Category: 1 Corinthians

  • Getting older and the hope of glory

    The stepstool beside it reminded me that I'm getting older

    I know I’m getting older. I used to hop up and down into the bed of a pickup with no problem. Now I much prefer to use a step stool. It’s not as cool, but I don’t look or feel as uncoordinated as I would without one, and frankly, it’s safer. As they say, “Getting older isn’t for wimps.” For all my young friends, you might not relate yet, but your time will come.

    One thing about getting older is that it is one step closer to glory. Now, like many Christians, I am really looking forward to being there with Jesus, but at the same time, I don’t want to go home yet.

    Going to be with Jesus isn’t something I spend my days obsessed with, but it does cross my mind the older I get. A friend from church passed away this week, unexpectedly, and while we know where he went, he will be missed by those left behind.

    I have no fear about what happens after my passing from this mortal coil. As a Christian believer, I know exactly where I’m headed.

    John’s Revelation of Jesus the Christ speaks at length about it, and there are plenty of hints and glimpses elsewhere in the Bible.

    Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” Revelation 19:7-9

    When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:11-12

    It’s going to be a celebration unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. United with Jesus, the one who knew me and loved me enough to die for me. Gathered with every believer that ever was, regardless of ethnicity, skin color, economic status or any of the other artificial separators and dividers we use here in this world.

    All my sins and sorrows gone, no more pain and suffering. Joy unspeakable. Finally being all that God created me to be.  Free to serve Him in everything, with everything I do for His glory.

    Honestly, I can’t really comprehend what that will be like. I imagine the most peaceful and joy-filled moments in this life and know it will dwarf them. 

    Just meeting Jesus face to face will be better than anything this life has to offer. I don’t know how it will all unfold, but I hope that’s the first thing I see.

    Not sure about what will happen to you after death? Get right with Jesus today.

    I can hardly wait. What about you?

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God) 

    Be blessed 

    Kevin 

    SUMMARY

    Getting older has a way of turning your eyes toward eternity — and for the believer, that’s not a bad thing. A friend’s unexpected passing this week, a step stool by the pickup truck, and the words of Revelation 19 and 1 Corinthians 13 all point the same direction: a celebration with Jesus that will dwarf anything this life has to offer.

    KEY POINTS:

    • Aging is one step closer to glory, and the Christian can face that reality with confidence rather than fear
    • Heaven is a wedding feast — face to face with Jesus, every believer gathered, every earthly divider gone
    • The most peaceful, joy-filled moments of this life won’t come close to what awaits

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  • Read the Word. Read the Word. Read the Word.

    a marked up well worn bible evidence of someone having read the Word over a long period

    People who know me have heard me say it more than once. Read the Word. Read the Word. Read the Word. I did not pick that phrase because it sounds nice said three times in a row, though it does. 

    I picked it because three things have to happen before Scripture actually does what it was given to do in your life, and missing any one of them will leave you short. 

    You have to read it. You have to come to know it. And you have to understand it. They are not the same thing, and you cannot skip ahead.

    Read the Word

    The first one is the simplest, and the one most easily skipped. You cannot know or understand a book you never open. That sounds obvious until you look honestly at how many weeks can pass between sitting down with it on purpose. 

    The blessed man is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night, like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in season (Psalm 1:2-3). 

    Notice that fruit follows meditation, not the other way around. Reading is not the finish line. It is the starting one, but you do not get to skip it.

    I have written a whole piece on why and how to actually build this habit, with a reading plan if you need somewhere to start. Why (and how) to read your Bible

    Know the Word

    Reading puts the words in front of you. Knowing is what happens when those words stop being unfamiliar, when you can recognize a passage before you finish the first line, when the story or the command or the promise has become part of how you think. But there is a trap here, and it is an old one. 

    The Pharisees of Jesus’ day knew the Scriptures forward and backward. 

    You search the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life, and it is these that testify about Me, and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life (John 5:39-40). 

    They knew the book and missed the Person the book was written to introduce them to.

    I have written before about that exact danger, knowing the Bible the way you know facts, without that knowledge ever becoming the faith it was meant to produce. 

    Knowing the Bible like the back of my hand

    Understand the Word

    Reading gets the words in front of you. Knowing gets them familiar. But understanding is the one piece you cannot manufacture by effort alone, no matter how disciplined you are or how many times you have read it through. 

    A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). 

    On the road, after the resurrection, Jesus did not just hand His disciples a clearer outline. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). That opening is still His to give. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him (James 1:5). Understanding is asked for, not earned.

    So the next time you hear me say it, you will know I am not just repeating myself for effect. 

    Read the Word, because you cannot know or understand a book you never open. 

    Read the Word, until the words on the page become a Person you recognize rather than facts you have filed away. 

    Read the Word, and ask the Spirit to open what your own effort never could reach on its own. Three calls, not one repeated. 

    Together they are what carry you from the gospel you believe to the life you are meant to live.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

    Be blessed,

    Kevin

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