Reflecting On Being 1/4 Of The Way Home

Have you ever been in the mountains during summer? If you can find it in yourself to go outside of your tent into the feezing temperatures of early morning you will find that there is a gentle mist settled on everything. Over the fields of manzania bush, fields of rocks, and ponds and streams, there hangs a mist. It is beautiful. But when the sun comes up and the air warms up, the mist vanishes in seconds.

Today I turn 21. This is the age where most kids are legal to drink. Some Christian kids can finally drink, and most kids get bored with drinking because its not illegal anymore. This is the legal age where you more or less can do anything you want to do (except rent a car) and there are no legal repurcussions.

And here I sit. Not 10 months ago I would have gone and had a few drinks. But life has completely changed. Life is totally different.

James says, "You do not know what tomarrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes" (James 4:14). I think I can say that I understand this quite a lot better now. I'm not an old and hardened life veteren, but I get it a little better. If I live my life like a fool, like most of the world is living it drowned in a cool pitcher of Coors, I will look up at 77.6 years old (the average american male life span) and realize I wasted it. I have instead a terrifying promise found in Matthew 24:45-51,

"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his posessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant wil come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him to pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Life is a serious thing. We are not made to sit around and drink and get drunk and play poker and do little trivial things but to serve the Master. I was not made to waste hours surfing the internet for useless pieces of trivia. I was not made to shop at the mall for shoes hour after hour. I was not made to make a life built on the sinking sand of a high paying career. More than all things I must serve the Master. He has set us over His creation and now we must serve Him.

But then there also lies the promise of a wonderful eternity. Hebrews 6:11-12 says for "each one of you to show the same diligence to have full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." What is the hope laid out in that verse? Its in the end of the chapter in verse 19-20, "We have this [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone, as a forerunner on our behalf." Jesus promised by a God who cannot lie and has sworn and promised to us the hope of His Son. I have a hope for the end of my life. I have an anchor for the end of my life.

I may be 1/4 of the way to paradise today and if what James says is true I may be mere seconds from death. I may almost be home. James promises us that this is a wisp, a quickly passing life. I dare not get lazy and drunk and think that the Master is not coming home soon but I also dare to lay hold of the hope of an unchanging hopeful God who has promised us an eternity of happiness in Jesus.

For The Glory Of An Unchanging Swearing Promising God,
R.D. Thompson

Thomas Gataker and the Right Attitude About Humanity

I read recently in a quote from Thomas Gataker in the book Puritan Profiles by William Barker,

"I thirst for thirstiness; I weep for tears;
Well pleased am I to be displeased thus;
The thing I fear is want of fear;
Suspecting I am not suspicious.

I cannot choose but to live, because I die;
And when I am not dead, how glad am I;
Yet, when I am thus glad for sense of pain,
And careful am, lest I should careless be;
Then do I grieve for being glad again,
And fear lest carelessness take care from me.

Amid these restless thoughts this rest I find.
For those who rest not here, there's rest behind."

-Thomas Gataker

This is the life of a believer. This is how I feel half of the time. Torn between gladness and sorrow. Split between careful and careless. Thirsting to be thirsty and not get lacadaisical. Weeping because I cannot weep for what I ought to be weeping for. I cannot make myself love those whom I ought, give what I ought, serve as I ought, and it causes a rift between the flesh and the spirit. Oh thank God for Jesus, the only way to love, serve, and give. It is Jesus to whom we lift praises saying with Paul,

"Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24-25)

Exalting In The Hope Of His Glory,
R.D. Thompson

Borders, Reuters, and The Gospel

Yesterday I went to Borders just to get a view of things. I wish I hadn't. I am astounded at the state of our culture. Tonight I spent some time ever so briefly on Reuters (I am not too fanatical about news) because someone told me that in order to address issues in our culture you have to know what is going on. Once again, I am astounded at the state of things.

Homosexuality is pressed harder and harder. Ted Haggard got lost in sin. Democrats rule the house and senate. Richard Dawkins and and company continue the assault on God. The evangelical church is in disrepair. Episcopalians have a woman bishop.

And despite how much I profess and try to love Jesus, I still have sin problems.

It is sometimes depressing to look on and think, "They are winning the battle, it doesn't matter how many debates or cogent clear arguments we makes, we will lose". We still haven't cured cancer, AIDS, World Poverty, or Sin and they look on and triumphantly say, "There. See where your God goes?" In the case of Haggard we now face a massive charge of hypocrisy.

"This is where the rubber meets the road" is what a good friend of mine Kyle Fink would say. This is where faith happens. This is where faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone proves the power of God. And what a glorious faith we have. Our God says,

"All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." (Matthew 28:18)
"As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God" (Romans 14:11)
"Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no savior besides Me...even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?" (Isaiah 43:10-13)
"He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation" (Acts 17:26)
"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principlaities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the Love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)
"For the scripture says of Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth." (Romans 9:17)
"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy able to destroy soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28)

The gospel goes marching on. No Richard Dawkins, Homosexual liberal, Democratic house, or fallen pastor can stop it. Like an imminent sunrise or a charging army the gospel of our our Lord Jesus Christ continues. Let the scientists speculate, Jesus is still Lord over all. Hebrews 2:8-9 says,

"For in subjecting all things to [man] he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone"

The glory of God makes all the knowledge of Richard Dawkins look like a child's picture book. It makes all of the information trafficking on the Internet and television look like a half sentence in a library of books. It makes all things everywhere small and insignificant. And for us humans to look at that and say, "I'd rather not believe in you, you are too small" and elevate themselves to a heightened position where they decide what they do in the bedroom and with whom, and where they decide who fights what war, and where they decide their ultimate destiny, is ultimately just noise over a microphone. Never will it stand, never will it succeed. Jesus has won all and will continue to win all.

As He placed Pharaoh He will place democrats in the house, senate, and most likely the presidency. And for what? For His glory! Was Pharaoh a good guy? No! He was a dictator and a terrible person. Did God place Him? YES!

As He has appointed all men and their habitations and boundaries, He is due all respect. No power or principality can steal His glory. No power or principality can stop this gospel. Jesus will prevail and there will be a day when every knee bows and every tongue confesses Jesus is Lord whether they think they rule their eternal destiny or not. And then there will be judgment. Richard Dawkins will answer the Almighty and perish in eternal fire. We must not fear those who can kill the body, our God is far greater. Our Jesus is far greater.

Existing for His glory,
R.D. Thompson