Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday

Sermon

February 11, 2024

Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday

 

My text today comes from 1 Peter chapter one. I begin at the first verse: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.”

 

This Wednesday, February 14, is Valentine’s Day. It’s also Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of the season of Lent. I’ll return to Lent later in this message. But for the moment, I want to focus on Valentine’s Day – a day during which lovers traditionally give to each other romantic cards, flowers, candy, and other special gifts that signal their love and affection for one another.  

 

Many of us remember – some fondly, others, not-so-fondly – when we were in grade school during the Valentine’s season. You might have given – or better yet – received little pink, red, and blue heart-shaped candies on which were printed words such as, “Be My Valentine” or just the word, ‘Love.”

 

But, of course, it could be that some of us might never have received heart-shaped candies. I still remember the times I didn’t receive anything from any of the girls in my class. And some of us might have even gotten stomach aches the day before school, or the day OF Valentine’s Day, because you knew no one wanted us to be their valentine.

 

And very sadly, for some people things didn’t change much as they got older. Valentine’s Day remained a lonely time of the year, and John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s lyrics made for a somber reminder of that loneliness:

 

 “Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been.
Lives in a dream. Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door. Who is it for? // All the lonely people. Where do they all come from? All the lonely people. Where do they all belong? // Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear. No one comes near. Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there. What does he care?// All the lonely people. Where do they all come from? All the lonely people. Where do they all belong?”

 

How many Eleanor Rigbys and Father McKenzies are out there in the dining room? How many of them are even here in this sanctuary? How many still dread Valentine’s Day – remembering lovers now dead, and wondering if anyone cares for them now, today?

 

Of course, as children we didn’t know – and as adults, we too often tend to forget – that we actually DO have a real and very present Lover, One who sits as close to us as our breath. A Lover who not only sees our tears but also feels our heartbreak – and who embraces us in His warmth.

 

These are not over-used platitudes I am sharing with you know. These are words of sober truth – and I am here to remind all of us that a long time ago, God sent to each of us His very personal Valentine message. He had it written on a piece of scrap wood and nailed it above the head of His Son. It read: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” A better translation would be this: “See How Much I Love You.”

 

Valentine’s Day. I hope to be able during this message to remind all of us that, ‘Yes,’ Someone does care for you and me – passionately, zealously cares for you and me. Someone who has CHOSEN you and me to be His Valentine; That our Great Lover has not forgotten nor forsaken us – we who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God.

 

Did you ever wonder why Jesus stayed on that cross when He could have simply turned His eyes toward the Father, and 12 legions of angels would have swooped to His rescue? (See Matthew 26:53)

Perhaps – and this is simply my unprovable speculation – perhaps while our Savior was hanging on that cross, the Father showed His Son in a moment of time not the future kingdoms of the world that Satan showed Him during that wilderness trial (see Luke 4:5), but the Father showed Him YOUR face. And MY face.  And the faces of every man and woman, boy and girl yet be born – each of whom would be doomed to an eternal lake of fire if Jesus had called for those 12 legions of angels.

Yes, perhaps Jesus stayed on that cross because in that moment of time He saw your face and mine – and the faces of everyone else who would desperately need His self-sacrificial love. Perhaps He stayed because He saw you, and He hoped – to use a human term – He hoped you would be His valentine.

 

I’ll say that again, God hoped you and I would say ‘Yes’ to His Valentine invitation. Of course, He knew from before creation who would say ‘yes’ to Him and who would say ‘no.’ That’s all according to His infinite and infallible foreknowledge. But His foreknowledge does not invalidate His offer to all humanity to His Forever Valentine.

But let’s now move on, because along with the theme of God's offer to be His Valentine, February 14 this year also brings with it another celebration – Ash Wednesday.

 

As many of you know, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Christian season of Lent which last forty days and culminates on Resurrection Sunday. Traditionally, Lent is a time in the Church calendar during which many Christians take opportunity to reflect more particularly on questions such as “Who am I? Why am I here on planet earth? Why did Jesus die for me? How can I grow in my love and devotion to my Savior?”

