God Is Eternal

What is time? For we humans, time is how we tend to measure our lives. We “make the most of our time,” we “waste time,” we are “just in the nick of time,” etc. We either want to go back in time and change something bad or repeat something pleasurable, or we want to hurry up time so we can start experiencing something anticipated, or we want to slow time down in dread of something looming in the future. The concepts of early, late, and on time all come from the existence of time.

We can assume time has always existed because everything in our physical existence is subject to past, present, and future. However, even time had a beginning. God is eternal in nature, which is different from time. He is the One who created time. He is the One who placed all of His creation into time. God interacts with His creation in time, but He is not bound by time.

What are the implications of this truth? First of all, if we don’t understand the difference between eternal and time, we will assume things about God based on our experience of time. We will put God in our small box of understanding.

When we see something from our perspective, we see it as it is happening now. God sees it as a detail in a story He wrote a long time ago. We tend to view God as a super being who can see into the future. The truth is, His eternal nature encompasses our future as “now.” His presence is already in our future. When He says, “I promise,” it’s not just a hopeful phrase to comfort us. He knows, because He is already there in experience as well as knowledge. Is your mind blown yet?

When we go through a difficult experience, such as a pandemic, our lives are fraught with uncertainty, anxiousness, and fear. “What if…” can become a constant battle in our minds. “What if” is a concept of time. God never asks, “what if.” I love the question, “Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?” Because our earthly perspective is rooted in time, it is no wonder that our emotions can feel out of control.

Paul admonished his readers to “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” (Col. 3:2, NASB) This “above” perspective takes us mentally out of time and into the eternal. Paul also said, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are not seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:17-18, NASB) “Seen” is a concept rooted in time. If our evidence of God’s faithfulness is strictly taken from the seen, then we are going to struggle with trust.

When we look at the things “which are not seen,” we are literally stepping into an experience of intimate relationship with God. He says to us, “Let Me show you what I see.” When we see what He sees, we are changed. All our fear, worry, and anxiety begin to melt away. There is perfect peace in the presence of I AM!

A Letter to a Struggling Friend

This is an email I sent to a dear friend a couple of years ago. It has been edited to protect his identity. All quoted Scripture is NASB.

My Dear Brother,

The last time we spoke, we talked about belief. Jesus said in John 6:29, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." I want to encourage you to read this passage starting at verse 26 and read to the end of the chapter. I just read it and I see your struggle in the midst of this story.

Many of the people who were following Jesus were looking for the benefits He could give them. He told them He was the bread of life. In other words, Jesus is the sustenance that is required to "live." They were seeing the physical benefits as what they needed, but He was trying to get them to understand that it was Him they needed. They were offended when He told them they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood! Many left Him at that point, but the twelve disciples stayed. Peter said to Jesus in verse 68, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God." They chose relationship with Jesus over the benefits He could provide.

I pointed out that one of your flesh patterns is to seek out happiness. You place your emotions on a pedestal and want them to be positive. "Feeling good" is a bi-product of what we believe. You believe much of the time that you are not loved, not adequate, not successful, etc. Anyone who believes this way is going to struggle with depression, anger, anxiety, etc.

When Jesus said in John 6:29 "...believe in Him whom He has sent", He didn't say "have knowledge." I realize you are intellectually smart regarding all I am telling you. I don't think I've said one thing you don't already know. You kept asking me, "what do I do?" Believing is more than doing, it is "being." That was what you experienced Monday when you felt an overwhelming peace. You heard the Holy Spirit speak and you believed. In that moment you were in fellowship with God, and you were "being" who you were made to be. No job, no career, no human relationship can fulfill you the way God can.

There is a man in my church who is in his 70's. He told me recently he has always known God loves him, but it has only been in the past few years that he has come to realize God is "in love" with him. My friend, God is in love with you. You are the object of His affection, and He told me He absolutely loved hanging out with you on Monday. He only wants you to believe what is true and hang out with Him daily (I'm not just talking about "quiet times"). He wants to love your wife and your kids through you. He wants to go to work with you and work through you; He wants you to stop looking at your life and seeing yourself as a failure.

My friend, you were made to believe. Jesus told His disciples to not hinder the children to come to Him. He said the kingdom of God belonged to such as these (Matt. 19:14). If you tell a child something is true, they will take it to the bank. Their life will follow the course of that belief. This kind of believing is what Jesus was talking about. Allow yourself to experience this child-life belief.

I could keep going, but this is plenty to process. Know that I love you with all my heart, and I am in your corner pulling for you.

