The Dove

Look into these childish eyes opened wide in innocence. Peer within her soul and see, as fine paper carefully torn and shredded, the remains of her mind and spirit. This the shadow left behind of the personal destruction, not wrought by the random act of a deranged stranger, but by the hand of he who was meant to protect and provide for her. These murderous blows have left no physical mark but the inner devastation may never heal. The perpetrator of this secret crime enjoyed each artfully placed remark and each twist of natural affection; relishing his superiority and the entertainment found in these mind games. He is an emotional vampire, not feeding upon the blood of his victims but upon their pain and raw emotion. Long ago, he shut himself down emotionally and can only experience feeling vicariously through those weaker than himself, especially his child. In her he sees what he needs to see in himself, godlike power and strength reflected back to him by the helplessness of his victim. The knowledge that eventually his source will be destroyed by his feeding is of little consequence to him. In his eyes one may see the inner torment of one who has long lived in opposition to his own conscience and the innocence that remains in the eyes of his child drives him on to her destruction.

The child grows and is filled with rage that she turns inward in self-destruction. She has been well trained in bearing the sin of others as she has always born what her father could not bear to see in himself. This child that should have been cherished, loved, and honored as her own person has not yet grown into her own person but exists merely, as her father's sin eater. She is the reflection of his own dreaded imperfection. After fifteen years, the child cannot bear to eat the sin of her father any longer and castes herself headlong into the world. There she is met by others of the same type as the tormentor that she sought to leave behind. She has been educated in a manner that fits their purposes exactly. Each in turn, they amuse themselves with her and feed upon her childish gullibility. They pass her around and feed her the drugs that she learns to love as they are the doorway of the only escape she has ever known from her emotional pain. When she is bitter, sick, and broken they toss her away as so much garbage. She is a broken play-thing with nothing left in her by which she might survive.

At eighteen, her eyes reflect as in splintered glass the image of her shattered soul. The drugs that eased her pain have turned on her, and imprisoned her, and her heart is devoid of hope. Yet, deep inside she is still but a child; a child that has never been. This young woman who's life has been shaped by the cruel hands of others and the drugs she used to escape them, is but a shell surrounding the true person, the dove that fearfully, hides within. This dove is the innocence that could never be touched by all the abuse that the outer child survived. The innocence that she was not even aware of and no other could see, called out for rescue in indiscernible whispers of hope laced with pain. It was the dove that Jesus recognized as His own and it was to that dove of innocence that the Holy Spirit called. The innocence that empowered her to believe and call upon the Name of the Son of God. This Name that days before meant nothing to her had in an instant become her only hope. Her childlike gullibility no longer a deficit but a treasure to the One Who values children and knows what makes them strong. It is Jesus Who makes them strong and it is Jesus who took this battered child close to Him; and into all the cracks that threatened her with eternal death and destruction, He breathed His life and with patient, craftsman like care, undid all that the evil one had done.

This child is an old woman now but still, she is also, forever, a child. The dove of innocence still resides within her, protected, nurtured, and cherished by the One Who saved her and restored her to what the Father desired her to be.

Sexual Insanity II

Fellow meredevotion.com writer, JoyIndescribable, wrote this month about Sexual Insanity as a gritty reminder of the way that "living" by the world's standards of living is a lot like a slow, inner death.

To the best of my knowledge this was the first time on meredevotion.com that someone has ventured to write about sexuality, but the topic has been on my heart for some time. I find sexuality (particularly the opposite sex) to be very mysterious and wonderful ... but ... even more than that, I find the things the Bible says about sexuality to be far more mysterious and wonderful.

Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself.
1 Corinthians 6:18

Does the world admit that certain acts of sexuality are wrong? Many people in the world do, although it is quickly becoming the case that only the more perverse of sins are being acknowledged as wrong. And some are openly valued as 'alternative lifestyles'.

Although the world may identify some acts of sexuality as wrong, it never agrees with the Scriptures about what makes it wrong. In fact, it recoils in horror at the way the Scriptures identify evil.

The world may say that fornication is prone to diseases ... which can be solved with contraception, science, etc. Or it may say that prostitution is a "selfish" practice that people use to take advantage of others. Or it may say that adultery is wrong because it is a kind of "cheating" where one spouse gets an advantage the other does not have.

Certainly the Bible condemns the practices of fornication, prostitution, and adultery, but it does so from such a completely opposite direction that men in the error of their thinking would have never guessed there was such a direction. And when they hear it, they recoil in offense.

