His Work In Progress

Hope in Christ.

To place our hope in Christ is to rest in the promises of who He is and what’s to come. It is to rejoice in Christ, even in the midst of our darkest trials, because we have a God who is steadfast in his love and grace towards us.

Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth there is nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever. ~ Psalm 73:25-26

This verse is slowly but beautifully becoming the greatest prayer in my heart, and it is an absolute joy to rest in the knowledge of God’s sufficiency in light of my inadequacy and incompetence. Falling more in deeper understanding and love of what it means to hope in Christ has drawn me continually closer to him. Truly, my affections for this world are fading as my affections for Christ are ever increasing.

Lord, may I never lose the wonder and the joy of being sheltered at the foot of Your cross.

This Sunday morning, a lot of our family went to visit Julia’s church (Cornerstone Bible Church) in support of Justin guest preaching. May I emphasize that it was a huge joyful blessing to open this door and see a glimpse into this part of her life.

I am thankful. I am humbled. I am so encouraged. 

The evidence of God’s grace in the lives of those around me have been an absolute joy and blessing to be a part of in witness. Seeing how he directs and orchestrates, in his sovereignty, the happenings/epiphanies/revelations in hearts has humbled me in awe of how good he continues to be. I drove home with a smile on my face just pondering all of this. I’m a dork (: Blahh blahh.

I can finally say that after all this time, my heart is finally at peace.

At least… more at peace than before. It wasn’t until I shared my testimony that all the realities of God’s promises became even more real in my heart. Romans 8:18, Psalm 73:25-26, … Revelation 21:1-5. These few verses have been my sole source of hope and joy this past month or so and it has been a reassuring confidence for me to rest in them, with the focus of myself and my struggles fading to nothing as the picture of Christ and the glory of his cross has taken the forefront of and the arch of peace over my life. I have come to say, with absolute assurance and conviction, that Christ is worth it; worth our every struggle, worth our every pain, worth our every breath. 

An idea that I have slowly become enamored with is this picture of Christ as our bridegroom. This love of my life who is my leader and protector on this journey called life; my soul’s salvation in failure and defeat; my heart’s hope and joy in affliction and sorrow; my comfort and peace in adversity and weariness; my encouragement and inspiration in complacency, weakness, and vulnerability; … my everything in my depravity.

Of course I cannot fully grasp and comprehend this idea of Christ as our bridegroom as I am not married, but it is with patient anticipation that I can hope for the day when this image can be made more of a tangible reality in my life; the day when I myself will be married to my leader and protector here on earth, a marriage as a representation of Christ and his bride.

Goodness, this is the girliest post I have ever written..

Hell’s Final Enigma

“Won’t heaven’s joy be spoiled by our awareness of unsaved loved ones in hell?”

Written by J.I. Packer ~

First, I resonate with the question to the depths of my soul. Loved ones of my own, some living, some dead, have not shared my faith in Christ. That is painful.

Second, belief in the outright annihilation of nonbelievers after final judgment (as opposed to an eternal punishment) seems to me biblically illegitimate. I suspect some Christians whose loved ones die without accepting Christ are tempted to embrace the annihilationist view. Scripture, however, seems to show that one aspect of human dignity is that we are built to last. Whether for joy or for sorrow, our souls are eternal.

Third, Scripture and good biblical theology indicate that none will be in hell who did not effectively choose it by following in the footsteps of Adam and preferring their own way to God’s. In some fashion, God reveals himself and his will to everyone, and everyone responds in one way or another (see Rom. 1:18-2:16). But nonbelievers universally make the anti-God choice, and hell is God giving people what they chose. That is reality—retributive reality—and an abiding consequence of following our heart and doing what we want to do; I wish I could persuade more people to face this seriously.

Now pose the question in its toughest form. Imagine a believing spouse or parent who loved, prayed for, and agonized over a dear one who resisted the gospel and died suddenly in an accident. There are no grounds for thinking that this or any other memory will be erased in heaven. So how can it not keep the bereaved one from heaven’s total joy?

