Anticipating heaven?

A friend with four lively children used to quip, “Oh for the peace of the grave!” While she intended to be amusing, her remark was biblical! The Apostle Paul said the same thing using different words . . .

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith.” (Philippians 1:21–25)

His motivation was a bit different — my friend laughingly wanted relief from the noise and hubbub going on around her — Paul wanted to be with Jesus.

I understand both of them. Sometimes life is tough. I’ve often said, “I just want to go home” in the desire to escape whatever was happening around me, but I never once said it to be funny.

I also understand how Paul wanted to be with Jesus. Even though I know Jesus is with me always, and even though I almost always sense His presence, seeing His face and hearing His voice is very appealing. At the same time, like Paul I am torn between the two. Being with Jesus is perfection, but this life is precious too. The older I get, the more I wake up wondering if today will play out like other days, or will this be the day that He takes me home?

The majority of people I know, even Christians, have a fear of death, or at least speak of it as if death is a terrible and sad thing. I’ve felt that way too. When my father died, many Christian friends said things like, “I’m sorry for your loss” — which was not a comfort at all. The best comfort came from a young friend, under twenty at the time. She is one of those bouncy, positive souls who often annoyed others because she was incredibly expressive. Her comfort was given at church. She came up to me and said, “I know that this is supposed to be a sad time for everyone, but I am so happy for your dad!”

She bounced and so did my heart. That was exactly the right thing to say. Instead of feeling sorry for me, I became thrilled at the thought of my dad discussing the mysteries of the weather and the delights of farming with the Creator who makes the rain fall, and causes seeds to sprout and grow.

Since that day, my attitude toward death has changed. Even more, I see life as only a classroom — often full of tests and difficult curricula but where the Lord is teaching me to be like Him — and death as a shadow yet also a graduation.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

The rod and staff are His guidance through this life, and death is like a mere valley in shadows.

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Lord Jesus, daily You grant Your people with the crown of life, a life that is abundant and full. Yet just as it has been a thrill to experience literal graduations from academia, I am excited that one day You will hand me that final diploma along with the cap and gown of eternal life.. Right now, my task is to work hard and finish well, summa cum laude would be great. However, just seeing Your face will be the very best of all!

All of the Bible is important for me . . .

Far too many Christians dismiss the Old Testament because they think it is about ancient Israel and has no application for the modern world or the church. However, this is not the way it was understood by the writers of the New Testament. Paul was an Israelite and the OT was the only Scripture he had at the time he wrote letters to the churches (which later became the NT). In one of those, He said this of our relationship to God . . .

“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” (Romans 9:1–8)

This and other passages proclaim that Christians are the children of God in the same way as His OT people; by faith like the faith of Abraham, all are saved. What does that mean in a practical sense? It means that the promises made to the OT believers are also promises that I can believe in for myself and claim as the Word of God to me.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9–10)

“And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:29)

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Jesus, because I belong to You (by grace I am saved through faith), then I am a child of Abraham, an heir of all the promises made to him and to all Your OT people. This is mercy, yet it is also marvelous and grand. I’ve known this truth for a long time, yet am overwhelmed at times by the width and breadth of it. Even the size of the OT alone is indication of all that You offer to me because I am a child of Abraham, a child of God. Thank You for including me in the most blessed family on earth, Your family. Thank You also for teaching me why I should read and enjoy all of the Scriptures, not just part of what You say and promise to me.

Seeing the patterns of God . . .

For seventeen years, I wrote a weekly newspaper column. It was called “Parables” because God gave me insight into how much the events of this world point to spiritual truth. Through that, I realized manh things, especially His amazing oneness, His powerful hand in all that happens, both in creation and in the affairs of humanity.

It is easy to say that He designed the world that way, but I’m beginning to understand that this divine ‘dot-connecting’ goes beyond the design of a superior mind. That is, there is a cohesiveness in the created world that parallels the nature and working of God — and it is there simply because God is.

A crass illustration might be the presence of a large elephant in a small room. That huge animal affects everything in that space. If it sneezes, the entire room shakes. If it snoozes, everyone tiptoes.

Because of the working of God, an event happened in the Old Testament that points to a greater event in the years to come, an event that changed the world. This is a short episode, given only a few words, but it happened so God could use it to explain a vital truth. When He delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, they set out for the promised land, but like us, they were a rag tag group, prone to the same sins we are, particularly when life does not go the way we want:

“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.’ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” (Numbers 21:4–9)

Their complaining illustrates mine, grumbling when things go contrary to what I want. The fiery serpents illustrate what happens to not only the health but the lives of people who are never happy; it eventually destroys us. Moses illustrates the role of an intercessor — a person who takes pity on those who are continually out of sorts and sinful; he prays for them. And the fiery serpent on the pole illustrates what happened to Jesus.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (John 3:14)

I’m not certain how far this illustration goes. Did Jesus take on the pain and affliction of a people who hated the rule of God in their lives? Certainly. What does being ‘fiery’ have to do with it? I don’t know. I just know that this barely mentioned event in the lives of God’s people pointed ahead to the work of Christ on the cross for the salvation of my sin. It also pictures human responsibility — God arranged this saving event so that we who are ‘bitten’ by sin must look at Christ on the Cross that we might live.

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Jesus, I’m thinking that all the events of life somehow point to You. I am oblivious to most of them, but what You reveal is so lovely, so profound, so grandly filled with Your power and grace. Of course, I don’t want to see things that are not there, but am starting to think that I’ve the opposite problem — I am oblivious to that which is there, not connecting the dots between cause and effect, between Your involvement in the world and how You are using it to say, “Wake up My child — this world is all about the glory of God!”