We will RISE!

Several years ago I received a note from a good friend..." my dad's cancer is progressing. His time here is probably down to days..." When I read those words I was transported back to the last time I was with his dad. I was saddened by this news, concerned for the grief this final act of life would introduce to my friend and his family...and not.

My friend's father did lose his life, but not once was he in danger of losing his hope: the certain promise that he, as a believer in Jesus Christ, would finally be transported into the presence of His Lord and Savior, there to enjoy life as HE designed it to be.

Life is hard, then we die. Death is, of course, a very present reality for all of us--the older we get, the more acutely aware we become of our mortality. We will all lose our lives, but we need not lose our hope.

Praise God for the hope we have in Christ, and the healing death brings for those who have embraced Christ through effective saving faith.

For these, death need not be feared; it is a gracious provision that carries us back into a "face to face" real-time relationship with God. Without death, we would be eternal beings, like Lucifer and the legion of angels which were cast out of heaven because of their rebellion...eternally separated from God, without hope of redemption.

Death became the modality that God uses to foil Satan's attempt to co-opt God's crowning creative act, humankind. So then, death is the definitive "check-mate" and demonstrates God's mastery; always steps ahead of evil and the chaos of sin. Genesis 3 describes the event that initiated the rebellion of Adam and Eve to sin and it's necessary result, death; it's also here that we learn that death is part of God's bigger plan for hope and the redemption of humankind.

The rest, is history, 1 John 4.9,10...

"God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, 

but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." 

We know that love is a four letter word, spelled H-O-P-E; more importantly, we know that death simply marks the first day of the rest of our lives, 2 Corinthians 4.16-18...

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen...."

Each Sunday it's our privilege to gather with others in our community of faith and there, to go Vertical in our worship of God Almighty, the Creator, Sustainer of the universe; the Lover of humankind.

His glory fills that place we gather in and He inhabits the praise of His people. In those moments I am frequently reminded of friends and family who have preceded me in death...and are in His literal presence even as we are gathered in that crowded room; no more heart-failure, COPD, cancer, diabetes, stroke, dementia, arthritis, infirmity, organ failure--no disease, no broken hearts, no flaw, no pain, no suffering, no regret...

Joy unspeakable.

Blessed h0pe.

We will rise, thanks be to God. Stand-firm. It's a GRACE day.


Liveitwell!

What a difference a day makes.

1968: Hair!

"The years go by like stones under rushing water." 

Each year, I pause and reflect; it's easy to forget what life was like 51 years ago, what life could have been like, had God not intervened that evening in 1968. 

It was the last Saturday night of the year; I had a plan, and it certainly did not include an up close conversation with God. 

He had a different plan and, as it turns out, it changed my life...forever.

But the path to that evening in 1968 started ten years before, when my Grandmother, who lived with us at the time, would gather me up and carry me off to Church and Sunday School, what amazing grace!  I still have my first Bible, the one mom gave me to take to church with Grandma. I didn't know, until I was a young adult, that my grandmother faithfully prayed for me each day--that "BJ would experience the power of Jesus in his life and embrace Him as his Lord and Savior." She eventually moved back to her roots in Fort Scott Kansas. But I continued to get myself to church until 8th grade.

I don't recall why I decided to "drop out" but I'm sure it just didn't feel very cool to attend church and Sunday School any longer--and since I went by myself, it was my decision to make. Fast forward to the fall of my Junior year in High School. One evening I landed at a Campus Life meeting (thank you Pauline Adams!) at the home of a classmate; it was the kickoff "Burger Bash" for the school year and as advertised it was all you could eat and attracted a huge crowd of students. 

I got more that evening than a big meal. The Campus Life leader, Mark Zier, gave a short talk to close the event and he asked the crowd..."If you died tonight, do you know where you're going?" I didn't. It bothered me for a few minutes, then I moved on.

On the evening of December 28, 1968 I was set to attend an "After Christmas" party with some buddies (Jerry McClain was driving). Our "wires got crossed" (coincidence?) and they never showed up; stuck, I recalled something was happening at the Rec-center with Campus Life that night--they called it a Campus Life Rally. There was a girl I had some interest in and I knew she would probably be there (I was right); I managed to catch Mark (Zier) before he'd left his house. He was delighted when I called, and he swung by and picked me up. An evening of activities, music and then a guy, Roger Cross, got up and challenged me again about my life and death. This time I was ready and wanted to get this question resolved; Mark talked with me and then invited me to pray a short, simple prayer to embrace Jesus as Messiah, and the rest...is history.

Our 2nd date 1969

Three weeks later I went to the Ventura Campus Life Rally. Mark asked me to share about my recent conversion experience with that half of the county I grew up in. Mark mentioned a girl he thought I'd really like, a cute Sophomore at Buena High School named Laura, he wanted to introduce us. He was right. 

In that span of three weeks I'd had two introductions that literally changed the direction and the outcome of my life: I'd trusted Jesus Messiah and met my future wife--we married 3 years, 48 weeks and 6 days later.

My home was a rather complicated place (aren't most?). Lot's of love, AND pain. I was carrying some emotional baggage by that time and was making some bad choices. Jesus changed all that in an instant. The baggage was there--in fact it didn't get fully "unpacked" for years. But His presence in my life set me in a "best direction" that just never wavered. Laura's family embraced me as a "son" as our relationship grew; they, especially her dad (my dad died suddenly in 1970, just months after my 17th birthday), filled a great need in my life.

In the 80's there was a popular gospel song written by Bill Gaither that describes my story, I get choked up every time I sing it; the chorus declares..."Something beautiful, something good; all my confusion He understood, all I had to offer him was brokenness and strife, but He made something, beautiful, out of my life."

December, 28, 1968. What a difference a day makes.  

Thanks be to God for our Blessed hope!

Life is fast.

Liveitwell!