Read the End of the Book

As one who all-too-easily falls into the trap of being consumed by the day-to-day and losing sight of the eternal, let me encourage you to read this passage on perhaps even a daily basis...

"And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' Also he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.' And he said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.'" - Revelation 21:5-7

Never forget for a moment - that is your destiny in Christ and the truth that makes life worth living. Without that, then all of this is just carnival rides while we wait for the end to come.

Time

After years of hearing parents say that their kids grow up too fast, I’ve seen that reality firsthand lately. My daughter is nearly two-months old, and the time has flown by. I’ve thought a lot about time lately, and I’ve thought about it even more since yesterday. After church yesterday morning, I helped one of the guys from my youth group move into the dorms at my alma mater, Boyce College. As we hauled his stuff up the stairs and into a cramped room, I was reminded of when I moved in to the same building just 7 years ago.

I’m amazed at how much has changed in just 7 years. My high school girlfriend of 9 months who I had left behind in North Carolina is now my wife of 3 years. I left home feeling a great deal like a kid myself, now I have a daughter of my own. Many of the theological truths I now hold dear I was at best ignorant of and at worst rebelled against. Then, a youth pastor was the epitome of Christian cool, now that I am one that sentiment just seems patently ridiculous. Even 9/11 was just a meaningless number back in August of 2001. In just a few short years, I’ve changed so much that I wonder if I’d even recognize the me of 7 years ago – and if I did, would the old me irritate the crap out of the current me?

More than ever before, I see the bittersweet truthfulness of Psalm 103:15-16…

"As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more."

At times, focusing on the brevity of life can be emotionally overwhelming. I’ll never forget driving home after Jordan was born to make preparations at the house for bringing her home. Alone in the car, I cried at the prospect of our hospital stay ending because it was all happening too fast. I wanted nothing more than to go back to the moment of her birth and experience it all over again. Yet, even as the brevity of live stings, Psalm 103:17-18 shrouds verses 15-16 with inexpressible hope…

"But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments."

The fleeting nature of life reminds me that God’s love is anything but, that his goodness lasts forever. I taste his goodness in this life in passing doses with family and friends, as but an appetizer to the joys that will come with forever basking in his infinite glory and reveling in his greatness. So, whether you’re at the beginning of your life’s race or nearing the end, savor each temporal moment God gives as an incredible glimpse into the eternal joy that we have been promised in Christ. Life is a gift, to be sure, but it is a gift like a telescope is a gift, directing us to the object truly worth our wonder and amazement, the true gift – God himself.

Ever Had a Habakkuk Moment?

I must confess, I’ve been having one this morning. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Habakkuk was a prophet in the final days of the kingdom of Judah before its destruction in 586 BC. His book is simultaneously devastating and immensely encouraging to me. Habakkuk saw his country collapsing into evil. He watched God’s name profaned and despised. He watched the wicked swindle and cheat the righteous out of their livelihood. And amidst it all he cried out to God for justice and salvation. Yet he saw no response from on high. This prompted him to write the following words…

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
So the law is paralyzed,and
justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted. – Habakkuk 1:1-4

Habakkuk came to that point that we all seem to come to at one time or another – the time when we can’t help but look to the heavens and yell “why?” The justice that our hearts seem hard-wired to crave doesn’t exist. Terrible tragedy befalls people for seemingly no reason. All the while, we can’t fathom how an all-powerful and good God can stand by and do nothing.

Yesterday, my pastor preached a great sermon on the opening verses of Daniel about God’s sovereign hand being very much present even when the bottom seems to fall out of life. He read that opening passage from Habakkuk, which has it at the forefront of my mind today as I’ve waded through several instances of heart-wrenching news. A friend from church broke both elbows in a horrible accident Saturday afternoon and is faced with months of rehab. Denny Burk blogged last Friday about the horrible atrocities of African warlord Joseph Kony, who makes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad look like a compassionate leader. Then, this morning, I read an absolutely heartbreaking article on MSNBC.com about late-term abortion. I’m staunchly anti-abortion, and I view it as the defining social injustice of our generation – but let me say that any conservative pro-lifer who heartlessly demonizes every woman who has an abortion needs to read this article (However, I wish greatly that I hadn’t read the article while my wife is in the final week of her pregnancy. This article was hard enough to read as it is, and given my current frame of mind it’s been absolutely crippling to my emotions this morning. If you’re in a similar situation, consider this fair warning…). The decisions faced by the couples in this article are absolutely unfathomable to me. I still wouldn’t condone partial-birth abortion as the answer, but the situations themselves have no good answer and left me feeling very much like Habakkuk.

