Following Jesus Son of God …

My friend TC.

He smiled and said, “You better.”

“You better.”  Tom’s reply when I asked him if I could pray with him.  And then I smiled and four hours later … still smiling.

A brief friendship …
I haven’t know TC for very long, but I have a very strong feeling that he did this often, made people smile, that is.  And not just a passing crease on our face that is there and then gone like a wisp.  But a smile that resonates, keeps smiling even hours later, keeps tickling your funny bone, deep down, as it happens when someone marks your life deeply with a genuine kindness.  Smiling like I am now, hours after his reply, and color me sentimental but I am still warmed by that smile that almost imperceptibly drew itself over the features of his face.  Strictly speaking, this was a weak smile, frail, no hardy “ha, ha, ha” laughter accompanying it.

But as I looked at him lying in that hospital bed, I saw strength not weakness.  That thin brush stroke of a smile was painted over the canvas of a life that had been ninety-eight years in the making.  Powerful indeed.

I didn’t mention yet, have I, that Tom is dying.  How could I leave that out?  Actually, by the time I write this he may have left this world for the kingdom of heaven.

So that is kind of the thing.
Tom was dying but he wasn’t.  Physically his life on the planet has been shortened to hours, maybe minutes.  Maybe gone.  But if you had seen Tom as I did, you would know that this man was not dying.

“Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord!  What joy!  What joy!”

Not the words of a dying man …
Doesn’t sound like the words of a dying man to me.  He had such great anticipation of seeing his God and King that I was ready to go with him.  In fact I joked, “Tom, I am so excited.  Maybe I could go with you?”  His response, “What joy, what joy!”

Another smile.  His.  And then another.  Mine.  And another.  Me again.

• John 11:25–26 (NIV84)
  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Tom believes it and so did my mom …
He does.  He believes it.  Even though he dies, whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  “Die … nah!  I’m just about to really live.”  The last time I felt the presence of God so strongly around the time of the death of one of God’s saints was when my own mom died in a car accident minutes after leaving our house ten years ago.  Great sadness but great joy.  And the presence of God was so real and strong that it seemed our Lord had sent a personal escort to bring his servant to himself.

Precious. 
Life lived for God.  Check.  The breath of God all around as this precious saint leaves Earth for the glory of God and heaven.

Thanks, Tom, for looking death in the face and seeing life.  The life of Jesus.  That is what I keep seeing in that smile of yours.

• Psalm 116:15 (NIV84)
  Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

Tom, I’m not sure but I thought I saw quite an entourage parking a chariot somewhere around 8th Avenue.  Okay, so I didn’t really see anyone parking a chariot, but I know they were there.  I could see it all over your face.

See you later, friend!

Don’t you know?  
If you have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation, then your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

• 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (GW)
  Don’t you know that your body is a temple that belongs to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, whom you received from God, lives in you. You don’t belong to yourselves. ²⁰ You were bought for a price. So bring glory to God in the way you use your body.

I have to admit that I must answer “yes” and “no.”  I mean I know; I really do.  But what a concept – God living in me.  Here is how I know this to be true and how I can accept it to be true.

I believe without qualification what God says in his “Book” …
Because of my unwavering belief in the truthfulness of God in his book, the Holy Bible. This is the only way that I could believe something such as this to be true, something so beyond my human comprehension.

I believe this to be true and accept it to be a part of my life because my God tells me this is what he has done when I came to believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and received his gift of eternal life.

The John 3:16 “package” …
This is one of the many-splendored aspects of the John 3:16 “package,” the gift of eternal life.  Allow this same Holy Spirit to teach us as he unwraps the gift and be amazed.  And fall down and worship.  And serve.

We must remember that we are holy temples because of God, what he has done, the righteousness that he gives us through Jesus Christ.

Not because of who we are and what we have done.

Remember the filthy rags … 

Let’s listen as Isaiah describes our goodness before we came to know Christ.

• Isaiah 64:6 (NIV84)
  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.

We stray from God’s course of righteousness and choose our own standards of what is right and wrong.  Often building our man-made excursions into the holy right on top of God’s words.  So it must be okay, right?

Of course it is not okay because we have forgotten why the temple is holy and what the “temple” was before God brought his presence into our lives.

Before God:  Filthy rags.

After trust in Christ:  Holy temple.

