Our old friend, the sun, is experiencing a massive gravitational/magnetic storm. That means the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, are putting on brilliant displays.
Yesterday evening, my social media pages were awash with pictures of the lights. That included people from Northern Canada, where the borealis is a common sight, to Northern Florida, where they have never been seen before. Today’s image is from a friend in Colorado.
Many of the lights were pink. Pink is an uncommon color that is only visible during periods of highly intense activity. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen pink, where I have seen the blues and greens perhaps thousands of times.
Kathy and I spontaneously got out of our comfy evening spots, jumped in the car, and went on a quest to see them. Unfortunately, between the urban light pollution and cloud cover, we struck out. Still, it was nice to take a nighttime drive.
Non-believers are on a quest to find something to fill the void in their lives. They try many things, including material goods, power, substance abuse, sex, and other religions. All of those will fail them. Their only hope is to turn to Jesus.
Believers are on a quest as well. It is a two-fronted quest. We strive to be more like Jesus, and we take the gospel into a world of lost and hurting people. We will never fully fulfill either in our lifetime, but God is on the throne. He will bring all that are His to himself. We will have finished our journey to become all He created us to be once we reach glory.
That doesn’t mean that our quest is futile. Every person who comes to Christ causes a celebration in heaven.
In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:10
Similarly, God is pleased and glorified when we grow more like the Son.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” – James 1:22
“In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” – 1 John 5:3
“If you love me, keep my commands.” – John 14:15
Our quest is challenging. We may have disappointments along the way, but through Him we have the victory.
The old country church in the ghost town of Dorothy, Alberta, was run down and no longer used. Someone had told me that it had once been a vibrant little congregation, but the town had dried up. It seemed such a waste.
I wondered what happened to the people who had invested so much time and money in this no longer usable building.
The once bright exterior was faded white in the few places where the peeling paint remained. The grass around the grounds was unkempt, and even the cemetery seemed tired.
The door was unlocked, and the hinges screamed from disuse as it opened. As I walked in, my nostrils were assailed by the smell of an old abandoned country church. It had that combination of dust, must, and old wood. It seemed both stale and sacred at the same time.
The old pews and pulpit were made of hardwood, probably oak, but time had discolored them, so it was impossible to tell. They looked almost black; whatever colour they had been to begin with was buried under layers of dirt and age.
The discolored wood got me thinking of the cross. We often seem to have this idea that there was a fresh, new cross crafted just for the crucifixion of Christ.
The reality was probably quite different. The Romans were efficient, and I find it hard to believe they would have made new crosses for each crucifixion. After all, they were only used to kill criminals. Why waste them after being used just once?
The cross he died on probably wasn’t like the nice, neat, clean one that hangs in most sanctuaries. It would have been roughly shaped enough to do the job, no fine woodworking wasted on common thieves and enemies of the empire.
The cross Jesus carried had probably been used many times before and was likely used many times afterwards. It was perhaps stained with its victims’ blood, sweat, and waste. It had been dragged around and lay in the dirt as each new person was nailed to it.
Even in His final death and suffering, He suffered on a second-hand cross. He was scourged with a whip that had chewed apart many backs before his.
In the same way, our walk as Christians won’t always be pleasant, neat, tidy, and new. There will be pain as we grow and unpleasantness to deal with. Some will laugh at us and ridicule us for our beliefs. We may be typecast as narrow-minded and judgmental.
Christianity costs. The cost is often overlooked in this day of easy believism and comfortable Christianity. We often downplay the truth to make it more palatable and then wonder why people fall away. They fall away because they bought into a lie about what the faith is genuinely like.
We see this happen in the churches that preach the lie of the prosperity gospel. We can find it in evangelical churches where the gospel’s truth is buried beneath the pragmatism of growing a crowd through entertainment. It hides in small churches, where the pastor needs the job and doesn’t want to ruffle the feathers of his little flock.
Yet, Jesus was clear about the need to count the cost.
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:25-33 ESV
That old church building may have been abandoned, but Jesus will never forsake His own. He will never leave or abandon us. His church is the people, not the buildings.
Until next time, when you are struggling with one of those painful moments, remember what He went through for you and hold fast.
Count the cost, consider the goal, and keep on.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word – Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
