Hope in Heaven

There is hope in Heaven

Where an emerald rainbow shines

Round the throne resplendent

With the glory of the Divine;

Hope for helpless sinners

Who by gracious, transforming pow’r

Loved and trusted Jesus

And were cleansed by mercy’s show’r

There is hope in Heaven

Even though a stern God frowns

With fierce wrath and vengeance

At the debt Adam’s race yet owns…

But amidst the fallen,

Christ the Shepherd sends His call

To flocks from every nation

And in grace shall He save them all.

There is hope in Heaven

Where rejoice an unnumbered throng

Around the Lamb and Lion,

Lifting up a new, heartfelt song.

Vileness, pain and sorrow

Are erased from each heart and face

And hope is changed to gladness

In the Heaven of Christ’s embrace.

MNA

April, 2008

Prevailing

Knocking, seeking, asking
for shelter, wisdom, strength;
care on Jesus casting,
we'll never know the length,
breadth or depth or distance
His love for us will go ---
ours is but a pittance
compared to Christ's, we know.

Boldly, daily trusting
the grace found at His throne,
humbly, trembling, resting,
we claim it for our own.
Weak and sinful, failing,
we scramble up the Rock,
there, by prayer prevailing,
we ask, we seek, we knock.

MNA

1/16/05

Some Testing Required

R.C. Sproul’s series of Saturday messages on the life of Joseph, the Old Testament patriarch, have been both fascinating and inspiring. Not long ago, my own pastor preached a series on the providence of God, in which he highlighted several Biblical characters, including Joseph. 

There are many reasons why believers ought to find Joseph’s story so helpful in our journey to sanctification. This man’s unique dreams, his privileged upbringing, the betrayal and enslavement at the hands of his own brothers, his reaction to being sold as a slave in another country, his faithfulness to the Lord when faced with sexual temptation, his loyalty and good will toward fellow prisoners, his wisdom and wise use of his God-given gifts, and the list goes on.

I was especially struck this morning by the way that testing figures throughout the story of Joseph. God appears to be putting Jacob and his family to the test by giving Joseph his bizarre dreams of future prominence. Obviously, Joseph’s older brothers react to this test in a purely negative way, seeing those dreams as simply a way their spoiled sibling is “lording it over” the rest of them. The very way they decide to “solve” this problem ironically ends up sending their hated brother into the path that eventually leads to the dreams’ fulfillment!

The next series of tests is directed at Joseph, at least primarily. His faith and his faithfulness are sorely tested through a gauntlet of crushing disappointments, all while he is choosing to do the right thing time after time. Repeatedly the devil seems to be whispering, “Just give in and accept the fact that God has abandoned you. There’s no use in remaining virtuous. Surrender is your only logical option...” Joseph seemed to be destined for obscurity by the dismal circumstances in which he found himself. Can’t you imagine the echoes of despair in his mind, like: “May as well have gone ahead and given in to Potiphar’s wife. Certainly, God wouldn’t have cared!”

But, no, Joseph somehow, with God’s help, waited patiently for the tide to turn. Patient endurance is certainly a virtue that this present culture of “gotta have it now” must reacquire. And it must be admitted that Christ’s church must also seek to major on such ideals if it is to become all our Master wants us to be!

All the while that Joseph is waiting, his father is also being tested. Jacob has seemingly lost his favorite, darling boy. But it’s interesting that when God requires him to suffer this great loss, Joseph’s father ends up favoring the younger of the two sons borne by his favorite wife. Benjamin becomes the new Joseph in Jacob’s life, to be coddled and protected at all costs. Rather than seeing his loss as an opportunity to sharpen his parenting skills, he falls back on his old habits of favoritism. And when Benjamin must accompany his older brothers to Egypt, he can only moan that everything seems to be against him!

I’m challenged by this negative example to have a more optimistic view as I face the future. May the Lord give me the trust in Him it will require to take future losses in stride, and see them as opportunities to grow and change for the better. We must realize that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, even as Job of old admitted. When we advance in years (and, hopefully, in wisdom) we often find that more gets taken away than we’re comfortable with. At those times, we need to recall the words God gave Paul concerning his “thorn in the flesh.”

Well, God’s grace was certainly “sufficient” for Joseph, especially when the day came for this former slave and long-time prisoner to be elevated to the role of Prime Minister in the land of his captivity! It amazes me that somewhere in the intervening years, Joseph apparently developed or otherwise obtained the gift of interpreting dreams, not just having them himself. Either that, or he was taking a tremendous leap of faith when he encouraged his fellow prisoners to share their visions with him. “Don’t interpretations belong to God?” he asked them, then urged, “Tell me your dreams.”

Tested and tried over and over, this young man refused to let the disappointments drive him deeper and deeper into himself, becoming a bitter, hermit-like malcontent. Rather, he remained outgoing and interested in the moods and the needs of others. God gave him a caring heart that shone out even when few people if any seemed to care about him. When the day came for him to leave the prison forever, he was prepared to set that caring heart loose to meet the needs of entire nations of people faced with a seemingly worldwide famine.

Then, the rest of Joseph’s story continues the testing theme in a beautiful, yet intriguing way: the way that this new Prime Minister of Egypt takes the unexpected opportunity to put his own family to the test! It seems to me that Joseph is absolutely justified in acting almost like the unseen hand of God Himself in the lives of his ten older brothers when they come before him to purchase life-sustaining grain for their families. All the while he is magnanimously meeting their physical needs, Joseph is giving them almost playful little tests to sound out their characters and get them to face their own suppressed guilt. His use of his own elevated position to manipulate their circumstances--all for their own good--may seem arbitrary to those used to democratic rule. But isn’t it a great picture of how Romans 8:28 is worked out in all our lives?