Here is how we remember:
When we do whatever we do apart from God, it is filthy rags.  No exceptions. The works we perform and the standards we set won’t seem like filthy rags to us. Other like-minded people will not tell us they are filthy rags because they, as we, are blind to this particular affliction.  The self-righteous person does not typically identify himself or herself as self-righteous …  Unless they are bowing before God confessing their sin of self-righteousness.

• John 15:5 (NIV84)
  I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

We will not know unless God is in the room and we are bowed before him listening with repentant hearts.  Clean hands before a holy God.

So I desperately need God speaking to me in both of these areas of truth.

Holy temples and filthy rags.

Just think.  The Holy Spirit now lives in us because Jesus Christ paid the price of admission.  Glory to God as in his love he has entered the “temple of the filthy rags” and made it a dwelling place for himself.

This thought is a treasure to me:  I am bought and paid for by the Lord and King of the universe.  Once again I bow in worship and awe before my God and my King!

For those of you who may be interested, here is the finished product from church last week.  Sung at World Gospel Church in Terre Haute, Indiana.  If you had seen any of my previous practice runs shown on the blog, thought you might want to view.

You won’t see all the video on the big screen but there were Scriptures speaking to the salvation of Christ at both the beginning and end.

• I was and still am and always will be captured by the magnificence of God and his ways.  All the noise, chatter and millions of words we offer to explain what is necessary and most important, but God speaks clearly to our need.

Two words!

One of them a name!

Jesus Saves!

• Philippians 2:9–11 (NASB95)
  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I think I hear your “Amen!”

It’s not always “the world” that’s the Christian’s greatest struggle.  Sometimes it is the classic – “We have found the enemy and they is us.”

• “… to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men (Titus 3:2 NAS).
• Malign:  to injure by speaking ill of; malign suggests specific and often subtle misrepresentation but may not always imply deliberate lying (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition).

Sometimes I think I’m the world’s greatest cynic.  (Not really but I think you know what I’m saying.)  And sometimes I do wonder if I sound like Pollyanna.

Because this seems so simple.

Don’t talk bad about each other.  Don’t try to hurt someone with your words, even if they did hurt you, even if they “deserve it.”

• The Cynic:  Like that’s going to happen.
• Pollyanna:  Oh, what our world would be like if only we could listen to Jesus and be nice to everyone.
• The Cynic:  Live in the real world, Sweetheart.

We say …
But it really is this simple.  We say we believe in the Word of God, inspired, infallible, inerrant, God-breathed and all.

That’s what we say …
But when we bump these simple eternal truths aside for real world living, then what are we truly saying?  God’s word only takes you so far on the journey.

And that certainly has an element of truth because God’s truth will not always take us where we want to go but without fail will take us where God wants us to go.

And here is the echo I heard in the room as I wrote this:  “… holding to a form of godliness.”

• 2 Timothy 3:5 (NASB95)
  … holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

So I’m asking:  Whose journey are we on?

Because the journey, what we have our sights set on, determines whether or not we follow Jesus Christ and trust his words …

Or we just hold to a form …

And, yes, I’m talking to you, Mr. Real World Theology.  Whose journey are you on?

So, I am going to wander along with Pollyanna for a minute or two and wonder.  What would our world be like if we took these few words and tested them in our real worlds.  Or maybe scale it back from the world and ask.  Christian, what would our church be like if we lived these few simple words that Paul wrote to Timothy.

• “… to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men (Titus 3:2 NAS).

Maybe it helps to bullet the main points:

• Malign no one
• Be peaceable
• Gentle
• Showing every consideration for all people

So a couple more questions:

1. Who makes the rules for this world?
2. Who makes the rules that stand for eternity?

I’m going with Pollyanna … And Paul and Titus and God.

On God’s journey, on the path of Jesus, maligning someone, speaking of them in a way to harm, no matter how subtle the misrepresentation, is sin.

The classic may be when the arrow is introduced with this little dilly:  “I am so concerned about so and so …”

Bringing glory to God to life (mine and yours) …
Let me suggest a definite way that we can bring glory to God:  Letting his words constrain and direct our words and thoughts.  Bow to God by bowing to his words and watch the transformation as you the clay jar move from the abstract, from the conception of bringing your Savior glory, to a genuine, bonafide reflection of Jesus Savior Redeemer in your daily routine.

That’s what I’m talking about.

First listening to God, not just reading the Bible, but hearing the Holy Spirit of God who is living in you if indeed you have eternal life in Christ, and then honoring God by following the truth of words that may or may not make sense to your “real world view” of God’s world.