The Bible says that when a person sins sexually that they are sinning against their own body, that they are not sinning against their neighbor, nor their community, nor their "society" or "the Public" (whatever that could mean, I do not know). The implications of this claim are highly offensive.

When a person is raped, who is the person who was wronged? An immediate answer might be: 'Obviously, the person who was raped'. People who are raped often have heavy emotional burdens that they carry, and they usually struggle with self-confidence issues for the rest of their lives. How can it be any other way?

The Bible tells us it is the other way around, that the person who is truly wronged is the one who committed the rape. That person has -according to the Bible- done himself 'no good'. This is disturbing and politically incorrect in the eyes of the world.

Consider the question put this way: "Is it better to be a person who perpetrates rape or a person who is raped?". Clearly, it would be far better to suffer in neither way.

The Bible takes a clear answer on this question. It says those who commit sexual sins are the ones to be pitied! How atrocious this claim is to the world which only considers the appearance of things and maintaining facades.

The person who sins sexually carries an enormous weight on his or her shoulders. The world in its wickedness supposed though, that they get some kind of 'unfair advantage'. The claim of the Bible is that nothing could be further from the truth.

Another aspect of sexual sin is the duplicity of it. And this is the insane element. Erotic love always posits that its ways are spontaneous, and it almost always posits that its ways are wrong.

Like the proverb says, stolen water is sweeter than wine.

At the same time that the soul of the sexual sinner says, 'This is totally wrong ...' Their flesh is saying, 'This is totally great ...'. Their flesh and soul are unified in the sense that the soul is driving away in one direction and the flesh is driving away in the other direction, which is to say they are not unified.

As long as the person is going a hundred miles an hour in two opposite directions, there can be no relation between the two parts, and the person fails to speak their choices with a single voice.

How can God relate to such a person? To a person whose only law (and they understand it as a law, for they are indeed slaves to it) is lawlessness? How can God relate to a person who seeks to find their happiness in true despair? How can God reveal light to those whose light is darkness?

Is it impossible for God to relate to such a person? Yes, it is impossible, but praise God because through Christ he has accomplished the impossible. He did this by making Christ -who knew no sin- to become sin for us so that in Him we might have the righteousness of God.

Not only does the person who accepts Christ find reconciliation with God, but his soul becomes reconciled with his body. This is what Christ meant when he said,

Come to me all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Matthew 11:28-29

Everyone who has been redeemed by the work of Jesus is given the task of taking their two most opposing parts (their soul and their flesh) and unifying them in the task of righteous living. This miracle is an act of God, and He entrusts his children with the task of living out this change He has made in them.

The Important Thing

If you want to know me, I'll tell you what I believe about God. If you want to know God, I'll direct you to Jesus. I have never seen God but Jesus has. In fact He is the express image of God in the flesh. He was with the Father before time began and God created the worlds and all that inhabits them through Him and in Him. It is Jesus that holds all things together and though He once came to earth in the flesh, He now sits at His Father's right hand. While on earth in bodily form, He died for the sins of us all so that we could be at peace with God and have close fellowship with Him. Through His own blood, Jesus reconciled man to God, despite the continuing sinfulness of humankind. He sacrificed Himself and conquered death by rising from the dead so that sin and death could be fully put to an end when Jesus has put all of His enemies down. All who believe in Jesus can have their sins covered now by simply believing that Jesus is Who is says He is in the Bible and that He died for our sin.


You may wonder how it is possible to know a man who died over 2,000 years ago. Jesus was not just a man but was also the Son of God. He says this of Himself. Also, He died but still He lives. He sits at His Father's right hand and He also lives in those who believe in Him. It is the Holy Spirit Who will reveal Him to you. If you desire to know God, pray that the Holy Spirit would lead you to Jesus that your spiritual eyes and ears would be opened making you able to discern, Jesus. When the Spirit leads you to sit at His feet, take responsibility for your sins. Name them and also confess your heartfelt desire to leave them behind. Acknowledge the price Jesus has paid and accept His sacrifice as full payment to God for all the sin you have committed in the past and all the sin you will commit in the future. Then open your heart and receive, Jesus! When He has made His home, by the power of the Holy Spirit, at the very center of your being, you will never again wonder how it is possible to know Him. You will have become a temple of the Living God! At the moment of salvation, Jesus will become your very best friend; One that is closer than a brother. He is a friend that will never let you down and as you walk through life with Him, He will reveal to you all that you desire to know about God and His plan for you and all others. Not only will you come to know more about God, you will be eternally bound to Him in a Father child relationship with guidance from Him available for all that you will encounter in this life. God, Who was once distant, will become known to you not only as Heavenly Father but also as Daddy and He will be most pleased when you walk through life with your hand in His.

