What Would You Trade Heaven For?

Often we unthinkingly give the impression that we might know a bit what heaven is like, though we have never been there and though God tells us in 1 Cor. 2:9-10 that heaven is beyond our experience and our finite minds to imagine it; any understanding we have is given by His Spirit and still is beyond earthly words. MercyMe's song "I Can Only Imagine" is true and yet untrue in that we can imagine, but we can't imagine rightly. The lyrics ponder what it could be like, and yet we know they give nothing of the picture of it. The firsthand knowledge of heaven remains a mystery until we see it--even though in a sense our spirits know and anticipate its goodness, as in 1 Cor. 13:12. God has done many things to secure our place there and to prepare us for it, as Paul describes in Ephesians 1.
I recall the statement (though I don't know who said it), "The best thing an unbeliever will ever experience is life on this earth. The worst thing a believer will ever experience is life on this earth." It's a stunning thought, though we know it to be true. Still, we carelessly speak phrases like "a little bit of heaven," "heaven on earth," "I'm in heaven," "in seventh heaven." This discredits the awesome nature of our future hope. We do this even though there's been nothing we can even suppose is heavenly in our experience except the hope of salvation. We have a hope and a future--but it's not promised on earth.
If there's one thought that would keep me from sinning against God, I think that would be it: "Is this worth trading heaven for?" There is nothing here that is worth trading heaven for--not any person, place or thing, no experience, no temptation. We are promised with 1 Corinthians 10:13 that there is nothing He will withhold to help us to obey Him. On the other hand, those temptations are worth trading in for heaven. Release to God all your earthly desires, give Him title to them. Psalm 37:4 tells us that if we delight ourselves in the Lord He will give us the desires of our heart--and I remember hearing that it means He will give desires, not fill desires...loving God doesn't entitle us to all we ever wanted, but what He teaches us to rightly want. I want to align myself with Him and there is nothing I can give Him that He hasn't already outgiven to me.

We Have Every Help

I have a friend in Psalm 139. Back when I was pregnant with Tim, my doctor told me that she thought I would have to "terminate" that pregnancy...which of course I had no intention of doing, but it made the friends who knew me nervous. One pointed out that I should read Psalm 139, and while I was on two weeks' bed rest awaiting another ultrasound (why two weeks before the next one, I have no idea) I read it regularly. So its familiar and loving verses come back to me even now, almost ten years later, and assure me often--in so many contexts! Even today while I was on my morning walk around our cul-de-sac (500 steps each time around, 5 or 7 times), the verses came back..."You hem me in behind and before...such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it...search me, O God, and know my heart...lead me in the everlasting way." I wish I had it fully memorized (what a painful thing to have a frail mind), but all of it is familiar.
It holds the beauty of God's intimate care in creating us, and the fact that once He has done so, and launched us into our lives, He doesn't leave us there. He watches us, follows us, hems us in. The Scriptures elsewhere show just how much He does so: Jesus prayed for the people of that day in John 17, but also for us, and now intercedes for us; His Spirit intercedes for us; Paul writes his prayers to the Ephesians but more generally to the Gentiles and even more generally to all who would read the Scriptures, how we might be enlightened to know God's hope, riches and power "toward us who believe" and that we might comprehend the four-dimensional love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge and fills us to the fullness of God--who is in fact infinite. That's pretty full and overflowing!
He gives us the Scriptures, which most of us have available thankfully in their completeness at least in this part of the world...if only we were to access them to the fullest we would be proportionately more useful to God. He gives us circumstances in our lives that remind us of His goodness, such as answered prayer, the glory of His creation, the blessings that He rains down on us. He also gives us the fellowship of believers to encourage and help in that goal, to be iron sharpening iron and to use the Scriptures to benefit one another toward holiness. How can we respond to this except to love Him more and strive more toward obedience to Him? It shows the depth of our fallen nature that this at any time should be difficult. It isn't for lack of His availability toward us, but our lack of availing ourselves toward Him. Psalm 28:7

Shouldn't Every Christian be Opinionated?

