Adolph Hitler died at 56 years, at his own hand, inside his Berlin bunker. He wrote one book and ruled one nation, while his misanthropic rage killed 30-40 million between 1932-1945. His right-wing dictatorship had but one competition as a killing machine—Joseph Stalin's left-wing dictatorship responsible for 30 plus million lives in Russia and Ukraine in the 1920-1930's.
Abraham Lincoln died at 56 years, felled by an assassin's bullet. Born in poverty, he lived "the short and simple annals of the poor" until his election to the Presidency in 1860. As much a victim of the Civil War as any soldier dying for either side, he single-handedly forged, through repeated defeats to ultimate victory, a Federal Union from a previous Union of States. The three personalities teach a spiritual lesson appropriate to this Memorial Day, 2021: a person's life-goal determines his policies, pursuits, productivity and place in history. Like the three, our goals directly affect our impact on life. We need a life-goal high enough to exceed our ability to reach it. Otherwise, once reached, fulfilled or satisfied, we have exhausted our life-purpose. And, we either STOP creating or, like George Eastman, STOP living by taking his own life 3/14/32, saying his work was done—why work? Internet, 5/28/2021 Trying every possible way to be like Jesus is the one life-goal never achieved now, and only incrementally achieved in Eternity, sans perfection. That goal, always before us, higher than any reach, beyond any effort, stimulates us with relentless desire that rewards every ounce of effort with tons of blessings. With this benefit besides: it's the only goal, of all those mortals may establish, that death enhances, not interrupts. Settle for no goal that WON'T continue into eternity.
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In March, 1941, a nurse on Bataan received a package mailed before December 8, 1941, Philippine time, December 7, 1941, Hawaiian Time. Taking her time to open it only increased the interest of other nurses looking on. She finally removed the last sheet of tissue paper and lifted a "pretty little, frivolous black hat, with a dainty veil".
All broke into a laughter perilously close to tears. The nurse, in her army coveralls and bigger-than-her-feet shoes, held it in her hands, noting, "It's awfully cute." They watched silently as she set it on her head and carefully adjusted it—then broke again in laughter leading to tears. The hat symbolized what they had all lost, and many of them wouldn't again find, war being the all-devouring monster of humanity: cars on paved streets, dinners in restaurants with choices on the menu, theaters showing films, etc. The little hat became a popular tourist attraction to other nurses from other bases. Everyone looked, most wistfully, many with tears brimming or falling, as memories surged and emotions spilled. I Served on Bataan, 90-91 You see, they had a past they wanted to remember, even with all its faults worth a memory. Unlike the anarchists in America today who want to dismember us from our past to live in "the existential moment." The idiocy known as Political Correctness leaves us unhinged, disconnected and adrift in the raging, turbulent sea of "What Matters Now". God sent his Son from heaven; and he went. God sent him to Israel; and he came. God sent him to embody all he intended Israel to perfect; and he did.
God sent him to embody all that the Temple and its sacrifices offered; and he was. God sent him to CARE for people; and he shepherded them by name, carrying them like lambs in his arms. God sent him to submit to death:
God sent him to overcome the death that seemed to overcome him; and the Lamb of God proved the Lion of Judah, chewing into bits the death that seemed to swallow him, then SPIT it on the floor of the open tomb. THEN...Up From the Grave He Arose. Hallelujah! God sent Jesus to PROVE ALL the good that could be done by a single person surrendering himself unreservedly to his will; and in Jesus FOUND THAT ONE, and in Jesus all humanity still finds THAT ONE. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21, II Peter 3:18, Jude 24-25 (This blog is the summary of a more comprehensive study of the subject. Other information will be shared freely with anyone contacting the writer.) Using I Peter 4:17-19 as the basic text, how can we understand God's judgment of the church?
First, the apostolic impact on society recorded in Acts 5:12-16 reflects the Master's personal impact on Israel in Mark 1:43-45. The loss of spiritual power in Corinth in the middle 50's of the first century, recorded in I Corinthians 5:1-2, reflects the total withdrawal of the Spirit's presence in Laodicea in the last decade of the first century, and recorded in Revelation 3:14-22. Second, we need to distinguish God's Testing of the church from God's Judgment on the church. Testing comes by exposing Christians to the costs, dangers and opposition from Satan AS WE SERVE God's will. The question then is: Will we persevere in God's eternal work against changing cultural prejudices, mores and tolerances? However, judgment on the church and Christians occurs when, by being unfaithful to God's Word and work Christians are exposed to cultural indifference to us. Indeed, Western culture has not only lost interest in the Church but has no patience with Bible truth. And world culture has never had significant interest in the Biblical teaching of God in Christ. In the late 1930's and early 1940's, the Church in America was seen as one of the foremost shapers of public opinion. (From Joseph Grew's Diary while Ambassador to Japan.) But who looks to the Church now to shape public opinion? Let us pray to once again be TESTED by suffering for our Faith and its strict requirements of behavior. Then we won't, as a Church, be JUDGED by God as unworthy servants to carry his Son's Cause forward. Finally, 160 years after being an unidentified jurist in the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and the Chief Justice 1830-1860, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw has a name to go with his pleasant-looking face. Question: did he die, not only intestate, but without family and friends who could have identified him? As of 4/1/2018, two court employees determined a face-name nexus.