These are the things that I have experienced in Jesus. Though, I have been His now for a very long time and have learned many things about God and have developed my own understanding of Him and the Bible, all that I have learned and added to Jesus is nothing without Him. For all the knowledge that I have, I still stray away and sin and because He loves me so much, I end up at His feet again. There in the same spot where Jesus was revealed to me thirty two years ago, I acknowledge Him, sorrowfully repent for the wrong I have done, and I am reassured of the eternal forgiveness that I have because of the blood Jesus shed for me. All my knowledge belongs to me, is given to me by Him, and the way I live by it will reveal who I am. The more you know about what I believe and observe of me, then to a greater degree will my hypocrisy or faithfulness be revealed to you. What I understand about God is not the important thing concerning you. The important thing is Jesus and the continuing revelation of Him to you, in you, and through you.

Life is short. Don't miss the most important thing. Don't turn away from Jesus.

Affordances

Reflections on the Space Between Words

I once heard a speaker explain our problems with raising children. 'The problem is not that we do not love our children, the problem is communication -we don't TELL our children that we love them. The problem is metaphysical, we don't understand the nature of children or of parenting. The problem is scheduling and budgeting ... we don't make suffecient plans to love them.' But it turns out the speaker was deceived. The problem is we don't love our children.

In the months before getting married I asked a lot of people for advice about marriage, about the secret to having a great marriage. I was surprised by how much I advice I got to do certain kinds of things: buy her roses every three months, don't spend time alone right after work, spend at least one hour talking with her every day.


People do not realize how mistaken they are. If one does not make love the cornerstone of their marriage, all advice is vain. And if love is the foundation, all mistakes can be overlooked.

In this way, the legend of Wesley and Buttercup must be remembered. When he was told by Buttercup to fetch a pitcher, he replied 'As you wish', although he really meant 'I love you.' At a particular moment, the young maiden realized exactly what the young man was saying to her and the treasure she had found because, as Wesley himself observed, 'This is love. Do you think this happens everyday?'.

The sun rises every day. People go to work everyday. Men and women get married everyday. Love is not like those things. Love is an eternal understanding that enters history with a blink and stays forever.

When a wicked parent grows weary of his duty to care for his children and begins to despise his children in his heart, it does not matter what words he chooses -however lovely sounding they may be. The child, who hears the affordances of the words, understands perfectly everything the wicked father says. To the child it is as though he were saying, "I wish I could lock you up some place where I would never have to hear you again."

Studies have shown that when a man listens to a woman, he processes her words with the same part of his brain that responds to music. He does not hear the details: that her car broke down, that her coworkers said such-and-such, that it was a hundred degrees outside. He hears her tones, her sorrows, her relations to the details. And whether the words are full of sadness or joy, it is so beautiful for him to listen to the woman.

The brain is a vast, complex creation of God that is woefully understood by professors and doctors. Very often the brain does not remember what to say or think, it only remembers the affordances.

In dancing, for example, the brain does not remember 'Right foot goes to coordinate G4. Left foot goes to coordinate C3'. The brain remembers affordances: 'Move back just this much. Turn in just this way. Linger at this moment and then hold'. When the brain sees colors it doesn't say, 'Oh, that tulip is ten percent cyan and ninety percent magenta'. It says, 'That tulip is a little more pink than the others and I like it.'

That is the mystery of affordances, they often reveal what is brewing beneath the surface. Like facts they tell a story, but unlike the facts the story is about our own preferences and it is the story of who we are. Out of the outpouring of the heart the mouth speaks.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
Matthew 13:44-45

The way we act, behave, and pursue our desires says a lot more about who we are than what we do. The greatness of merchant was not told by the numerical amount he paid for the pearl of great value. It was told by the way he pursued it -what he was affording to part with for it, and, more importantly, it was told by his joy.

The Bible has little to say about what we ought to wish for, but it has much to say about how we ought to wish for it: in faith that we will be treated generously by God, with anxiety for nothing, in thanksgiving when we do receive it.

Our neighbors may never notice the way we live. They may only see our appearances and judge us for it. They may only see the clothes we wear, our position at our jobs, or our talents in speaking. But God sees beyond all those appearances because he looks at our hearts. He knows when we despise our neighor, and He rejoices when beneath our giving there springs a fountain of cheerfulness that wells up into life.

