Yet another grave!

Yesterday I stood next to yet another grave and spoke those words ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ as we laid the body of my father in law in the ground. Grief has become a familiar friend. I did not sob, but I felt a kind of confusion; torn by mixed emotions. I believe Dad Catalano lives on, in the Presence of God. I am, none the less, left with loss. My grief is tinged with anger – “why must life be sad?” - too. There is an echo of Eden in all of us. We sense that life is not all it should be, don’t we?  I find that death provokes anger in many people.

We find it in the Bible! John tells us that when Lazarus died, Mary and Martha became furious. Their question “Why?”  They turned to their Friend and in a tone of accusation wondered why He did not come to save their brother. (John 11)   Jesus’ tears at the tomb were not just sorrow at the loss of his friend. John tells us that He was ‘deeply moved and troubled,’  words that indicate more than just sadness.  Jesus was angry, too!  Death was an offense, the result of sin.  Paul, too, makes no peace with death as something natural. He calls death ‘the last enemy.’   "Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death." (1 Corinthians 15:24-26, NLT)

Christians may join Dylan Thomas in ”rage against the dying of the light” but we do not join Shakespeare in despair!  The poet put these words in the mouth of Macbeth after he heard of the death of his queen. “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”  We cannot read those lines without feeling the complete despair that death brings to so many who have no reason to hope. But, in Christ, we have GREAT hope.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ changes the story of humanity.  “In Adam all die,”  the Word says, but “in Christ all will be made alive.”  (1 Corinthians 15:22)  Our bodies will perish, part of this world, but we will live.  What does this mean?  It is not just for funerals. It is not just an idea to be remembered in cemeteries.  The hope of the Resurrection creates a whole new way of living now.  Look at this verse.  "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4, NIV)  

My anger is real but it is tempered by my hope. I take the Scripture’s promise to heart and find peace. Here is what the Spirit teaches us.  Our RICHEST portion of “life” is secreted away with Christ, held secure by God Himself. Ponder that!  We exist for something more than getting our food for another day,  going to work on Monday morning to make more money, or finding some pleasurable moment.  Our life is even more than the experiences of the joy of family or laughter with friends as sweet as those things can be.  Our true life is a gift of God and it will only fully appear when Christ’s Kingdom is fully revealed at His coming.  Faith allows us to own that life and to taste it now, but only then will we know what God planned for us all along.  

Does the hope of knowing eternal life - the amazing life with no darkness, no disappointment, none of the limits that sin has imposed on this world;  draw you into godly hope, real joy, and out of anger? The promise of that secret life kept in Heaven for us will change us.   

Here is the word from the Word.  May the Spirit make it a living truth for those of us who live in a dying world.
"It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being. … If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have! … Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. " (Matthew 6:21, 23, 33, The Message)

_____________

Beulah land, I’m longing for you

And someday, on thee I’ll stand

Where my home shall be eternal

Beulah land, sweet Beulah land

I’m kind of homesick for a country

Where I’ve never been before

No sad goodbyes will there be spoken

For time won’t matter anymore

I’m looking now across the river

Where my faith is gonna end in sight

There’s just a few more days to labor

And then I’ll take my heavenly flight

Where my home shall be eternal

Beulah land, sweet Beulah land

Playing church?

Remember when you were a child and you played at some role?  Dad bought me an old car to run in our farm fields when I was about 13. Gunning that little Plymouth Valiant around the dirt oval in made, I could pretend I was leading the field in a big race. As the tires spun, dirt flew, the engine raced,  I ‘saw’ challengers for first place on my bumper. My pulse raced and I was at Daytona. What fun! But, actually I was  just a kid, in an old car, doing about 35 MPH in a farm field by himself. Dale Earnhardt Jr. would laugh at my pretend races, wouldn’t he?  Real life is much more complicated than we could imagine as a child.

Let me ask a pointed question for your consideration – are you truly engaged in Christian discipleship or are you just playing church?

Real spiritual need exists all around us; yes, even in our homes and our own hearts. A dress-up, playing at religion kind of “Christianity” cannot address those issues with the power of the Spirit.  We need to be engaged with God, doing the daily disciplines, opening our hearts to His Spirit, learning His ways so that we can do more than offer platitudes to those who are lost, to those who are slaves to their sin, to those who are struggling to find a way to make it to tomorrow.

Jesus, just prior to His Ascension, told that little band of followers that they were not ready to go just yet. "Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. … But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:4,8, NLT)  He knew they needed more than a good story, more than an ability to imitate what they had seen Him do. They needed to be changed from the inside out, full of God’s Spirit. They waited expectantly, praying daily, wanting all that God had prepared for them so that they could fulfill the Great Mission of changing the world!