Today our church had a potluck, and in discussion at our table, it became clear that I had opinions on at least four prominent people who we discussed. One of the people at the table asked me, "You're opinionated, aren't you?" I have to admit I've had that said of me before. Can't deny it, wouldn't want to. In response I exaggerated my emphasis, saying something such as, "Every Christian should be opinionated." I think my answer further exemplifies what he was talking about. Still, the issue just may be how the opinions are expressed, because at this point I lost him. He turned to talk to someone presumably less vocal in their opinions even though I was trying to be funny.
Should every Christian be opinionated? Should every Christian be vocal? A Christian without opinions...I don't even know what that is. We can't empirically prove that God exists, that Jesus is God, that we are saved and atheists are not, that the Bible is truly God's Word. There are many things that a person could properly assume a Christian believes, but that not even the most godly Christian can prove is true. Then I would say all these things rightly fall into the realm of opinion. I think it's true, you don't, but (to my chagrin) I can't make you believe it because of any set of earthbound undeniable facts. The Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and we believe it, but if you don't believe in the Holy Spirit, (sigh) then I just have to throw my hands up and leave it at that.
How can a Christian stand firm for Christ without any opinion? Without opinion I can't say that sin is wrong, that living for God is right, that we should evangelize the lost, that Christ died for our sins, that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. I can't say that my children should follow Him, or that government shouldn't take the place of parents. I won't know how to vote on any issue.
For that matter, everyone is opinionated, even if they don't speak up. Unbelievers have opinions and no other unbeliever generally even questions them, that loving people are tolerant of all lifestyles, that abortion should be legal, that global warming is a real and urgent concern, that we should save the whales, that the spotted owl needs protection, that war is wrong, that everyone must work together to save the planet, that we should buy pink products for breast cancer funding, that we shouldn't litter. Some of these I oppose, and some I can go along with in a more casual way. I don't know what the standard of the unbeliever is except what the media promotes as the good, common-sense thing of the hour. It changes with the times.
I can only dare to take my stand on any item because I have a specific, unchanging, unapologetic, and right Standard in Christ. His Word determines my decision-making and my values and my opinions; He does not change like shifting shadows. Living by His Word has changed my life and given me peace and purpose; how can I not stand on it and against all that opposes it?
Not speaking up can be convenient for the moment, but historically, at times, the results have at times been disastrous. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.” If only more people had dared to speak up in those days!
In Ephesians 4:14-16 Paul exhorts us to know our doctrine, to be able to discern against deceivers, and to speak out against them; again in 6:10-18 He tells us to be strong and stand firm. How can we do this without being opinionated? That escapes me. And so I hold to my opinions and am glad for them, because many of them (not all) come from His love-letter to me (the Bible) and they help me serve my Savior who died for me. He was of the opinion (which escapes me) that I was someone somehow worth saving.

