reading through 1 Corinthians in my yearly Bible reading plan. One takeaway is that the Church Paul is talking about looks a lot different than the Church I see most of the time. At least to me it does.

I remember when I was growing up and I would pass a church building and automatically assume that it was good. I assumed that everybody there loved Jesus and believed the Bible and tried to live godly lives. Now, it seems that whole denominations have gone off the rails into something that resembles the Christian faith in name only.

Even in most so-called evangelical churches, it seems there is very little emphasis on actual discipleship or evangelism. Most people sitting in the pews (or chairs) have no idea what they believe or why they believe it. And most of them are prey to being deconstructed by the world and social media because they have no solid foundation for their faith.

Maybe instead of trying to criticize lost people for acting lost, we should be more concerned that the Church doesn’t act like the Church must of the time. Most of us — including me — don’t act like Christ very much. He showed compassion and also spoke the uncomfortable truth. He loved sinners yet would not let them remain in their sin but instead called them to repentance.

I don’t want a return to the hell and brimstone sermons where everything fun was sinful. I do think we’d do well to bring back a measure of church discipline. We would do well to remind people that while hell and the devil aren’t everywhere and everything, hell is still real and not everyone goes to heaven.

Jim Elliott once said that he hoped God would make him a signpost in the road where people he met would be forced into a decision either for or against following Christ. He didn’t want to make people feel good or comfortable but to remind them of eternity and an incredible future for those who say yes to Jesus.

God, please revive Your Church and make her more like You. Help us stop trying to be relevant and trendy and to start being faithful and obedient. Remind us that peole all around the world are losing their lives for Your sake and for the sake of the gospel. Help us to be that bold and brave never to deny You even in the face of pain and suffering. Thank You that You will one day restore and redeem all that is broken, including Your Church. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Worry vs. Prayer

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Ann Voskamp said to be a prayer warrior and not a panicked worrier. I think about that a bit lately. One does absolutely no good but only keeps you up at night and keeps you from focusing on what matters. One is the way to the throne of grace where we find help in time of need.

Worry changes nothing. Prayer changes everything.

Worry makes you sick. Literally. Over time, your body will start to manifest symptoms of sickness if you let worry consume you constantly. Prayer on the other hand transforms you. It changes the way you see everything, including your problems.

Worry is a way of looking at the world without God in it. It’s funny how all your anxiety-laden possible outcomes end up with it being completely up to you to fix everything. Prayer shows that not only is God in the picture, but He has already made a way through. He has already overcome. The victory is not only possible but certain.

Worry comes natural. It’s a default setting for every single person born after the Fall. We’re hard-wired to worry and fret and to be anxious over every little thing. But prayer is a discipline that requires work. To get better at praying, you have to pray. You have to learn from others who are older and wiser and who have spent a lifetime learning how to pray. You have to be immersed in the Word of God to know the will of God to pray in the name of Jesus.

But the good news is that you don’t have to be good at praying to pray. You can choose today to pray instead of worrying. Today can be the day that you say to Jesus, “Teach me to pray as you taught the disciples.” And He will do it.

In the words of the great theologian M. C, Hammer, “You got to pray just to make it today.”

Good words.

Not the End of the World

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I don’t know if you’ve ever done something incredibly stupid that you instantly regret. I mean the very instant you realize what you’ve done you’re hoping for one of those supernatural remote controls that let you rewind 30 second and replay the scene. Just me? Cool.

I know I’m not alone. I’ve had plenty of those moments where I still have no explanation for what I was thinking or why I did what I did, but so far in every single case up to this point, the world has not stopped turning. Civilization as we know it did not come to a screeching halt. We are all still here.

I love the fact that God, to put it bluntly, factored in our stupidity into His plans. The fact that over and over again the Bible refers to us as sheep isn’t because they’re cute and cuddly. It’s not because of their warm and gentle nature or their great personalities. They’re kinda dumb, to put it mildly.

But they have a great Shepherd. That’s what we also have in common. We have a God who is able to take our worst moments and mistakes and work even those into good. Somehow, those memories you wish you could erase forever become part of your testimony and the very means God uses to fulfill His purposes.

So remember that the planet looks exactly the same before and after your colossal blunder. God is not reacting out of shock or surprise. He knew before you were born not only your name and the number of hairs on your head but also how many dumb things you would do and say in your lifetime. And not one of them ended up screwing up His plan or ending the world.

Think about that as you lay your head on your pillow tonight, and sleep well. God is still in control.