Your brother in Christ,

Tom

Unprecedented Times

We are living in unprecedented times. As I have watched the news over my lifetime, I have seen many tragic events reported. Most of those events were far from me, so there was little effect on my life. This is different. What started on the opposite side of the globe, has now spread to my back yard. There are only isolated places in the world yet to be touched.

As bad as the biological damage this virus presents is, the economic damage will be felt more severely over the next few months and possibly years. My prayer is that we, who are followers of Christ, will not bend to the temptation to protect ourselves, but rather trust God for our provision and help those around us. “Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” (Ps. 55:22, NASB)

A friend of mine sent me two pictures. One was of a family sitting around their living room, each on their personal devices. The caption said, “people normally.” The second picture was of people outside walking and riding bicycles. The caption said, “people during quarantine.” Of course, I laughed! As I have ridden around my town, I’ve seen a lot of people out doing the same. I know, we are supposed to isolate from one another so we can slow down the spread of the virus. However, this unprecedented time is producing an awareness of how fragile life really is and how we do not need to take it for granted.

This sense of community is what will help us as we overcome the economic damage left in the wake of this pandemic. When you infuse your community with the kingdom of God, of which you belong as a child of God, Jesus’ mandate to go and make disciples will manifest in practical ways. As the fallen world is trying to survive, the children of God will display strength in the middle of crisis. Many will look to us and see our peace and joy. They will want to know more about our hope and our security. As they look to their jobs, bank accounts, retirement funds, assets, etc., we look to our true hope – Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Rom. 5:3-5, NASB)

We don’t really know what the future looks like as far as the world economy goes, but we can walk securely into our future, no matter the challenges, because God is still in control.

People Are The Church

I have been a believer since I was 10 years old. However, I have been a part of the church culture since the age of 6. That was when my dad became a pastor. I have been involved in 16 churches in the past 51 years. Granted, they have all been in the same denomination. Seventeen years was spent in one church, so most of those churches were short stays. I served as a minster in eight of those churches.

I just got mentally exhausted writing the first paragraph! Many of you have had a similar experience, and many of you have only known a few churches in your lifetime. Over the past eight years, God has been redirecting my understanding of His desire for His church. I was guilty of seeing a building with a name on it and identifying that building as a church. I’ll bet many of you have done the same. The problem with that view is a building has never been and never will be a church. The church is the people.

Having served in eight churches, I have made some general observations about the people of God. First of all, God’s children really love God with all their hearts. That doesn’t mean we express that love fully or clearly in every situation, but at our core, we really do love God. Secondly, God’s children love people and they want people to know about God’s love. Finally, I’ve seen God’s children make heart-felt commitments to follow and serve God to the best of their ability. We want to do God’s will. Again, that doesn’t mean those commitments have been fully expressed.

Those three observations are true because of God. John said, “We love, because He (God) first loved us.” (1 John 4:19, NASB) These are signs of God’s children. However, our church cultures are not always healthy environments to experience or express this love in the manner in which God intended.

Since I have been at Christian Families Today, I have experienced something that is consistent here. We talk about spiritual matters constantly. We share with each other what God is teaching us, whether through scripture or experience. We don’t do this because it is office policy or a mandate from the leaders, we do this because we want to. We occasionally talk about ministry, but I’ve learned that lasting ministry flows out of God’s children when they know and believe truth. We cannot be immersed in truth if we are not thinking and talking about it.

From my experience (hopefully not yours), most of my time serving a local church as a minister was spent talking about and doing ministry. Any spiritual learning was reserved for personal time or designated group devotional time. As a result, I floundered in my personal time with God and that affected how I ministered. Granted, the leaders encouraged me to maintain a healthy alone time with God, but because we never talked about it, it was too easy to spend my alone time trying to measure up to the expectations of the church and the senior pastor. I perceived that I didn’t have time to spend with God!

God has shifted my perspective on the church. Instead of viewing the church as an organization to attend and serve, I see her as an organism that is the body of Christ. The church is living and breathing. She is the beautiful bride of Christ. Now that my perception has changed, I see the function of the church as something different than what I grew up experiencing.

As God’s people, we need truth to sustain us. His truth feeds us. His truth reminds us constantly of who we are to Him. If I’m operating from a sense of who I am to God, I will never burn-out. When the people of God come together, their time would be well spent encouraging one another, speaking the truth in love, feeding on God’s Word, and ultimately, connecting with God’s presence in corporate worship (not just music). When the church goes out from this kind of gathering, they are equipped to serve their communities and to give sacrificially of themselves. This activity will change the world.

