"But Then..."

(Thanks to my dear brother and friend Fred C. for inspiration on this one.)

One day we shall see Him "face to face" (I Corinthians 13:12).

The vision will perhaps cause all that the Lord Jesus Christ did for us and was for us during our earthly sojourn to be compressed into a moment of clarity and brightness that will cause us to fall to our faces in a gratitude such as we have never felt before. A holy and glorified "Thank You!" will burst forth from our grateful lips, and we will join the millions upon millions of human and angelic voices that throng the throne of God to express adoration, praise, and gratitude (Revelation 5:11-14).

But then...

But then the realization will descend upon us, or perhaps arise from within our perfected hearts that the compressed moment is merely the beginning of a long eternity wherein the infinite reservoir of God's goodness will be known by us, in us, and through us. The Apostle Paul wrote of "the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" being our portion for "the ages to come" (Ephesians 2:7). Such realization blesses us now, but again, in that heavenly moment when we shall know as we are known, our hearts would burst were they not glorified. The "reservoir of God's goodness" will never be exhausted because His person, nature, character, and way are all infinite in their measure and expression.

Our minds and intellectual capacities will be forever stimulated and illuminated because "His understanding is infinite" (Psalm 147:5).

Our abilities and capacity to fulfill our particular callings will be forever superadequate because "the power that worketh in us" is "exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20).

Our holy pleasure in being God's sons and daughters will be forever heart-filling and thrilling because "joy unspeakable and full of glory" will fill our cups to the degree that they perpetually "runneth over" (I Peter 1:8; Psalm 23:5).

The tranquility of our redeemed hearts will forever grace us with "peace, which passeth all understanding," bestowing upon us an existence for which we presently have no frame of reference (Philippians 4:7). No sense of worry, trepidation, or fear will ever have any place in our hearts and minds. We shall be internally free in a liberty that cannot yet be contemplated or imagined. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).

And we shall be loved, and love in response, with a devotion of otherness that "passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). The heart of God is an ocean without shore, a view without horizon, an expanse without limit, and depths that can never be fully plumbed. The Lord Jesus prayed that we would know the same love He had known "before the world was," and His request will be perfectly and eternally fulfilled (John 17:5; 24-26). We are presently knowing the firstfruits of such glory. However, in that moment when we see Him face to face, an experience of God's love will begin that will overwhelm our hearts with the awareness that regardless of how far we have journeyed into His heart, the Holy Spirit beckons us to come ever further and ever onward into the goodness of the Lord Jesus.

Forever's Journey

There is no end to the quest we know, forever beckons on.

For our spirits soar in skies so blue, above all clouds of storm.

Yes, we fly into the heart of God as in His Son we trust,

and earth will soon be nothing more than long forgotten dust.

So spread your winds and catch the wind, o journeyman of hope,

and race toward horizons blessed with those who also know

That the quest of hearts is Jesus, He is our shining sun,

it matters not how far we've come...

The Journey's Just Begun.

"God is the strength of my heart,
and my portion for ever."

(Psalm 73:26)

"All Grace?"

In speaking with a friend recently, we both rejoiced in the wonder that salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ is so freely given. "It's all grace" we affirmed to each other.

After our discussion, however, I was reminded that while our affirmation was true, it was actually only half true.

"The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).

Grace did not, and does not, come alone. It always makes its journey to our hearts and minds with Truth, its inseparable companion. We cannot rightly receive God's unexpected and unmerited favor apart from the parameters of His Word. Nor can we survive exposure to the light of His Word apart from being hid in the cleft of the rock that is our Lord Jesus Christ. We must have Truth if we are to rightly appropriate and enjoy grace. And we must have grace if Truth is to redeem rather than destroy us.

There are few more important guiding principles in our relationship with God. Authentic worship always includes both grace and truth. Minimizing either aspect inevitably leads to false worship. Grace without truth leads to the delusion of relating to a "Jesus" who does not actually exist, or as Paul termed, "another Jesus" (II Corinthians 11:4). Truth without grace leads to a sterile and hollow believing that ultimately results in condemnation, first in ourselves, and then directed toward others as we seek to deflect our personal sense of not meeting up to God's ways and standards. Both paths end in frustration and the tragedy of spiritual disillusionment.

Grace always beckons us to know and embrace Truth. Truth always directs us toward the grace that causes the light of God to warm and illuminate rather than blind and burn. We must know both aspects of genuine worship, and we can be sure that the Holy Spirit ever works to keep the dual flame of living relationship with the Lord Jesus burning within our hearts and minds.

"We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth."

(Colossians 1:3-6)

"Someone, Somewhere Else" Part 2

When our sorrows and sufferings lead us to offer ourselves to God for His glory and the blessing of others, the Lord Jesus Christ once again walks in the world - in us.

"I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).

Apart from our Savior, we possess no loving altruism that could make such otherness possible. Left to itself, human flesh is a black hole drawing all things unto itself for its own benefit. Thus, the notion of our personal difficulties becoming the basis for the comfort of others would never cross our minds or hearts apart from the indwelling Spirit of Christ and the Word of God. Only God possesses within Himself such sublime beauty of character, nature, and disposition. Again, however, when He lives in us, we find ourselves led and enabled to "walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6). Our pains, our wounds, our losses, and our tears serve to alert us to something our Lord purposes to do in us for "someone, somewhere else."

"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us" (Psalm 90:17). Unto a human race steeped in self centeredness and its rotten and poisonous fruits, God offers to us the gift of Himself and the fruit of the Holy Spirit. He offers to us the possibility of experiencing unselfish devotion to others, perhaps best revealed when in our difficulties we become a bright sun of love rather than a black hole of selfishness. The Lord Jesus is "the beauty of the Lord our God," and He is "upon us" as we walk by faith and submission to His working in us.

"How can God be glorified in this challenge? Who can be blessed as we pray and offer ourselves to God for the benefit of others as our sorrows become the basis of their joy?" Only the Lord Jesus thinks this way, and only the river of His heart flows away from itself and unto the needs of others. However, He thinks such thoughts in us by the Holy Spirit, and we find ourselves thinking accordingly as we walk with Him. Our Lord is greatly known and revealed in such goodness, and all glory flows to His throne of grace. "Not I, but Christ" is our testimony of that Love not only revealed to us, but in us (Galatians 2:20).

"We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

(I John 4:16)