Done, Not Done

It is an inescapable truth of this earthly existence:

what gets done doesn't usually remain done.  

A young mother posted on Facebook the other day - - - she felt the satisfaction of her laundry being done and her house clean.  She felt that for a brief, shining few moments.  Then, the other family members returned home, and the cycle began again.

Earlier this month, I filed my household's taxes, after weeks of hunting, gathering, organizing and tallying....lots of tallying.  April 15th looms each year.  On January 1st, the record-keeping begins again.

You can probably think of a similar process in your own life.  It may produce a certain amount of comfort - - that sameness, that repetition.  On the other hand, it may be like tax prep, producing extreme dread and angst.

Some have said, "Nothing is certain but death and taxes."  I've had an abundance of both this month.
But, there is one thing on which I never again have to take action, and that is to prepare for my own death.  Oh, I'm not talking about wills or trusts or funeral arrangements.  In fact, I'm not even talking about physical death.

We recently studied here about the layout and meaning of items in the ancient Hebrew Tabernacle and Temple.  The ritual sacrifices to address the sins of the Hebrew people went on and on and on, day after day, until Jesus Christ cried from the cross, "It is finished!" (John 19:30).

Today, we are in Hebrews 10:11-14 (ESV), with verse 14 being the key verse.

11And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when Christ^b had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

See? The author of Hebrews contrasts the seemingly endless actions of Levitical priests over the centuries with the once-for-all-time work of our High Priest, Jesus.  He came to be that "single offering" of verse 14. He has purchased with His blood all who will receive Him as Savior.  His blood does what (verse 4) the blood of bulls and goats could never do!  It also does what I, myself, on my own power, could never do.

One offering.  One time.  And now, it is finished, forever.

My pastor preached on 1 Peter 1:8-9 this morning, but reached out and grabbed this verse, Hebrews 10:14.  I want to share this point he made.  This eternal sacrifice Jesus made is inexhaustible!  It never runs out.

Have you ever waited in line for something wonderful only to find that when it was your turn....there was no more?  Perhaps at the potluck, after enjoying the entrees and sides you lumbered over to the dessert table only to find....that banana pudding you had had your eye on....was all gone.

Oh hallelujah! There is always room at the cross!  Jesus will never turn away anyone who comes to Him in repentance for salvation.  His blood is always enough, always sufficient to cleanse EVERY sin, always available up until the moment of physical death.

This is why I sorrow at the loss of my loved ones this month, but not as those who have no certain assurance.  Both of my loved ones died having been justified by the blood of their Savior.  I'm so grateful that God gave them grace, gave me grace so that I, too, have been cleansed, redeemed, justified through Jesus' once-for-all sacrifice.

While I will likely know physical death (unless Jesus returns to Earth in my lifetime) I will never know spiritual death.  As Hebrews 10:23 says, "He who promised is faithful."  It is the faithfulness of God that assures my eternal salvation, not my own faithfulness (thank God!)
Let's take up the Scriptures again, this time starting with our key verse, the last verse from the earlier passage.
Hebrews 10:14-17 (ESV).

14For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

15And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

16“This is the covenant that I will make with them

after those days, declares the Lord:

I will put my laws on their hearts,

and write them on their minds,"

17then he adds,

“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

Believers in Jesus Christ, listen to me:  your enemy, that old serpent, the devil wants you to believe that you can fall from grace, that you weren't truly saved, that you aren't "good enough" to serve Him....and any number of other lies ... because he was a liar, a deceiver (and a murderer from the beginning, according to Jesus).  Don't you dare listen to that accuser who wants more than anything to steal your peace and joy!

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ - - - our God only sees Jesus' blood when He looks at us.  He "remembers your sins and your lawless deeds no more".  You are forgiven.  It is finished.

However, He loves you too much to allow you to wallow around in unconfessed sin, day after day.
He loves you too much to leave you bound up in the snares, the traps that old devil sets for you and into which you frequently fall.  Because of His great love, He calls you to confess your sins regularly, because that confession is part of His sanctification process...the process where He more and more writes His words from the Bible on your heart and in your mind. The Holy Spirit longs to rule and reign in your life, making you day-by-day, as you confess your daily sins, more and more like your Savior.

Done, yet not done.  Finished, yet a work in progress.

There is a commercial running currently.  It's for Clorox bleach.  The little boy is so excited to show his mama that he has "gone potty" successfully.  Only problem is....he has gone in the bathtub.  The camera cuts from the mother's horrified face to a jug of Clorox bleach slamming down onto a surface. I'm reminded of that when I think of confession and sanctification.

Every Believer's salvation is secure.  It is forever finished, complete, flawlessly executed.  But, our sanctification begins at the moment of our salvation.  From the inside out, God's Spirit moves in us, molding us, shaping us more and more into His image, the One who died for us, the One we adore. How glorious!

