a home seized from giants

So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.

Joshua 14:12

Caleb is eighty-five years old when he makes this request of Joshua to receive his inheritance in Hebron. Caleb wanted to seize the land where giants roamed, where the sons of Anak (“the long-necked ones) built fortified cities that so threatened Israel forty years earlier that they disobeyed God and suffered in the wilderness for it. Yet even now Caleb is still a warrior. He will chase off giants, tear down walls, and receive through actions of great faith and courage what he believed God would always give to his people. Caleb, the old giant slayer, would know peace in God’s provision.

Caleb’s bold faith is an example for all who aren’t afraid to trust God in an unknown. Really, there are always giants out there, looming over us, threatening our future, tempting us to fear and false shame. But when God promises to drive out giants, we can trust. We can obey. We can believe and by faith we can chase them down and see God bring great victory.

In thirty years, should God graciously grant me them, would I be as tenacious as Caleb? Would I be ready to tear down cities?... face down giants?... trust God with what seems impossible? Man... I want to be that kind of believer. I hope that will be me.

Lord,

Give me that kind of faith that drove Caleb to charge mountain cities filled with mocking giants! Help me to trust that no matter how intimidating circumstances may loom over me, Your power dwarves the giants! Give me a home, wrested from the hands of giants, in Your mountain country!

Amen

ministry scum

To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

1 Corinthians 4:11-13

This ministry lifestyle description is what Paul gave to the Corinthian church as he took them to task for their divisiveness over the ministry of the apostles. They had chosen favorites among Christian leaders. They had “celebritized” the preachers of the gospel and had begun to fight amongst themselves over which apostle they favored and followed. But Paul is purposefully removing the false glamour they had built up around the apostles. He explains to them how hard leaders actually must work... that the cost of ministry is paid in extreme hardship.

I love ministry, but there is not really glamour in it. I love preaching and teaching but it is VERY hard work. Most people think that a 30 minute Sunday sermon must be easy work when you can get it, but they don’t realize the week’s worth of preparation and refining that got the message in a form where at least a few people will stay awake to listen to it. People love it when ministers drop everything to be with them during difficult times, but may not realize the family and personal sacrifices that were made to do so. Christians expect more from their leaders than is often humanly possible. Many don’t realize that ministry leaders usually put in a 50 to 60 hour week ROUTINELY. The pressure can be intense.

And then the world outside the church has little to no respect for the work of ministers. Every financial and moral scandal in Christian ministry makes suspicion grow that church work is just scam artistry. Every gross prosperity preacher bragging about his private jet makes every other hard working preacher suffer and leads the work of the gospel to be even more reviled. Authentic ministry is hard to find, and when you do find it, it will be suffering from two extreme judgments: There will be expectations that are too high from those within the church and there will be opinions that are too low from outside the church. Yet we must, like Paul, still bless... still endure.... and still call out to God.

Sin deceives and destroys.

And Achan answered Joshua, “Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did: when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

Joshua 7:20-21

Sin does a deceptive thing to our hearts... it makes us think we are all alone, above notice by God or by other people. Achan’s account of his disobedience to the command to take nothing from Jericho and destroy it all is actually very typical for how sin always works destruction in us. The progress is simple, but insidiously slippery in manipulating human nature: “I saw” —> “I coveted”—> “I took” —> “I hid”.

The four part transgression began with “I saw”. Achan was tempted by his own desire... in this case what the New Testament calls the lust of the eyes (1 John 2:16). And what Achan saw, he wanted, leading to the first sin of coveting what he was not to have. But this was a worship issue as well, because since the war spoils were devoted to destruction by God’s own command, they belonged solely to God. But this wanting moved Achan to steal what was to be destroyed for God’s glory. He stole them for himself, but since all the nation knew this was wrong, he could not flaunt his stolen wealth. His sin had to be hidden in the desert under his tent, never to bring him pleasure again.

