Celebrate!

photo by Ian Stauffer on unsplash.com

In Luke 15:31-32 (MSG), Jesus tells of the prodigal son's return and the father's reaction to the older brother's jealousy: “His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”

When I think about going to church tomorrow morning, I have a difficult time with the concept of having to celebrate. I like to think my attitude is one of getting to celebrate rather than having to.

Whenever I contemplate the wonder of heaven, I ponder several things:

1. God rejoices over us with singing! "The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV)
2. We win! "They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.” (Revelation 17:14, NIV)
3. How long is the party (the celebration)? "After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." (1 Thessalonians 4:17, NIV)

Years, perhaps decades ago, I heard a preacher/teacher use an interesting example to illustrate eternity. Select a person, any person. Tell that person he must perform these four tasks:

1. Pluck every leaf from every tree on the planet.
2. Count all the pine needles from every forest on Earth.
3. Pull up every blade of grass growing in the world.
4. Catch every fly buzzing over the ground.

After all that is accomplished, the party in heaven will have only just begun. Though I am not worthy, I still want to be part of that celebration. That is God's gift to me and you...made possible by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. As Kool and the Gang once sang, "Celebrate good times, come on!"

Love Divine

The concept that GOD IS LOVE (1 John 4:8) is an important one for all Christians. The entire chapter of 1 John 4 seems to be a treatise on the love of the Father. A few months ago, in the Pre-Pandemic Era of our existence, the Sunday morning song leader at our church led us in singing an older hymn that we hadn't song in recent memory.

The hymn lyrics to Love Divine were originally penned by Charles Wesley in 1747. A few modernizing adjustments have been made in today's church hymnals, but the message remains one of adoration for God's love. As I sat singing the beautiful 4-part harmony of that composition, the second verse touched me deeply:

Love Divine (verse 2)

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit, into every troubled breast;

Let us all in Thee inherit; let us find the promised rest.

Take away the love of sinning. Take our load of guilt away.

End the work of Thy beginning, bring us to eternal day.

God's divine love doesn't just remove, cover, and forgive our sins; additionally it takes away the very love of sinning and removes our load of guilt. The love of sinning is what causes many to become addicts of the various "drugs of choice" available in our world. The load of guilt is what keeps addicts hooked in their addiction unable or unwilling to return to and rediscover that promised rest leading to an eternal day.

Photo by Ben White on Upsplash.com

Take some time today and everyday during this quarantine to approach God's throne of divine love with prayers for those battling to recover from addictions. In Romans 7:24-25 (MSG) the Apostle Paul described the war we all wage with sin and temptation...I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.