That's a fate no saved-by-grace disciple ever has to fear. No matter how long dead, or ashes scattered hither and yon. By the power that enables Jesus to do whatever he pleases, he pleases to bring every faithful disciple alive from the dead, fully named and renewed, and every faithful disciple still alive fully named and changed. IF...those disciples have perseveringly fulfilled Paul's teaching in Colossians 3:2-4. IF Christians now make it their purpose to deny self so Jesus can be seen in them on earth, he will let them be seen as Glorified persons THEN. Note the qualifying condition: "...you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God". No such person will ever have to wonder, "Who am I?" And no one will ever have to ask, "Who are you?" Our entire self-awareness will be Restored IF we now let our lives be HIDDEN with Christ. Not awareness now and greater self-awareness then, but non-existent self now by being hidden with Christ in God. Remember, Christians. Our entire purpose now is to live in such intimacy with Jesus that people will see HIM in us, not US in him. We can claim the promise only by accepting the challenge. As a new wave of Covid-19 battered Nepal's population, Mount Everest's brutal death zone claimed the lives of two veteran mountaineers May 12, 2021. One died on the ascent below the summit, the other while descending after reaching it. And...BTW...with Everest being his seventh ascent of the highest seven summits in the world. San Diego UT, 5/14/21
Mount Everest is Creation's warning to Nature-Lovers. That nature has no feelings and is subject only to wind, air, heat and cold, and never to the needs of mortals exploring, or "finding peace" viewing it. Creation also warns Christians. Too many scriptures refute Calvinism to believe we can't be lost. Peter's reference to Judas in Acts 1:16-17 is the baseline scripture refuting once-in-grace-always- in-grace. Had that been the true, where Peter said Judas "was one of our number and shared in this ministry," he would instead have inserted one word: NEVER, as in Judas "was NEVER one of our number". He "NEVER shared in this ministry." The death of veterans of high places in high mountains reminds us: we can fail Jesus when we're young in faith or an experienced disciple. We are never safe from failing Jesus. I Corinthians 9:25-27 remained Paul's monitor against being spiritually over-confident. It encourages us to always seek new challenges to our discipleship. JUST SO we won't begin feeling COMFORTABLE and don't want to change, to dare, to improve, to GROW in faith. At separate times threats to God's incipient, provisional and eternal kingdom faced one of three dangers. First, it came from the threat of absorption by greater numbers Genesis 34:23. What seemed perfectly normal to the Hivites, intermarrying with Jacob's family had only positive results. They...the settled and larger population, would soon absorb the transient, fewer Hebrews.
Second, it came from the hostility of greater numbers Joshua 1:1-9. God's encouragement to Joshua originated in the colossal task before him. And Israel could be forgiven a sense of anxiety in Joshua 1:16-18 when responding to his first commands Joshua 1:10-15. Third, God's reinforcement of Christian perseverance came to John in the Revelation from the combined threat of both numbers and hostility. In whatever age, and our diversity-crazed age in particular, Christ's "Come, follow me" invitation calls his believers to commitment, spiritual heroism and daring spiritual courage. While 40% of Christian seniors attend church regularly, 59% of Millennials—those born 1981-1996—do not. While 36% of Americans attend weekly, that's a reduction of 14% from earlier decades. In summary, it's not getting easier to be a practicing Christian. But being one has the same POWER Source it's always had: the Holy Spirit working through God's Word to convince, convict and convert sinners and build to strength in discipleship all who accept Christ. (A pericope from 5/16/21 message.)
It's a breakthrough into an entirely different dimension. First, in the next world.
Second, in an entirely NEW world.
But how...with bodies of clay imprisoning our brain inside its limitations...HOW can we Become what we have never Been so we can share a Glory we've never Had? Aah...God's mystery revealed...his answer clear... "We will all be CHANGED" I Corinthians 15:51, TRANSFORMED Philippians 3:21. From Adam's likeness to Christ's own self Revelation 1:12-18. "And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so we shall bear the likeness of the man from heaven" I Corinthians 15:49. God's Promise. Our Home. Eternal Joy. Amen. The Master taught that God's Word, whether written in stone, or Perfectly Embodied in himself, flawlessly determined the spiritual content in people as an assayer analyzes the gold content in dust or ore Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23. As Simeon predicted, God sent Jesus as the Absolute Truth by whose standard God judges all claims to truth. His Truth also determines the degree of spiritual life in every person.
Thus, Eve's first-born Cain's life had wayside-soil spiritual content. Her second born Abel had good-soil content Hannah's first born Samuel proved good soil content while his sons Joel and Abijah proved wayside soil I Samuel 8:1-2. Let the sociologist explain the differences however he will, the Bible's explanation is right: the good-soil person welcomes God's Word and produces differing levels of spiritual harvest; the wayside-soil person remains impervious to God's Word. Let those who believe "there's good in the worst of us and bad in the best of us" spout their mantra. If we reject Jesus we're bad-soil; if we accept him and persevere in righteousness, we're good-soil. And any difference between good and bad is imperfect soil subject to judgment. There is ONLY GOOD SOIL-people in Heaven. Lost in a spiritual reverie Simeon rhapsodized over the 40-day-old Jesus. "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel...the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed" Luke 2:34-35.
In that statement God foretold through his prophet why Jesus would later say, "Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son....and has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man" John 5:22, 27 and, "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'" John 14:6. Jesus CAN be sole judge of everyone at Judgment because he alone is the WAY anyone reaches the Father—only those forgiven by him qualify—AND as the ONLY HUMAN in history CAN, he alone determines the fitness of anyone to be with God forever. A remarkably TRUE prediction over an innocent 40-day-old infant that ONLY HE, as a mature MAN of 33, perfectly embodied. We must Pay Attention. Jesus is the ONE person we cannot avoid. He is inescapable. We must stand before him at Judgment. We have no choice. He determines whether we enter Heaven with God or Hell with Satan. Jesus is history's ONLY unavoidable Personality! Let us make our peace with him while we may. While Grace is extended. While forgiveness is ours. While we can be SAVED. Before death comes or Jesus Returns. When time shall be no more. And Judgment alone exists. When all opinion vanishes and only God's WORD remains. |
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