Now that we are needing to practice social isolation due to the Covid-19 virus, it is more difficult to connect in one place. Does this stop us from being the church? I don't think so. God is using this time to deepen the truth that we are an organism of living people, not an address. As we listen to the Holy Spirit, He will show us how to connect with each other during this time and how to minister to the world around us.

Containers of Christ's Life

When God created humanity, he fashioned us to be a container.  That container needed something for it to function properly; it needed life! Genesis 2:7 says God breathed life into man’s container and he became a living being. 

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”  God’s life in Adam and Eve, expressed in their moment by moment living, was a display of His glory.  Nothing generated from self-effort expresses the glory of God.  This can be confusing because we want to believe when we do good things it is pleasing to God.  However, anything done out of self-effort, whether good or bad, is flesh.   Paul said in Galatians, “the flesh sets itself against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh” (Gal. 5:17). 

If you want to test whether your good deed is of the Spirit or of the flesh, here is a simple question to ask yourself: Will I feel better about myself if I do this?  If the answer is yes, most likely you are operating out of the flesh.  If the answer is, “I’m doing this because I want to,” or “The Holy Spirit prompted me,” then you are operating in the Spirit.  The first answer reveals us attempting to get our need for worth or value met through a good deed.  The second is focused on Christ’s life expressed through actions.  When you are walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16), you are doing what you want to do, not out of need, but out of His life.  The flesh prohibits us from doing what we want to do (Gal. 5:17b).

As I began to think about believers being a container of Christ’s life, the Holy Spirit revealed that my view of “container” was limited to my earthly way of thinking.  Every container I’m familiar with has a limit to how much it can hold. When I look in the mirror, I see a physical container that weighs just under 200 lbs., and is almost six feet tall.  In other words, with my physical eyes I see the limits of the space I fill in this world.  However, I cannot see my spirit with my physical eyes.  It is my spirit which is designed to contain Christ’s life.  It is my soul and body which express His Life.  Paul indicated in Ephesians 3:19, we can be filled up with the fullness of God.

Again, we were designed to be a container, but only a Person can fill our container.  As humans, we try to fill our container with riches, power, relationships, influence, education, etc. None of these things can begin to take up space in our container, no matter how much we put in.  If we could attain all the wealth, power, and prestige of this world, it would only be a drop in our container.  We were given an eternal container designed to be filled solely with an eternal source.  How awesome is that!  When you and I are abiding in Christ, we are expressing His fullness in us.

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.” (2 Cor. 4:7, NASB)

Let's Dance!

I had the privilege of officiating a wedding for a very dear friend. As I stood there at the altar with him and the rest of the wedding party, I watched him. I wanted to see his face when his bride came around the corner. I’ve done that so many times in the past, because I knew what I was going to see – a face that will light up at the sight of his beloved. My friend’s face didn’t disappoint. When she came into view, he said “WOW!” When she saw him, a bright smile spread across her face. It was the perfect picture of delight. They weren’t focused on anyone else.

Later, during the reception, he danced with his bride. She looked safe in his arms and he looked overjoyed for her to be there. They both had waited a long time for this day. Even though they had officially committed themselves to each other a couple of years before, this was the day where there would be no turning back. After the feasting was over, the dance floor was opened to anyone who wanted to celebrate with them. I watched him go back to the dance floor with his family and friends and dance like King David. He didn’t care what anyone thought about his dancing, he just danced.

Let me tell you a secret….I love dancing! I only dance in the privacy of my home. Why? Because I am challenged in the rhythm area. There are two things I want to experience the moment I shed this old body. I want to play the drums and I want to dance. You don’t have to ask me twice to sit down and watch a movie with dancing. Seeing someone dance well makes my spirit soar.

I think God put within all of us a desire to use our bodies to express joy. Just as David danced before the Lord and my friend danced before his family and friends, when we are filled with joy unspeakable, we want to let it out through our bodies. There is nothing perverse about this desire. When it’s just me and my grandkids, I play some fun music and we dance. I get made fun of by the adults in the room, but I don’t care and neither do my grandkids.

God fills me with joy because He is delighted with me. Why? Because I am His child. King David recognized his value to God when he said in Psalm 139:17-18a, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.” (NASB)

The Bible says I am the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2,9). My groom looks at me with delight. Think about that. If I’m the child of God and the bride of Christ, what higher honor or status can I seek? There is none. So, what is my conclusion to that? Let’s dance!