Fw: your place in history

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

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These days, when you go to the movies, you have to endure twenty minutes of previews or "trailers" of upcoming movies before the feature begins.  In the "old days" at least you were entertained before the main show by a few cartoons (the Roadrunner vs. Wil-e Coyote was my favorite).  But there is a "coming attraction" trailer that none of us should miss because it will directly impact everyone.

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The Bible tells the history of God and man.  When man separated from God by choosing to disobey through yielding to Satan's temptations the challenge of the ages became the restoration of the relationship between God and man.  Sin's curse was placed within the fabric of every person but, also placed within every person was the capacity to recognize God.  The Bible shows the restoration of relationship beginning with a few individuals...Noah, then Abraham, then Isaac, Jacob and then Jacob's sons and their descendants who become the nation of Israel.  What begins with a limited segment of humanity is then promised for all people when Jesus comes the first time.  He is the intersection of God and Man.  Jesus came to create the opportunity for all men to be restored to God.  Ever since Jesus' time on earth all of us have had a chance during our lifetimes to spiritually place our hands on the Cross and accept the payment for our sin.  But just as the Bible story has been a progressive one, moving from a few individuals until it touches every life, so there will be an end to that story.

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The facts will be clear.  The evidence will stand.  The binary reality will be set.  Either people will have received God's gift of restoration through faith in Jesus or they will not.

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Far more than a movie, this is reality.  The events that have rolled since the time of Adam will indeed complete and we see from this "coming attraction" that now is the time to respond to that attraction.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: trust

Psalm 56:

3 When I am afraid,
    I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
    in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
    What can flesh do to me?

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When we are afraid we have come to the end of our control.  Forces that are too strong for us...circumstances that are beyond our comprehension...coming events that are beyond knowing.  It doesn't make sense at those times to trust in ourselves because we are the ones who have the limitations.  It doesn't make sense to trust in others because they neither fully grasp our fears nor have greater power or understanding than we.  (Though others may be a source of comfort and companionship).

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We ought to trust in the one who knows beginning from end.  He has numbered our days already and understands what is happening in our lives and what is about to take place.  He is able to change circumstances, remove enemies and preserve us.

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When God is our friend our enemies are his enemies, so let us pursue that friendship with Him that our trust will result in lasting peace.

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Trust will lead to rest.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: lifespan

Psalm 103:

17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
    and his righteousness to children's children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
    and remember to do his commandments.

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For the most part we focus on our personal lifespans...how to maximize our own lives between the boundaries of birth and death.  We are reminded that God has no such limits.  He is from generation to generation the God who is king of the everlasting domain.  For us, our lives are measured in hours and days and years...in stages such as childhood, education, career, marriage and child rearing, retirement and battling old age.

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But God patiently waits for us to discover the focus that makes Him the center.  He is pouring out love that started with a personal plan for your life and has continued with faithful provision and care...and carrying through the deep waters of difficulty.  He's waiting to see if you've learned to put your hope in the one who was there before you arrived and will be there after the final chapter of your earthly journey.  

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He promises that, if we will return his love and live in obedience to him, our lives will also live on generation to generation as children and grandchildren also come to him in faith.

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Perhaps you, yourselves, are the beneficiary of the obedience of parent or grandparent!

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blessings,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: jailbreak to heaven

Old Testament prophecy

Psalm 68:18 You ascended on high,
    leading a host of captives in your train
    and receiving gifts among men,
even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.

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New Testament fulfillment 

Ephesians 4:

8 Therefore it says,

"When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,

    and he gave gifts to men."

You may never have seen yourself as a captive...but you were!  You were held by strong chains in a darkened dungeon in the lowest place of the remotest castle.  It is how each of us actually begins our lives.  But our chains are our familiar weights, our darkened dungeon the only light and the only room we've known.  Rather than remote...our castle seemed to be the only place...and others shared our location.

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We needed one to come from a different place...from outside our experience and beyond the walls of our dungeon and our castle.  Only he could lead captives like us back to the place he had come from.

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And when he gave us that gift...the gift of awareness that there was light outside the dungeon...that there was hope beyond death...then we knew that there also was a source to the life we had experienced that was also from that place above and beyond our natural experience.   What had been foretold was completed and the captives have been led out of the prison and into his presence.

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Ephesians 4:7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

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blessings with deep gratitude for all whose lives were cut short in sacrifice for my earthly freedom and for the One who purchased my heavenly home,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: the light test

John 3:19 "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."

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It isn't difficult to picture God as Judge.  He sits on a throne and sees all.  And we are very conscious of the things in our hearts, minds and lives that are not right.  We are keenly aware that we are far from perfect.