May the children who devote themselves to their heavenly Father take note of their hidden thoughts and the way they live out their lives. May they dwell on the rich way the Father blesses his children. May they take careful note of how they live. Amen.

A Loose Afternoon Conversation

Earlier Episodes:
Episodes 1, 2, 3
Episodes 4, 5, 6
Episodes 7, 8, 9
Episodes 10, 11, 12
Episodes 13, 14, 15
Episode 16

After Thoughts

Good appearances mean a little to everybody,
and they mean everything to nobody.
Jesus means something to few people,
and to those few people he means everything.

The problem with common sense is that it is far too common.

After the seminar I decided to introduce myself to the traveling professor. He was a philosopher par excellence, decorated with every medal in his craft from modal logic to epistemology. I noticed a small speck of an ornament among the rest and said, "Which medal is that for?". He scoffed and said, "That thing? That is for something so small that even a child could understand it. That medal is for truth. You can have it, it means nothing to me."

It takes a child to raise a village.

Even the greatest scholars fail to grasp everything, but love makes all things clear.

After my first week as an appentice, I surveyed the workbench and asked, 'Which tools are the greatest?' The master answered, 'The ones most leave on the shelf.'

What the philosophers say about reality is often as deceptive as when you see a sign in a second-hand store that reads: 'Pressing Done Here'. If you went in with your clothes to have them pressed you would be fooled; the sign is for sale.
Kierkegaard, Either-Or


Those who often give advice seldom take it.
Those who seldom speak need little advice.

"Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
Mark 8:15b

As soon as the child walked into the barber shop, he noticed his reflection in the mirror. Then he noticed another reflection standing behind that one, and another one going back into the darkness. On his other side was a series of reflections that looked very similar. 'How just like time!' He remarked. 'The furtherest memories I have are so hazy, and the future becomes unclear after several moments. I have only this brief part here.'

God makes exceptions. Pray something daring.

Better to live among the primitivity of the Goths,
Than the intellectual fineries of Rome.

Scholars have the ability to explain happiness.
Everyone else has the ability to find it.

So many know-it-alls, and so few fools.
So many philanthropists, and how few are outwardly selfish.

The world insists on making everything impersonal,
though not as strongly as God insists on making everything personal.

Sexual Insanity

Her beautiful face is hardened into a mask and set by empty eyes, crying. As I focus on one long tear coursing down, I see the artisan lifting, again, the hand that sculpted this girl's once innocent face by the chisel of emotional pain. The artist's name, Sexual Deviance and Perversion.

The artist sells his work to the sexually insane. Those who are twisted inside by that which satisfies them in self-and-other-degradation. They inflict their shameless shame upon the innocent; and inflict them with the soul killing pain of selling self for dark pleasure and monetary gain. These who were long ago broken inside can find no rest or satisfaction but in the shattering of the innocence of others. They find temporary but deep fulfillment in twisting younger hearts in soul-killing pain. Each would turn back now but the way has been blocked and all within are condemned. The entrance is bolted; and all here are trapped and can only move deeper within.

Many began this decent into sexual devience and depravity vicariously. Possibly, it seemed to be innocent enough as a diversion when viewed safely upon computer and television screen. As long as it remained hidden, it seemed that it would hurt no one. Just as drugs entice by killing pain and enhancing pleasure, so too does sexual voyeurism cure the boredom of an easy modern life. As the promise of drugs grows sour and their strangle-hold sets in, requiring more and more for the same lift, so too does pornography continually demand further deviance to provide the same level of escape. The fantasy world of sex normalizes the perverse and makes hum-drum the natural affection of a man and a woman. Soon many find themselves living in that fantasy world of sexual perversion as they leave normal relations far behind. Most embrace the drugs also as one feeds and then soothes the other.

The individual sinks slowly into sexual sin and our nation also has been cooked slowly, as the frog in the kettle, in the soup of the sixties sexual revolution. The Pandora's Box that was opened then still is not shut today. We tolerate more as our families are decending into Chaos.

Some of us seek to stop this tide of self-and-other-degradation by refusing to look and to watch. It isn't enough to simply close our eyes when our children, in eighth grade health, spent third hour putting condoms on bananas. Even when God's people don't look and don't participate, God can't look down upon us without seeing that which the majority no longer even attempt to hide. He sees us sexualizing our children en mass and I know that He cries. He cries for the children. For those who's young hearts are wizened too soon. For those who are born without parents committed to one another. He cries also for those who are killed because they were conceived inconveniently and sacrificed upon the altar of sexual desire.

