Mar 29, 2022 | Uncategorized
What we believe about the future has a major influence on how we live now. Our hope in the future magnifies and clarifies our present purpose.
I Corinthians 15 makes it clear that if the resurrection of Christ is untrue, then we are miserable and pitiable people. We are deceived and without hope.
But, says Paul, Christ HAS been raised from the dead! He HAS given us victory over the power of sin and the sting of death. That is transformative.
Paul Tripp points out: “If all that sin has broken won’t be fixed forever, then there is no hope now and no hope in the hereafter. Without a guaranteed eternity, our faith in Christ is robbed of its meaning and power.”[1]
Christians are to trust in God’s promises and His sovereign power to achieve those promises. We will believe in the assurance of eternal redemption and renewal accomplished in the resurrection of Jesus.
These truths change our present. God promises to work on us; He is with us, in us, and for us. The resurrection guarantees the progressive defeat of sin in the here and now and the final deliverance from it in eternity.
This diminishes our disappointments and discouragements in the present moment; the future is secure.
Our contemporary world wants instant solutions and rapid judgments but believing in the God of future hope enables us to be patient and to persevere, knowing that our journey is purposeful and our destination secure.
“Through his resurrection, Jesus has purchased for us not only the guarantee of life after death but also the reality of life before death.”[2]
Blessings
Brian
[2] Paul Tripp, https://www.paultripp.com/wednesdays-word
Mar 29, 2022 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
One way: Jesus. As humans gather on the plains of life, there is a collective cry that wells up as an insatiable thirst for truth and meaning that leads to fulfilment. It has been echoing in the earth since the greatest liar visited the creational home of humans and cast a shadow of doubt on ultimate truth. Since then, the cry for truth and meaning can be heard echoing in generations past, in the present age as a ceaseless hum chanted loudly and silently by every soul, and a rumbling cry that can already be heard in the yonder years. There is an answer, but it is exclusive in its claim. There is only one way: Jesus. John 14:6.
God has tapped His grand tuning fork and it reverberates with perfect heavenly pitch across all creation. God designed all of life to be tuned to Jesus who is the one perfect pitch for all things. Every note of life was designed to give distinctive expression to the great composer of life, Jesus. However, the original song became disharmonious and discorded as a result of sin. In this dysfunctional ensemble of people, there is a universal need for all of us to be re-tuned to Jesus and every life changed (or redeemed) in order to once again sing the inaugural anthem that God designed humans to proclaim. There is only one way: Jesus. Jesus is the only one credentialled to lift the veil of sin off our humanity and to let in the light of truth for all who turn to Him. Only Jesus can bring souls back into alignment with God. Only Jesus has personally answered the call to redeem the broken instruments in the orchestra of life; us. It is only in Jesus who alone can answer and respond to the quest for truth and re-tune souls to Himself because as Romans 11:36 tells us, everything finds its purpose in Jesus, “for from Him and through Him and for Him are all things”.
No matter how many worldviews claim that all roads lead to God, the resonation of truth is only ever finally found in Jesus. It is Jesus who conducts the grand story of life. It is Jesus who tells us of our origin. It is Jesus who defines the exquisite nature of our humanity and our identity. It is Jesus who gives us dignity, purpose and meaning. It is Jesus who describes the friction of sin that has changed the way the entire symphony of life was intended to be played and it is only Jesus who has prescribed the solution to our human dilemma by giving Himself as the answer when He personally gave up everything glorious, and pure, and suffered agonisingly in our place. Jesus will take our broken instrument if we offer it to Him and replace it with a new one when we ask Him to be our master (at His cost). No other god but Jesus personally performs and sings the song of truth right in the middle of the orchestra pit. It is only Jesus who plays the accompanying song of comfort for us during our days on earth. It is only Jesus who can restore us and open the gates to His eternal home where He will welcome His servants to sit at His feet to sing His forever song, in unison with the saints, to Him alone. This is the only way to play and hold the resolving chord of truth; one way: Jesus. All other “gods” are aloof and lip-sync to their own pre-recorded soundtracks of truth. Jesus is the song.
Do you know any other god who did this? Do you know any other way that so comprehensively answers the cries of our hearts and restores us under His hand of immeasurable grace where we had nothing in our hands to bring except instruments with broken strings? I don’t. There is onlyone way: Jesus.
So, friends, get your “one way: Jesus” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Mar 21, 2022 | Care Conversations
I grew up with the story of Joni Eareckson Tada. She’s almost the same age as me, but her life has been very different.
At the age of seventeen, she dived into a river not knowing that the water was shallow. She fractured several vertebrae and has since been a quadriplegic.
After two years of deep anger, depression, suicidal thoughts, and doubts about her Christian faith, she realised that her hope was in Jesus alone.
She learned to paint with a brush between her teeth, designing greeting cards and producing artworks. She has written more than forty books and produced many albums of music.
In 1982 she and Ken Tada were married.
On the day of the wedding, she had to be dressed by several helpers; she was helpless. As she was hoisted into her wheelchair, she felt ugly, uncomfortable, and useless. When she was being pushed up the aisle of the church, her bouquet fell off her lap; her dress got caught in a wheel and gained a greasy tyre mark. She thought that she was the furthest thing from a picture-perfect bride.
