Tag: freedom

3rd Heaven

What do you look forward to most about Heaven?  This was the question posed during an opening devotional at a business meeting last week.  Answers ranged from, “I don’t think about Heaven very much – I don’t think I get it and so I just trust” and “I’m ashamed to say, I’ve had thoughts in the past about the continuous chanting and it worries me – will I be bored there?” to “I look forward to reuniting with loved ones” and “I’m looking forward to seeing Jesus face-to-face.”

As we prepared to consider business here on Earth the scripture reading for the devotional was from Colossians 3:2, ‘Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.’  The discussion was Heaven.  The issue, we all agreed, was that we should be thinking about heaven more.  

What do you look forward to most about Heaven?

Have you ever been reading a book, listening to a sermon, or on your knees in prayer and been completely overwhelmed with a flood of emotion to commit everything to the LORD?  This is the time, I want to let go of everything I want and give it all to the LORD, I’m done with doing it my way, I always mess everything up, I want to rest and trust the LORD with everything: every moment, every thought, every desire.  

Expressing this feeling in words is challenging.  Perfect freedom.  Perfect trust.  Perfect peace.  If I’ve gotten close at all you may be recalling your own testimony of how you came to Christ or a renewed commitment to Christ along the way.  This feeling, in my estimation, is as good as it gets this side of life’s great divide.  

However, for me, this feeling is all too shortly followed by a failure.  My flesh realizes a victory as I choose, say, entertainment over time in the Word, etc.  

Still, If even for a brief moment, that feeling touches my soul as if to say, ‘this is what you were created for.”  I can not wait to be done with the fight against the flesh.  Until then, and through the power of the Spirit, we fight the good fight.

God would You bless us with more and more freedom from self as we wait on You?  Please be gentle with us LORD.  May our souls find rest in You.  Amen.  

Psalm 27:13-14
13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

Today’s reading: James 5 and Psalm 27

 

Sources for study on Heaven:

Sources for study on eternal rewards:

Vacation

long lakeJudges 18; Acts 22; Jeremiah 32; Psalms 1–2

Today, I sit atop a hill overlooking a beautiful lake in Northern Minnesota. Despite my surroundings, there is a risk that I waste my vacation. You see, I have a tendency to bury myself in activities that occupy my mind and consume my time.  Ironically, these are the same distractions that I find at home. In the end, they are pointless and unfulfilling. How then, do I overcome my tendency to escape life and replace it with a fruitful vacation? Today’s scripture provides the answer. Psalm 1 invites me to spend my time pursuing God. One step in doing so is to,

delight in the law of the Lord, and on his law, meditate day and night. (Psalms 1:2)

Instead of using my week to escape reality through books, television and the internet, I am choosing to spend some time delighting in the laws of the Lord.

  • Reflection

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,my shield, and the horn of my salvation,my stronghold and my refuge,my savior; you save me from violence.I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,and I am saved from my enemies. (2 Samuel 22:2-4)

  • Beauty

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)

  • Silence

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalms 46:10)

  • Gratitude

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

As I connect deeper with the word of God, I find refreshment, restoration, and, yes, vacation.

Breaking The Rules

Leviticus 14; Psalm 17; Proverbs 28; 2 Thessalonians 2

Don’t tell me what to think or do!

Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.-Proverbs 28:14

I was never one that could follow instructions very well. If I had to read them, forget it, I never did. From my earliest memories the way I went through life was to do as I pleased. If I had to figure something out, I just jumped in usually failing. One thing I was really good at was taking things apart. The putting back together part, not so much.

“How did that all work out?” You might ask. Honestly, in some ways very well. I learned self reliance, how to adapt and innovate. I was a creative type and received some attention for that too. But that’s where the story turns. You see for me, and perhaps all of us, despite my independent spirit, I needed something more. I was searching for truth. Within my heart was the need to worship God, but even in the absence of God I was still made to worship something.

Without God, my purposes were self directed. Born to be a rule breaker, the idea of law to me was more like a game or a puzzle than something to take seriously. Discipline was a disruption to the freedom of my rebellious spirit.

Since I didn’t really know God, I was missing the point of it all. Surprisingly life really wasn’t about me, it was about God and other people. When I came to this understanding I wanted to know who God really was, and in that exploration, I came to know that God was Holy. Everything about God was above us. He was set apart and pure — flawless in goodness and righteousness.

To have fellowship with a holy God I needed purification because of my unholiness. For the Israelites this sanctification came from ritual sacrifice. And all the ritual sacrifice prescribed in the law of the Old Testament demonstrated how far from God even His chosen people were. There was intentional and unintentional sin. Even the the need for purification from contact with anything or anyone that was “unclean.” God’s ways were above ours and it was impossible to earn the right to have fellowship with God. Stay with me now.

When I was introduced to the idea of grace through faith, things started to change. I came to see God’s law as a representation of who He was compared to who I was. It wasn’t possible to earn my way back to God. If I was to be restored to fellowship with God that existed before sin came into the world, I needed grace — the grace that God poured out on the world through the blood of Jesus. Reconciliation with God was offered to everyone by grace, through faith. The righteousness through faith that Abraham received (Romans 4:13) was the same thing offered to me and all creation through Jesus. This was the freedom I was looking for and it came from love, not from following rules.

Eventually I understood the law for what it was which wasn’t just following a bunch of rules (important as they are). We are called to pursue holiness in the power of God’s Holy Spirit. We are called to follow the righteous path which turned out to be the path back to the God who had already restored me in fellowship. It was the path of love. As God loved me I was supposed to love others as I loved myself. I was supposed to seek God first in all things. This was the actual path to God that I could walk in freedom and in truth.

The Bible is the story of how God in the flesh reconciled the judgement of the law with the power of grace. It was in His sacrifice that God demonstrated His love of the world and by which he perfected His creation. In this transaction, God for man, he allowed us to be united with God, by Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. -John 3:16

God please make me whole. Restore me to your perfect will in the knowledge of your love and grace, by faith and through the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.