Tozer's descriptions of the Attributes of God

As I blogged a bit ago about what I was reading, in our church we have been covering The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God: Their Meaning in the Christian Life, by A.W. Tozer. He's an author that until recently I didn't personally ever read. I thought I might have a copy of his book on one of my bookshelves, but I didn't. I did have J.I. Packer's Knowing God, but I hadn't read that either. I was thinking when I couldn't find Tozer's book that since I don't know the difference I could have just read that and I might have been just as happy. I want to read it yet, but I'm happy for now with the one we're on. Perhaps they're similar. I was sitting and reading Tozer's book last night, and I was thinking, "I bet my pulse is lower, I bet my blood pressure is lower...it's almost like lying in a hammock, the comfort that comes from this book." The verse that came to mind was, "Be still and know that I am God." (Ps. 46:10) I haven't read it through, or read the names of the remaining chapters. Maybe it gets less comfortable as it goes along...
The chapters, now that I look at the Table of Contents, are first, "Why We Must Think Rightly About God," "God Incomprehensible," "A Divine Attribute: Something True About God," "The Holy Trinity," "The Self-Existence of God"...the list goes on. Perhaps my blood pressure will rise again while reading "The Justice of God," or "The Sovereignty of God." All the rest would seem so far to be all the more (do I dare say this of God Himself?) endearing, comforting traits. How incredible it is, that we, having had no say in who should be the great God in charge of the universe, the Creator of everything and the Sustainer of our souls, should, just by the way things are, be given such a perfect, holy, gracious, merciful, wise, infinite God.
Why is it that God is the superlative of all that is good? Why did we not end up with the opposite? I suppose if God had been the opposite, we never would have existed in the first place--or if we had, we would have been destroyed. I can't really even begin to fathom it, and I hope it is because God's goodness has so been ingrained into my thinking about Him that it's hard to imagine Him without it. It should have been! It is hard to imagine any being in charge of the universe that would have designed us without love, without kindness and grace. We couldn't have lived. Life if it could exist would have been too overwhelming, too filled with intense suffering and pain to continue for long. Even for those who in this life do deal with suffering and pain, it isn't meted out by God, but by humanity, by Satan, by the sin of this world. We have a God of the universe to whom we can give all those things, who can redeem us out of them, who will make sure justice is served. All we need to do is turn to Him through His Son in faith. He is our Fortress, our Shield, our Defender, our Provider, our Savior. Therefore the calming influence of Tozer's book; I guess it illustrates that if you want peace, ponder the Prince of Peace. You could pretty much rephrase the verse, "Know I am God, and be still." Hallelujah!

On the Edge of the Fires in California

A week ago I wouldn't have imagined what topics would be coming to mind today. One of the foremost things on my mind in recent days has been the matter of the huge fires in southern California. It's on my mind in large part because Katie is going to school close enough to them that she has gone inside to find ash in her hair; her dorm is permeated with the smell of smoke; and she can see the glow of the fires on the horizon. Whenever I've talked with her she has sounded calm though very aware of the effect it has on hundreds of thousands not very far away. At one point on the phone she was at some viewpoint where she could see the areas that had been burned, and some huge explosion on the horizon that she said must have been an oil refinery. One of her professors and at least six families in the church she's been attending have been evacuated from their homes. That's something that I'd have to experience to fully relate to it. Katie's RA, Jenn, has lost a home to the California fires four years ago exactly, and so this repeat is particularly painful for her.
It's a surreal existence for Katie, living on the edge of lives that have been so marked by it while hers remains somewhat unaffected, still carrying responsibility for classes, homework and all. Her bags are packed in case she needs to leave; she says it would almost be a relief to have to take action one way or another rather than live on the edge of it, going on as before but having the awful reminders of smoke and ash always swirling through her life.
God has provided peace for her, a calm knowledge of His provision. Her sweet friend Haley and she would drive to Haley's grandmother's house an hour away if they had to leave. How great is that, that she already has a backup plan that would be hospitable and even enjoyable--what an incredible luxury of peace and provision!
I talked with my mother yesterday, who doesn't view God in the same way as I do. She called to ask whether Katie was safe at school. After reassuring her that it seemed she was safe, I said at one point that God is good...and she replied, "Yes, but He isn't so good if you're in the middle of a fire." At which point I was able to say that indeed He is. He is! Even in the middle of a searing fire, God is good. I know that if she read the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, she just wouldn't believe it. But it comforts me, sort of like Haley's grandmother's presence, but so much better; in spite of it being so much worse from our end, God's hope is in reality a surer and more lasting provision than Grandma's house. Even if the worst from our perspective were to happen (and of course I pray that it doesn't), our loving God would be right there with Katie and Haley in the midst of it--and He would even then, or especially then, be good, and holy, and loving--and even now they are assured, through faith in Christ, that they have the safest, most hospitable and enjoyable future with Him in the extreme, whether now or years away. That knowledge is peace that surpasses understanding.
Isaiah 43:1-3a.