Hatch or Go Bad

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“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for a bird to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).

You’ve probably heard the age-old excuse for bad behavior — that’s just who I am, take it or leave it.

But the problem is that none of us can stay who we are indefinitely. We’re either moving toward or away from being better people. Or according to the Bible, we’re either becoming more like Christ or more like the world. Staying on the fence isn’t an option.

At some point, we’ve just got to hatch. We have to come out of our shells, so to speak. For many of us, that means becoming more vocal about what we believe, i.e. sharing our faith and having those gospel conversations. It means we can’t expect people to read our minds and our actions to guess what we believe. We have to tell them.

I can’t find where the Bible says that faith comes from seeing our faith acted out. While living what we believe is important and is what shows our faith to be genuine, what people need is to hear our faith proclaimed. We’re supposed to be ready to give an answer for anyone who wonders about the hope we have in Christ.

The problem is that many believers have never grown. They’re still babies in the faith. They never pray or read their Bibles. They don’t know very much about what they believe, much less why they believe it. Too many of them are fair fame for false teaching and cults. Too many are too willing to compromise convictions and doctrine over the illusion of peace and fitting in.

Basically, we all need to grow up. We need to move on from spiritual baby food to being able to feed ourselves on the Word of God and spiritually discern what’s good and what’s false. We need to live lives that will make others ask questions about why we’re different and what makes us different in the best way possible.

Lord, get us out of our shells, so that we can learn what it means to soar like eagles. Help us to grow up in You, so that we know what Your will is and what Your word says, so we can be faithful witnesses to those who need to know You. Amen.

Chris Johnson and Mortality

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For those of us long-suffering Tennessee Titans fans, Chris Johnson was one of the few bright spots in a history filled with a lot of bad teams who were often painful to watch. He was an electric presence on the football field and still holds the NFL record for yards from scrimmage in a single season, set way back in 2009.

It broke my heart when I discovered that he’s currently battling ALS, a nervous system disease that shuts down the body and leaves the person completely incapacitated. I watched the Good Morning America interview with him and Michael Strahan where he couldn’t speak and and to communicate through a computer controlled through eye movements. In a year, he went from relatively healthy to not able to pick up a cup of water. He’s 39 years old.

But I often forget that no one is promised tomorrow. No one is guaranteed 70-80 years of life. I’ve known way too many who didn’t make it to old age, so I don’t ever want to take for granted that I made it to 54. In fact, I’m thankful for every single day that God gives me.

I don’t know where Chris Johnson stands with Christ. I don’t know if he’s a believer, though I’m praying that he is. I do know that hs time left on this earth is limited, but every single person ever born under the sun can say the same. We all have a limited timespan. In the perspective of eternity, our lives, even those that pass 100, are like the dash between the birth year and death year — very short.

But for those who belong to Jesus, who said yes to Jesus to forgive their sins and be their Lord and Savior, death is just a doorway to everlasting life and forever in a place called heaven where God Himself dwells and where there is no more COVID or cancer or AIDS or ALS.

I’m praying for a miracle for Chris. I’m sure many others are as well. It would be an amazing testimony if God healed him of his ALS. But I also know God is not beholden to heal Chris or anyone else. We live in a beautiful but broken world that feels the effects of sin every single day. People get sick and die. People get hurt and die. That’s the reality of life on this side of eternity.

But I’m thankful that this is not all there is. Jesus told us He’s been preparing a place for us since He ascended into heaven nearly 2,000 years ago. I can’t want to see it. I can’t wait to see all those I loved who are there now. Most of all, I can’t wait to see Jesus. More than any pearly gates or golden streets, He’s the one who makes heaven heaven. I hope and pray that everyone reading these words has an assurance of salvation and a future eternity in heaven. If not, it’s not too late while you’re still breathing to choose Christ.

The Perfect Church Service

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Jim Cymbala in his book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire said something that floored me. If you walk away from any church service praising the sermon or the music, then that church has failed. If you’re focusing on the human elements of any worship gathering, the church has not done its job.

Ideally, the response to any worship service isn’t how great we are as a congregation or how great our ministry staff is, but how great is our God. As I read recently, our Sunday meetings can easily slip into Christiak karaoke followed by Ted talks with tithes if we’re not careful.

The key is to allow room for the Holy Spirit to move. Too many churches have programmed their services down to the last second leaving no space for the Holy Spirit to speak to people’s hearts and minds. I for once am not advocating for two hour services, but I do think that sometimes we could be just as attentive to the gentle whisper of the Spirit as we are to the worship schedule.