Yet notice that I said earlier that Habakkuk is not only devastating but encouraging. One reason for that is that it demonstrates that not even the great prophets of old were immune to the pain that so often permeates our existence. We tend to view Biblical figures as unassailable ivory towers of faith, but Habakkuk was a man at the end of his rope. Watching an author of Scripture cry out to God in desperation gives hope that the same God who heard Habakkuk hears me as well. The greater reason for hope, though, is how God answers Habakkuk. What he reveals is that he is very much aware of the state of his creation, and that he is not asleep at the wheel. He is preparing to come in judgment of his people (which eventually prompts more questions from Habakkuk), but he patiently waits in his great mercy. He tells Habakkuk that he will accomplish his perfect plan, and his wisdom is present in all his decrees, even when we cannot understand why. The end result for Habakkuk? Much like Job, he doesn’t get exactly the answers he wants, but he comes out the other side with a much deeper trust in the God who does all things well. He closes with these words…

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places. – Habakkuk 3:17-19

I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t understand a lot of what’s happening now. I’m prone to worry, anxiety, and bewilderment. But I know the God who is over it all, and that is enough. I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Sola5 Wednesday Recap - 5/7/08

This weekly topic is an effort to recap the Wednesday night Bible study I teach at Sola5, my youth group. I hope it serves to help us all in contemplating the ceaseless riches of God’s grace as revealed through the Scriptures.

Last night, we continued our study of John’s gospel by looking at 16:16-24. Here we find Jesus continuing to talk to the disciples about his impending crucifixion. In the passage, Jesus pauses, realizing that the disciples are not understanding what he is saying to them. Rather than give them a play-by-play of upcoming events, he talks to them about the emotions that they will experience in the coming days, thus preparing their hearts to face what is to come.

First off, we see the disciples expressing their confusion over what Jesus has been talking about. They are especially puzzled by his statement in verse 16, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” They begin to wonder amongst themselves what the heck Jesus is talking about. Here’s where we can take a lesson from them. Their plight is our privilege. This is hardly the only time in the gospels that we see the disciples struggling to understand exactly what Jesus is trying to say. We often look back on these situations and think, “Stupid disciples! It’s right there in front of you, it’s so easy to figure out!” It is this perspective that illustrates just how privileged we are as modern believers. Hindsight is 20/20. Whereas the disciples were having their entire spiritual and intellectual paradigm turned upside down by every word that came from Jesus’ mouth, we sit here with God’s completed written revelation in the Bible, able to trace his purposes and plans from start to finish. In a way, we have the great privilege of playing “Monday Morning Quarterback” – looking back at the story of our redemption and seeing God’s perfect wisdom at work. We are afforded a privileged perspective that the disciples would have envied. Whereas often we think, “If I could have just walked with Jesus like them then it would be so much easier to have faith,” the reality is that the perspective that we are granted through Scripture is one that opens God’s mind to us and grants us greater understanding than the disciples had. Next time you read about the disciples floundering over Jesus’ words, praise God for the fact that you have his word readily available, and may that reality cause you to treasure his word more.

In verse 19, Jesus picks up on their confusion, and addresses it, offering an explanation of what he had said in verse 20. He tells them that they are going to experience a great sorrow, but one that will not be shared by the rest of the world. They will weep and lament, he promises, but he also promises that their sorrow will be eclipsed by a joy so great that the sorrow pales in comparison. Consider the example Jesus gives of a pregnant woman preparing to give birth. The birth process is not exactly a fun one. When my wife and I head to the hospital next month for our daughter’s birth, I highly doubt she’s going to tell me, “This is going to be awesome!” During the birth, that probably won’t be the case. In fact, I’m considering wearing full body armor that night just in case. Yet, the pain and stress of that experience will be far outweighed by the joy that will come from our daughter entering our lives. The wonder and joy of a new human life causes the pain of the process to pale in comparison. This is the example Jesus uses to illustrate that though sorrow will come, hope will ultimately prevail – to the point where he can say in verse 22 that “no one will take your joy from you.” This joy will be an everlasting joy, an eternal joy.

The direct application for the disciples was Jesus’ death on the cross. Consider the heartbreaking sorrow that they must have felt when they watched their Lord, mentor, and friend brutally executed as a common criminal. We celebrate the fact that he came out of the grave on Resurrection Sunday, and we celebrate the forgiveness for sin that his death purchased on Good Friday, but have you ever paused to think about what the Saturday in between must have been like? Put yourself in the shoes of the disciples. They had left everything and cast all their chips in with Jesus. Now, he’s dead, in the ground, and you ran away. It’s over. What now? This sorrow was surely as great as any that we’ll experience in this life. Yet it was dwarfed by the joy of seeing the risen Christ the next day, of seeing his triumph over sin.

But what of us? The same principle is certainly applicable to believers today. We currently don’t see Christ. We are among those of whom the Scripture says, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” We go through times of suffering and stress in this life, whether great or small. All of us know what it is like to be weighed down with sorrow while the world marches on oblivious. Yet the trials and difficulties of this life are nothing in comparison to the joy we will have when we see Christ face-to-face. That is the hope of the second coming - that, as the hymn says, “faith shall be sight.” That coming may happen today, and it may happen 5,000 years from now. I have no idea. Anyone who tells you they do have an idea is lying or self-deluded. Yet I know this: I’m not going to live for 5,000 years. When this life is ended, whether by Christ’s return or my inevitable death, I will be with him, and I will experience and understand the very purpose for which I was created – to bask and revel in the glory of God for all eternity. Every joyous experience in this life is just a minute foretaste of the glory to come when I stand forever in the presence of the one who created all that is good. As we go through this week, I pray that Christ gives us an ever clearer hope in the joy that is set before us, that we may endure whatever birth pains this life brings our way because of the promise of the new life to come.