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We know that we rightly should be judged.  So our first sense of God is the One who knows our wrongs and is bent on punishing us for them.  It's as if we believe God is like a traffic cop hiding in a speed trap and, inevitably...at some point, we will be over the limit and the cop will emerge from the shadows to stop us in our tracks.  We think He's a "Gotcha" kind of God.

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What we don't see is that He is the One who knows our wrongs and is bent on having a close, personal, fully restored relationship...a family relationship...with us with full knowledge that something has to be done about the flaws in our lives.

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And so he sent his son to be an ambassador of love, and much more than that to pay the ransom to rescue us from ourselves!  It all turns on the "light test".  Jesus is the light.  Do we come to him and risk exposing our faults only to find ourselves washed in that light...or do we draw back into the shadows?  -

The judge also is the generous savior.  What is your response to the "light test"?

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blessings,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: The Master's hands

James 1:2 "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

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Consider...if a lump of clay had a nervous system and could feel every prod, squeeze and stretch of the artists hand....and then consider that same lump of clay, now fashioned to display form placed in a kiln and heated to extreme temperatures.  From the point of view of the clay, looking out, there had been nothing but discomfort followed by intense, searing pain (but somehow it survived!).  From the standpoint of the artist the lump of clay had now become a thing of beauty, function and purpose.

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Trials are the hands of God working the clay of your life.  You don't ask for them, don't know where they came from and the apparent result, looking out, is nothing but pain.  But, over time, following the trials you find wisdom, usefulness and a form of beauty emerging from those trials that you could never have developed on your own.  And sometimes you find that your lump of clay can now relate to other lumps of clay that are experiencing the pain of similar trials...and be a source of encouragement and comfort.  

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You are being fashioned in the hands of the Master.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: If...

Romans 8:11 "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."

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So that's a big "if"!  And that's a very big promise!  How can the Spirit of God dwell in us?  Jesus explained to his disciples that it actually would be beneficial for Him to leave, because He would send His Spirit to them personally.  Notice the statement recorded in John 16: 13 "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

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The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now lives within believers and guides them into truth.  We don't have a separate kind of relationship with God where we simply believe in the fact of His reality.  We have an internal, living relationship with God.  Just as He raised Christ, so we have been raised through the miracle of faith and now He dwells within...to guide and deliver and help us walk the path of this life...while we actually are walking the path of eternal life.

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Jesus also expressed it this way: John 14:23 Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

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Our lives become God's home.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: harmony and unity

Romans 15:5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

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What does it take to live in harmony with each other?  We need a God of endurance and encouragement to provide what is needed because we need to endure differences that cause rough edges in our relationships and we need to be proactive to encourage each other despite those differences.  We have to get past comparisons, competitions and confrontations before we can live in harmony.  Harmony isn't sameness...harmony is resonating differences that are pleasing together, just as in music.  Differences that please allow us to glorify God with one voice.

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Our attitude should be first to welcome each other, not to judge or screen out or ignore or be selective before accepting.  Our model is Jesus, who welcomed us unconditionally... and this glorifies God.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: one key to life

Galatians 6:1...Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

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Perhaps there is an antidote to stumbling locked in the passage above. It is difficult to "keep a watch on yourself".  It is hard to be watchful over our own behavior...our own thoughts and our early inclinations to succumb to temptation.  But if our focus is outward and on the needs and cares of others...perhaps we are less likely to fall.

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Just a simple thought for the complex task of managing our daily life!

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blessings,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: power of the Word

1 Peter 1:

23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for

"All flesh is like grass
    and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
    and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever."

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

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There is supernatural power that lives in God's Word.  We know from the Word, itself that it is:

-sharper than a surgeon's scalpel and able to pierce to the place that separates soul and spirit...able to discern the very intentions of the heart

-food...as necessary as bread to feed the soul and awaken the spirit

-instructs us, corrects us, realigns and restores us, guides us in our work and walk

-is sent out by God to accomplish His purposes...and succeeds in that mission

-able to open our eyes to our need for salvation

-His word is characterized as "spirit and life"

-is the fountain of faith...hearing the Word brings faith in the listener

It was God's Word that spoke creation into existence...and each of us is part of that spoken creation.  Jesus is described, Himself, as the Word of God in John 1.  He is the Word that was with the Father in the beginning and was the agent of Creation.  That Word was made flesh and lived among us.  And that Word brings Heaven's power to our flesh.

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When we read the Bible, we are looking into the face of Jesus.  We are hearing His voice.  We are exposed to His penetrating touch.

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And that Word will live on forever!

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blessings,

Rob Smith