In our devotional series for 2016, we’ve been examining the Timeless hope present in the Gospel because heaven is where our mortality gets swallowed up with immortality.  Far better than any peace on earth, Christians can have peace with God because Jesus was born and taught us how to live.  And Death won’t have the final say anymore.

In Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief, the narrator named Death has quite a few memorable lines:

Death says:

• “I have seen a great many things. I have attended all the world’s worst disasters, and worked for the greatest of villains. And I’ve seen the greatest wonders. But it’s still like I said it was: no one lives forever.
• The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both.
• A small piece of truth: I do not carry a sickle or scythe. I only wear a hooded black robe when it’s cold. And I don’t have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me from a distance. You want to know what I truly look like? I’ll help you out. Find yourself a mirror while I continue.”

Gee, Barb, thanks for the morbid reminder, you might be thinking. Advent, the season of hope and all that. Yeah. Merry Christmas. Bah humbug.

Ah, but here’s the truth: we must go further back than the manger.

To see the impact of death-of mortality-and how it stands outside of the human realm, like a circle repeating again and again, only taking different captives with every turn.

To see how angry, genuinely angry, God is at death touching His precious creation. To see His beloved image bearers succumb to sin and its consequence: mortality. Indeed our lives are like a line. We have a point of creation and a point at which our mortality stages its final stand.

If any man’s mortality was the end of his story, then Death would be right:

No one lives forever.

Enter the Messiah.  It’s why Jesus is Savior.  Enter Timeless Hope.

When Jesus came the first time to die for human sin, He didn’t do it so we’d play well in groups. He did it because death is the final enemy which will never be conquered by human peace accords, weapons reduction programs, or a borderless world. Death doesn’t care about possessions or borders or brotherhood or sisterhood in a strictly human sense. Brothers and sisters die. So do parents and children. Death doesn’t care if you follow Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, or Christianity. Death happens to rich people and poor people, wise and foolish, dreamers and realists. It even happens to the selfish and the philanthropic. To the wide awake and the sound asleep, the well-fed and hungry. It happened to John Lennon of yesterday’s Imagine. And that’s because mortality is a consequence of sin and all humans are sinners.

Death happens.  Mortality happens.  Because sin happened.

But break the circle. Conquer sin. Conquer mortality. Conquer death.

This, my friends, is the Timeless hope of all mankind. Jesus was born!  The Word made flesh, the Son of God and the Son of Man and He came with a mission: He was born to die.

Reflect today on the victory march which began in the manger at Jesus’ birth and the hope we have because of this.

1 Corinthians 15:50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed– 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

When John Lennon wrote the song “ Imagine ” I wonder if he had any idea that the picture of a world with no heaven, no hell, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too would have far more in common with a body on life support “living for today” comatose…than with utopia as a brotherhood of man. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like the song and find it rather peaceful. But there’s no getting around that if all we have is humanity and our days on earth, then removing humanity’s boundaries along with passions for self or philanthropy, and inherent desires has but one result: suddenly you have meaninglessness on a worldwide scale. Nothingness. Nothing really matters. Nothing greater than oneself to live for. That’s not a world as one, a world at peace. It’s a collective living without purpose or meaning.

Dust to dust with just dust in between.  Imagine that.  Hardly hopeful.

Far beyond Lennon’s Imagine, here’s the heaven Christians hope for:  

Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Reflect on what had to happen for heaven to exist as a timeless real hope for humanity.

Identify the beautiful aspects of heaven (above) and contrast that vision from Revelation 21 with John Lennon’s dream of perfection:

• Imagine there’s no heaven
• It’s easy if you try
• No hell below us
• Above us only sky
• Imagine all the people living for today
• Imagine there’s no countries
• It isn’t hard to do
• Nothing to kill or die for
• And no religion too
• Imagine all the people living life in peace
• You may say I’m a dreamer
• But I’m not the only one
• I hope some day you’ll join us
• And the world will be as one
• Imagine no possessions
• I wonder if you can
• No need for greed or hunger
• A brotherhood of man
• Imagine all the people sharing all the world
• You may say I’m a dreamer
• But I’m not the only one
• I hope some day you’ll join us
• And the world will be as one

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

“Choosing their own way rather than God’s way, trusting in human glory rather than in God, the nation has plunged itself into darkness.” Some of you might think that is a strange way to start a series of Advent devotionals called Timeless, especially Timeless Hope! (Come on, put the election behind you! Grrrr….)

But wait, those words were written by theologian John N. Oswalt in his commentary on the prophetic book of Isaiah. Isaiah is talking about Israel specifically in this passage:

Isaiah 9:1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan– 2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this

This prophetic hope, made musically popular by Handel’s Messiah, is about the coming of Immanuel (meaning “God with us”). The curtains open with people in gloom and distress but then hope enters! It’s a timeless message of hope: they’ve seen a great light. Oswalt says the nations are “in confusion and darkness, the prey of the very nations they trust in. But that is not where God intends to leave them. In the very areas where the Assyrian conquests began, there God promises that the light will dawn. The people of Israel have done nothing to deserve this; it is nothing but God’s grace.”

