Death is not the End

J. Vernon McGee writes, "The glory of the Christian faith is that it never views life as ending with death. This life is not all there is."

This week celebrated both the death of Jesus Christ on Friday and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The power of His resurrection dwells in me as a follower of Jesus Christ now inhabited by the Spirit of God. It is that power that will one day finally and ultimately bring me to my own moment of resurrection that is directly tied to and fully dependent upon the resurrection of Jesus years ago.

Death is not the end. Death was not the end of Jesus. It was merely the end of His suffering for sin. Death is a doorway into eternity that awaits us and everyone has an eternity awaiting them.

The Scriptures tell of only two eternities. The one more popular eternity stands at the end of a wide road on which many individuals are traveling. That road feeds into an eternity void of God and full of suffering the penalty for choosing everything else over God.

The other less popular eternity has a narrow road leading into it and few pilgrims who are making the trek. Yet the road, narrow and sometimes winding, leads into an incredible city and all the way to the throne of the King who will reign forever.

Death is not the end of any of us who walk in this world. By faith, however, Jesus Christ has placed us upon the path that leads to our home with Him. Death is but the finish line that once we have crossed it brings us to the author and finisher of our faith.

Where is you focus today? Where is your eternity? Are your eyes on the author and finisher of the faith that leads His followers to His eternal home?

My Confidence

Individuals take confidence in many different things including money, jobs, relationships, and more. All of these things can and often do change. The money we make is not the same. The job we have changes. Some relationship begin while others end, some grow while others go stagnant.

King Hezekiah who reigned in Judah rebelled against the Assyrians. As a result, the king of Assyria sent his commander and other officials to Jerusalem to intimidate or attack Hezekiah.

Encamped against Jerusalem, one official called out to Hezekiah asking, "On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have the counsel and the might for war--but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?"

Hezekiah was a bright spot in the line of kings. He chose obedience to God rather than rebellion. He did what pleased God rather than what incited His wrath. Like David the revered king of Israel, Hezekiah sought to live righteously, removing all place of idolatrous worship. As a result, God was with him and he was successful in his leadership.

What the official of the Assyrian army didn't know was that Hezekiah's confidence was not in the power of his army, the force of his weapons, or the support of his allies but in the might of the great and mighty God. And rightly so!

After many taunts and endless threats of the Assyrians, including their declaration that the God of Israel had told them to attack, Hezekiah's confidence proved true. In one night, the angel of the Lord put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. The next morning when the people woke up they found all the dead bodies. Dead bodies were strewn everywhere.

The right place to put our confidence is never in the ability, logic, power, or devices of men. It is always to put our confidence in the might and power of God. Only He is able to what no man or army can do. What is impossible for us is completely possible for Him.

We could not rescue ourselves from our sin. But God was able. We could not make a sufficient sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. But God was able.

This week we celebrate Christ's final entry into Jerusalem to endure the cross that was set before Him by the will of God the Father. Through the cross, God would pay for every sin and punish every act of disobedience by putting His own Son to death. Three days later, that same Son came back to life by the same incredible power of God, giving life to all who believe and opening the door to heaven for all who follow Him.

Now we take confidence not in our flesh and blood but in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like Hezekiah, we face an enemy and hardship in this world that we should look past in order to see the God in whom our confidence has been placed.

Where does your confidence stand today?

Hope of the World

Billy Hybels, founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois, said, "The Church is the hope of the world."

The Church is the hope of the world because the message of hope has been entrusted to the Church. As Jesus prepared His disciples for His return to the Father in heaven, He gave them this sacred trust of displaying and declaring the good news.

Only the gospel has the awesome power to radically, fully, and eternally change lives. The gospel alone provides forgiveness for disobedience, mercy for the rebel, and grace for the undeserving. And only the Church has been given the great task and inexpressible joy of displaying and declaring to the nations this gospel of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.

God's plan is always best and perfect. He never makes a Plan B. Plan A has always been that His followers, ever-faithful, would make disciples of all nations, advancing His kingdom into all the world and increasing His kingdom by increasing the number of worshipping followers of Jesus.

If the Church, you and me as the followers of Jesus Christ, are the hope of the world because of the good news we have to give, then every day the Church is either the world's hope or the world's doom.

We will be the hope of the world because we are faithful to carry the light of the gospel into all dark places.

We will be the doom of the world because we find it more convenient to stay than to go and choose to keep the hope we've received to ourselves rather than share with a world in need.

Are you living to display and declare the good news of Christ's kingdom as a hope-giver to the world?

