Category: judgment

“The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.” (I Peter 4:7-8)

It is exam time at school. The students know the end is near, but as you know, not all prepare. Though a final test is imminent, some decide not to care about such troublesome things. Unfortunately, such thinking often leads to disastrous results.

The apostle wrote, “The end of all things is near…” and we’re closer than those who read the original letter. Is such a word to be taken seriously? Some decide not to care about such troublesome things, but what about the wise?

“Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” In the days before the end, the pleasures and worries of life will cloud the mind and hinder prayer. “Watch and pray,” Jesus warned. “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matt 24:37) “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.” (Luke 21:34)

As Noah had a task to complete before the end of the earth as he knew it, so we have an assignment: “Above all, love each other deeply…” The apostle Paul makes an amazing statement: “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Gal 5:6) Jesus knew the enemy would attack faith and quench love as the end approaches. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”(Luke 18:8) “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matt 24:12-13)

So here’s my ending encouragement at the close of a school year: Stand firm. Be self-controlled and alert… and pray. Grow in faith… and love all those around you.

Once again, I thank you for the love you’ve shown me and my family. Have a great summer!

A friend, who just arrived last week from the south African country of Namibia, talked with many of our students who have expressed a desire to be involved in missions. After the meeting, John said to me, “I’m sorry if I came across too direct. I always feel sorry for the first group I talk to after getting back in the states.” Half of the orphans he and his mission team work with are HIV positive. They bury kids almost every week. Living among the poor and hurting makes re-entry into our wealthy land initially disturbing. I think we need to hear his jolting questions and piercing statements. “What are you doing now? Do you know Christ and does that make a difference in your life? Do you serve the poor here in the states? Do you care about the lost where you live? Do people see Christ in you? What makes you think you’ll be any different if you go live in a foreign land? You won’t! Serve the poor now. Share Christ now. Live Christ now. Wherever you live… be a missionary now. Don’t wait for some trip or some moment later in time.”

As Jesus walked the earth, He often made jolting statements: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of God in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’” “If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.” “Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.”

No wonder Jesus was despised and rejected. No wonder people turned away. No wonder He was crucified! Jesus was angry about the things that made His Father angry. He jolted those that needed to wake up. He offended those whose hearts were hard. “One of the experts of the law answered him, ‘Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.’ Jesus replied, ‘And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them…’” (see Luke 11:37-54) People might accuse Jesus of being insensitive, but we know He only proclaimed what the Father of love wanted said. None of those listeners will stand at the judgment and say, “Lord, why didn’t you tell us what you saw?”

So what about today? Is our generation a righteous one? Has this world become good? Do the people of God practice what they preach? Do wealthy Christians in the western world have responsibility to the sixth of the world living in poverty? Is it God’s will that 100,000 people die every day without hearing Christ’s Name? The Living Word still jolts. May we recognize what God says to us and not turn away. May we be confident that a God of love speaks truth to listening ears and the Holy Spirit convicts humble hearts.

But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold to our courage and the hope of which we boast. So as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” Hebrews 3:6-15

Yesterday I was examined. My blood was examined; my bones were examined; even my bone marrow was examined. In a couple of weeks, the doctor will share the results of all these tests. One thing I can count on: He will be honest.

The Holy Spirit tells us to examine ourselves. Surely this is to be uncomplicated. Have I put my faith in Jesus? Does He rule in my heart? Do I live in a way that shows I belong to God? Do I love my fellow man?

It is critical that I am honest. If I see that I am God’s child, I can rejoice as I press on to run the race before me. If I honestly conclude I am not in the faith there is a simple, but urgent solution: Run to Jesus. He is the Author and Perfector of faith. He alone can take me to the Father. He will give me a new heart and a new spirit which will result in a life of obedience and love.

The letter of I John speaks of these important matters. This a section of the third chapter from the Message: “People conceived and brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here’s how you tell the difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children: The one who won’t practice righteous ways isn’t from God, nor is the one who won’t love his brother or sister. A simple test. The way we know we have been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn’t love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don’t go together. This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see your brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the only way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit He gave us.”

“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?” II Corinthians 13:5

In November of 2001, my mom’s mother passed away. She was 94. This past Sunday, on Mother’s Day, my dad’s mom died. She was 103. What a blessing to have grandparents live such full lives. Had they not lived, I would not have lived. “Precious memories… how they linger… how they ever flood my soul.”

As we age, it becomes more and more evident that these bodies are not made to last forever. At the funeral home this week, it was exciting to think of the “new bodies” that will come to those who are in Christ. Jesus, Himself, received such a resurrection body when He rose on the third day, and the Scripture says we will be like Him. Such a body will be full of power and glory. It will never perish.

I Corinthians 15 is an incredible chapter about the resurrection of Christ and what it means to us. Though I don’t understand all Paul discusses, I do gain great hope. Here are a few thoughts from this chapter:

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body…

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body…

As was the earthly man (Adam), so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven (Jesus), so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

So I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will be true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. I Corithians 15:36-58

Three years ago this August the doctor told us I had cancer. As he talked about starting treatment immediately, I asked what I considered to be a pretty good question: “What if I don’t do anything?” The answer was rather sobering: “You’ll have about three months to live.” The doctor could have put it this way: “You shall surely perish.”

We don’t use the word “perish” too often (unless we’re talking about fruit), but it was a common word for Jesus and His spokesmen. “Unless you repent, you will perish.” I wonder if such words were as powerful to Jesus’ listeners as my doctor’s message was to me. If the Word of the Lord went forth today saying, “Time is short! Repent or perish!”, I wonder what people would say.

I don’t guess I need to wonder what people would say, we know. “Quit trying to scare us with such nonsense! Alarmists have said ‘the end is near’ for generations, but time goes on.” What brings a response to a hard message? I only went through chemotherapy because I believed I had cancer, perhaps repentance only comes when someone believes there is a need.

I started to write that the most important thing is “what one believes”, but such a statement falls short. The most important thing is “what is true”. People may argue with the notion that time is short, but what is true? None of us have a guarantee of tomorrow. None of us know our final hour. The important matter is this: Do I need to repent? God wants me to know the truth. May we seek His face.

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this coming he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heaven existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance. II Peter 2:3-9