The result of Achan’s sin was catastrophic. Israel was defeated in Ai and many soldiers died. Achan and his household were given the death penalty as a result... showing how the sin cycle ends in a final result: death (James 1:14-15). Sin always ends in a death... either our death, or in Jesus’ death. Our desires can lead to our destruction. This is why we need the gospel. We need Jesus to deliver us from the vicious cycle of sin and death. I am so glad He did so and that this deliverance is offered to all who believe. I need Jesus because my heart is as easily deceived and potentially destroyed as Achan’s was!

foolish and weak

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

1 Corinthians 1:25

God is not foolish, neither is He weak. But the world deems the message of salvation by the cross of Christ to be foolish, and it thinks those who believe it are weak. But take heart, Christian... your detractors are wrong. Because the gospel is wiser than men’s wisdom, and the power of salvation by Jesus is stronger than men’s strength, we can confidently trust in Jesus. We can proclaim the gospel, believe the gospel, trust the gospel, and stay strong in the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe!

It is inevitable that Christians will be judged foolish by an arrogant world offended by the cross. We will be thought of as weak by those who only know the enslaving power of the flesh. Let them say what they will about us. God is wiser. God is all powerful. God in mercy is redeeming many entrapped by that same thinking every day. Nothing will stand against what He is doing through the redemptive majesty of Jesus! To the world, I will be a Jesus fool... gladly! Let them see me as weak, for Jesus is strength without measure and I know it.

Jesus,

I trust in Your saving, redeeming work. You have made me new. You have given me Your Word for wisdom and Your Spirit and power for strength. I know this. I trust this. I will believe this no matter what those who don’t know You may say. You are wiser than all human wisdom and stronger than any other power in my world.

Amen

confident faith

And they said to Joshua, “Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.”

Joshua 2:24

It took an entire generation wandering in the wilderness in complete dependence upon God for their survival, but now, as this passage shows us, Israel under Joshua’s leadership is ready to possess the Promised Land. The spies Joshua sent out to scout out Jericho returned with an optimistic courage to begin the conquest. And they trust first what God is doing. The LORD has given them all the land. Their assessment drips with courageous faith first and foremost.

This generation that had trusted God for water and manna in the desert was more than ready to trust God to give them the land He promised. They were strong and courageous, led by a leader who was the same. They trusted God, trusted His plan, trusted His leader and trusted His word. And it would make their hope a reality. God would give them Canaan as they fought off what kept them from God’s promise.

It takes strength and courage to believe God. It takes strength and courage to march confidently into unknown territory. But God’s promise will carry the faithful through. And this is still true.

The gospel goes against every cultural grain today. It is exclusive. It names sin as an offense against a holy God. It dares to say we are imperiled by hell. It declares our only hope in Jesus and severe consequences for refusing to believe in Him. It takes strength and courage to believe and to declare it. But Jesus does the saving. He knows who are His. People do still choose Him and find life if we will faithfully, confidently, courageously proclaim Him!

All Authority

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Matthew 28:18

All power

is now in control

by Jesus

This hour

of trouble is not

beyond Jesus

Any day

of sorrow will be

with Jesus

Any way

I turn I will

find Jesus

Heaven is His to make a place for me

Earth is His in which to command me

Authority over 

all around me

belongs to my Savior

Nothing ever

surprises my Lord

so I will trust Him

I am poor and needy.

But I am poor and needy;

hasten to me, O God!

You are my help and my deliverer;

O Lord, do not delay!

Psalm 70:5

O Lord,

May this always be the status of my soul. I want to be poor so that Your provision always satisfies. I want to be joyful in Your daily bread provided for my life. I want to be glad and rejoice in You. I want to seek You as my sustenance and support. I want spirit poverty always at the front of my awareness so that Your rich grace is always my need. O Lord, keep my soul poor. Never let me be deceived into thinking I can provide what my own soul needs.

And Lord, I pray I will always feel this need. I want to crave You. I want to hunger and thirst after Your righteousness so that in Christ I may be filled. My prayer, My God, is to be always finding satisfaction in You.

I am poor and needy. You are my help and my deliverer.