Do you? Do I? Are we expecting the Spirit’s to empower, ready to let Him lead us to real maturity, to equip us to go beyond playing at church and to become the people of God that confront evil with the Gospel of salvation?

We cannot work it up, sing songs loudly to make it happen, or bring in a preacher for a revival!  Spirit renewal begins with hunger, real desire for God, and rests on our faith to receive.  A man with a huge need came to Jesus one day. Look at the interaction.  

"As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.” Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.” “Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.” Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well." (Matthew 8:5-13, The Message)

The religious people that Jesus knew were so used to the forms and the words of faith, they had lost the reality. They were playing at it. The Roman captain believed Him, trusted His power, and his faith found an answer. Let’s take a look at our forms, our songs, our prayers to see if they have become like the lines of a play to us; things we have learned to say but no longer really believe. If we find we are just pretending, how about we go back to God to wait, to ask, and pray for a renewal of faith that actually connects us with the powerful Presence of the Holy Spirit?

Here is a word from the Word. "The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you." (Luke 17:5-6, NIV) Don’t try to ‘understand’ or explain His words. Just receive them, believe them, and live them.

Lord, awaken us to the need.
Show us Your power.
Lead us to deep, mature faith that is ready to do Kingdom work.

Amen

Trading a tent for a house

There are those who love camping. They leave their houses – compete with comfortable beds, air conditioning, and bathrooms - to live in a tent where they can experience all those wonderful things like insects, sleeping bags, and campfire meals. It remains a mystery to me why that is fun though I’m sure a few of you will write to try to explain it.  I joke that my idea of camping involves a 40 feet motorhome. For all of you who will live in tents this Summer, I say, “Enjoy!”

Bob (my father in law) moved out of his tent and into his eternal home yesterday.  Sunday evening I sat alongside the bed as he lay dying. It is brutally hard to watch those final breaths, to stand so close to the harsh, cruel reality of death. As the body struggles and that spark of “life” mysteriously leaves, the face of that person we love becomes almost unrecognizable. Yes, once again, our family is dealing with death, but we do not grieve as those who have no hope.  Our understanding, though incomplete, is informed by the inspired Word.  St. Paul uses the tent and house metaphor to explain our dying. "For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands." (2 Corinthians 5:1, NLT)  Dad left this campground and went home, the Bible says.

My daughter texted me this morning thanking God for the hope that sustains us, wondering how those without faith endure the loss. I, too, am so grateful that I know hope that envelopes the sorrow.  The full context of Paul’s words about the Christian hope is rich with encouragement for our daily choices in life. I read this passage this morning drawing deeply on words of assurance. Share that hope as you read God’s Word to us.

"We have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. . . . Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 4:13-5:6, NLT)

Are you trying to hold onto things that are only a part of this present existence? Is your life built on the things you own, the health or beauty of your body, the work you do?  Then, you are destined for despair because eventually each of those ‘treasures’ will be taken away. We should enjoy the opportunity to have families, to build homes, to be part of the commerce of the world. Choosing a healthy lifestyle is a way to honor God and care for the body we have for our journey through time, but … without a fixed point of reference in eternity is all just futility. Solomon calls it ‘chasing the wind!’  Jesus taught us to ‘lay up treasure in Heaven’ our eternal home because what we invest there survives our last breath.  Mysterious? Sure is!  Truth? Yes, and words around which we should shape each day of this brief sojourn.

We are eventually going to fold up our tent to leave Campground Earth. On that day, I will be going home. What about you?  Jesus said “Don’t let this throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live." (John 14:1-3, The Message)  We don’t go there because we are good enough, but because His is perfect, and His grace amazing.

Have you trusted Him to forgive your sins, to restore your relationship with the Father?
Are you loving Him today, doing His will?

Then, take heart and hope.

Here is a word from the Word.  Live in the promise! "Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.” (Titus 3:3-7, NLT)

Enjoy your home, Dad. I can only imagine (and even that is limited) the delight of the Presence of God, the fullness of joy into which you emerged as you left your tent behind.

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I Can Only Imagine

I can only imagine

What it will be like

When I walk by Your side

I can only imagine

What my eyes will see

When Your face is before me

I can only imagine

Surrounded by Your glory

What will my heart feel

Will I dance for You Jesus

Or in awe of You be still

Will I stand in Your presence

Or to my knees will I fall

Will I sing hallelujah

Will I be able to speak at all

I can only imagine

I can only imagine

I can only imagine

When that day comes

And I find myself standing in the Son

I can only imagine

When all I will do

Is forever forever worship You

I can only imagine

I can only imagine

Surrounded by Your glory

What will my heart feel

Will I dance for You Jesus

Or in awe of You be still

Will I stand in Your presence

Or to my knees will I fall

Will I sing hallelujah

Will I be able to speak at all

I can only imagine yeah

I can only imagine

Bart Millard

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