First Day in Heaven

  

   I have not yet seen the movie, I Can Only Imagine, though everyone I know who has seen it highly recommends it. I know the song (by MercyMe) that the movie is based on, and I have always loved it.  If you aren’t familiar with the song, the writer wonders what his reaction will be to meeting Jesus for the first time in heaven.

     This past week, I’ve also seen a post shared several times on Facebook that features a painting called First Day in Heaven by an Egyptian artist named Kerolos Safwat.  (I don’t have permission to post the picture here, but he has a Facebook page where the painting is pictured. Please check it out.)

     The painting depicts a young woman who apparently has just entered heaven – jumping into the arms of Jesus with a look of complete joy on her face.  If you are a follower of Jesus, perhaps you’ve pictured that moment for yourself – when you finally see in the flesh the One you have loved for such a long time.

      It made me think about that first meeting for me and what it will be like – just like the questions that the song explores.  Then I tried to think of an earthly situation that would be similar and came up with this scenario.

     Suppose you write to a famous person.  Perhaps it’s a fan letter to a singer or actor.  Maybe it’s a letter to a writer or lecturer whose work you admire.  It could even be someone who is not a household name but is well-known in your field of work.  You write to this person to let them know how much you appreciate their contributions to their area of expertise.  You don’t expect an answer from them because you know they are far too busy with their career to notice you. You just want to let them know their actions have touched you in some way and made your life better, or more enjoyable, or helped you to make progress in your own career.

     Then, to your great surprise, a reply comes in the mail.  The person responds to your message and some of the ideas you expressed.  Perhaps they ask for your opinion on a project that they are about to undertake.  This person values your thoughts and ideas.  Amazing!  You eagerly write back and soon an exchange of letters and emails begins to take place. Maybe you even have a phone conversation or two. For several years, you keep up this pen-pal relationship with the person that you admire.

     After some time, you find out the person you now think of as your “Person” is going to be in a city near you for an event, and they have asked if you could come so they could meet you.  Are you kidding?  Of course,  you will!  They tell you that you are welcome to bring a friend with you and the two of you will be their special guests.

     The day finally arrives. Your friend, who is also an admirer of this person, is very excited to meet them as well.  You enter the room where the meeting has been arranged and two very different meetings take place.  Your Person strides toward you, arms wide open and says, “It’s about time!” as they give you a warm hug.  Your friend, however, meekly extends a hand for a handshake and says, “It’s an honor to meet you.”  While your Person is warm and welcoming to them, your friend gets left in the background while you and your Person pick up where you left off in your last communication with them.

     The difference is relationship.  I’ve been struggling lately with being busy with Kingdom activities (as well as earthly ones) and not spending enough time cultivating my relationship with God.  This Jesus, who I want to meet, needs to be more than just someone that I have knowledge of and whose work I admire.  I need to be in constant communication with Him. I need to read His letters eagerly and reply to Him with my thoughts. I want to partner with Him in the projects He desires to undertake.  I want to be like the girl in the painting.  When my time to meet Him comes, I don’t want to just say softly, “It’s an honor to meet you, Sir.”  I want to jump into His arms with abandon saying, “Hey! We were just talking and now look – here you are!”

    

    

      

No More Selfies!

     Don’t be misled by the title of this post.  I really don’t have a problem with people taking selfies (though some people seem to have a real obsession with this that probably isn’t healthy).  I am the world’s worse selfie taker.  I never know where to look.  I can’t get the angle right at all and I’m not very photogenic in the first place.

     The other day, I left my classroom after lunch to pick up some students and realized that I hadn’t refreshed my lipstick after eating, so I pulled the tube from the little pouch I carry with me at school and reapplied it as I walked.  Then I used the camera on my phone as a mirror by reversing the view to selfie mode to make sure I hadn’t overdone the lipstick.

     The next day, my granddaughter was visiting and was doing something cute (as usual).  I grabbed my phone to get a shot of her, but I was rudely greeted by the sight of my own face.  I missed the moment I wanted to capture because the camera’s focus was on me.

     Then I saw the parallel.  When our attention is on our own dreams, our own plans, our own problems, our own agendas – we miss the needs of those around us. 

