"After the Bucket"

"After the Bucket"       

   

    You may have heard of the so-called "bucket list," a collection of goals or dreams that some people hope to fulfill before they die (or kick the bucket, as it were).  This includes things to do, places to visit, people to meet, skills to develop, or anything one desires to do before departure from the present earthly lifetime.  You may have such a list yourself.  If so, the following is written not as a criticism, but rather as a Biblical reminder regarding plans for the future.

   "A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps" (Proverbs 16:9).

   God is the ultimate planner as He works to fulfill "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).   Originally created in His image, human beings also possess the capacity to devise our way.  If wise, we make our plans by seeking His guidance, and also by not placing too much certainty in our ability and opportunity to fulfill all goals.  Moreover, even as we seek the Lord, we sometimes fail to accurately plan our future.  He mercifully redirects us, sometimes in ways known to us.  In other times, our Lord blocks our way in a manner we cannot see, but which protects us from danger.  Recall Balaam's donkey, who saw an angel standing threateningly in the path.   The donkey changed course, whereas Balaam would have blindly proceeded into harm (Numbers 22:21-33).  Doubtless we all have had such experience, and we do well to thank the Lord for protections from unseen harm that help us even as we may be disappointed by being diverted from our chosen path.

   Regarding bucket lists, no problem exists if such plans and goals are kept in proper perspective.  There is nothing inherently wrong with hoping to enjoy certain experiences before we go to be with the Lord.  However, we must sure to remember that unlike those who do not believe, Christians' primary anticipations do not involve this present world.  Our list involves the glories of after the bucket rather than before it.  Nothing of this present world truly satisfies our hearts.  Our best moments here will seem like dust in comparison to the most ordinary moments of the life to come.  Our first glimpse into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ will fill us with more joy than the all the joyous moments of earth combined.  Indeed, if from this time in our present life until its end, no hope or dream came to pass, we would still have cause for great joy as we look forward to that first glimpse of our Savior (and all His eternal glories to follow).  Thus, we seek to establish and maintain our after the bucket list as paramount in our hearts, minds, and dreams...

"We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

(II Corinthians 4:18)

   

Weekly Memory Verse 

    Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

(John 14:27)

   

"The Same Image"

"The Same Image"       

    

   

    Child-rearing involves the loving determination by parents to view their own needs and desires as secondary to the needs of their sons and daughters.  In a consistent and growing manner, children must see unselfishness in their parents.  They must know that their father and mother would sacrifice themselves in the ultimate sense.  They must also see smaller sacrifices made over and over as the expression of genuine love in the parents' hearts.

   "The children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children" (II Corinthians 12:14).

   This principle and practice will be expressed in thousands of ways, and in countless specific moments that confirm the parental heart of self sacrifice.  More importantly, however, the demeanor and attitude of fathers and mothers must clearly reveal their devotion to the child's well being.  Young people see through to the reality of their parents' devotion, or the lack thereof.  This goes far in determining the course of children's lives, including their character, disposition, relationship to God and to people.  No guarantees exist, of course.  Loving parenting does not assure that children will follow in the faithful footsteps of father and mother.  As children mature into adolescence and adulthood, they must make their own choices and determinations.  However, genuinely unselfish parents greatly influence the paths of their children, particularly regarding Christians, whose purpose involves reflecting the character and nature of our Heavenly Father.

    This raises another even more important issue, namely, God's unselfish parenting that leads to faithful sons and daughters in Christ.  The fact of His altruistic nature is a uncertainty - "God is love… Charity (love) seeketh not her own" (I John 4:8; I Corinthians 13:5).  Our Heavenly Father always acts in the best interests of His Son, the Lord Jesus, and the sons and daughters united to Him by faith.  Our understanding and awareness of God's devotion, however, may not rest so assuredly in our hearts.  We must  grow in such knowledge because to the degree we know the reality of our Father's loving character and nature, we will more and more reflect it.  The Apostle Paul states this in no uncertain terms in his second epistle to the Corinthians:

   "Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).

   By definition, believers "live by faith" (Romans 1:17).  As we trust our Lord, His Spirit moves within us to motivate a life of faithfulness.  Thus, we must possess knowledge of God's loving character because we trust a person in accordance with our confidence in their faithfulness.  Growth in the awareness of our Heavenly Father's loving and unselfish devotion to us results in faith and "the obedience of faith" (Romans 16:26).  Thus, the aforementioned truth regarding unselfish human parents inspiring children to a reciprocal life reflects the even greater reality of our Father's character reproduced in us.  As we increasingly discover His sublime nature of love, the old saying applies, "like father, like son", that is, sons and daughters in Christ who think, speak, act, and relate like their Father.

"We love Him because He first loved us."

(I John 4:19)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

(John 14:27)

  

“Reality, Revealed”

"Reality, Revealed"       

    

    What is reality?  The answer is everything that exists, beginning with God, of course, and including everything He made.

    "From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God" (Psalm 90:2).

    "By Him all things consist… I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him" (Ecclesiastes 3:14).

    God alone is eternally real, in the sense He has always existed.  However, the things He made are also real because a God of genuine substance and existence cannot create mere illusion.  This includes both spiritual and earthly beings, or angels and humans.  We all had a point of beginning, including physical conception for human beings, and an unrevealed process whereby God made the angelic host.  Thus, we exist both now and forevermore as personalities who must not only be, but must also believe in the reality of who and what God is, who and what we are, and the nature of the created universe.

   The existence of sin clouds our ability to discover and evaluate reality.  "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" declared the Lord Jesus Christ to Nicodemus (John 3:3).  No effort on our part can penetrate the fog to view reality as it actually exists.  Thus, our Creator must reveal Himself and His truth in ways  that open our eyes to the true nature of the Creator and His creation.  By the physical universe, by His Spirit, by His Word, and by His personal involvement in our lives, God presses upon us the Great Fact of Himself, and the subsequent facts that bear witness to reality.  "He left not Himself without witness" (Acts 14:17).

   "And He cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto Him, and besought Him to touch him.  And He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when He had spit on his eyes, and put His hands upon him, He asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that He put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly" (Mark 8:22-25).

   As created beings damaged by sin, we see enough to function to one degree or another as human beings in a fallen world.  The view is greatly distorted, however.  Salvation in the Lord Jesus forms a new creation, spiritually birthed and given the capacity to clearly perceive reality.  First, we see the kingdom of God, and more literally, the King.  This leads to life and our proper role as servant sons and daughters of the Lord.  Then we are enabled to see "every man clearly."  The love of God known and understood enables us to see other people as souls made by Him, and for whom the Lord Jesus died (Psalm 100:3; I John 2:2).  Reality thus presents to us right relationship with God and with other human beings.  We also view the world and the universe as God's domain, and the scene of His working to fulfill His eternal purpose in Christ - "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, and they that dwell therein" (Psalm 24:1).  This is reality, properly seen and understood as we perceive God, people, ourselves, and the world in terms of Truth, as revealed by our Lord.  

"In Thy light shall we see light." 

(Psalm 36:9).

Weekly Memory Verse 

    Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

(John 14:27)