 

Ash Wednesday is marked by the receiving of ashes on the forehead. The one placing those ashes pronounces something along the lines of, “You are dust, and to dust you will return. Repent and believe the gospel.”

 

“You are dust.” Those words do something to our pride, don’t they? They are intended to. After all, if we dig up any ancient grave in any ancient cemetery anywhere on earth, we know what we’ll find. Time will have disintegrated the bones and flesh until nothing but dust remains of the person.

 

Dust . . . which is exactly what God said to Adam after sin entered the world: “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)

 

Ramses II is a perfect illustration. The Pharaoh was one of ancient Egypt’s greatest rulers, reigning over an area from present-day Iraq to the Sudan. During his 67-year regime, Egypt enjoyed unsurpassed military might and economic power. Today, the ruins of his extensive building programs are scattered across Egypt – silent testimony to his one-time greatness. An article in an early Time-Life magazine stated the Pharaoh “could have filled an ancient edition of the Guinness Book of Records all by himself.”

 

But time has a way of leveling any of the world’s "greats."  When archaeologists unearthed Ramses and sent his mummified body to the Cairo Museum, a befuddled customs inspector, not sure what to label the shriveled object, taxed the body of Ramses the Great as – imported dried fish.

 

“For you are dust,” God said. “And to dust you shall return.”

 

Which circles back to my message about Valentine’s Day – because while everyone’s BODY will eventually disintegrate, everyone’s SOUL will live forever. But where the soul lives forever is determined by what that person, in whom the soul resides, does with the message of the gospel.

 

It was Daniel – among many other Old and New Testament writers – it was Daniel who warns humanity: (Daniel 12:2) “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”

 

And the Lord Jesus showed to John the inescapable destiny of those who reject the gospel: (Revelation 21:8) “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

The question, then, ought to be asked – WHY would anyone reject God's offer to be His Valentine? Why would anyone reject the gospel, knowing that they are no more than dust walking?

 

Actually, the answer is quite simple and straightforward. Those who reject God and His gospel are walking – present tense – in darkness. And because they walk in darkness, as the Lord Jesus said, they do not know where they go. (See John 12:35)

 

That is why it is impossible for a nonbeliever to on his or her own become a believer, because dead people do not know they are walking in darkness. Remember, all humanity is spiritually dead in their sins. Hear what St Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience . . . and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” (Ephesians 2:1-3)

 

Paul picks up that theme once again in his second letter to the Corinthians: (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)  “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

 

And so, those who walk in darkness can NEVER see the light of the glorious gospel unless God Himself opens their eyes to Jesus – who is “the Light of the world.” (John 8:12)

 

Which brings us back again to Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday: It is God's love for us, and OUR love and concern for others that leads us to remind them – with great gentleness and humility – that they are nothing more than dust walking – But that there is a better way to live: By becoming Christ’s Valentine.

What was it Fanny Crosby pleaded? “Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen, tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save . . . Back to the narrow way patiently win them; Tell the poor wand’rer a Savior has died. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.”

 

Let’s look again at our text from 1 Peter as he wrote to those “who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father . . .”

 

Remember: God has chosen YOU. And me. Why? Not only for salvation – as rich and wonderful and glorious as that is. But He has chosen also to participate with Him in bringing men and women, boys and girls into His kingdom. Peter tells us that in the next chapter of his first epistle that God also chose so that “[we] may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9b)

Into His marvelous light. Paul reminds us also in Colossians 1:13-14 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

 

Think of it. The rejected ones become God’s beloved Valentine. Dust is turned into priceless treasure. And all because we each said to God: “Here am I. Send me.” All because we were not content to sit in the pews and be fed the word of God without also getting up and being “ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal” to those in the dining room and beyond – ‘Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Listen, one does not need to be a preacher or missionary or Bible teacher to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called each of US out of darkness and into His marvelous light. We’ve got to get that false notion out of our heads. When Jesus gave His disciples the so-called ‘Great Commission’ at the end of Matthew’s gospel, to bring the gospel to all creation, that command applies to everyone, regardless of our age, our gender, our health, or education, or backgrounds – or of anything else.