I also think that we (especialy me) need a shift in our mentality about worship. If our goal is to meet with God, then it shouldn’t matter if the songs were hundred year old hymns or the latest CCLI worship songs. It shouldn’t matter that the pastor made all his points start with the same letter or not.

Our goal is not a great sermon or a deeper worship experience through carefully cultivated worship playlists but to encounter the living and holy God. He’s the true audience of any worship service, not us. Otherwise, it’s just another concert or music event with no more benefit than if we’d stayed home and listened to a Christian Spotify playlist or watched a televised sermon from some famous preacher.

Lord, as we prepare to meet You tomorrow in our places of worship, move in our hearts to yearn for You and You only. Give us eyes to see You and ears to hear from You that You might speak a word to us tomorrow and we could walk away from the gathering different than when we arrived. Speak, Lord, for Your servants are listening. Amen.

Gut-Level Honest Prayers

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“God, listen to me shout, bend an ear to my prayer.
When I’m far from anywhere,
down to my last gasp,
I call out, “Guide me
up High Rock Mountain!”

“You’ve always given me breathing room,
a place to get away from it all,
A lifetime pass to your safe-house,
an open invitation as your guest.
You’ve always taken me seriously, God,
made me welcome among those who know and love you.

“Let the days of the king add up
to years and years of good rule.
Set his throne in the full light of God;
post Steady Love and Good Faith as lookouts,
And I’ll be the poet who sings your glory—
and live what I sing every day” (Psalm 61, The Message).

I’m up to the Psalms in my yearly Bible reading. They were originally the equivalent of a hymnal for God’s people back in the days before Jesus. You could also call the Psalms the prayer book of the Bible. Many of them were penned by King David, who never was one to mince words with God. They’re honest. They’re raw. They’re confessional. They’re sometimes not very pretty.

I think we lose something when we try to “pretty up” our prayers to make them more presentable before God. After all, He already knows what you’re thinking when you’re heart is breaking and you’re still trying to use flowery language because you somehow think those kinds of prayers are more acceptable to God. I confess I’m guilty of that one.

Prayer is the one place you can be honest. You can be real. I do think that you should still be reverent and not make Jesus your homeboy, but I also think God can handle your emotions and your frustrations.

Prayer doesn’t have to be pretty. Prayer doesn’t have to be proper. What prayer does need to be is authentic. Don’t tell God what you think He wants to hear. Tell Him where you are and how you feel and where you want to be. The key in every prayer is to say, “Not my will but Thine.”

That’s the prayer that never fails. You’re saying to God, “I know that You know better than I do what’s good for me and what will make me more like Jesus. You still work all things together for good, so I can trust You with my life.”

The best way to get good at praying isn’t to read more books about praying (although that can be super helpful). The best way isn’t to attend all sorts of seminars and listen to all kinds of sermons about prayer (which again can be useful). The best way to get good at praying is to pray.

I mean pray all the time. Pray whenever it comes to mind. Pray when you feel like it. Pray when you don’t. Pray when the words flow. Pray when there are no words. To borrow the old Nike slogan, just pray.

Revisiting Rivendell

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Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Audible. The latest listen is The Lord of the Rings, one of my favorite books ever. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve either read or listened to this trilogy (which technically is really one book divided into three parts). I always forget how incredible the story is and how Tolkien created an entire world complete with mythology and languages out of his own imagination.

For me, revisiting a favorite book is like going to a familiar spot on vacation. You know what to expect. You know what’s coming. Yet there are those moments you forgot that come back to mind once you start the book. And this is one case where as much as I really liked the movies, the books were way better.

I always used to imagine what it would be like to go on a quest like the one Frodo and friends end up on. Part of me still thinks it might be exciting, but the whole sleeping on the ground is a bit less appealing than it used to be. I’d prefer the comfy dwellings of Bag End with all its Hobbit furnishings and multiple meals and so forth. I do feel that I am a Hobbit at heart.

But also there is so much of the gospel in these books. So many of the characters have Christlike qualities and make noble sacrifices for the good of the company. Plus, there’s the whole good versus evil theme that never grows old.

I recommend starting with The Hobbit (or if you’re really adventurous and brave, start with The Silmarillion, which gives you a rich and detailed historyfor how Middle Earth came into being). It helps if you’re reading to find a hardback copy with good illustrations. It help to visualize what you’re reading.

If that makes me a nerd, so be it. At least for the next few weeks, I’m a happy nerd.