Amen

Gospel harmony is hard to find.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:5-6

Unity should be such a testimony among Christians to the world that God is seen in our harmony with one another. This prayer of Paul’s for the church in Rome is still ringing as an even greater need exists for it today. Often, when I have conversations with those investigating Christianity, a common question or observation is that it is so confusing to have so many denominations. It seems that if Christ were really Savior of the world, wouldn’t He create a better brand of follower that could get along with others when He saves them? Why are there so many kinds of Christian? Why are these churches often fighting among themselves?

These are legitimate and convicting questions because they actually express a truth that Jesus pressed into His disciples the night of His betrayal. Jesus prayed in John 17 that His disciples would be one so that they could testify to the world of what was to come. He wanted an exceptional unity to mark those who followed Him. It would seem then that agreement around the gospel and in the worship of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ should be what unites Christians everywhere all the time. These are the necessary essentials. 

And sadly, this is where it gets difficult because not all that claim Christian belief accept these essentials as necessary. Many denominations and individual Christians do not affirm the gospel... that is in the sense that it is vital to eternal salvation to believe that Jesus alone is our only salvation through His death, burial, and resurrection. This has been replaced with the belief that ANY sincere faith and desire to “do good” should be enough to redeem a soul before God and man. Some churches place social, moral, or even political commitments alongside or even above the gospel, confusing its message. Some have not preached the gospel in decades. And some churches don’t even worship God from the heart. Sacred culture is the result. But the heart is not engaged. The church is a religious museum, and little else. That is sad. Oh how we need to bring gospel-believing, God glorifying, Jesus-loving Christians together!

My sin is no secret.

O God, you know my folly;

the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

Psalm 69:5

This is why I confess my sins to God. He knows them all already, so it isn’t about letting Him in on my secrets, but it is about no longer deceiving myself that I have such secrets. He knows the battle I fight to pursue holiness. And He knows when I drop my guard. He knows when I secretly delight in a sinful imagination, when my self finds pleasure in pursuing what is wrong and accepting it as a treat to my soul. God knows my inner conversation that rationalizes a thing in order to make it a ruling desire that then leads me down the path beyond self-deception to sin that breaks God’s heart.

I cannot hide from God. He knows when pride becomes my master. He knows why I want what I want so I do what I do. And the foolishness of my sin is far from my thinking when I am caught up in the snare of either pleasing my desire or getting what I think I deserve for myself by any means I can. Only when the price of sin demands to be paid do I look back in sad dismay at my folly. But thank God, it is not too late. Jesus died for my shameful sin. He bore the guilt so that I can repent, believe, turn from sin and be restored to walk in obedience again.

Every time that I sin, I know these two truths: 1) I know that God knows every intimate detail of even my most private thought and the wrong I do and 2) I know that Jesus bore the guilt and punishment of that wrong for me. I can then in repentance and faith turn to Jesus to seek grace from my Father against Whom my sin is very great.

Father,

My sin is never a secret before You. All things are laid bare before the eyes of You, my God, and to You I must explain myself. I am sorrowful over sin as I realize this even this morning. I ask for forgiveness through Christ my Savior, My Advocate, My Defender, My Redeemer, My only hope! I seek to live openly before You since You know my heart and Your Spirit seeks to convict my conscience quickly in my struggle with sin. I want this awareness to keep me committed to a holiness that pleases You and brings joy to my life!

Amen

love debt

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8

What Paul is saying here is that the motivation that a Christian carries into all social relationship is found in the love of Christ for people. Love is how we live among others. It creates kindness. It gives us the capacity to live in a peaceable way with other people. And it pleases God. 

Paul goes on to show that the undercurrent of all the social commandments in the Old Testament Law is indeed love. Love leads us not to covet, steal, murder, or commit adultery (Romans 13:9). Love means we love our neighbor as our self. It can thus do no wrong to another. It is God’s desire that His love shape society. And this is needed in neighborhoods, in cities, in workplaces, in social media especially, and in our homes. When we believe the gospel and share the love of Christ, Christians become the salt and light that Jesus meant for us to be.

Lord,

Loving like You want me to love is what I am called to do. This will help me to love others. If I see my neighbor as an inconvenience to my agenda, I cannot love as I ought. But if I love people as You love people, then all people are souls for whom You provided salvation at great cost. Jesus, help me love people in this way. Help me to care for them with Your love. This pleases the Father. This changes the world!