And at the end of the road that God’s providence lays out for you and me, there is a “land of Goshen,” a new heaven and new earth, waiting for those who remain faithful through all the testing and trials He planned for us along the way.

MNA

10/3/2020

God's Love: Not for Everyone?

Like all of His attributes, God’s love is perfect. It is infinite, holy, passionate and pure. A love that perseveres and pursues its object in spite of all difficulties, dangers and denials.

God’s love makes His great heart ache when it is rejected. He compares Himself to a wronged husband when His beloved cheats on Him and turns to other lovers. His is a jealous love.

“Love” is one of those terms that has become so over-used that we’ve cheapened it, applied it as a catch-all solution for all the world’s ills. “All you need is love,” crooned the Beatles. John 3:16 appears on placards at sporting events, inviting viewers to discover how much “God so loved the world.”

“Free Love” was heartily recommended by the sexual revolution, hoping to permanently dislodge the enjoyment of sex from the bonds of marriage. Since then, “love” has become the all-purpose virtue excusing all kinds of infidelity and perversion. Giving and receiving physical pleasure, whatever the form or the fancy, has become synonymous with “love.”

Clearly, the love of our holy God diverges from our human concepts of love. “My ways are not your ways, neither are your thoughts my thoughts,” He tells the prophet. This is nowhere more true than in the way He, and we, define love.

One of the most often neglected attributes of God is His ultimate simplicity. Rather than referring to His mental powers or the ease with which He’s understood, God’s “simplicity” refers to the fact that He is without parts or systems that function independently of one another. Wherever God is, wherever He’s working, it is ALL of Him who is there, ALL His attributes functioning.

Because of this facet of God’s nature, we must never forget that none of His attributes--LOVE, for example--can be appealed to or conceived of as operating APART from all His other attributes. Therefore, God’s love cannot be imagined as a love that overlooks sin and guilt. Likewise, His justice and wrath cannot be seen as disconnected from His love.

Jesus, for example, saw the faith and love of the sinful woman who washed his feet. He forgave her many sins, but also told her, “Go and sin no more.” Both His grace and his commitment to holiness were fully functional.

Nowhere is God’s love more evident than at the cross of His Son.

In the passion and death of Jesus Christ, God Himself is lovingly supplying a sin-bearing substitute for the people of the world. Made available to “whosoever believeth in Him” (John 3:16). This ultimate expression of His love can be embraced and eternally enjoyed by anyone: the worst of sinners, the youngest of children, the meanest laborer, the most skeptical scholar.

But most people will ultimately REJECT this ultimate love.

Most people will be unmoved by Christ’s sacrifice. Perhaps they’ll admire Him as a martyr, praise Him as a noble teacher, be impressed by Him as a social revolutionary. But lovingly embrace Him as Savior, Lord, King? No, most will refuse to go that far.

God’s kind of love:
~ love that judges and convicts sinners
~ love that warns people of an eternal hell
~ love that can only save by the death of Another
~ love that insists on my willingness to forsake my sins
~ love that provides heaven only for those made clean from sin
~ love that unites beloved sinners with the resurrected, risen, reigning Christ

That kind of love, sadly, is not for everyone. But it is how God loves.

Sinner, friend, this offer of TRUE LOVE: convicting, warning, longing, suffering, substitutionary, saving, sanctifying, divine, ETERNAL love, is offered freely to you. God is offering you, not just a small portion, but ALL of Himself! Wrapped up in the person of Jesus.

His love is offered to you without payment. Jesus paid it all. Trust Him. Fall into His arms.

Don't decide God's love is NOT for you!

(677 words)

Run, Rejoice, Rest

O run away! Escape Destruction City.
Proud Babylon has held thee far too long,
Imprisoned by her pleasures cheap and pretty,
And lulled in senseless slumber by her song.
Succumb not to her wisdom vain and witty:
Flee now to Christ and leave her hellish throng.

Rejoice in Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior
Who, sinless, died for sinners on the tree;
For never did His virtue wane or waver,
But, raised up, Jesus silenced death’s decree!
Today, on high, He guides our gospel labor,
From Satan’s kingdom setting spirits free!

O rest and worship in His holy presence
‘Til Jesus comes all nations to depose.
This age shall pass, of faith and of repentance,
And Christ return to vanquish all our foes.
He calls all men to hush and give attendance--
O heed His word! This day of Grace shall close!


MNA
3.8.16

Beauty's Renewal

I woke to find a world devoid of war
where no one bears a grudge or locks his door
or fears to wander naked in the wild
or trust an unknown neighbor with his child:
a world where threat and peril walk no more.

I opened eyes to gaze upon a garden
where none still knows the need to plead for pardon
or beg for alms or seek a healing balm
or find a sage her tortured mind to calm:
a place of grace and peace beyond the Jordan.

I rose to walk in wonder down the strand
now free from heaven’s curse on life or land
where oceans churn with only gentle tides
and nature with its lords no more collides:
a paradise unstained on every hand.

I left my dreams behind to enter bliss
where death and wrong my Prince will all dismiss
and offer there with riven hands and feet
the prize which here is only bittersweet:
the sleeping Beauty’s pledged, awakening Kiss.


MNA 4.26.2015