Heaven on Earth

Today as I was returning from a long walk in the forest I encountered a very precious young lady out enjoying the sunshine. She greeted me as her pastor and began to speak to me about her life and her recent experience of love after lamenting her life for several months. It reminded me of a common experience of many believers or churches.

We find ourselves having made the wrong decision in the face of temptation, or we say the wrong word in a moment of insecurity or anxiety. Churches find themselves embroiled in conflict and confusion without many, if any, knowing the real reason why. When these experiences occur we are heartbroken, and we grieve. Oh, how we wish we could take back the word, back up the clock and make a decision led of the Lord, or somehow unwind the confusion created by conflict in relationships and churches. We grieve and wish we could undo them, but sadly new beginnings and correction for past sins are not possible for us.

What is not possible for us, however, is possible with God in our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot undo our sin or wipe away some of the consequences, but we can be reconciled to our Lord by admitting our mistakes, asking Him to teach us and to strengthen us in Him at the point of our weaknesses. Such confession brings His forgiveness, and we are reconciled to Him. When we are restored we rejoice in His goodness and are able then to demonstrate the same goodness to others as they need our grace to be restored to relationship as well.

We cannot undo our sin or our mistakes, but we can be forgiven through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we can forgive others. Such restoration calls us beyond ourselves and our failures or our difficulties. It lifts us above the shortcomings and mistakes of others and draws us ever upward with an attitude of joy and thanksgiving for the love and grace of our Heavenly Father expressed in the sending of His Son Jesus Christ.

We at IBC Munich turn to the Lord with rejoicing and thanksgiving for His goodness. We invite all who will to come and join us as we learn and celebrate Heaven on Earth. This Sunday we begin a series of sermons from the life and teaching of Christ entitled “Heaven on Earth.” In the Pastor's Club we will be telling the story of a man named Christian, and in the youth time we will continue looking at how we can avoid wasting the life our Heavenly Father has given us. Come join us as we continue to abide.

Life Stability

Perhaps I am unique in life, but I suspect many can identify with me. I have always felt myself capable and believed that somehow I would make it through the difficult moments or the trials of life. This however does not prevent me from moments when I am filled with anxiety or times when stress seems to be the most dominant aspect of life for me.

However I know another experience as well. I have known and continue to know peace in conflict, rest in uncertainty, love when rejected, and hope when all seems lost and desperate. How do we know these things? For believers the word "faith" jumps into one’s mind. We are quick to declare life stability is by faith, and we are normally even quicker in prescribing "faith" to others.

Recently while reading the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) again my mind, and yes, my heart was impressed with the words of our Lord in Matthew 7: 24-27. You will recall this passage as our Lord's conclusion to His Sermon on the Mount. Here He describes faith as He prescribes "faith" as the ultimate remedy for anxiety. He says the ones who hear these words of mine and who do them will be like a house (life) built on a rock which withstands the torrents of life which may assail it with a barrage or threat, one after another.

This seems to be a picture of "faith"—believing enough to “do” what He teaches—and it is His plan for life stability. Let us abide, that we can "hear" and have the strength of the Spirit to "do" what He teaches as the way to life stability.

Blessed Are They Who Mourn

I have recently been drawn back to another passage of scripture from the Beatitudes. It is recorded in Matthew 5:4. One cannot easily understand this passage without understanding the first of the Beatitudes which states, "Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God." One very concise understanding of who the poor in spirit are is that the poor in spirit are those who have come to understand they are in reality lost and adrift in the sea of opinions, experiences, and futility—all of which are detached from the knowledge of God. The opposite of poor in spirit is arrogance; and arrogance shuts the door to the illuminating Spirit of God and denies one the ability to discover, rejoice in, and marvel at the goodness of God's glory.

Once one comes to a poverty of spirit and begins to taste the goodness of God, one can understand the paradox of "Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted." All of us are aware of the grief which invades one’s life when experiencing loss of one kind or another. The loss of a job, financial security, a valued friendship, one’s health, or the impending loss of the life of a loved one or friend all create a deep sense of grief. The one who relies on the Lord Jesus Christ and the counsel of Holy Scripture can find much comfort in these times. In fact such comfort is a part of the riches of the Kingdom of God.

The mourning this beatitude speaks of includes a deeper mourning over the realized sin in one’s life and the sin in the lives of others who reject the goodness of God. For me one of the most grievous of times is when I encounter an arrogance in myself (which is far too often) or in others upon whom I rely, which substitutes a shallow or simple pragmatic human opinion for a true understanding of the nature, ways, and will of our wonderful God. Such mourning always draws me back to the word of God and self-examination before the Lord, which allows for the ministry of the Holy Spirit to draw me closer to the heart and nature of my Heavenly Father. In these times I am brought to a purer dependence upon the Lord, and I find renewal through conviction and repentance, through instruction, or through the comfort of my Lord's renewed promises and presence. Thus, I am blessed by the Lord's comfort in my mourning.

This past week I was humbled to see just such comfort displayed by a child of God who is in a life-and-death struggle with metastasized cancer. As she was lamenting her health condition, she broke out into a beaming smile and a confident joy as she spoke of the hope which is hers in Christ Jesus. She is an abiding saint of God displaying the reality of comfort in response to her mourning.