Eternal Perspective

What if I lived from the eternal perspective?

No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them— the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough— so that they should live on forever and not see decay. For all can see that the wise die, that the foolish and the senseless also perish, leaving their wealth to others. Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves. But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself. (Psalm 49:7-11, 15 NIV)

This is the hope I confess in Jesus Christ my savior and Lord. But what does it mean to live with this eternal perspective?

How should it shape my perspective on Work

Moving

Suffering

Wealth

Pleasure and fun

Etc?

True Rest and sabbath rest

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. (Hebrews 3:1 NIV)

But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory. (Hebrews 3:6 NIV)

Our hope is heaven and a true satisfying rest. That is the heavenly calling Christ has earned for us by God's grace.

So sabbath rest on day per week is a regular reminder to set our hopes on eternity not on the work or pleasures of the week. Often we celebrate the sabbath on Sundays with musical worship and church. 

But as Ivanna and I return from China we seek to rest from the work God has given us.

Lord teach us to rest during this time. Help us to have time and space to rest. Use this time to fix our hearts on our future home in your family in the eternal kingdom of God as you told the disciples after their little mission:

However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20 NIV)

Lord teach Ivanna and me to rejoice that our names are written in heaven.  Write this hope on our hearts. And help us to make every effort to enter that rest by faith and belief in Jesus Christ and God's promise as we live and act in obedience.

For all people?

I have been digging into the book of 1 Timothy for about 8 months now. This past couple weeks I was meditating on these verses:

1 Timothy 2:3-6

3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. 

But I couldn't understand why verse 4 and 6 emphasize God's desire and Christ's ransom for all people. It seems so simple right: God loves all people and  Christ died for all people. Yet the reality seems so befuddling: not all people come to a knowledge of the truth and many reject being saved through the ransom of Christ. 

Then in the midst of my own struggle around ministry and what defines success I think I came to understand a little more. I have said for years that in ministry faithfulness is the only measure of success. For Jeremiah was as successful as Paul because both were faithful to God's mission he gave them. Paul saw more tangible fruit in his life. Yet what seemed fruitless in Jeremiah's ministry has come to bear much fruit as the words of Jeremiah comfort us today in hard times. 

But our theology and doctrine is tested by our circumstances and our actions. And in the face of this year of ministry what I truly believed has become clear. I actually did measure myself and my ministry by the tangible fruit it bore or didn't bear. And I found myself wanting by my standards. There are some amazing and powerful things happening that have happened this year in the ministry and in my life. But I was blinded from it by my own expectations and demands of myself and God. 

As I prepare for East Asia I feel the weight of leading a trip that is beyond my abilities and yet also my responsibility. I began to ask this question: What if God is more concerned about people than events? What would that look like? At first I couldn't imagine it because through my lens people are impacted by events and the events have to go a certain way. But as I grow and see the mysteries of life I think I am finding that people are shaped not by events being successful again after again but by the mix of life and success and failure and the slow shaping of our character. In fact what seems a failure to the world may actually bear the most fruit in the heart of a man. 

So I thought if a ministry or mission trip doesn't see tangible fruit is it worth it? I began to count the costs and quickly say how could it be worth it if nothing comes of it. But what if this one event of a short mission trip is just one part of a series of events and God changes our hearts or the hearts of those we go to. But even then what if someone never accepts Jesus. Would it still be worth it? Would a life of fundraising and looking foolish on campus be worth it? 

And 1 timothy:5,6 came back to me. 

Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all people.

And I thought was it worth it for Jesus to suffer and die as a ransom for someone even if they never accept it. For it says he gave himself as a ransom for all people, not only the ones who would believe. 

If Jesus-God himself counted a person worth suffering and dying for a person knowing that they would never come to believe and receive it then the most precious sacrifice and gift was still worth giving. Jesus willingly looked at those who accuses and rejected and persecuted him with love. He counted them worthy, he loved them like no other even as they rejected his love and sacrifice. 

If my model is Jesus then I have to say yes it is absolutely worth it to love and sacrifice hoping they might receive what Jesus did for them, but endure in loving never knowing if they will receive the Love of Christ that hopefully flows through me. 

Lord do a new work work in my heart to love like this, to love like Jesus to the very end believing it is absolutely worth the cost. 

Amen

True Righteousness

Sometimes I struggle to keep a righteousness by the law or by my own strength.

But this is what Isaiah says in chapter 64:6

All of us have become like one who is unclean,

    and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;

we all shrivel up like a leaf,

    and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Our righteousness the best we can do not even considering our sins are like filthy rags.  Yet in Christ we can say Amen my righteousness does not come from my works. In fact we bring nothing except sin and punishment by our acts. For it is Christ's righteousness on which we stand.

2 Corinthians 5:21

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Lord teach me to say with Paul even as he counts his "good" works as he repeats his resume of righteousness by his own strength as he wrote in Philippians 3

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

I think sometimes I trade the law for a law of my heart condition instead of the grace of God through Christ. Lord God you know my heart, you know that by my own strength I cannot attain righteous, and I cannot will my heart to change. But on my knees I might find in you God strength and healing and grace as I ask you to change my heart God. 

Lord teach me this, sink it deep in my heart as I struggle in the face of ministry and the seemingly insurmountable China GP. Lord teach it to me in my works and in my sins that my identity and righteousness come from Christ alone through faith. Bring me back to faith in what Jesus has already done for me and all people.
Amen

Jesus' attitude

Philippians 2

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.

As I prepare for China I am counting the costs of giving up my rights and loving and accepting a system foreign and at first uncomfortable to me. It makes me appreciate Jesus so much more!

Lord help me to be humble like you in love. 
Amen

Spiritual Check in 1 John

1 John 5
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

I feel a little torn in uncertainty, why am I not more confident and certain of knowing that I have eternal life? 

I feel weighed by pride in my heart mixed with depression and so I don't feel I can think clearly to have confidence. 

But I trust not in my own ability to be in God but in God's commitment to me:

1 John 5
18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

God remind me of the spiritual reality of Boulder, this world, ministry and how the devil wants to kill steal and destroy and he does have some power here. But also remind me you are greater and will overcome. 
Amen

God and small things

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:12, 13 ESV)

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. (1 Timothy 6:6-8 ESV)

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:1, 13 ESV)

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. (Ecclesiastes 9:7, 9, 10 ESV)

Father God grow my heart and discipline to celebrate and treasure the small things and to be content, but passionate about Jesus and the kingdom!

Amen