Then she recounts how she caught a glimpse of Ken, the bridegroom, at the front of the church. He was craning his neck, looking for her. Her face grew hot, and her heart began to pound. Suddenly, her wheelchair and clumpy dress with its smudges faded away. She had seen her beloved, and how she looked no longer mattered. She couldn’t wait to get to the front to be with him. She may have felt unlovely, but the love in Ken’s face washed it all away. She had become the pure and perfect bride. That’s what he saw, and that’s what changed her.
The implication is obvious; when Jesus the Bridegroom, welcomes us into His presence, into that heavenly covenant moment, we, His bride, will know that we are loved and altogether lovely.
What we believe about the future, guides our present.
This is what we believe. This is our future hope.
Blessings
Brian
Mar 21, 2022 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
God is always on time. As the pendulum of time swings back and forth across our lives and the cosmic clock ticks with perfect precision, we live our days by its movement. Within space and time, we find ourselves moving forward along the highways and byways of life, always against the clock and this often influences our assumptions about God’s timing. As we etch our desires into prayers to God, making our good plans, we hope in Him, wait for Him, and trust Him to fulfil the desires of our hearts, all according to our timeframes. Proverbs 16:9. Yet could it be that we are so regulated by time that we filter our expectations of God through a finite, time-bound lens and periodically end up disappointed or discouraged that God seemingly hasn’t answered our prayers within the time periods we set (as reasonable as our timings may appear)? Yet, what God calls us to is trust; trust in His perfect wisdom and His perfect timing as sovereign Lord over all things, including time. God is always on time.
God is eternal and not constrained by chronological time or by the boundary walls of space. His timing is shaped by His eternal master plan. The difficulty for humans is the finite nature of life on earth and the pressing in of time. So, when we conclude God hasn’t responded to us on time and hold Him to account, we risk short-circuiting what He ultimately seeks to achieve. Imagine the things that would be missed if God simply delivered His answers according to our expectations. Yet what God does within the realm of our time is quite miraculous. Not only does He achieve His purposes for us, He also casts His eternal net wide and knits together all the threads of his Kingdom plans and although we may have waited, when God answers according to His perfect timing, His answers are immeasurably more than we originally imagined. It is true that God’s timing doesn’t always synchronise with our time clocks, but it is equally true and nothing alters the fact that God is always on time in all spheres of our lives. Any perceived delay from God is never a permission slip to give up but a call to trust Him. God is God and is always capable of achieving His purposes for us in the confines of time, but it is always His prerogative to enact His plans according to His sovereign will and timing and God is always on time.
God doesn’t want us to live only by the second hand that ticks around the clock face but by The Hand that can be most trusted: His hand. For His hand not only moves time but also moves His purposes through time. Time then is not our master; God is. God wants us to know He is not numb or unaware of the limits of time for human beings. He knows we are walking along a defined and limited timeline. But when we realise that God has not only created time but has also set eternity into our hearts, it reminds us we don’t need to fret over things that don’t happen according to our time clocks (Ecclesiastes 3:11-14). God’s perfect timing frames our time and puts everything into an eternal context. There is then great comfort in the knowledge there has never been a time where God hasn’t been on time with every detail of our lives and can do more in the final seconds of our circumstances where He miraculously transforms things as only He can do.
So, friends, get your “God’s time” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Mar 15, 2022 | Hope_Tina
Joining the Dots of Truth, Belief and Hope
One of my favourite games as a child was to play join the dots with my grandfather. As we progressively joined all the dots by following the numbers on the page, a picture would begin to form. We had to believe that following the numerical sequence would lead us to a final shape or image, usually an animal of some nature. Once all the dots were accurately joined, there was much excitement to see the end result.
Pondering our theme of hope with belief, we see that God reveals Himself as the living God. As we read the Scripture and join the dotes of truth, belief and hope, the Biblical pattern emerges, and we discover God’s story as the meta-narrative for life and ultimate reality. It defines how we can know and believe in God and enjoy the coherency of a life defined by authentic hope. We come into an understanding that belief in God is not some “pie in the sky” false reality based on a mythical, dead, pagan God. It is the living God who we believe in. Hope with belief is only possible because God is exactly who He says He is, living and ruling the universe in all power and authority. As we exercise our faith and trust in God, the dots of truth, belief and hope are joined, and form a picture of life in relationship with the living God.
1 Timothy 4:10 is a wonderful expression of this truth. “. . . our hope is set on the living God who is the Saviour of all people, especially those who believe”. What a beautiful picture this verse paints for those who believe. Our role is not to try and generate hope; it is to recognise that God himself is the living God and as we encounter Him through faith and belief, we have hope. Hope outside of belief in God is therefore, at best like firing arrows out into a blank night, crossing our fingers and wishing for it, against the odds to hit the target, whatever that target may be. When we fire the arrows of belief in God, the target of truth is clear, and we will confidently hit it every time. Hope is directly connected to belief in the one true God who faithfully responds to those who believe.
The world has shifted its eyes off the living God and lives with the consequences of despair, resulting from faith in false realities that chant promises of the good life, but blushes in the face of emptiness when life comes up barren, devoid of truth, belief, and hope. As this godless world gains momentum, stirring up empty human hearts that long for genuine hope, the only possible pathway for restoration is to return to the foundational pillar of belief in the living God and whose love was so great, it caused Him to stretch salvation from the Nation of Israel to the ends of the earth to ensure every person can know redemption and live in the light of renewed hope.
Friends, more than any time in human history we need to join the dots of belief to God’s truth in order to live with authentic hope. Hope with belief is an entity of God’s kingdom that gives us a true picture of how God intended life to be.
Blessings
Tina