Significantly, this is not a Bible problem; instead, Scripture rules out all thought of it ever becoming anyone’s problem. For it tells us that God the Father (who now pleads with mankind to accept the reconciliation that Christ’s death secured for all) and God the Son (our appointed Judge, who wept over Jerusalem) will in a final judgment express “wrath” and administer justice against rebellious humans. God’s holy righteousness will hereby be revealed; God will be doing the right thing, vindicating himself at last against all who have defied him, and there is no hint that this hurts the Judge more than it hurts the sinner. (Read through Matt. 25; John 5:22-29;Rom. 2:5-16, 12:19; 2 Thess. 1:7-9; Rev. 18:1-19:3, 20:11-35, and you will see that clearly.) God will judge justly, and all angels, saints, and martyrs will praise him for it. So it seems inescapable that we shall, with them, approve the judgment of persons—rebels—whom we have known and loved.

That sounds appalling; how can it be? Remember, in heaven our minds, hearts, motives, and feelings will be sanctified, so that we are fully conformed to the character and outlook of Jesus our Lord. This will happen at or before our bodily resurrection. How we shall then think and feel is really beyond our knowing, just as a chrysalis could not know what it feels like to be a butterfly till it becomes one.

But certainly the promise that God will wipe away every tear from believers’ eyes (Rev. 7:17) will find its fulfillment as one aspect of this transformation. In heaven, glorifying God and thanking him for everything will always absorb us. All our love for and joy in others who are with us in heaven will spring from their doing the same, and love and pity for hell’s occupants will not enter our hearts. Their hell will not veto our heaven.

Granted, this sounds to us more like hard-heartedness than Christlikeness, yet Christlikeness is precisely what it will be. Our difficulty is that we cannot now conceive the heavenly condition in a full way.

“My knowledge of that life is small; The eye of faith is dim. But it is enough that Christ knows all, and I shall be with him.” ~ Richard Baxter

Lest I ever become complacent before your throne of grace, Lord may I never lose the wonder of your cross .

And if this is what God must do to break me … even so, it is well with my soul.

In hurt. In sadness. In despair. 

My heart is breaking for yours. Seeing someone you love and look up to fall into what they fought so hard to overcome. I am humbled to the ground as I recognize the extent of what the crimes of our sin-prone hearts can do to drown out the voice of Christ. There will never be enough emphasis in our lives, in the wills of our hearts of the seriousness to war against sin.

Grace Alone

I come before the throne of grace, as a child who seeks that which brings me absolutely no joy in Christ, as a child who craves the approval of those who don’t matter, as a child who works toward that which is in vain, as a child who has no genuine understanding of how short I fall in light of God’s glory. I come before the cross, recognizing that I’ve lived a life of 19 years waving the flag of my incompetence, displaying a genuine effort to follow Christ and a bunch of stumbling along the way; displaying my failures as stumbling blocks and even my successes as failures in progress. What then, do I have that I could possibly ever offer to Christ that is sufficient enough ?

I have nothing. 

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses  so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. [2 Corinthians 12:9-10]

What is weakness? It is everything that comes as a result of our imperfect nature. Why do we continue to sin? Why do we continue to be disobedient? Why are we not doing more for God? Carl Lentz once wrote, “God’s grace will always cover our weaknesses, so that we have no more excuses.” Now, every reason you use to lower your standard and expectation, every reason you use as an excuse for not doing more or being more is illegitimate because the best things you can offer up to God are, in his sight, filthy rags. He doesn’t need them, nor does he want them. It is by God’s grace alone that you are breathing, God’s grace alone that you are even able to follow him, God’s grace alonethat you have everything in your life, all of which you are not worthy of. It is God’s grace alone that even though you fall short in every way possible every day, you are still here and able to look to God as Father and come before him as child. 

We cannot do anything by our own will and ability that will ever be sufficient. What we can do, is look upon his cross and wholly depend upon his grace to live each and every day of our lives for the one who deserves it all. We are indeed weak and deprived, but God’s grace is and forever will be more than enough for his children.

Look upon the cross and remember. Our holy and righteous God humbly came down and gave up all the glory of heaven to sacrifice his life as a ransom for many. He conquered sin and death on the cross and gave us a hope that won’t ever fade away. Remember this and live wholeheartedly, by his grace, for him alone for he is worthy of more than anything we could ever offer.

God’s grace - More than we deserve, Greater than we can imagine.

Reminded

Living a life for Christ is an everyday battle in this sacrilegious world that often leads to disappointment and discouragement in constant failure. But yet again, I am reminded that even when we may (and ultimately will) loose these battles, Christ has indeed already won the war.

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world. [John 16:33]

And this is what we have as a driving motivation and encouragement; that Christ himself is our cornerstone and our adamant strength.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. [Ephesians 6:10-18]