Amen

the world praising

Let the peoples praise you, O God;

let all the peoples praise you!

Psalm 67:3

God loves the world... all the people of the world. And His desire is for all the tribes, languages, ethnic groups, races, and nations to praise Him in worship. This is what God wants. This is what the gospel proclaimed throughout the world is meant to achieve. I agree with John Piper who says of Psalm 67 that “Missions exists because worship does not exist”. A motivation then to proclaim the gospel to those who do not know Jesus is that they might believe and come to worship God with this multi-ethnic tapestry of praise-filled people! And men and women from all tribes and nations indeed shall worship Jesus together! That is what we need to see in our mind’s eye every time we meet for worship... there are more people, around the globe, who need to do this!

Over my life I have had glimpse of this worship. I’ve prayed with pastors in West Africa, singing in joyous rhythmic syncopation with their congregations under an open-walled, thatch-roofed meeting place. I’ve crammed into a rented hotel suite in Southeast Asia with Christians whose praise was sweet and whose preaching of the Word of God was some of the most exciting I’ve ever heard. I’ve rejoiced with African-American believers in over-the-top musical celebration that had people marching down the aisles in what could only be described as full-body worship! I’ve been in churches where the primary language was Spanish, and just a few acoustic instruments were available to lead the joyous songs. I’ve had the joy of being in churches where I was the minority as a white man. I’ve song praise songs in Navajo, French, Spanish, and a smattering of Bambara. And Jesus was praised! 

O Lord,

Let the peoples... all the tribes, all the races, all the dialects, of all the nations.... let the peoples praise Your greatness and know salvation only in Jesus! With my life I will always have this vision of worship and as You let me, I will praise You among all the beautiful types of people on this earth.

Amen

Overcome evil with good.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:21

Disagreements occur

but if I am not careful

the pain will smolder

into resentment of another

but to love as I should

I must overcome evil with good

Temptations alluring

are instantly available right now

and in a private moment

I must enter the battle

to be as holy as I could

I must overcome evil with good

Called to holiness

I am a believer

given Christ’s righteousness

I can be a winner

my will surrendered as I would

He can overcome evil with good

Led by the Spirit

now a child of God

I surrender my thinking

to the direction of His Word

regardless of my feeling or mood

I live to overcome evil with good

God answers.

By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,

O God of our salvation,

the hope of all the ends of the earth

and of the farthest seas;

Psalm 65:5

This is David’s poetic praise describing answered prayer. There are four things God does in answer to prayer that are worth thinking about in this verse. The first is found in the reality that God does answer prayer, and can do so dramatically. The phrase David uses is that God answers by “awesome deeds”. And certainly the history of Israel was filled with awesome answers to prayer: the deliverance from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, feeding in the wilderness, the conquest of Canaan, David’s own story of protection, and on an on. God displays His power in answer to the prayers of His people.

Secondly, God answers with righteousness. God’s responses to our prayers are always right. He never is vindictive or cruel with an answer. He is holy. God is just. And His answers to our prayers come in His perfect holiness. This is why He will not grant to us an unholy request. But when we too pray in holiness and obedient submission, God responds in righteousness.

Thirdly, God is the God of our salvation when He answers prayer. Our salvation is always in view as God’s first response to us. God is a deliverer. And of course when we trust Christ as Savior and Lord, we find salvation in answer to our prayers of belief and trust. God saves when He answers prayer.

And finally, God answers in hope. David says that the hope God brings in confident assurance of answered prayer extends globally. There is no place we can be on land or ocean where God cannot hear our prayer and answer us in hope. We can confidently hold hope in prayer because God does indeed answer, showing His power, with righteousness, for our salvation as our only hope!

loving God

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Deuteronomy 6:5

This is the commandment that Jesus said summarized all of the Law as the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38). It is what God wanted from His people Israel. He wanted not their fear or their rote obedience, but their complete love. He wanted their hearts. God truly is love and He loves us. And God wants us to know His love and love Him. That truth warms my own soul as I think on it now.