1 Corinthians 10:24 says, “Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.”

Philippians 2:4 tells us, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

Romans 15:1 says, “We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

     It sounds to me like God isn’t much into selfies either. This is something that is difficult for me.  It’s not that I mean to be self-absorbed.  It’s just that my life is so immediate – so “there” – that I have trouble “seeing around it” to look at how I can be used of God to ease the problems of my natural family and my church family, as well as others that He might bring across my path. God only shows me the shortcomings in my life to help me change them and not to condemn me, so I’ll trust that He’ll begin to lead me to be more sensitive to those needs in the lives of others and to give me wisdom and insight on how to be a blessing in those situations.  Do you need to check your focus too?

My Proofreader

     Obviously, one of my great loves in life is writing. One of my other roles in this life is helping, teaching and encouraging others.  Because of these two interests, I have recently been involved in proofreading and editing the creations of other authors to help them present their ideas clearly and correctly.  As I worked on such a project tonight, I thought about how nice it would be if someone would proofread my life – minute by minute - to keep me from making careless errors.

     Then I realized that there is a proofreader in my life – the Holy Spirit.  He was given to me to be that constant teacher and the One who corrects in gentle ways.  Just as I look over an entire document to find flaws both great and small, He examines my life to find the places where I need guidance.  He re-words the negative things that I may think and say about myself and writes words that line up with the Word of God.  He formats the direction of my life so that everything flows together and makes sense, just as I rearrange paragraphs and insert and delete commas to make the meaning clear.

     When I edit something for someone, I submit it back to them so they can review the changes that I suggest.  At that point, it’s up to them to decide if they will accept those revisions or leave their text the way it was.  In much the same way, the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart and mind, but it’s still up to me whether to listen and allow the changes in my life to be made or whether to stubbornly cling to the way that I want to do things.

     I have created a deadline for myself to post something on my blog each Sunday night.  Some weeks there are several events in my life that provide inspiration for my writing, but other times, I may struggle to keep that commitment because God seems to be silent.  However, if I really listen to my Editor, He speaks just at the right time…..

Brainwashed!

     “I don’t understand people who aren’t me.  They’re weird!”

     If you imagine that last word said with a high-pitched whine (in two syllables),  you can put yourself right at the scene. Those were my husband’s words to me this morning.  My husband is known for his wise-cracking remarks, but I think he was only half kidding about this one.

     Sometimes it is difficult to hear all the wide-ranging opinions of others on issues from gun-control, to gender confusion, to religion, to politics to the issue of the week on Facebook and not feel like the entire world (except you) has gone absolutely crazy.  We are all sure we are right about everything or else we wouldn’t think what we think.

     So what should our standard be for how we think about all these things?  It’s a simple answer, but not an easy or instant thing to do. The Word says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. “(Romans 12:2)

     When there is no perfect standard for what is right, then confusion reigns.  The Apostle Paul put it this way, “ These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.  But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2: 13-16)

     There is no point in arguing with a natural man about spiritual things.  They regard them as foolish things.  Until the Holy Spirit breaks through in the life of a person, they will not be ready to receive the things of the Spirit. The New Testament term for repent is metanoia which not only means regret or be remorseful for something but it also means to have a “change of mind”.  Only then are we open to truly begin to think like God thinks.

     Many unbelievers will say of us, “You Christians are all just brain-washed”.  One of my former pastors used to say, “Everyone in the world is brain-washed by something or someone. At least I’m choosing who gets to wash my brain!” That’s true – our thinking is all influenced by what we allow to “wash over us” by what we read and listen to, by who we gather around us, by what we watch.  I don’t know about you, but my brain needed a good washing when I came to Jesus and I need to remember to keep renewing my mind in Him.

Never Too Late

(In recent weeks at my church, God has been doing amazing things in restoring the lives of many people who have walked away from Him and are returning to their first love.  This blog post is an old one for me, but I've updated it and I dedicate it to those who feel like huge failures in their Christian life.  My prayer is that it gives you some hope for your future. God is able - and He will!)

"You've ruined your life."

Those are the words of my father, almost 40 years ago, when he learned that I was pregnant.  I was 19 years old, single and a college student.  I don't blame him for that thought.  I was the girl "least likely" to get pregnant in her freshman year at college.  If people from my high school had been asked to predict my future, they would have said that I would become a minister - not a single mom.

The reasons I found myself in that situation aren't really all that important anymore.  I took full responsibility for the decisions that brought me to that place, and with the support of a wonderful grandmother, I gave birth to that child and made a life with her. My father died when she was six months old and never got to see what happened next.

