The Hope of the Gospel

My church family has been going through a difficult time recently.  We lost a wonderful woman very unexpectedly to illness; she was so full of life, enthusiastic, fun and loving.  She will be greatly missed.  Beyond her love for her family, was her love of Christ and this has been brought up many times over the last few days.  I’ve been thinking a lot about her, rejoicing in the fact that she is now with the Lord.  Sometimes I think the phrase “with the lord” is said quickly, of course as a means of comfort, but have we really thought about what that is really saying?  Can we even fully grasp the joy, fulfillment, and peace of what we are saying?  I honestly don’t think so, but we should still examine scripture on this hope, which will cause us to rejoice even more!

I know that our friend is in heaven, because she has put her faith completely and only in Jesus Christ.  Sometimes when we talk about or think of heaven, we focus on the fact that there is no more suffering or tears, but why is this the case?  It’s because my friend is now in the presence of the Almighty God!  Yes, she is now free from sin, sickness, pain and death, but all because of Christ’s sacrifice!  She is now at peace because she is present with the Lord.  What a wonderful and joyful event!  I love how it is expressed in 1 Peter 1 3-5: “Praise be to the God and father of our lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.  This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”  I love the phrase living hope.  What is this hope?  It is in the fact that Jesus, though he died and was buried, has risen from the dead and that when he returns, we will be given new life as well.  Our hope is living because Christ is alive!  Our inheritance, eternity with our Lord and father, will never spoil because of what Christ has done!  Paul lays it out so clearly and I think, beautifully in 1 Thesolonians 4 13-18: “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.  For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so that we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.  According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever.”  Praise God, we will be with him forever, knowing that our father truly will have completely taken care of everything!  Can you imagine that joy?  I remember the excitement I had as a child, when dad would come home, simply for no other reason than just to see my dad and to have that feeling of safety and security, knowing that life was good because mom and dad had it all worked out.  As time goes along, you realize that parents can’t keep all the trouble away, no matter how hard they try or might want to protect their child.  But when we are with God, he truly will have everything taken care of, and I think we will experience that same childlike joy.  What an amazing and wonderful picture of God’s love for his children!

Ashley
Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Reading Plan

I would like to recommend to all those reading this blog a Spring Reading Plan to spend time dwelling on the reality and meaning of the life and death of Jesus Christ. The following schedule is my suggestion for a daily study of and reflection on the gospels and some related scriptures. Here is the four month plan for all who will join me:

April 1 - 28: Read the book of Matthew, one chapter a day.
April 29: Read Psalm 22
April 30: Read Isaiah 53
Recommended casual reading for the month of April - The Case for Christ - Lee Strobel

May 1 - 16: Read the Book of Mark, one chapter a day
May 17 - 29: Read the book of Hebrews, one chapter a day
May 30: Read Psalm 2
May 31: Read 1 Corinthians 15
Recommended casual reading for the month of May - The Gospel According to Jesus - John MacAurthur

June 1 - 24: Read the Book of Luke, One chapter a day
June 24 - 29: Read the Book of James, One chapter a day
June 30: Read Philippians 2
Recommended casual reading for the month of June - Radical - David Platt

July 1-21: Read the Book of John, One chapter a day
July 22-26: Read the Book of 1 John, One chapter a day
July 27-30: Read the Book of Colossians, One chapter at a time
July 31: Read the Book of Jude

Why the Old Testament?

We have started a bible study recently for new Christians; at our last meeting, someone asked why the old testament matters to us.  This was an honest question, and it got me thinking.  I wonder if this is something a lot of people think about?  It seems that a lot of times the old testament isn’t really focused on, but it has so much to teach us!  Sometimes it’s seen as out-dated or that since we aren’t under the law anymore, it doesn’t apply or matter at all in our lives.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.
From the first book (Genesis), we’re shown the majesty and authority of God in creation and we see his desire for man to have a relationship with him.  We see all too quickly though that we chose to separate ourselves from Him; we are shown what sin is and its many consequences, both in physical suffering and death and even more so in its complete severing us from God.  Throughout books like Genesis, Exodus and Judges, just to name a few, we see God’s dealings with us; we see the establishment of the law and God’s promises to the people of Israel, if they will obey him.  We see God’s continued patience and justice, as he deals with a people who, in spite of his incredible works, reject the true God.  In the books of the law, like Leviticus, it’s impressed on us even more thoroughly that we can never measure up to God’s perfect law.  We see the animal sacrificial system, the need for a high priest, and why only death can lead to forgiveness of sin.  With the tabernacle, we are shown the magnificence of God’s presence and see the fear and reverence that we should feel at the mere idea of approaching the creator of the universe.  Without all this, we can’t truly appreciate and understand who Christ is, why he came, and what he has done for us, for the unspeakable gift he has given us!  Furthermore, the prophets, like Isaiah for example, are filled with prophecies of Christ, further showing the Bible’s reliability, God's lordship over even time itself, and proving that Jesus was indeed the planned fulfillment of God's promises.  And as a last thought, Paul and Peter, not to mention Jesus himself, quoted the old testament often to support their own teaching, showing its relevance and that it is god-breathed and just as vital for teaching us!

