Eternal Hope

Have you ever thought about what happens next? Ever wonder what comes after death in this life? Are you unsure? Do you want to have confidence in what is next? Are you looking for comforting words?

Whether we think about it or not, death comes for us all. It isn’t something we like to think about. Our thoughts go to our loved ones. We think about all we will miss. Some of us worry about what comes after death, if anything comes after.

Many people in this world fear death. They imagine horrific pain and suffering as death draws near. They fear being in a dark place. The idea of nothing occurring after death, of it being the ultimate end, is petrifying. Death is unthinkable for many. They desire to live forever.

Here’s the good news—we do live forever. The question is not if we live forever, but where we live forever. We were created with an eternal spirit. God planned for us to live forever. However, we will not live forever in our present state.

As John states, we do not know how we will be transformed to live eternally. Yet we do know that we will live eternally. For those of us in Christ, we know we will live eternally with Him. We know He promised to prepare a place for us to live (John 14:2-3). We know the place where we will live is beyond human words to describe. This is our hope.

John goes on to tell us, our hope in Christ, in His promises, purifies us just as He is pure. Can you imagine that? Being as pure as Christ may be unthinkable. It may be beyond our imagination. We may think there is no way we can be pure after all the things we have done. Yet, we will be.

I pray we all maintain our hope. I pray we realize we will live for eternity. I pray each of us believe we will be as pure as Christ. Hope in Christ. Believe in His promises. Believe you will be pure. Know you are a child of God. 

1 John 3:2-3 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Confident In Hope

Do you seek glory? Are you holding firm to that dream? Do you have confidence you will achieve it? Is your hope in the One who can provide it? Do you fully understand He is faithful in His promises to you?

Many seek personal glory in this life. They chase after trophies, recognition, and wealth. They spend time and effort to strengthen, train, and educate themselves. All in preparation for the goal they have set.

For some, they strive for glory in sports. Others choose music. Still others continually climb the corporate ladder, working toward the top. All of them looking up, keeping their eye on the prize they seek. Many will fail—and be disappointed. Some will achieve their goal—and find the prize is not what they thought it would be, also being disappointed.

There is a prize that will not disappoint. There is glory we can all enjoy. However, the glory we gain is not something we can work toward, it is given to us as we continue in our faith, holding firmly to our belief in Jesus Christ. Our faith in Him reveals the hope He provides us.

Our hope is spending eternity with God. We do not know exactly what that entails, other than we know we will be filled with joy, awe, and love that never ends. God will be in our midst, and we will see Him face-to-face. The hope we have in Jesus will be fulfilled in a most extraordinary way.

We are given glory by God as we continue in our faith, putting our confidence in His promises. Our hope becomes reality because of what God will do for us. Our confidence grows as we experience God. We experience God more as we grow closer to Him. We see God at work when we open our eyes to see His works.

I pray we all open our eyes to see God at work. I pray we experience God, increasing our confidence in Him. I pray each of us holds on to our faith in Jesus. Put your faith in Jesus. Accept the glory He will give you. Increase your confidence in Him. Be confident in hope of spending eternity with God.

Hebrews 3:6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

Blessed Persecution

How well do you take it when someone insults you? How do you react when you are falsely accused? Have you been persecuted for your faith? Have you considered being insulted and falsely accused as persecution?

I dare say most of us do not want to be insulted or falsely accused. Being insulted stings. It can be like a lightning bolt running through our system. Being falsely accused can hurt just as much, but in different way. It makes us feel as though we are not trusted.

When an insult or false accusation is attributed to our being a Christian, we are being persecuted. It doesn’t have to be directly related. It can happen in the work environment. It may happen at school. Perhaps it happens as we participate on a team. If it happens because the offending party knows we are Christian and they don’t like that about us, we are being persecuted.

We typically think of persecution as those Christians who are being beaten, ostracized, or even killed. We also think that only happens in other countries. Yet, it can happen in our own neighborhood. It can happen in our community. It can happen in our country.

Though it doesn’t necessarily make it feel any better when we are going through persecution, we have a reward awaiting us in the end. On the other hand, knowing there is a reward as we persevere through the persecution can be what helps us get through and remind us to continue to lean on Jesus.