Reflect today on the very nature of Timeless Hope and why dawn is such a fitting image.

• How does “God with us” offer “dual significance” as Oswalt calls it?
• Do you agree that we will all encounter God’s presence one way or another, either as distress or hope?  How might that change the way you go about your day, looking to encounter God? 
• In what way does Jesus’ birth present a Timeless Hope?

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

It’s really rather stunning that in such a tiny book as The Mark of the Christian by Francis A. Schaeffer, there would be so much to be convicted about, if one’s heart is tender toward Christ.  If one’s eyes are open to one’s own condition and if one’s ears are willing to hear the Truth.  God gives us a “final apologetic” according to Schaeffer.  That final apologetic is unity…an acknowledged godly oneness in the Church.

Right now as we continue to experience the aftermath of the election, we’re increasingly hearing calls for healing a divided America.  Healing divisions and coming together as one nation.  Unity.

Again, the temptation is to settle for a 666 of imperfection, a forged and imperfect unity through compromise.  That’s not what God calls the Church to do.  That’s not what godly leaders ought to settle for…if they’re following God.  To that point Schaeffer writes,

“But there is something even more sober.  And to understand it we must look at John 17:21, a verse out of the midst of Christ’s high priestly prayer.  Jesus prays, ‘That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.’  In this, his high priestly prayer, Jesus is praying for the oneness of the church, the oneness that should be found specifically among true Christians.  Jesus is not praying for a humanistic, romantic oneness among men in general.  Verse 9 makes this clear: ‘I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.’  Jesus here makes a very careful distinction between those who have cast themselves upon him in faith and those who still stand in rebellion.”

That final apologetic of unity is this: that the watching world won’t need to believe that the Father sent the Son, that all the claims of Christ are true, that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life unless the world can see some kind of evidence of the reality of the oneness of the Church.  If the Church cannot agree on something so fundamental as our being one in Christ, then everything else we have to say is garbage.

So, Christians who voted for Trump and Christians who voted for Clinton, it’s time to vote for Christ and the final apologetic of unity.  If you’re black first or white first or Asian first or gay first or Democrat first or Republican first, then you’re not focusing on the right thing…if you’re actually a Christian. For Christians, it’s Christ ALONE.

You, my true brothers and sisters in Christ, have distinctions that melt away under the powerful reality of the final apologetic called unity.  If you’re in Christ, then what joins us together is far greater than anything that divides us.

We will never achieve unity in the culture if we can’t first figure out how to do it as Christians who already have clear instruction on unity:

Ephesians 4:1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit– just as you were called to one hope when you were called– 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Far more important than … what divides Christians … is the One who unites us.  Let’s start there, with unity, and model it for those still in rebellion, okay?

Love Trumps Hate is not biblical and here’s why: its meaning is entirely dependent upon its object.  The verbs Love and Hate take on a different meaning when applied to different concepts. 

Fill in the blank:  Love _______ Trumps Hate ________.  Apply the words to both blanks… injustice, murder, pizza, sin, Jesus, climate change, paychecks, Bernie, Trump, etc. 

Do you see how the meaning of Love Trumps Hate changes depending on how you feel about the object?

About who and what you love.  Christians, particularly, need to develop some discernment about this.  

It’s easy to get sucked in to something that sounds as good as Love Trumps Hate.  But it’s not biblical and Christians need to see it for what it is.

As we continue to ponder Francis A. Schaeffer’s The Mark of the Christian as being our observable love for our brothers and sisters in the family of God, we need to know what it means to love.  And what we ought to love.

Psalm 52:1  Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God? 2 Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit. 3

You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth. Selah

4 You love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue! 5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah 6 The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at him, saying, 7 “Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!” 8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever. 9 I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.

God thinks it’s important to know what you love and what you hate … and why.  It doesn’t end well for those who love evil and love the lie.  Therefore make it a point to discard the Love Trumps Hate poster and hold the banner of Christ instead remembering the words of Jesus Himself: 

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

When our love fails for our fellow man, we have two choices: repent then change, choosing what is better.. or resist the command of God thereby becoming bitter.  Sad to say, many Christians will choose the latter.  And many Christians will fail to see that truth spoken in love is the key to repentance.  It’s hard to be convicted by the Holy Spirit of sin if no one will tell you the truth about what God commands to begin with.  Too many in the Church close their ears to Truth because it’s hard to speak it and they don’t want to do it.  They don’t want to be judged or hated by the world, viewed as a freak or a zealot.  Instead they take the easy route of least resistance.  Be content with silence.  And their love for others grows cold.  Their love fails.

As I continue my look at Francis A. Schaeffer’s The Mark of the Christian, he writes about the litmus test of observable love,

“If people say, ‘You don’t love other Christians,’ we must go home, get down on our knees and ask God whether or not they are right.  And if they are, then they have a right to have said what they said.  We must be very careful at this point, however.  We may be true Christians, really born-again Christians, and yet fail in our love toward other Christians.  As a matter of fact, to be completely realistic, it is stronger than this.  There will be times (and let us say it with tears), there will be times when we will fail in our love toward each other as Christians.”