Father, as this evening closes, I am humbly grateful for my eternal salvation, which You and only You gave me so many years ago.  And, I am deeply sorry for the ways I have fallen short of your standard today. While I know that all my sins, past, present and future, are forgiven, I surely do hate to disappoint you through my sinful choices, as well as by my unintentional lurches into a ditch of sin.   Thank you for allowing me to apologize and for continuing to create in me a clean heart, day by day. I know and strongly affirm that only You, Holy Spirit, can accomplish salvation and then sanctification, can produce holiness of any sort in this sin-beleaguered soul.  It is because of this truth that I give You, my God, ALL the glory for any good thing that arises out of me.  The only resplendence that could be attributed to me ... is because of You, my Savior.  And, that is why it is so easy for me to give You all the glory and honor and praise for what You have done and for what You are continuing to do in me and in this world.
In Jesus' name, amen.

Remembering, Thanking, Watching

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a high school reunion with my husband, who was a teacher and administrator at those folks' middle school "back in the day".  One of the most cool things was to get to meet some of his former students who are now my Facebook friends!  At any rate, we enjoyed hearing how my husband had been an influencer in the lives of these folks, which is something we hear often.  He was an amazing educator, who influenced for the good many, many young lives.

Then, this morning, one of those alums posted an article that will be in tomorrow's Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper (print edition - - it's online today). 1 What an amazing story, that brought me to tears!

In the Spring of 1971, the high school had hired a football coach who was highly acclaimed.  The football team had a longtime losing record; so, they were very excited to get this "excellent catch".  (I'm sorry....regular readers to this blog know that puns just happen to me...) Although hired in the spring he immediately began to put the next fall's team "through the paces", working them hard!  In those two weeks that April, he really worked them hard, which heightened the disheartened players' expectations for a winning season, come fall.  He really made an impression on those boys.

In God's divine plan, though, this coach was involved in a serious traffic accident two weeks after starting to work with the team.  Due to brain damage, a long recovery began.  The team got a new coach, and life moved on.

Fast-forward to the present, 45 years later.  The students believed that the short-tenured coach was long-dead.  No obituary could be located, however; and, it was discovered he is still alive!  Though still severely impaired, he has lived a fulfilling life over the intervening years.

It would be easy to read about his life and say, "What a shame!"  But, listen to this...

Two years after the accident, the coach was well enough to hitchhike a ride home.  He was picked up by a high school student, who shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with him.  His testimony now is that God spared his life so that he could live that moment with that high school driver, so that he could receive new life, eternal life through Jesus Christ, his Savior!

It is because of the Sovereign Father's mighty plan that last weekend, 45 years later, a 70-year old former football coach, with garbled speech, was able to gather with 80 former students, whose lives he impacted so mightily in two short weeks. He was able to share his testimony of what Jesus Christ has done for him.  And, I imagine that he deepened their understanding of every blessing that belongs to believers in Jesus Christ.

4I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5because I hear of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. 6I pray that the faith you share with us may deepen your understanding of every blessing that belongs to you in Christ. 7I have had great joy and encouragement because of your love, for the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

Philemon 1:4-7

Paul wrote these words about his friend, Philemon, but surely the hearts of the gathered classmates and the heart of the old coach were similarly refreshed as they remembered and thanked each other, for their brief time together.

How often we fail to realize the sovereign workings of our perfect God!  How often we question and fuss and fume and rail against Him when His plans differ from ours!  How often we fail to realize the impact of a single encounter or a brief one, for that matter!  We truly do not realize what God is doing, through our most mundane, everyday moments.

From this day forward, let's be more thankful and more watchful, careful to use every moment of our lives to show God's love to our fellow man, to live out the gospel of Christ, to tell of what He has done for us.

Dear Jesus, I thank you for the life and testimony of this great man of God, this former teacher/coach/football player whose greatest "claim to fame" is that he got to meet and know You. By his own testimony, "this world is not his home; he is only passing through..."  Dear LORD, I am so humbled!  Give us all hearts full of thankfulness, gratitude and love to see our acquaintances, friends, family, and even total strangers come to know the love that is ours, the perfect love that can be theirs as well...in You.  In Jesus' name, amen.

Source:

Staples, G. B. (2016, September 1). Life With Gracie: Accident derailed coach's life but his journey inspires others. Life With Gracie: Accident Derailed Coach's Life but His Journey Inspires Others. Retrieved September 2, 2016. 

How to Suffer

Don't know about you, but I am not a fan of suffering.  Not.a.fan.  Whether you are suffering with allergies or suffering from abject physical pain or suffering the loss of a loved one, it ain't fun.  In the picture above, a dreadful earthquake has occurred.  The shaking has been so severe that walls are cracked, ceiling tiles have been shaken down. Things are a mess.  Suffering and desolation are evident.