Just before our passage today is what we call the Beatitudes. Jesus goes through a litany of blessings. Many of those blessings come from what we may call less than fortunate circumstances. He wraps up the list of blessings by stating there is a reward when we persevere.

He tells us to rejoice and be glad. We are to rejoice that we are going through the persecution because of Jesus. We also must lean on Jesus in order to be able to rejoice. This is a demonstration of our close connection with Him. We can only rejoice because of our relationship with Jesus.

I pray we all persevere through any persecution we may experience. I pray we accept the insults and false accusations along with the blessings. I pray each one of us grow closer to Jesus in preparation for persecution. Bear the persecution. Lean on Jesus. Grow closer to Jesus. Seek your reward.

Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

What Do You Say?

How do you determine what you believe about someone? How do you describe someone you know well? When someone asks you who someone you know is, how do you answer them? Who do you say Jesus is?

We know many, many people. We know some better than we know others. We have gotten to know them over time through discussions and joint experiences. When we are asked who they are, we have an answer to give.

In today’s passage, Jesus asks who people say He is. When He does so, He is talking about the general population. After hearing the answers His disciples give, He asks who they say He is. Peter gives the right answer.

We might think it would be easy to give the answer Peter gave if we had been with Him, saw the miracles performed, and heard the lessons He taught. We might be right thinking this. But we are two-thousand-years removed. How do we answer the question?

We might believe it is harder to answer, since we haven’t seen Jesus face-to-face. Yet, we are given the Scriptures, which have recorded His teaching and miracles. For some of us, His miracles may seem more far-fetched than science fiction. For others, they are accepted as fact and readily believed.

If we are willing to conduct a little research, we have access to reams of data based on archeological digs, ancient copies of Scripture texts, and historical records from non-Biblical sources. We have the ability to research and discover the truth—Scripture is true.

This brings us back to how we answer the question Jesus posed to His disciples. We have no good reason to not know who He is. There is no good reason for not answering the same way Peter did. If we are ready and willing to give the same answer, what do we do after that?

If we believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, we must decide if we will be a disciple of His or not. If we decide to be a disciple, Jesus has expectations. There is a cost to being a disciple. Jesus requires us to follow His commands. He requires us to give up our personal preferences. He desires us to show love for Him by loving our fellow Christians and all humans.

I pray we all answer the question as Peter did. I pray we believe Jesus is the Messiah. I pray each one of us will decide to be a disciple of Jesus. Choose to be a disciple. Answer the question correctly. Believe He is who He says He is. Give up personal preferences. Obey His commands.

Luke 9:18-20 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

Hear

How well do you hear? How well do you listen? How well do you understand? How well do you pay attention? Are you wondering why all these questions? We’ll get to that shortly.

Our current interpretation of what it means to hear is simply to perceive the sound of something. We don’t put as much emphasis on hearing as we do listening. If we are asked if we heard someone speak, we generally interpret the question as someone asking if we perceived the words spoken.

In other cultures, and in our own history, the word meant much more. We need to understand the deeper meaning as we read Scripture. The Greek word used in this passage and throughout the New Testament means each of the questions asked above—hear, listen, understand, and pay attention.

In the passage below, we should look at the first occurrence to mean perceive someone is speaking. The second occurrence should be interpreted as understand or pay attention. In other words, if you can hear, you should pay attention so you can understand.

We see Jesus use this term on multiple occasions in the Gospels. We also see this phrase used several times in Revelation. It always follows a very important lesson Jesus or God is trying to get people to understand. In some instances, it follows a parable. In other instances, it follows a very direct, and sometimes stern, message to His listeners.

When I see Jesus say this phrase, I look at what He said right before it and do my best to understand what His point was. Sometimes, His point is not one I would prefer to hear. Yet, I have come to understand that those are the ones I need to pay closer attention to and figure out how I can apply it to my life.

My suggestion to each of you is to pay particular attention to the lessons Jesus is pointing out when you run across this phrase. I will forewarn you; they aren’t always pleasant lessons. They may mean giving up something you prefer not to give up. They may mean you need to do something you prefer not to do. Yet, these lessons are very important to Jesus, or He would not use this phrase. Therefore, they should be very important to each of us.

I pray we all pay special attention to the lessons Jesus deems important. I pray we look for this phrase when reading Scripture. I pray each one of us will make Jesus’ lessons important in our lives. Hear. Listen. Understand. Pay attention. Learn Jesus’ lessons. Understand His lessons. Make His lessons important to you.