Failure in love is not the fig tree test of our unregenerate status.  Failure in love happens–even among Christians–because we’re all broken people who fall short of the glory of God.

We must never settle, however, for the 666 of sin’s imperfection instead of repenting and holding tight to the standard of the 777 of God’s perfect Triune Love.  So, for example, the protestors right now believe in something that is just off enough of the standard of Truth to lead them to a really bad place.  Instead of repentance and forgiveness, they’d prefer to cling tightly to their anger at their fellow man and their Love Trumps Hate posters all the while demonstrating that love has little place in their lives. 

Love Trumps Hate is not in the Bible. 

It’s simply not and that one degree makes all the difference!

You know what is in the Bible? 

But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:27-28)

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)

Instead of protesting and demanding “love” from others, that degree of difference says, “You do it.  You show love.  You do good.  You bless others.  You pray for those mistreating you.”  And frankly, the devil is totally in that one degree of difference.  It fails because a 666 is not close enough to pure love or even a cigar.

So what do we do then, as Christians? 

We go to them with God’s perfect standard of love and see their anger and Love Trumps Hate signs as evidence of wounded specimens of genuine humanity crying out in desperation for wholeness in Christ.  Interpret their signs as saying, 

I Need Jesus.  I’m Hurting and I Don’t Know What to Do!” 

Give them the Gospel.  Show them that observable love, that litmus test of true Christians, of genuine love that covers over a multitude of sins, and then teach them the Truth of who Love is.  Because His Name is Jesus.  He never fails.  Apart from that Truth there will be no repentance, no change, no love, and no hope and the bitterness already present will send its root deep in their hearts.  Love them with an observable love so that your love aims toward the standard of love that never fails.  God’s love never fails when you show it toward your fellow man, in or outside of the Christian family of God.

I’ve been re-reading a short little book by Francis A. Schaeffer called The Mark of the Christian.  It’s a tiny little book with a great big punch.  So, the election is behind us and the mark of a Christian is not an elephant or a donkey or draped in libertarian ideals or environmental justice.  The mark of the Christian is how we approached the election, how we treat (and treated) others, especially other Christians, and how we react to God in the midst of it all.  The mark of the Christian is whether we love one another in the family of God…. as Jesus loves us. 

That standard of love is not superficial based on race or gender or ethnic background.  That standard of love is not how much or how little sin we have committed as if any Christians ought to boast with our comparative righteousness.  That standard of love is this:

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So rather than political parties, labels, group affiliations, lapel pins, necklaces with a cross on them, or even a special haircut, Schaeffer says that there is a “better sign–a mark that has not been thought up just as a matter of expediency for use on some special occasion or in some specific era.  It is a universal mark that is to last through all the ages of the church till Jesus comes back.”

What is this mark?

To Schaeffer, it is found in John 13:33-35…which “reveals the mark that Jesus gives to label a Christian not just in one era or in one locality, but at all times and all places until Jesus returns.”

Upon Christ’s authority, Jesus gives the world “the right to judge whether you and I are born-again Christians on the basis of our observable love toward all Christians.”

So take a look at your Facebook wall, your blog posts, your Gospel Coalition article, your Christianity Today posting–you know, that public display of your heart–by which JESUS gives the WORLD the RIGHT to judge whether you’re a true follower of Christ and ask yourself this important question:  How’s your observable love?

What do you have your trust in?

Today, I rejoice in the easy conscience of one who takes a stand for Christ.  No matter what happens, I’ve done my best to take my stand for the Word.  To take my stand for Christ.  To take my stand against the evil one and against everything the evil one stands for.  I take my stand with full assurance that Jesus is with me and will guard me…because I have acknowledged Him.

Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 32 “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. 34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Yes, here I take my stand!

For those of you, my dear readers who have been with me for a while, you know that every year, I’ve endeavored to do a devotional series for Lent and also for Advent.  For Advent 2016 Devotionals, God placed on my heart the Timeless desire for healing and encouragement and how the Gospel ministers both.

It’s been a tough year with divisive politics, world events that are enough to give a sane person real pause; there are worries, strife, and many personal tragedies that can cause each of us to look inward, knowing the bitterness and the gall as Jeremiah once lamented.

Lamentations 3:19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

It is into a world such as this that Jesus came and gave us the Timeless message of the Gospel.  It’s a message of encouragement for all ages.

No matter how the election turns out, we’ll all need a little healing and I trust we will find our places again as brothers and sisters in the family of God.  Those outside of the family likewise will have had a tough year as most years inevitably are on this fallen earth.  Once you have been strengthened and restored, as Advent nears, reach out your hand to someone outside the Church who needs Timeless encouragement.  The Gospel heals.

Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent begins November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

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Prior year’s Advent devotionals (all of which can be accessed via the archives to the right) are as follows:  

The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.

Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.

The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.

The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.