It’s called faith.  It’s called trust.  It’s called God really is as wise as I proclaim him to be.

It’s called glory to God!

“Malign no one.”

It’s not just Christian Kool-aid; it’s the word and promise of God.

• Romans 8:28
  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

The problem with getting our own way is getting our own way.

Get it?

Getting our own way, considering who is doing the deciding – and, yes, I’m talking about you (and me) – is not the great idea that it may initially seem to be.  It’s his purpose God is working toward, not mine.  And that is a good thing.  A very good thing.

Let’s think about this for a minute, turning around what we consider to be a very negative obstacle – not getting our own way, whether on the job, school, with our family or friends – into a refreshing bit of perspective.

Let me share some helpers:

1) No rose-tinted glasses allowed.
Learn to appreciate the times when things do not go your way.  When things go sideways and we are hurt and discouraged or just plain angry, then these are times when we trust God and it means something.  Pretending that we are okay when we are not only means that we are getting better at pretending and worse at looking for truth.

If we always run from the sadness and pain, we will never see Jesus waiting to carry us along.

2) No drinking the cliche Kool-aid.
When you do not get your way, face your frustration or sadness or anger honestly.  We cannot drink in truth if our actions are driven by dishonesty.  Even if we are quoting Bible verses along the way.  We are not hiding these words of God in our heart at these times; we are merely installing a ring of defense with our denial.  Hiding in our denial, we distance ourselves from Christ with this protective, human-made layer around our heart.  We haven’t dealt with reality; we have run from it.

3) Pretend you are in control.
Scary thought indeed.  What would happen if you were doing all the deciding?  I’m serious.  Do any of us think that we really know how all of this should work out?  We all have good ideas.  (At least most of us do.)  But we don’t have them all.  What would your world look like if you really always “got your own way.”

4) Expect to draw closer to God in the middle of your struggle.
Remember to bow before God.  Now that we have stepped away from the Kool-aid pitcher and are looking at the reality of life, both wonderful and horrible, know that we only see clearly in moments of great pain from God’s throne room.  When I allow God to speak to me in my frustration and/or anger and/or sadness, I worship.  And from a position of being bowed low before God I trust him as I never have.  I, in fact, do trust him with my life.

• Psalm 73:16–17 (GW)
  But when I tried to understand this, it was too difficult for me.  ¹⁷ Only when I came into God’s holy place did I finally understand what would happen to them.

5) Know that no one ever really gets their own way, not always.

There is always some person, or group of people, to “throw a stick in our spokes.”  Look at some of the relatively recent upheavals in countries with strong-armed leadership.  Moammar Gaddafi comes to mind.  It seemed he got his own way in everything but his last moments on this Earth were spent begging for his life.

* My greatest blessing in not getting my own way.
The greatest blessing that God has given me as I trust him when things do not go my way is a powerful, sincere satisfaction that he is in control and I am not, and it fills me with his peace that extends beyond my life circumstances and this world.  I embrace his purpose for my life and this world.

• Romans 11:33–36
  God’s riches, wisdom, and knowledge are so deep that it is impossible to explain his decisions or to understand his ways.  34 “Who knows how the Lord thinks?  Who can become his adviser?”  35 Who gave the Lord something which the Lord must pay back?  36 Everything is from him and by him and for him. Glory belongs to him forever! Amen!

What we cannot do per this text:

•   Explain God’s decisions or understand his ways.
•   Know how the Lord thinks.
•   Become God’s adviser.
•   Make God indebted to us.

What we can and should do:

• Acknowledge that it is all God – from him, by him and for him.
• Give him glory.
• Bow low before his throne with “Amen.”

My life has been one of great joy and great anguish, at times it seems both amazing and tragic.  I have gone through periods where I could barely stand to have the phone ring.  What sadness or hurt is waiting on the other end?

But I have amazing joy and complete trust in God and his sovereign ways in the affairs of people in general and my life specifically.  I trust him with my life and the planet.

God doesn’t promise to answer why these things happen, but he will answer who – Jesus Christ.  A God who is there; a God who cares; a God who is King and Savior.  He answers the enigma of life with the person and presence of Christ.

And all I can say is:  Amen!

I wish I could communicate “another world” to many people I know and love, at least that is how the thought came to me one day at work. Life with God I mean.