Mark 4:9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Experience Freedom

What can you afford to lose? What, if you lost it, would you not be upset about? What is the cost of it? What if you lost everything you own? How would you feel? How would you react? Would you be devastated?

Not many of us think about losing things. At least, not until something is lost. We don’t ponder what we would do if we were to lose something very expensive. We don’t want to think about the possibility of losing everything we own.

Losing something expensive can be tough. It is especially tough if we put things ahead of God. Changing our mindset about things is not easy. The world we live in puts values on every physical possession we have. Status comes with those possessions. Where we stand in the pecking order of this world is defined by what we have. Perhaps that is why so many people go in debt to buy expensive things.

It wasn’t until I had made a couple of mission trips to Romania that I finally understood how rich, materially, I was. Those trips also caused me to realize the possessions I had were not important. There were a handful of times I forgot to close my garage door when I went to work, or I forgot to lock the front door after having guests and never worried about it. If someone had stopped by and stole my big screen television, oh well. I would do without. It was no longer important to me. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but I had decided that God would work in my life with or without it. It is a different mindset than we have grown accustomed to in our culture. It is a freeing mindset.

Paul states that whatever he gained he considered a loss for Christ. He goes on to say that everything is a loss for Christ. His point is that knowing Jesus is worth everything. Anything that gets in the way of knowing Jesus is a loss for us, keeping us from knowing Him better. Our righteousness comes from God. We have none of our own. It is only through our faith that we gain any righteousness and what we gain is from God.

I pray we all change our mindset. I pray we decide none of our possessions are more important than God. I pray each one of us chooses to know Jesus and accept our righteousness from Him. Choose Jesus over possessions. Change your mindset. Accept righteousness from God. Hold on to your faith. Experience freedom.

Philippians 3:7-9 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

World vs Soul

What are you willing to sacrifice to climb the ladder of success? Are you willing to put family members to the side for the possibility of a promotion? Are you willing to give up your soul?

If we have been in the corporate world for several years, we have seen someone who has sacrificed a lot to climb the corporate ladder. We have seen families grow apart due to the number of hours per week spent apart. We have seen Dads or Moms who have missed their children’s events.

Many of these same people are sacrificing their souls. They are ignoring God and His plan. They have put the almighty dollar ahead of their eternal life. Have we become one of those people? It can creep up on us without our noticing it. It starts with putting in a few extra hours at work to complete a project. We see larger paychecks. We become addicted to the adrenaline rush of meeting a deadline. Or we become addicted to the comradery of working on a tough problem and the joy of completing it. It’s a slippery slope.

How do we overcome the addiction? As with any addition, we must first acknowledge it. We must become disciplined in spending time with God, including spending time with other Christians, typically on Sunday mornings. We must get our priorities straight.

Jesus poses a straightforward, yet dire question. It is one we likely don’t ask ourselves often enough. We get caught up in this world. We fail to step back to think about the larger picture of our lives. Our desire to succeed in this world overrides our concern for our souls.

Jesus desires us to spend eternity with Him. He knows the results of putting this world ahead of Him. He knows the destruction and torment that awaits us when we choose the world over Him. Our priority needs to be following Him rather than the world.

I pray we all choose Jesus over the world. I pray we take time to think about the larger picture of our lives. I pray each one of us will take up our cross and follow Jesus. Recognize your addiction. Discipline yourself to resist it. Choose Jesus. Follow His plan. Save your soul.

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

Honor Through Obedience

Today’s passage is lengthy, yet well worth the read. The lesson Jesus is teaching is one we should take to heart today. How many times do we put tradition above the commands of God? The better question is, how many times do we put our personal preferences above the commands of God? 

Are we giving lip service to God, while continuing to be self-serving? Do we put our pet projects above the command from Jesus to seek and save the lost? There is a lot of good work being done by a lot of people. Yet, sometimes, the good works get in the way of the best work.

Our first action is to honor God, not just with words, but with obedience. The greatest honor we can give anyone in a leadership role is to obey their commands. God is no different. Obeying Him is the first thing we must do to be a disciple of Jesus. In other words, obedience is the first cost to count when deciding to be a disciple.