We who are created to be the temples of God's Holy Spirit must not hide the Light that is in us. We must not close our eyes and cluster together, wringing our hands, hoping to hide where this vile degradation can't touch us. We can't hide our children from it and still remain in the world. Our hope is in Christ and the only hope for those whose sin has left them dead inside, is new life in Christ. We mustn't turn our backs in disgust but reach out with His Love to those He died to save. He came to save sinners and there is no one more relevant to our time and our need than Jesus.

All around us are those who have become sexually insane. They are lost in their sin and if we truly want this tide to turn, we must do more than complain that there are no movies for us to watch. If there is to be healing in our land then we must take part in the great commission that Christ Jesus left for us. We must take the gospel to a dying world. If we do not then soon our posh churches will be crumbling too and God will have no choice but to deliver our nation over to His Wrath.

We who were also once vessels set for God's wrath are now temples of the Living God. Let us live our lives before others in honoring our own temple through sexual fidelity, commitment, and love. Let us be bold in proclaiming Jesus to others who are now as we once were. May God send us revival and heal this desolate land.

Power Raining Down

I followed my desire
To the depths of my own depravity.
Crumpled, broken, and hopeless,
I quivered and quaked
at the very gate of Sheol.

Oh! Wonder!
The Son of God came down
and there in that terrible place,
I met Him,

As He met me.

He taught me His Name:
JESUS!
And He told me
to believe in that Name.
This being the Name

that the Father gave to Him.

Do not doubt the Power of it!

Behold! The miracle!
All that my sin had laid waste and made hollow
in me, was filled with His Life!
As I reached for the Hand
that first reached down to me.
I, I! was lifted up!
Lifted from the quagmire
of my wrong desire.

Given God's Power,
each time I speak that Holy Name,
JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!

I shout!
I feel the Power raining down,
Filling my new heart with His Desire.
That right Desire,
The Desire that none should perish,
but that all men be brought to repentance;
and every knee bow at the Name of, Jesus!
As He, Only, is recognized as Saviour and Lord.

This is the true Love sent
By He Who is Love.
That those Who deserve only destruction,
might be saved,

by God's Power, clothed in Mercy;
His Mercy in long-suffering towards us all.
This is the substance of His Grace;
This Love and Mercy in the Person
Of His, Only, Begotten Son, Jesus!
This Son,
the embodiment of Righteousness
and the King
of all who call upon
His Name;
Will someday,
at His full revelation,
rule over all men;
the living and the dead.
For though He died,
He still lives;
Thereby, He has become
The Lord of the living
and the dead.

Even the gates of Hades
will not prevail
against Christ and His Church!

Rejoice! You who are broken,
You who are weary,
And can no longer find hope
within yourself;
This is the hour of your Salvation!
Reach for the Hand of Jesus!
As He now is reaching down to you!
There is hope in no other.
But even in the whisper of that
Holy Name, there is the Power,
to create you anew,

by His Spirit
from the very ashes
of your life ruined in sin.

At the whisper of that Name,
Satan must flee
and demons bow down;
To make Way for King Jesus!
As He takes the thrown,
in your once wicked heart,
now
Made clean by the
Power of His Life,
The Only Sinless Life,
That He willingly laid down,
For you and for me;
And then He took it up again!
And liberally, He pours His Spirit into
Those who are called by His Name!

In Him, they will eternally live!

Rejoice! Give glory to God!
A Way has been made for us
In Christ!
The Way is simple and sure.
The Way is Jesus!

BELIEVE!

Be lifted by the Power
Of His Name!
And though, you may at times,
still stumble,
being led astray by
wrong headed human desire;
Don't forget as you travel,
The Name,
JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!
That constant Power,
That promises,always, to lift you,
Again to the Father,
Until, one day,
He takes you home;
To that glorious and eternal place
where sin
is remembered no more.


JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!
Let God's Power
Forever, rain down!

Death's Demise, The New Adam

When life gets confusing, and life is often confusing, I tend to look backward and long for simpler times. I long to be younger and stronger. I remember my dear children when they were small and wish that I could, once again, protect them from the evil in the world. However, the security of the past is an illusion. It's apparent safety lies in the fact that it has been survived, thereby, removing its uncertainty.

I also have a tendency, when working to achieve a goal, of dreaming of better days in the future when my goal is obtained. It is hard for us to achieve goals amid all the unexpected interruptions that are characteristic of temporal life. Future's perfection lives only in the future as uncertainty exists only in the present moment. If we are able to reach our goal, we find its promise diminished as uncertainty has followed into the future as it became the present.

