16 May 2024
Forgiven, Cleansed and Holy
09 May 2024
What I Love About Heaven
Whenever I gather with fellow believers in Christ, it is a small foretaste of heaven. The kingdom Jesus rules that is not of this world and is eternal, and Jesus connected His kingdom with paradise in His statement to the thief on the cross: heaven is a place that is perfect as God, where nothing can enter that defiles, where there is no sadness, sickness, crying or death. While the Bible does not go into great detail about heaven--likely because we lack the capacity to comprehend the glory of it--we are comforted, encouraged and inspired by considering what has been revealed.
Many Christians look forward to going to heaven to finally be free of the struggles, conditions and pains of our lives on earth. Others eagerly await the prospect of uniting in fellowship and worship of God with saints we have never met in person and to reunite with loved ones who preceded us into glory. These reasons, while perfectly good and reasonable, I do not believe can move the needle compared to being in the glorious presence of God in person. In our human bodies corrupted by sin we cannot even look at God's face and live, and to see our Creator before our eyes, to sit as His table, to join with the angels in worship and to be embraced by Jesus Christ Himself is awesome beyond reckoning.
There are things I love about heaven that far exceed the beauty of united believers who gather in Christ's name. In heaven we will have no need to ask, "How has work been going?" or "How has the week gone?" It will always be present day in heaven, and there will not be anything to catch up on. While people have different motivations for going to a church service or Bible study, everyone who will be in heaven will want to be there (rather than anywhere else) and we can know God has joined us together. Another thing I love is that there will not be anywhere we need to go that severs times of personal fellowship--like lunch plans, needing to run to the shops or go to the gym, or needing to leave because you are weary from a packed schedule. A lot of our conversations at church involve what has happened or we are planning for outside of church fellowship. What I love about heaven is the perfect, complete union we will experience in mind, heart and love with Christ at the centre while retaining our individuality and intimate friendship with one another that includes everyone all the time.
When we are enjoying ourselves we wish the moment would never end; when we have an incredible experience we would prefer to never need to leave: the presence of God in heaven will satisfy these fleeting desires of our hearts beyond our comprehension. On earth all good times must come to an end, but what I love about heaven is it will be a perfect place for us to experience the rest God has promised to give our souls forever. By the grace of God we can experience peace that passes understanding and fulness of joy in this life, but due to our forgetfulness and weakness it is only in fits and starts. God grants us a foretaste of heaven with His presence in our hearts and in fellowship with one another in the church, and may this inspire us with the glorious future together God has in store for all who love Him.
02 May 2024
Meditating on God's Word
26 April 2024
Concerning Convictions
24 April 2024
Remembering the Fallen and Risen
13 April 2024
Cleansed by Grace
03 April 2024
Refined by Reproach
30 March 2024
A Familiar Flavour
20 March 2024
Maturity by Grace
14 March 2024
A Purposeful Reminder
02 March 2024
Obeying the Gospel
01 March 2024
The Giver and Gift
27 February 2024
Our Need to Unlearn
19 February 2024
The Fight of Faith (part 2)
18 February 2024
The Fight of Faith
15 February 2024
Choose Kindness
10 February 2024
God's Workmanship
09 February 2024
I Am Persuaded
02 February 2024
More Glorious Than Gold
Yesterday while at the baggage carousel, I saw a fellow traveller who wore an assortment of chains from which dangled charms and crystals. She even had a silver charm glued to her forehead! I observed her begin at the lowest crystal and align them with her fingers in ascending order towards her chin. In some spiritual circles, it is believed wearing crystals promote healing and provide protection from negative energy. My observation is many people put their trust in crystals, amulets and charms that only the almighty God is worthy and able to receive. Since God is powerful and mighty to protect, save and heal, all who fear God and trust Him can rest assured He will shepherd us without fail now and forever.
When David expressed willingness to fight Goliath, king Saul insisted David wear the king's armour--even though it did not fit him at all. It was God who preserved David and gave him skill to fight, and thus David faced the giant armed with a sling and stone with no armour at all. Filled with the Holy Spirit, David was bold to face the champion of the Philistines and prevailed like he had against lion and bear. He wrote in Psalm 20:7-8, "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. 8 They have bowed down and fallen; but we have risen and stand upright." It was not the harnessing of metaphysical properties of stones created by God or armour fashioned by man but a relationship with the living God that caused no weapon fashioned against David to prosper (Is. 54:17).
As born again children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, our confidence is not to be placed in charms or crystals because the Strength of Israel indwells each of His people. 2 Corinthians 4:6-7 says, "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." Because the knowledge of the glory of God has illuminated our hearts and minds by the power of the Holy Spirit, we need not fear or be dismayed in times of trouble. The Light of the World Jesus guides our steps in real time by His grace, and He also supplies energy and strength that benefits us, even as plants and solar powered devices utilise the rays of the sun.
The Scripture teaches Christians are now the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, and this divine presence is to powerfully influence us inside and out. All other spiritual powers and authorities in heaven and earth--seen and unseen--all bow trembling in complete subjection to God. The design of the Ark of the Covenant provides a wonderful illustration of how God's presence within us ought to be consistent inside and out. Exodus 37:2 says of the Ark constructed by Bezaleel, "He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold all around it." The wooden box was not just to be overlaid with pure gold where it could be seen by people but on the inside that was always hidden. We are not to be as Pharisees who projected an clean image when they were polluted within but to have integrity inside and out by the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells, guides and strengthens us. Builders are not as careful with concealed work as finish work that everyone can see, but Jesus spared no expense to fill us with knowledge of His glory within.
We are compared in our flesh to earthen vessels God has imbued with the glorious treasure of His presence. God's intended result of this spiritual inner strength is expressed outwardly as it is written in 2 Corinthians 4:8-11: "We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed--10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." Thus God's glory that He has given us on the inside is intended to be seen on the outside as we trust the LORD because His design for us to to manifest the life of Jesus to others through us. How glorious, that God's strength revealed in our weakness! How much more glorious is our God than gold!