Remember, it was Peter THE FISHERMAN – that’s an important point – it was Peter the uneducated fisherman who stood before the crowds in Jerusalem and quoted from the Hebrew prophet Joel: (Acts 2:17-21)

“And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; Even on My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy.”

Take note, please – God said He would pour His Spirit even upon the LAITY. That means God will use YOU and me to bring others to Himself IF we simply tell them the truth about Jesus and what He has done in our life – and if we LIVE the truth about Jesus.

I am running out of time, so let me briefly answer an unasked question – HOW can we proclaim the gospel to others? I’m glad to answer that question:

First: Know what the Bible says about faith, forgiveness, righteousness, salvation, redemption, and eternal life. Here is 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

 

In the same letter, Paul continued: (3:16-17) “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

 

Second point: Live a holy life. I don’t need to tell you what that looks like. You’ve read the Bible often enough to know what a holy and godly life looks like. And, oh, by the way, the Holy Spirit is pretty quick to let us know when we are about to do something or say something we ought not to do or say. And He is just as quick to let us know when we have sinned in word, thought, or action.

 

Third point: Do not be conformed to this present world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds through Scripture (See Romans 12:1-2).

 

In other words, let’s stop playing with the world, doing things that they do, laughing at what they laugh at, being sucked into philosophies that defy Christ and His commandments. If you watch the cable news you should know you are hearing all the time the philosophies of the world, whether it be issues of morality – sexual or otherwise – and you are hearing heretical religious ideas about religious pluralism which insists all faiths lead to God.

 

Such anti-Christ and satanic philosophies have no place in the heart and mind and soul of the Christian. Indeed, how can we hope to proclaim the excellencies of God to others, when we ourselves are living hypocritical lives and by being held captive by godless philosophies?

Finally, stand up for Jesus. I know I’ve said it before, but here it is again as a reminder: When you’re eating in the dining room, take a moment to SILENTLY pray over your food before you even pick up your fork. You don’t need to make a big show of it. Just bow your head and close your eyes. And if someone asks you a question while you’re praying, simply lift your head, SMILE, and say something along the lines “Just a moment. I’m thanking God for this food.”

 

Simple. Authentic. Honest. Direct.

 

Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day, a day that should have a double meaning for the Christian: God is in love with you, dust though you are. He wrote His Valentine’s note on the scrap wood nailed above Jesus’ head on that cross. And if we receive and continue to receive His offer to be forever His Valentine, He will turn our walking dust into His most precious possession.

 

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gifts!

 

All the Ends of the Earth

My text for today comes from Isaiah 45:22 through which the Lord God, creator of heaven and earth says: “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.”

 

I want us to see at least four important elements in this short verse. First, What God tells us to do. Next, Why He tells us to do it. Third, To whom is this text addressed. And finally, the reason He can assure those who do as He tells us.

 

First, ‘Turn to Me.” The Hebrew verb here has the idea of looking with expectation at someone – at God, in this context. It’s a similar idea to what we find in Acts 3:3-5 when Peter and John met the lame man at the temple gate. St Luke records it for us this way: When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.

 

God says, ‘Turn to Me.’ Although the verb here is in the imperative – as in a ‘command’ – I think the TONE of the message is more of a plea: “Look at Me. Look to Me. Why? Because only He can meet the most desperate need of our heart, soul, mind, and spirit. There is no one else who can do so.’

 

St Augustine was absolutely correct when he confessed to God: “For you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”

 

Are you restless in your spirit to know God better? If you are NOT restless to know Him better – then you might be well advised to check yourself. In his epistle to the church at Philippi, St Paul wrote: (Philippians 3:10) “[T]hat I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.”

The interesting thing about that text is that he wrote it AFTER he wrote the book of Romans – considered by many commentators as the most comprehensive and systematic treatise on Christian faith ever written.