Lord,

I want to love You with all of my heart. I want to feel my love for You as the strongest emotion in my soul. I want You to move my emotions. You must be my joy and my deepest love. I want my first thoughts and my last thoughts each morning and each night to center on Your love for me in Christ and my love for You, my Savior and my God!

Lord,

I want to love You from my soul. I want the passion of my life to be knowing Jesus and making Him known. I want my inner person consumed in that sort of thought all day... every day.

And Lord,

I want to love You with all my might. I don’t want a tidy, compartmentalized, pigeon-holed, Sunday only kind of lip-service love to You. I don’t want hype and clapping and shouts that don’t carry in my heart more than a worship gathering. I want each day filled with expressive, intense, loving thoughts of You that then lead to actions that honor, worship, obey, and proclaim Your greatness O my Lord!

Amen

living sent

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Romans 10:14-15

There is a chain of gospel living that begins with Christians obeying the Great Commission. We live sent with the good news of the gospel to go out into the world and proclaim it. And just who are the preachers of the gospel who are sent? They are Christians... all Christians... no exceptions. All of us have the call to be a disciple who wants to make disciples laid upon us. All of us should go out ready to let other people around us know the good news of salvation found in Jesus.

Once we see ourselves as deliberately placed in our world as gospel proclaimers, we can then tell the good news to those who have not heard so that they may believe, call on the name of the Lord for salvation, and be saved. And in so doing, they too can join the call on them once they believe to also share the good news. And a multiplication of disciplemakers will occur when those who believe in Jesus also believe His call to share good news.

And I must obey that call. I must faithfully proclaim the gospel not only in Sunday preaching when I am given that opportunity, but also in Monday conversation when I am given those opportunities. I must be about the gospel. I must be about loving Jesus, living for Him, and telling others of how he saves. I am sent. I must preach so others can hear and believe.

God alone

For God alone my soul waits in silence;

from him comes my salvation.

He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

Psalm 62:1-2

The exclusive love of God and power of God over me is felt in the words of this psalm. And my heart is drawn to worship in the words of an old Steve Green song, “God and God Alone”:

God and God alone created all these things we call our own
From the mighty to the small the glory in them all is God's and God's alone

God and God alone reveals the truth of all we call unknown
and the best and worst of man won’t change the Master's plan it's God's and God's alone

God and God alone is fit to take the universe's throne
Let everything that lives reserve it's truest praise for God and God alone

God and God alone will be the joy of our eternal home
He will be our one desire Our hearts will never tire of God and God alone

from powerlessness to praise

Hear my cry, O God,

listen to my prayer;

from the end of the earth I call to you

when my heart is faint.

Psalm 61:1-2a

There are times when we feel like we can’t go on. That is the type of feeling David expresses in the opening of this psalm. He feels distant, crying out from “the end of the earth”. He feels powerless describing it personally with the phrase “my heart is faint”. These sorts of feelings can quickly overwhelm our souls unless we cry out to God in faith. The quickest and surest path of emotional expression for a believer is not to vent to a friend or loved one, but rather to pour out to God in prayer. And that prayer is heard.

Once the prayer is made and the difficult emotions are released to God, David shows us how to begin praying in faith, beyond our feelings. He pleads for God to lead him to a place of perspective ...”lead me to the rock that is higher than I)” (Psalm 61:2b), and he trusts God will bring protection ...”you have been my refuge... a strong tower...” (Psalm 61:3). This provides a turning point of hope for the rest of the song, when with new confidence David celebrates his relationship with God through honored vows and a godly heritage (Psalm 61:5). He worships God for His faithfulness and steadfast love (Psalm 61:7), and ends with a commitment to keep praising God (Psalm 61:8).

This transformation from painful, powerless feelings expressed in prayer to delighted praise, all happened because at first David brought his troubled feelings to God in order to seek perspective and protection. And God honored that faithful trust. God became David’s focus, not his feelings. And that brought hope, insight, and praise to his heart once again. So when I feel distant, afraid, or powerless, I will cry out to God!