Uncertainty is a benign way of expressing the deep fear we all live by; and that is the fear of death. Intellectually, we can plan and set dates and discipline ourselves to achieve great things in the world. However, we have no real control of anything as death rules the world in which we live. We never know when we or a loved one will be struck down and none of our plans can defer death. Death sets the clocks we live by and all things living are running down, preparing to meet our common destiny. Even when it appears that we will achieve our dream, our bodies are aging and growing weaker and our enjoyment of success lessened thereby. All of our work is but vanity. All that we are able to achieve is fading just as we are fading.

Sin is the sting of death and it is the fear of death that, often, leads us into sin. Life's uncertainty is met by most of us, at least once, with the cry, "Eat and drink, for tomorrow, we die!" We cringe at this phrase because it expresses the stark reality of life upon the earth. Truly, the animals have it better than we as they simply do as their instinct tells them without fear of their death for they have no knowledge of it. We who are cognitive creatures with knowledge of good and evil are born into a world in which the deck is stacked against us. We all must face the hour of our own death and have no idea of the date of that day.

The uncertainty of life, which is death, entered into the Creation by the hand of humankind. When Adam and Eve decided to choose their own destiny apart from God, sin entered the world and death followed soon after. In Adam, all living things became subject to death. All that God had created for eternal glory was cut off from Him and became mortal, being cut off from He Who is the sustainer of life. As a result, we are all born dead to God under the curse that Eve and then Adam brought into the world. God is Spirit and, in Adam, our spirit has been severed from Him. We are born, we dream, we work, we whither, and we die. In the old Adam, there is no hope; but only the common destiny of the grave and the future resurrection for Judgement.

There is now a new Adam. In this Adam, there is no death for He is not mortal as the old Adam. He is the One born of the Spirit Who came to do His Father's Will and not His own. This new Adam obeys His Father perfectly and has only been severed from His Father in the moment in which He took all of our sins and the curse of death upon Himself. He laid His own perfect life down that in Him the curse of death would be lifted from God's perfect Creation. Being without sin, being without the sting of death, death had no hold over Him. He died but then He took His life up again. He did not take His life up again for Himself only but offers it freely to all who believe in Him. This new Adam is a life giving spirit. Just as in Adam, death was passed to all, so too, in Christ, shall all be made alive.

In our bodies, we bear the image of the old Adam and our bodies will die. In Christ, however, life's uncertainty has met its demise. Jesus has obtained victory over sin and death. Though He died upon the cross, He rose again in a body that will never die as His flesh has been glorified, perfected by God. He is the first fruits of God's Redemption Plan. We who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and have a relationship with the Father through Him, will also be glorified in like manner, being wholly perfected in Him. We will be glorified at His coming when we meet Him in the air. In our perfected state, we will rule and reign with Christ Jesus for 1,000 years in God's Kingdom on earth. (This is the same Kingdom promised long ago to the Jews.) Jesus Who has had the only victory over Death, will put him fully under His feet at the end of this 1,000 year rule. He will then turn this Kingdom over to His Father. God's Creation will be returned to Him free from sin and the curse of death. Death will consume itself and time will end, passing into the eternal. For those of us who are now in Christ, who have received the new Adam, life free from death is our true reality. Though our bodies will die, our spirit will rest in Christ and we remain as living souls in Him. We will not know the nothingness of the grave and will not be raised only for judgement at the end of time. Instead, we will rule with Him in an age yet to come which precedes that final holy Judgement.

Faith in Christ is the death of uncertainty; though life may, at times, confuse us and cause us to give in to our old habit of fearing death. Let us who love Jesus remember that death is not eternal for someday, death will meet its final demise in the finished work of Christ upon the earth. Do not fear that which is temporary, even when the pain with which it torments you be excruciating. Satan's power is fear of death and it is temporary. Death has no hold over us who belong to Jesus. May we cease to walk according to the temporal power of the fear of death and begin to walk instead by that eternal power that is Life. In light of eternity, death's power is very short. Rejoice! Do not adopt defeat when your plans are smitten by the uncertainty that is temporal life. Do not settle for comfort in the glory days of the past, they are an illusion. Do not dream of future security while being tormented by the uncertainty of the moment. Instead, may we encourage one another to live in this eternal moment that is not an illusion and not only future promise but our present hope. Though everything we attempt to create and build be thwarted, God cannot be thwarted and in Him there is no uncertainty, no death.

Jesus lives!

1 Corinthians 15