In fact, Paul wrote those words to the Philippians after he also wrote his two letters to the church at Corinth, and his letters to the Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, and  1 & 2 Thessalonians – all infinitely valuable to the Christian faith.

And here is the point: If the great apostle Paul – even after he’d written Romans and the rest I mentioned – if Paul recognized he STILL needed to know his Savior, then what should I think about my own relationship with Jesus? And what should you think about yours?

Do we think we know Jesus as well as we can or should know Him? Are we satisfied that our knowledge of Scripture and of orthodox Biblical doctrine is at its apex? That there is not more room for growth in Christ and in faith?

Are we RESTLESS to know God? If not, why not? That really is an important question that we ALL should think long and hard about.

“Turn to Me.”

Listen to what Jesus said to all those who were following Him – believer and non-believer: (Matthew 11:28-30) “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

 

And listen to what God said through the psalmist: (Psalm 32:8-9) “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you.”

 

“Turn to Me,” God tells us. “Look with expectancy.”  “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

 

Don’t we know – at least, we OUGHT to know – that not only did He create us, but that He also, in great love for us, placed that so-called God-shaped void in our heart so that we would seek to fill that void?

 

That’s why today’s text reminds me of the Lord’s appeal later in Isaiah: (Isaiah 55:1-3a) “Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live.”

 

Turn to me. Christian – and even if you are NOT a Christian – don’t you hear His voice in your conscience when you’re going the wrong way? Of course, you do – unless you have so hardened your heart that you no longer hear His voice. That happens, you know. Here is 1 Timothy 4: “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.”

 

But those who want to know truth AND to obey truth – don’t you hear the Holy Spirit’s voice in your heart when you’re turning to the right or the left? Here again is Isaiah 30:21 “Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.”

 

Why does the Lord so often tell us to turn to Him? Why does He so often tell us, “This is the way, walk in it”? You know why. Because He absolutely, passionately, sacrificially loves you, loves you, loves you. And because He wants to save you.

 

Turn to Me and be saved. That is the SECOND point of this message – “Be saved.” But saved from what? You know the answer to that question also. Saved from eternal separation from Him. Eternal. Forever. Our God does not want that. He NEVER, as early as before the Garden – He never wanted that. But His Justice for our willful rebellion against His commandments cannot turn a blind eye to our sins. His Justice demands our judgment. BUT – His mercy provides the means for Justice toward us to be fulfilled when Jesus became our Sin and then received the full wrath of the Father for our sin.

 

Many of you know the prophecy: (Isaiah 53:5a-6) “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities . . . All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”

 

And so, for all those who are now ‘in’ Christ by their OBEDIENT faith, God's Justice AND His mercy has been met in Jesus who bore all our sins on that cross while we, on the other hand, are recipients of God's mercy extended to all who receive His mercy by faith.

 

That is why the Christian – and ONLY the Christian – is saved not only eternal separation in eternal agony, but also from the earthly ravages of sin. We’ve all lived long enough to know what persistent disobedience to God's laws does to a person, how it cripples the conscience, infects the spirit, blinds the mind, hardens the heart. You’ve read the Scriptures long enough to know what it says. For example:

 

(1 Corinthians 6) “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

 

I hope you caught that last verse – “Such were some of YOU Corinthians. But you are washed, and sanctified, and justified (declared by God to be without guilt) when you were brought into Christ through confession, repentance, and turning away from sin.

 

“Turn to Me,” God said. You may remember what Peter said to the religious crowd outside the Temple on the Day of Pentecost. They’d asked what they should do to be saved. Peter responded (Acts 2:38-40): “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit . . “Be saved from this perverse generation!”

 

“Turn to Me” and be saved from this perverse generation – this generation under whose tongues are the poison of asps; This perverse generation who corrupts the holy Scriptures, making God's word say what their perverted minds wish that it said. And be saved from this perverse 21^st century generation who fulfill the prophecy spoken two thousand years ago when they seek “for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” (1 Timothy 4).