Jesus is everything.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Romans 8:32

Jesus is proof that God is for us (Romans 8:31). Jesus is why Christians are not under condemnation by the wrath of God (Romans 8:1). Jesus is why we are now led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). Jesus is the hope of resurrection and eternal life (Romans 8:9). Jesus is the reason we are now children of God and heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14-17). Jesus is the reason we can suffer in the hope of future glory (Romans 8:18). And nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:35)!

We have all we need in Jesus. And God willingly gave up His Son on the cross so that we all might with Him live as sons and daughters together in Christ. God is for us! We only need to look to the cross and then to the empty tomb to know this fact. And when we believe this, new lives and full lives are completely ours. And there is a blessedness in prizing only Jesus above all else. We have everything, possessing nothing of this world but treasuring everything in Jesus.

The last two verses of an old hymn personalize this treasure:

Jesus is all the world to me,
  And true to Him I’ll be.
Oh, how could I this Friend deny
  When He’s so true to me?
Following Him I know I’m right;
He watches o’er me day and night.
Following Him by day and night,
  He’s my Friend.

Jesus is all the world to me,
  I want no better friend.
I trust Him now; I’ll trust Him when
  Life’s fleeting days shall end.
Beautiful life with such a Friend;
Beautiful life that has no end!
Eternal life, eternal joy,
  He’s my Friend.

mindset

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:5-6

I can choose where my thought life will center, and that principle is crucial for me to understand as a Christian. As a follower of Jesus, I want all of the good in Jesus... His love, His mercy, His intolerance of religious hypocrisy, His friendship with the marginalized,  and His winsome joy to be known in me. But to live such a life, led by the Spirit of God to display Jesus, requires an internal commitment. It is what Paul says is to “set the mind.” It is a choice to think as the Holy Spirit leads. And that is not an esoteric, fuzzy process.

To choose to set my mind on the Spirit means that I reject much of my natural internal thought process as unreliable. That’s really, really hard to do. It also means that I must internalize what the Spirit says I must be, and the vast sum of those thoughts are found in Holy Scripture. It isn’t impressionistic. It is propositional. It is found in the clear words on the pages of the Word of God which is inspired of the Spirit of God so the people of God can in this life do the will of God! So I must let the Spirit lead me to and through the Bible so that my thoughts can be transformed, my mind might be renewed, and my thoughts, attitudes, and actions can then be arranged in a way that the “things of the Spirit” dominate my life.

My first instinct though is to think and live by the flesh... to think and act out of self-interest. But I must reject that. I must ask of my thoughts, attitudes, and actions: 1) “What does God say about this in His Word?” And 2) “How did Jesus deal with this?” And the answers from scripture to those two questions will then start to frame how I should properly think. And from those thoughts, I can make my active choices in a Spirit led way. And then a new thing will change in me as the Holy Spirit of God brings promised life and peace.

surprise return

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Matthew 24:44

It is this part of the gospel story that I think is the most neglected feature of the good news. I just don’t hear it a lot in gospel-preaching these days. Jesus is returning. His Kingdom is what His people are supposed to be living for and anticipating Him is a large part of that kind of lifestyle. Of course the Kingdom has already begun to be built as the Church proclaims the gospel worldwide, but it is also not yet here until Jesus Himself returns. We must be working in grateful anticipation of what is yet to come, equally rejoicing because of the salvation Jesus has already accomplished. A robust eschatology (doctrine of last things) accompanies gospel-preaching around a faithful soteriology (doctrine of salvation). The future reign of Jesus in this world is as important to our faith as His present saving of people around the world.

I am motivated to take Jesus’ words here quite seriously. I ask myself these questions: Am I ready for Jesus to come when I least expect Him... even today? Do I love with intense gospel focus so that I can account of myself well when my Master returns to evaluate how well His trusted servants have carried on His work? It will happen. That day will come. And I want Jesus pleased that my love and service were as much like His as I could achieve by yielding to His Spirit and humbling myself around His word.

My Savior and King,

Come quickly Lord Jesus! I believe You will return to judge the living and the dead. I believe Your Kingdom will come and Your will must be done even now on earth. I remind myself from Your own commands as an entrusted servant of Yours. I must be ready. I must wait. I want the surprise of Your glorious appearing! Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Amen