A long journey

 Sometimes you plan on a long trip.  Many special vacations are like that.  You sit down and decide what you want to do and you make a plan and you set aside the money to be able to pay for the things that you are going to need and you plan a decision to go.  Most of the long journeys that I have been on are this kind of journey.  Of course there is fun in spontaneity, but it does not usually seem like spontaneous trips last as long as these kind of well planned out journeys.  In some respects in order for the journey to be long, it almost has to be planned out.  

And then there are the kinds of long journeys that you don't plan on.  These kinds of journeys are not the fun vacation kind, but the slow life-changing events that happen in your life and you really have no control over them at all.  Cancer happens.  And goes on and on.  Pain happens.  And drags itself out and lasts.  Death happens to someone you love and the grief carries and continues.  These kinds of journeys are never fun in the same sense as a vacation.  They hurt.  And they last.  And it calls for a special kind of response that the Bible refers to as "endurance."  We are to endure.  When we go through this kind of long and painful journey we are to endure.  Paul tells it to Timothy - "Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."  (2 Tim. 2:3-4, NASB)  Or the author of Hebrews reminds us that, "It is for discipline that you endure. . ."  (Hebrews 12:7, NASB).  This kind of endurance is not something that most of us want to develop or even would ask for, and yet it is so critical for our growth and maturity in Christ.  It is something that God calls us to do and something that Christ exemplified for us.  So in the midst of your long journey (the kind that is not a vacation at all) today, endure hardship with me for the sake of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Something to Consider

 Have you ever stopped to consider the question, "How do I know if I am really a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?"  I think that many of us have stopped at one time or another to ask ourselves that question.  Sometimes it comes from a place of personal doubt.  Sometimes it comes from a realization that we can never actually earn the grace of God.  Sometimes it might be from some other place or thought that comes up.  But the Bible is fairly clear on the issue - there are a few key signs that you can look for.

1.  Do you love God?  Some authors (thinking here of Piper and before him Edwards) would call these affections.  At the end of the day do you have a desire to please God?  Do you love him enough to set self aside, or do you really love yourself?   If you love God this is a sign that you are genuinely redeemed!

2. Do you love the Word of God?  Throughout the psalms (for a great example see Psalm 119) there is a call to love the law of God.  Do you demonstrate this love through obedience?  The call to obey what God says is from start to finish something that God calls us to.  We are over and over and over again called to listen to God and to do what He has told us to do.  Do you love what God says?  If so, you can take heart that God has placed this love into your heart by His Spirit through faith.

3. Do you love the people of God?  The New Testament is full of the things that we are to do for one another.  We are to love one another, serve one another, prefer one another, and the list goes on.  This is another sign that we are genuinely redeemed.  It is the stated condition for people knowing that we are disciples of Christ - we are to love one another!

So ask yourself these three questions and take heart - be it from a place of doubt, or a theological concern or any other place and praise God that He has given us ways to be confident in our salvation!

It is August

 It is August.  That realization comes at a different pace for different people.  For those who teach, it means that the time is rapidly approaching when students will be back in the classroom and they are likely starting to get into their own space and decorate and begin to work on lesson plans.  For those who are students, it means that the summer is almost over and there is a lot of squeezing as much as possible into each day.  For those who are parents of students it is tracking down classroom supply lists and going to the store to buy the seemingly endless supplies that will have to be replaced - some of them within the first week of school because they are lost by the students who have more important things to think about - like sharing all the end of summer stories with their friends.

For some it is a beginning, for some it is an end.  For me it is both.  It is the end of a summer of not being able to do much of anything for reasons I will not go into.  It is the beginning of a season when hopefully I will be able to resume normal activity.  And this got me thinking that this is how life is with many things.  There are beginnings and ends and sometimes it simply depends on the perspective of the person looking.  

What I am looking forward to most of all is the beginning of something that has no end.  The celebration of life eternal in the presence of our Savior for all eternity.  It is something that we cannot even fathom.  But when that final end happens and there is the ultimate beginning, there will be no more beginnings and ends because there will be no more time.  No more starts and false starts.  No more struggle through or with time.  No more waiting.  No more because time will be no more.  Praise be to God for that glorious coming day.  It is worth the wait.