The Life Everlasting

“And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” John 11:26 KJV

The answer to that question is, “Yes, we do.” We believe in the life everlasting. Jesus promised it at the grave of His friend Lazarus and repeatedly elsewhere in His preaching. It is the promise of one of the most widely known Scripture verses, John 3:16, which concludes triumphantly, “But shall have everlasting life”.  When we properly think of this truth, this precious promise, we are forced to think of the relative insignificance of a life that is briefly lived on earth.

Job calls this life a vapor. It is called a spark flying upward and gone. There is a little plaque on my wall, there since I was a small child. “Only one life ‘twill soon be passed, only what’s done for Christ will last.” We try to gain and acquire all that we can in this world and constantly forget that we cannot take it out of this world. If we live to be a hundred it is only a speck in recorded history and an invisible dot on the timeline of eternity. Believing in the life everlasting means more than just future hope; it means living for eternity and not just today.

Almighty God, Thank You for life everlasting and help me daily to live for it. Amen. 

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The Resurrection of the Body

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”        1 Thess. 4:16 KJV

I remember a really sad Sunday morning about forty years ago. My bride and I were attending her home church on Easter. What joyful songs we would sing. What encouraging words we would hear. No! Two pastors stood on opposite sides of the dais and discussed whether the resurrection of the dead was just an encouraging metaphor or simply a spiritual experience that led to bliss. We left the service neither blissful nor blessed. Our own church’s Easter liturgy has the increasing crescendo of “Christ is risen” by the pastor and “He is risen indeed” by the congregation repeated three times.

That anyone should deny the resurrection is simply to deny Christ. He said that He would rise again and He did – bodily. In Christ’s Revelation to St. John, He clearly stated that there was a physical resurrection. Job believed in the bodily resurrection of the dead. David believed in it. God told Daniel that it was a certain fact. The bodily resurrection of the dead is a truth of God that has been the certain of hope of His children since Adam. Without it there is no Christ, no forgiveness of sins and no hope.

Almighty God, Thank You for the certainty of the bodily resurrection from the dead. Amen. 

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The Forgiveness of Sins

“Then said Jesus, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’.” Luke 23:34 KJV

Your one year old grandchild is just learning to walk and as he staggers into something; he grabs a hold of it so that he doesn’t fall. Unfortunately, that something has a lovely vase on it that falls and breaks. What is your response? Sadly, we find shaken baby cases far too often in the papers to ignore what some people might do. But what about you? Will you clean up the mess and hold your crying grandchild who has been scared by the surprise ending of his stroll? Yes, you will. You will forgive him because he knew not what he did.

Jesus hung on the cross and prayed for forgiveness for those around Him. Who were around Him? There were the Roman soldiers, of course. But there were also Jews who had sought His death. There was John who had run away in the garden. There were you and I standing in the jeering crowd. He said, “Forgive them.” O blessed washing of grace! The forgiveness of sins is assured by His blood which was shed by love for us. I believe in the forgiveness of sins.

Almighty God, Thank You for the forgiveness of sins. Amen. 

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

The Communion of the Saints

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.” Heb. 10:25 NIV

Imagine if when you got up one morning your hand told you it had decided to stay in bed. What would you say to your hand? Would you say, “That’s all right. We don’t need you today.” We can’t imagine such a bizarre scenario being played out in our bedrooms, but it is played out in our sanctuaries week after week. The common confession of the faith says that we believe in fellowshipping together. It says we believe in collectively using our gifts that God has given us for the common good of the body.

Daily we are glad that our feet are willing to walk, our hands are willing to work and our eyes are willing to see. They are part of our body and we just expect them to be there and function as they ought. If they don’t we know we have a problem. If we find that we don’t want to function as part of the body then we know that we have a problem, too. We need the encouragement of word and the sweet love of other saints to walk steadfastly with God in this evil world. We need the communion of the saints.

Almighty God, We thank You for calling us into the community of Your church. Amen. 

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The Holy Christian Church

“And to present her (the Church) to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” Eph. 5:27 NIV

A glorious truth full of hope and joy is that Christ loved the church. (Eph. 5:25) He loved the Church, the born again body of believers over the entire world for all time, so much that He was willing to die a torturous death on Calvary’s cross to pay the penalty for their sins. A second glorious truth full of hope and joy is that He is still loving His Church, His bride, and caring for her and supporting her every day. His prayers, intercession, presence and promises are His daily acts of love for his beloved.

Our position before God is one of purity by the grace of Christ. Our position on earth is called to be one of purity as well. Paul says we are to “walk worthy of our calling” or to “walk worthy of the Lord”. We don’t walk worthy in order to be made worthy; Christ made us worthy. We are to walk worthy in order to proclaim our love of our Beloved and to be an ornament of beauty in this world for our Savior Jesus Christ.

Almighty God, Thank You for making us worthy of heaven through Jesus Christ and help us to walk worthy of His Name. Amen. 

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And I Believe in the Holy Ghost

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper.” John 14:16 NKJV

  The Holy Ghost, the eternal third person of the Trinity, does not just make a sudden and grand appearance in the New Testament. He is specifically named at creation, Elihu names Him as the one who forms us in the womb, God told Moses that the Spirit would rest upon the artisans responsible for building the tabernacle and so on many, many times in the Old Testament. The difference in the New Testament is that the Holy Ghost comes upon every believer and stays with us until the day of redemption. 

In the Old Testament we see the Holy Ghost’s creative power. In the New Testament we see His re-creative power. It is by the Holy Ghost that we become children of God. He then dwells in the children of God, who are called the temple of the Holy Ghost, as the Presence of God dwelt in the Old Testament Temple. By His presence we are trained to understand the Scriptures, to witness for our Lord, to obey the will of the Father. He is indeed a precious gift of God the Father and God the Son to the Church of Jesus Christ.

Almighty God, Thank You for sending the Holy Ghost to live with us and strengthen us in this world. Amen.  

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He Shall Come to Judge the Quick and the Dead

“You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Matt. 26:64 NKJV

We celebrate Christmas and rejoice in the babe in the manger. But Jesus did not come to be celebrated as a baby and then forgotten. He came to grow into a man and then to die for the sins of the whole world. He came to be crowned with thorns, beaten, abused, rejected and despised. He came to defeat the devil and to rise again from the dead to give hope of eternal life to all who believe in Him.

That was His first advent, but the second one still is coming. Then He will come crowned with His rightful crown as King of kings and Lord of lords. He will not appear as a dusty teacher from a backwater village. He will come in power and glory for all men to see. He will come to judge the world both the living and the dead and to grant eternal life to those who have believed in Him and to consign to eternal death those who have not.  His second coming will restore creation, destroy sin forever and give blessings and peace to those who have loved Him.

Almighty God, We thank You for the certain promise of the second advent of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. 

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