Was he was he thinking that I'd never finish my education, that no decent man would ever marry me, that I'd never have a career, that my relationship with God was over? I wonder.....

In retrospect, I think his words were a blessing in disguise.  They spurred me to prove him wrong.

Why Pray?

Each week, my husband and I host a small group of folks from our church in our home as we participate in a video Bible study. This semester our study is “Intercessory Prayer” by Dutch Sheets.  In our lesson last week, we talked about the “Why?” of prayer.  If God is sovereign and all powerful – isn’t He just going to do what He wants to anyway?  Why do we need to pray?

     Without trying to re-teach Dutch Sheets’ lesson, I’ll summarize it to say that God gave man dominion on the earth, making him God’s representative here.  When Adam and Eve forfeited that legal right in the fall, Jesus bought it back for all of us.  So now we have the legal right and responsibility to invite God into our situations.

     My husband gave this amazing example to make this much more understandable. It’s just like renting a house.  The landlord owns the house and his name is on the deed, yet because you reside in the house, he has to have your consent to enter the house.  When something in the house breaks or malfunctions, it is your responsibility to bring it to the attention of the owner so he can put things right.  He wants everything to be maintained properly in the house, yet he needs you to inform him of the needs and to give him permission to enter your home to make repairs.

      The Bible says that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Just like a landlord, He retains ownership but gives us the stewardship of the earth.  When something is wrong (and there is so much wrong here) it is our responsibility to make those needs known to the only one who has the right, power and resources to fix them.  When you think about prayer that way, it seems a lot less like a religious exercise and more like an awesome interaction between the God of the universe and a person who He values as having authority to intervene in a situation. 

     

Over the Circumstances

     If you have read much of my blog, you might wonder about where the title Over the Circumstances originated.  One influence was something that I heard long ago from my pastor at that time.  Davy Jo Hissom was an amazing man of God with a great sense of humor who lived life with joy.  He once said that often when he asked people how they were doing, they would answer, “I’m doing ok, under the circumstances”,  to which he would reply, “Well, what are you doing under them things?”  Then he’d always say that he knew that phrase wasn’t good English, but he wasn’t teaching English!

     He was right.  We were designed to live a life that is victorious regardless of what is happening around us and to experience a joy that is not dependent on the current situation. The Bible calls us "overcomers", not "defeated ones".

     The other reason I chose this title was that it’s a lesson that I have learned from my own life.  I had an amazing, happy childhood – secure in the love of my parents, raised to know God, blessed to have many material advantages and interesting experiences.  I enjoyed good health, did well in school, and had good friends. Then within the space of fewer than 3 years, I lost both my mother and my father to cancer. Then because of my own choices in life, I became a single mother which put me in a position of financial and emotional difficulty for quite some time. Even marrying a good man of God did not insulate me from pain and problems.  We have had our share of those as most people have experienced.  Once, someone remarked that they thought I’d had a hard life.  It took me by surprise because even with all the events that I have listed, I’ve never really felt that my life was hard.  I knew others who had struggled with as much or more than I have.  I just thought of all that as just – life.

      When the amazing love of God chased me down and brought me back into relationship with Him, I began to learn the lessons of how to experience joy in the middle of negative circumstances.  Relationship with God puts all things in perspective and I began to see that the day to day events of my life are not all there is to my life.  God has a plan that I cannot begin to understand, but He teaches me through everything that happens in my life – both the things that I can control and those for which I am not responsible. 

     I’m not saying that I spend every minute of every day walking on clouds or that I never feel sad or disappointed; it’s just that I’m not on an emotional roller coaster anymore. When the Bible says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28)– that’s where I find the key.  If I am “the called” according to His purpose and I pursue that first, then I don’t have to be concerned about all the little things that happen day to day.  I know that ultimately, God will use those things to accomplish what He has purposed for my life.

     2 Corinthians 4:17 says, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”.  Sometimes the very things that try our faith are the things that are building us up to be more effective Kingdom people. If walking according to our calling is our primary focus, then this is what we should desire. 

     I wish I could say that I’m always the perfect model of faith regardless of the circumstances in which I find myself.  I’m not.  However, I have found that when I remember this principle in the middle of all that life throws at me, I am most content.  I’ve also walked through situations where God has made Himself very real to me precisely because of what I am experiencing and while I would never want problems, I would rather have Him in the problem than never know Him at all.  I have problems, but the problems don’t have to have me.