There are many subordinate commands to the honor and obey command. We can list off several of them. Go, baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach what Jesus taught. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Love one another. Be humble. Accept God’s plan for our lives.

The list can grow lengthy. Yet, none of the list of things we can do are worth the paper and ink required to write them down, if we don’t first honor God and do all of those works in love. I sometimes imagine Jesus is sitting on His throne shaking His head and repeating over and over what we see in today’s passage.

I pray we all honor God first. I pray we commit ourselves to obedience of God’s commands. I pray each one of us puts God above tradition and perform all works in love. Put God first. Obey God’s commands. Do all works in love. Honor God in obedience rather than with lip service.

Matthew 15:2-9 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 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 merely human rules.’”

Hard Truth

What is your reaction when you are told a truth you don’t want to hear? Do you grumble and complain about the speaker? Do you attempt to deny the truth you’ve just been told? Do you attempt to twist it to fit your preferences?

I dare say most of us don’t like to hear unpleasant truths. In fact, we have come to a point in our culture where people twist the truth to be whatever it is they want it to be. We accept “personal truths.” Those truths are most often merely wants or desires or preferences.

Despite what most would prefer, truth is not a want, preference, or desire of our own. This is especially true of the truths of God’s Word. His truth is fact we can deny only at our own peril. God’s truth has been revealed in His Word and will be proven at the end of days.

Our choice is to believe His truth and live or deny His truth and die. It is an either-or proposition. This is not a physical living or dying, but a spiritual living or dying choice. Unfortunately, far too many have chosen to deny a spiritual life exists. They have chosen to explain it away with science. This is not to say science doesn’t have its place. Yet, science does not explain the spirit nor how we obtain an eternal life with God.

Jesus clearly puts his disciples on notice in today’s passage. He lets them know in no uncertain terms that our life on earth means nothing when compared to eternal life with Him. Yet we prefer this life over eternal life. If we don’t think so, all we have to do is ask ourselves how much we think about God, how much we allow Him to guide our every moment and answer honestly to find it is true. It is a hard truth we don’t want to face.

I pray we all accept the hard truth Jesus is teaching. I pray we strive to allow God to take more control of our lives. I pray we choose to follow Jesus’ teaching and obtain eternal life with Him. Accept the hard truth. Follow Jesus’ teaching. Allow God to guide your every moment.

John 6:61-64a Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.”

Find Your Life

What are you willing to give up to save your life? What are you willing to give up to save the life of a family member? Are you willing to give everything up? Are you willing to give up your house, vehicle, all your possessions? Are you willing to give up your negative attitude, bad behavior, your preferences?

Most of us never think about what we would be willing to do to save our lives or the lives of our family. We don’t want to think about it. We prefer to avoid the horror of thinking about it. We don’t want to consider the possibility of a loved one’s life being put in danger.

The truth of the matter is our lives are in danger. Perhaps not in the way we might think. Our eternal lives are in danger. To be a disciple of Jesus, we must love Him above any other. We must give up our life in order to find our life.

On the face of it, we believe this to be harsh. Yet, it is not nearly as harsh as we might think. To give up our life means to give up our selfishness, negative attitude, bad behavior, gossiping, and basically acting like the rest of the world who don’t know Jesus. It means becoming someone who stands out as different. That’s where the rub is, isn’t it? We don’t want to be different. We want to fit in the crowd. Unfortunately, the crowd isn’t on the straight and narrow path.

Many of us think our belief in Jesus and attending church on Sunday is enough. Yet, that only puts us in the same boat as the five foolish virgins who didn’t bring enough oil for their lamps (Matthew 25:1-13). They were not prepared when the bridegroom came. Perhaps they didn’t want to carry the additional oil. Perhaps they thought the bridegroom would be along shortly. They weren’t prepared for the long haul.

It is true that Jesus will accept us as we are. Yet, He will not allow us to stay as we are. He expects us to change. He expects us to give up ourselves—our preferences, our negative attitudes, our bad behaviors, our selfishness, our plan for our lives.

I pray we all decide to give ourselves up to be Jesus’ disciple. I pray we are willing to change. I pray each one of us will decide to stand apart from the crowd in order to save our lives. Choose Jesus over the world. Be willing to change. Be willing to follow Him. Find your life.

Matthew 10:37-39 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”