Your Gift

I have written a couple times in posts this week about being all in as a follower of Jesus Christ.  Another area important to highlight in being all in is allowing God to work through you in the exercise of the gift He has given you.

An individual who is all in following Jesus uses the gift that God has graciously given to him or her to to obey Christ, build His people, and serve the world.

Every follower of Jesus has been given a spiritual gift. These are more than talents. These gifts are not natural, coming to us at birth, but are supernatural, coming to us at rebirth.

At least three primary places in the Bible give lists of the gifts God gives to His followers. These passages include 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4. Why does God give us these gifts?

1. He gives these gifts to bring Himself glory. Exercising a gift we did not obtain naturally allows us not to take credit for it or to glory in the work accomplished through its use.
2. He gives these gifts to build up His community of people. We have differing gifts to accomplish different tasks and meet different needs among God's people. When each person exercises his or her gift, the people of God have what they need and function as they should.
3. He gives these gifts for reaching the nations. As God's people use their gifts and see the church, though imperfect, built up and strengthened, the church becomes a display of God's glory among the nations. Jesus declared that the church, by its love for one another, would be a loud testimony so that all the world would know we are His followers. Utilizing the spiritual gifts God has given is an act of love for each other and a testimony to the world.
4. He gives these gifts for meeting spiritual need. Our physical talents and gifts can be used within the church. Yet the church is first and foremost a spiritual community of worshipers who have spiritual need and work. The giving of spiritual gifts meets the spiritual needs of the church and enables the church to accomplish its spiritual work.

I am not in any way trying to be exhaustive with this list. What stands as most important is that God has given to each of us a spiritual gift God does not intend to be left unused or under-utilized. 

How has God gifted you? How are you using your gift(s)? You have been placed where you are to use your gift for God's glory, His people, and the advance of His kingdom.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Thank God for His grace to give us generously all things.

2.  Ask God to make clear how He has gifted you.

3.  Pray for wisdom in how to exercise the gift He has given you in the way He desires.

Powerful Reminders

Pastor and author Voddie Bauchum once made the statement that if the godliest man in the Bible (David), the strongest man in the Bible (Samson), and the wisest man in the Bible (Solomon) all committed a moral failure in their lives, then who am I to think I am above it.

As I continue reading this year through The Story, I have come to passages about David, Israel's king, who succeeded Saul. I know this story perhaps well. But as God's word is so powerful to do in our lives, the Scripture penetrated in a new and deep fashion.

Here are some of the powerful things I took away from this passage:

Sin is always crouching at the door. While the men were off at war, David remained at home. Arising from his bed, he walked out onto his balcony to find a beautiful woman bathing on a nearby rooftop. He didn't plan for this moment. He did not seek out this temptation. But he was not guarded against it either. Sin is always crouching at the door of the man or woman who does not arm him or herself for battle. Our battle with our sinful flesh is real and sin is always at the door waiting to pounce upon us.

Internal foes can do what external ones never could.  David took down the giant Goliath. He eluded King Saul who sought to take his life. David killed thousands upon thousands of the Philistines who mocked God and His people. He was victorious in battle and Israel flourished as a result. But the internal foe did what the external foe never could.  Lust did what warriors could not. David was conquered from within and not from without.

One step of rebellion can turn into a country mile. David looked upon her in lust and sent for her to be brought to him. He enjoyed the pleasure of sexual intimacy with another man's wife. But that one time act, heinous enough as is, wouldn't be the end of it. Bathsheeba became pregnant and David plotted to make Uriah, her husband, believe it was his baby. That didn't work, so he tried again by making Uriah drunk. That didn't work either. So David sent Uriah back to battle carrying his own death decree. Uriah was placed in the heat of the battle and then the commander pulled back leaving Uriah to be struck down and killed. Adultery is not better than murder. Both nailed Christ to the cross. Yet we see a progression from lust to adultery to manipulation to murder. It all began with one step of disobedience beyond the boundaries of God's perfect will for our lives.

Relationships suffer because of disobedience. Whenever we sin, as David did, relationships are destroyed. I don't know how the relationship with David and Bathsheeba was but I can imagine there was a great deal of trust issues, hurt, and healing that was needed. But what I do know is that this moment destroyed David's relationship with Uriah. Uriah had been one of David's mighty men who had fought for, protected, and placed his life on the line for David. Whereas Nathan and David had what appears to be a great relationship beforehand is now strained as Nathan has to confront David about his sin. David would encounter difficulty with his own son as a result of this. Some relationships are destroyed because of disobedience and never get repaired. However, all relationships suffer as a result of disobedience.