Whether it would be communicating this to my two youngest sons who don’t realize what they are missing as they live in a world where God is barely a conscious thought, or whether it would be communicating this to many of the people who fill the pews every Sunday but are distant to God because their religion and daily walk keep him at arms length, not realizing what they are missing with their words-only Christianity, not having experienced the love and presence of God because they have kept their hearts at a distance.

God is there …
In the world I wish that I could communicate, God is real no matter our circumstances. He is there, not just in concept or memory, but there there, the living, breathing God of the universe involved in my life. And in that world, I can go to God anytime for what I need, which so very often is mercy and grace to help me along the way.

He died and lived for us …
He actually welcomes my approach.  He understands the enormity of the task of life here, the pain of the road. We must not forget that he not only died for us but he lived for us. For over thirty years he lived as one of us.  He knows the great mix of pain and joy as a human occupant of the planet.

Beyond the horizon and in front of my face …
In the other world, a person spends a bit of time also looking beyond the horizon knowing that life is more than what we see. In this world of God, life is the moment and forever at the same time.

God’s world has to fit their world  …
Many are confused when about the reality of the other world because they do not live in view of both worlds.  Their religion or philosophy or opinion or whatever they wish to label it is tethered to earth.  These confused souls speak of “the real world” as opposed to the world God describes.  Their religion doesn’t allow them to bow before a God who rules every kingdom.  God’s world has to fit their world.  Ain’t gonna’ happen, bro.

The irony of the “real world” …
Think how ironic that is. If the world, as we perceive it, is “the real world,” then what is the world as described for thousands of years in God’s holy book? Not real? Pretend? Good to a point and then we have to take over?  Do we see the irony?  We decide what is most real.  We’ve been around a few decades and we know better than the eternal God?  Really?

But even possibly more astounding are professing Christians who, in their “real world,” consider certain things vital, like lying for the greater good, misinterpreting the words of God for the sake of our agendas, misrepresenting the church budget so people will still give their money, using good business sense when faith doesn’t seem to be panning out.

We’ll stop there as this list is long and dark.

Yes, I think I’ll stay with the other world, the one about which God writes that:

• loving God and loving our neighbor are not pushed aside for theology or agendas
• forgiveness and mercy and grace mean something and always will
• the life I live at this moment in view of eternity will make a statement of God’s glory before heaven’s throne

Praise you, Mighty God!

One last thought: To live in this world of God demands huge resources.

Just like any expedition or adventure, you have to have adequate supplies. And how unique is this journey? We need provision for each day of our lives, and, then, when we expire here we need resources that continue forever. We can’t arrive at the threshold of eternity having exhausted our resources.

Jesus did pay it all …
So what a sigh of relief as we realize that we have everything we need in Jesus Christ. Included in God’s offer of eternal life is abundant provision for each day of life on this Earth that continues when I cross the horizon to eternity.  Jesus paid it all as he shed his blood in full payment for our sins.

Jesus chose death so we could choose life.

So in Jesus Christ I live now and forever in the presence of God.

I like God’s world better.

• Luke 19:10 (ESV)
  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

This is somewhat what I am going to do on October 30; I put a previous recording of Jesus Saves under the audio that I recently did for the video introduction.

If you were curious as to how my “project” was going to sound, then this gives you an idea as to how it will go.  However when I do it live, there will be no synthesizer or special effects after the intro.

Even as I work on this project, the contrast grabs my attention.

• All the voices of personal opinion, religion, philosophy …
• An explosion of technology and information yielding billions of words …
• But here are the two words every person on the planet needs to hear …

Jesus Saves …
Think about the power of this and the wisdom of God.  Two words, one of them a name.

• Philippians 2:9–11
  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I think I’ll take a minute and worship.

Jesus Saves complete with AUDIO old version FOR VIDEO 102011

Scroll down for video; I revised video this evening; much better audio I think.

Millions of voices it seems but we need hear only one – Our Creator and Redeemer.

And we need to answer one question – What must I do to be saved?

If you didn’t see the previous explanation, this is a video introducing my arrangement of Jesus Saves which I plan to sing at World Gospel Church on October 30.  I come in with keyboard and vocals about midway through.

The contrast I try to make is this:  Who do we listen to for the questions or question of life?  Are we overwhelmed with the current flood of information and everyone speaking?  Or does God hush the world around us and speak his words to us?

Contrast:  Thousands of words coming from the occupants of the planet?  Or two words coming from the mouth of God?

Jesus Saves!

I plan to record and upload the entire project maybe within a couple weeks.