 

So, how do we turn to him? I think the first step is to be honest with ourselves AND with Him that in our human nature we simply don’t WANT to turn to Him. As St John wrote in his first epistle: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8)

 

And St Paul to the Christians at Ephesus: (Ephesians 2:1-5) “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 

 

And the second step to turning to Christ is to recognize we are not really ABLE to do so without God's supernatural drawing of ourselves to Himself.

 

Here is Jesus in John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” And here is what St Paul tells us about such faith: 1 Corinthians 12:4-5, 8-9) “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord . . . For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit . . .” and so forth.

And the gifts of faith AND the maturing of faith originates in the supernatural and which only the Holy Spirit can do in us. Only He can give us a hunger to know God better. Only he can give us a hunger to seek Christ, and only he can help us to know Christ.

All this time I’ve been quoting Isaiah 45 in which GOD said “Turn” to Him and be saved. But it is of great importance to Biblical faith– AND it SHOULD be of great importance to those trapped in non-Biblical faiths such as Islam, Judaism, Mormonism, and Jehovah’s Witnesses that Jesus also said – repeatedly – that we must turn to HIM and be saved.

 

So, which is it? Turn to Jehovah God as He said through the prophet Isaiah, or turn to Jesus and be saved, as Jesus said, for example, in John 8:23-24 -“You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I Am He, you will die in your sins.”

 

You will notice in your Bibles that the word ‘He’ is in italics. That means the word is NOT in the original text, but was added by the translators. Now listen to John 8:58 - Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I Am.” In both cases, Jesus referred His listeners to Exodus 3:15 wherein Jehovah God told Moses His Name is “I Am that I Am.” 

 

Do we wonder why the Jewish clergy took up stones to execute Jesus. They knew precisely what He was claiming for Himself. They knew Jesus was saying unambiguously, He was God – the same God of Isaiah who said to all who would listen: “Turn to ME and be saved.”

 

And now, let me briefly address the last two points of this message. Point number three: Notice the last clause of our text: “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth.”

 

No one is exempted, Jew or Gentile, chief of sinners or just your average sinner. Turn to Him and be saved – everyone. Anyone.

 

I need this message as much as every one of you in this sanctuary needs this message: Turn to Christ. Day after day after day of sinning in thought, in word, in action and in inaction – turn to Him. Look expectantly at Him for forgiveness, for mercy, for hope, and for help.

 

What God pleads with Israel through the prophet Hosea, He also pleads with you and me, with our families, neighbors, our friends and our enemies: Hosea 14:1-3 “Return . . . to the Lord your God, for your sin has been your downfall! Return to the Lord and repent! Say to him: “Completely forgive our iniquity; accept our penitential prayer.”

 

Let me close this message now in this way: Almighty God, our Creator says this: “Turn to Me and be saved.” To whom is that message sent? God tells us the answer in the same verse. It is sent to “all the ends of the earth.”

 

How, then, can we be sure of that promise? We now look for only a moment at the fourth point: We can be sure of His promises because He tells us at the end of that simple verse: “I am God. There is no other.”

 

“All the ends of the earth” means you and me – Jew and non-Jew. Christian or not. It is to all who have no interest in Christ, and it is to those who remain inquisitive. The invitation is to those who think they are saved but know in their heart of hearts that they are not. It is to the chief of sinners and to those who are just your so-called average sinners.

 

God makes His appeal again and again in the pages of Scripture. He continues to make His appeal through the words of pastors and laity alike. And because He is God – because there is no one like Him in all Creation – because He is God, you and I can trust Him to be faithful and truthful to His promises.

 

The God who created all things visible and invisible, the one to whom there is no equal, the one who has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—one God in three Persons – He is the one who will never fail any who turn to Him to be saved – even to all the ends of the earth.

 

Have you turned to Him?  If you have not, now is a good time. And if you have – keep turning to Him, now, today, and until your last breath.