Hope exists through repentance. David's predecessor had always made excuses for his sin and wayward ways. When Nathan confronted, David repented. Hope came through repentance. In fact, that is still our hope today. When we repent of sin and surrender to Jesus Christ, we have the eternal hope of salvation in a relationship with God forever. God will work to restore in us what has been broken when we repent. David's prayer in Psalm 51 expresses both his repentance, his hope, and the request for God to restore the joy of salvation.

Take a Daniel moment:
1.  Celebrate that God's armor (Ephesians 6) can protect us against our enemy and the sin that ensnares us.
2.  Pray for God to make us aware and alert to the sin and danger crouching at the door.
3.  Ask God to reveal error in your life today because of a step of disobedience in the past.
4.  Pray for the relationships that have suffered because of your sin or the sin of another. Do all you can to see those restored.
5.  Repent of any sin in your life. Celebrate the hope of Christ as a result. 

Reprehensible

We say individuals are sinners, but we expect them to be perfect. We find it easier to point out another person's flaws than to praise another person's faith and obedience.

While studying I came cross this quote by John Calvin: "In every saint there is always to be found something reprehensible. Nevertheless although faith may be imperfect and incomplete it does not cease to be approved by God."

My nature and bent is to see the reprehensible in another person, even another follower of Jesus, and cast them away. We focus so much on their shortcomings we fail to praise the work of God in them.

Among those who have fallen prey to the enticement of sin and disobedience have been David and Samson. David committed adultery with a woman and then had her husband killed to conceal the child conceived in sin. Samson ignored the commands of God, rebelled against the authority of his parents, and married a woman who did not worship and honor God.  

As John Calvin notes, these things are reprehensible. Yet though their faith be imperfect and incomplete, their faith does not cease to be approved by God. In Hebrews 11, these two men are commended not for their sin or reprehensible acts, but for their faith.

The weak need compassion. The doubters need grace. When in another person's life we see the reprehensible, the question is how would the gospel say we are to respond. 

Jesus has properly warned us all that before we get so worked up about the speck in the eye of another person, may we first see that reprehensible log sticking out of our own eye. When that other person is a follower of Jesus, may we not throw away a brother or sister by whose faith in Christ has made them approved to God.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise God for mercy and grace that has forgiven our reprehensible acts.

2.  Pray for grace and mercy and strength to follow God in displaying and declaring the good news.

3.  Repent of your own reprehensible acts and pray for others struggling with their own.

He Gives and Takes Away

Over the years in ministry the most difficult circumstances have often been in regard to children. Seeing young children sick or die are especially hard. One that often we overlook are the scores of women who long to be mothers but their arms are still empty.

At times there are medical explanations and sometimes there's no explanation. Regardless, it doesn't change the heartache and longing in the heart of a woman who cannot conceive.

The Bible is dotted with the stories of women who found themselves childless. Sarai, Hannah, Rachel, Elizabeth, and others found their situation bitter and painful. A married woman who could not have children was viewed scornfully and even as one cursed by God.

Manoah was married to a woman who was unable to conceive. Yet God in his upper story was completely aware of this and would work through this not only to give her a son, but to give Israel a deliverer. And so it was that Samson was born and grew to be a man of incredible strength and courage, on whom the Spirit of the Lord rested powerfully.

The full story of Samson is quite tragic, reflecting a man who was often far more intent on living out his own desires than living out the will of God. But the beauty of his life was that he was a miracle. He was born to a father and mother who had probably come to think they may never have a child. And in spite of Samson's disobedience, God worked to deliver His people though it did not happen without Samson losing his power, his sight, his freedom, and ultimately his life.

God is the One who gives when the world has no power to give. He is the One who provides when there's no conceivable way to make it happen. Yet He is also the One who takes away, sometimes without explanation. Sometimes He withholds when we expected Him to pour it out on us.

God's power to give Manoah and his wife a child was a foretaste of His power to come on Mary so that she conceived to give birth to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God gave the world His Son. And God would take His Son from the world by nailing Him to the cross. But praise God that we know both why He gave and why He took away. As a result, we today are able to celebrate how God rescued us from sin and death by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Praise God that He both gives and takes away.
2. Lift up to Him your request for what you need and the desires of your heart.
3. Pray that God would give you a content heart with what He gives, what He withholds, and what He takes away.
4. Ask God to demonstrate His power to open wombs, forgive sin, raise the dead, provide for every need in your life and the lives of those you know are in need.