Yet, fans or not, suffering is part of this life.  It invariably comes, and indeed it provides a backdrop for joy.  In happy times, we enjoy life, but we often take them for granted.  Past suffering reminds us to appreciate times of happiness all the more.  This is common to both Christians and non-Christians.  Even though our text was written by Paul to the Christians in the early Roman church, I'm writing to both groups today, because we all experience suffering, no matter how long we live.

So, when we see suffering coming at us like a blazing asteroid...yikes!  What should be our response?
First of all, let's examine why suffering/hardship comes, in the first place.  Why can't life be all "roses and posies"?
Is it because God hates us?
Is it because God does not care?
Is it because ... there is no God at all?
The answer to all those questions is emphatically, "No".

God is not the author, originator of suffering.  Suffering is a by-product of the sin that pervades our world.  It is a result of our world's overall broken condition.  Because of the pervasiveness of sin, the effects/consequences of it (the suffering) often splatter onto the innocent, as the person on the city curb is drenched by the gritty street water flung from the wheels of a speeding taxicab.  We should not be surprised by suffering.

God does, however, allow suffering, in both His children and also in those who do not yet know Him. He allows it and harnesses it as a tool to draw us closer to His heart.  In the final analysis He wants us, our love, our worship.  Often, in our suffering, we more clearly hear Him calling to us and are willing to answer.

Getting back to today's topic, though, how do we get through it?   Part of our answer lies in our text for today, Romans 12:12 (NET) - - -

Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer. 

We should begin at the end of this verse.  Our first action should be to turn to God, to run to Him.  He will embrace us in His loving arms and hold us during times of suffering.

A friend was telling me yesterday about how her grandbaby is teething and how miserable he is. When babies are feeling that bad, what do they want?  Most often, they want to be held.  They want to press their ear against their mother's chest, feel her warmth and hear her heartbeat.

God can't physically hold us, but when we go to Him in prayer, He is there, waiting for us.  To the unbeliever, He is there as Jesus Christ extending the invitation to the life-changing salvation relationship.  To the believer, He waits with spiritual comfort and healing in His arms.  This is why Paul tells the Roman church to "persist in prayer".  Although the human inclination is to run the other way, drawing close to God in times of suffering must be the first step.  (Why is it listed last, then?  I don't know!  They are listed in reverse order!)

The next admonition is to "endure".  Timothy tells us to "endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." (2 Timothy 2:3)  How do we do that?  Well, Believers, after drawing near to God through prayer, we must listen for His heartbeat.  He has revealed Himself to us through His Word. We can better endure suffering as we listen to Him in prayer and study His Word.  He will reveal tools to help us endure.  Invariably, there is something He wants us to see or to learn.  As in all things, He wants even our suffering to bring Him glory.

"Rejoice in hope"! What does this mean?  Let's remember that the English word "hope" as it is currently used is a very bad translation. In our vernacular, "hope" is sort of like "wishing, on steroids".  The original Greek word is ἐλπίδι, which is better translated "a certain future",  or "a strong and confident expectation".1
Usually, as in Romans 8:24-25, the direct object of the word "hope" is "salvation".
So, when Paul reminds us later in Romans (4 chapters later) to rejoice in hope, he is reminding Christians that our eternal salvation is our "end result" of life and of suffering, and that we should constantly rejoice in that certainty.
In other words, he is telling us to "reframe", to shift our paradigm, to alter our perspective.  Instead of focusing despondently on our suffering, which lasts only a little while (in light of eternity), we should "keep our eyes on the prize"... "looking to Jesus, who is both the Author and the Finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). In making that shift of focus, we can once again find joy.
Psalm 30:5 says, "weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning".  This refers to the fact that, at this moment, we may be suffering, but "when the morning comes", when we are face-to-face with the One who saved our soul, eternal joy will rush in and last forever.
Now, that is a "hope" worth rejoicing in!

Father, first of all, I want to pray for those reading this who are not only suffering in some terrible way, but who are slogging through it alone, without your Holy Spirit in their lives.  I pray earnestly that they will study Jesus and come to claim Him as their own Lord, their own Savior.  So many times, we look for healing, for comfort, in other places, when only the Lord Jesus is the great Healer, the Great Physician.  So, Lord God, for those who don't know you, yet have read this far, I pray for them.  Oh! Let them find you, the everlasting Source of All Comfort!  You have promised in your Word that those who truly seek You will surely find You, and I praise You for that.  For those of us who are already Your Beloved, Your Children, Your Church, may we be encouraged today through Your holy Bible, and through drawing near to Your loving side.  Make us a praying people, O God! In Jesus' name, amen.

Source:

1  https://bible.org/article/hope