Ashley
Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Skeptics in Wonderland

In college, two of my favorite books were Lewis Carroll's "Alice and Wonderland" and it's sequel, "Through the Looking Glass". There is a point in "Looking Glass" where Alice is told a poem called "the jabberwocky" which is a string of nonsense words strung together into a sort of story, with lines like:

"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."


After hearing it, Alice responds:

'It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, 'but it's rather hard to understand!' (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) 'Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—-only I don't exactly know what they are!"


Interestingly, in college I also met those who argued against the gospel this way. They would ask questions like, "If God is all powerful, can God make a rock so large that he cannot lift it?" If you say "yes" then you admit there is a size of rock God cannot lift. If you say "No" you admit there is a size of rock God cannot make. It is a no win...or is it? You may have heard a question like this yourself at some time. Most believers here something like this in high school or community college, because by the university level, most teachers, even anti-Christian ones, realize how meaningless this type of so called argument is. The truth is, this is not only a bad question, but in fact it is not a question at all. Like the Jabberwocky, it has the grammatical structure of a sentence, but in fact it does not mean anything. Kind of like if I asked you, "How blue does your lunch taste?" It has the form of the question, but it is not actually asking anything. It is nonsense. Let's look a little closer.

Now, you can put any object in this question, so the rock is not really important. "Can God make so much water e cannot drink it?" "Can God make a light so bright he cannot look at it?" You get the idea. So let's look at what the formula is saying. "If God is all powerful, can God make a _____ so _____ that he can't _____ it." What is this asking? It is asking, "Is God's power so unlimited that it is limited?" to which I say "...um, what?" That does not MEAN anything! That is like asking, "Is a building so tall that it is short?" or "Is a mountain so big that it is small?" These statements look and sound like questions, but the problem is, they are ubsurd! They don't actually mean anything! So we need not be troubled, as Alice was, when someone tries to show their intelligence with poetic nonsense. We can simply and lovingly point out the truth. Their question is ridiculous, but here is the truth; God can make a rock of any size. God can move a rock of any size. God can do so because he is the infinite and almighty creator of all things. As such, all things belong to Him. Mankind belongs to him. Yet mankind has rebelled against our maker, and though God has been patient with us, He has appointed a day in which He will judge the living and the dead. The real question is, how will you stand before a God so great? How will you answer for your sins against him? Would you like to know how to be made right with the all powerful maker, mover, ans ruler of all things? Our questions may be less poetic, but they absolutely demand an answer!

Luke
jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Another Progress Report

It has been a busy couple weeks in the ministry up here!

This week we began a Bible Study for new believers, currently made up of several individuals who have recently come to the faith among the shelter clients we work with. We are focusing on teaching fundamentals of Christian living while trying to also guide in reading and understand scripture on their own. It is off to a wonderful start, and we are excited to see what God may do through it!

We have also begun connecting with a small congregation of refugees of the Karen tribe (from Myanmar and northern Thailand) and with a local pastor who is a former missionary to Myanmar (then Burma) working toward a long term strategy of reaching the refugee communities of the various Burmese tribes scattered around the city. The language barrier is great, but our God is greater, and we look forward to working with our Karen brothers and sisters to find ways to reach the unreached in our own town!

The editing of our book is coming along slower than we had hoped, but we are continuing to work toward a first printing and to explore ways to make it accessible to as many as may benefit from it's message. We prayerfully hope that God will bless our frail words and use them to make his precious gospel known!

We are also working toward an outreach effort toward the many children without families living in group homes here. We are building a team to visit periodically and show them the love of Christ and teach the word of God. The scriptures show us that our God is a friend of the fatherless and guardian of the orphan. We want them to know a Father who will never leave or forsake them. More on this as it develops.

Please continue to lift us up and prayer! It is so encouraging to know that you all remember us in your petitions to God each day, and it really helps to keep us going! Thank you all, and God bless.

Luke
Jude.three.blog@gmail.com