A Good Start

A friend of mine, a good brother in Christ, told me yesterday over the phone that he’s going into home hospice later today (Wednesday). After years of treatments for his cancer, he told me he’s just tired of the fight. He’s tired of seeing the emotional drain on his wife. He just plain tired.

In the past, I’ve heard that same word from others being killed by that demonic disease.

He told me he’s not afraid of death. In some ways he’s looking forward to it. He knows he’s going to meet his savior and be welcomed into His eternal kingdom where he will live forever without pain while he awaits his beloved wife and children and grandchildren to meet him there.

This morning, as I was thinking about my friend – my brother – I found myself asking myself: “How would I respond if I were the one going into hospice today?”

I thought about that for a short while – actually only a few moments – before I answered my own question.

I’m not afraid of death either. I don’t want to leave my wife or my children, but I am not afraid of death. Why is that? Because I have every trust and confidence that God is honest. There is not a sliver of doubt in my mind that God has never, will never, can never lie to me. And so, when He said, “I am the resurrection and the life he believes in Me will live, even if he dies; And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” – Yes, I believe that.

I remember Dan. He was one of the first Christians I’d ever known to die. When I stood by his hospital bed and asked him what it feels like to know he is dying, he told me what I have never forgotten. He looked at me, placed his hand on the bedrail on top of mine, and quoted 2 Timothy 4: “From life to life. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. And now there is a crown of righteousness awaiting me.”

If I were to enter hospice today and die tomorrow, I know that I also will enter my eternal home to be forever with my Father, my Savior, and the Holy Spirit, who has been my guide all of my life. I know that to be true because, as I said, I know God is honest. And He has promised me, and all those who love his Son, eternal life immediately upon our death.

 

Immediately upon our death.

 

I could cite the applicable Scriptures, but I suspect many of you already know of promises such as Philippians 1:21-24 and 2 Corinthians 5:6-8.

And so, Reader – what about you? Surely, you’ve known people who have died, but have you given much thought to your OWN eventual death? It was Solomon who wisely said, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart. (Ecclesiastes 7:2)

 

Reader, what about you? Have you taken your inevitable death to heart? Have you taken your ‘impending death’ to heart – impending because you don’t know what will happen tomorrow. A car accident, a fall, a stroke . . .. Anything could happen to any of us at any time. Our lives are held together with mere breaths.

 

So, what about you? Are you confident that you could say to God on that day: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course that You gave me. I have kept the faith”?

 

I hope so. But if not, then perhaps this short note can be a wakeup call for you. As the Lord God said through Isaiah the prophet: “Turn to me and be saved, all the end of the Earth. I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22)

And if you don’t quite know how to ‘turn to God’ – confession, repentance, and a turning away from your sins is a good start.

Your Face

   

During the Lord’s wilderness temptation, St Luke tells us Satan “led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.” (Luke 4:5)

I don’t understand how that happened. My finite mind cannot conceive of the supernatural unveiling of all the future kingdoms that were yet to come. I do not understand how that works – but I don’t have to understand how that works. I only need to know that it happened in the realm of the supernatural.

But here’s something to think about:

Did you ever wonder why Jesus stayed on that cross when He could have simply turned His eyes toward the Father, and 12 legions of angels would have swooped to His rescue? (See Matthew 26:53)

Perhaps – and this is simply my unprovable speculation – perhaps while our Savior was hanging on that cross, the Father showed His Son in a moment of time not the future kingdoms of the world, but the Father showed the Son . . . MY face.

And YOUR face.

And the faces of every man and woman, boy and girl yet be born – and each of whom would be doomed to an eternal lake of fire if Jesus called for those 12 legions of angels.

Yes, perhaps Jesus stayed on that cross because in that moment of time He saw your face, and mine – and the faces of everyone else who, as yet unborn, would desperately need His self-sacrificial love.

 

Think of that the next time you look in the mirror.

Rich Maffeo
maffeo.richard@outlook.com 

Blog: www.inhimonly.blogspot.com