THIS IS NOT MY FATHER’S WORLD

  We sing the hymn, “This Is My Father’s World.”  Let me just remind you of the first verse which is:  “This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ear, all nature sings and round me rings, the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world, I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas; His hand the wonders wrought.”

  The sentiment is lovely but this world as we know it is NOT my Father’s world.  I mean by that, what God brought into being, created from the beginning, is not what we have now.  God’s world was one of perfect harmony between God and man.  God walked and talked with His people. No sin, no shame, no killings, no hate existed in what God intended for His world to be. But, the Fall came, sin entered the picture as man disobeyed God.   God told His people, “don’t eat” and they ate.  Disruption between God and man commenced and has continued ever since.  Man has continually yielded to fleshly appetites seeking to satisfy their own desires.  It is the influence of the Devil in man that brings about the hurts and heartaches between people.  Selfishness is the basic sin.

  People wonder about the terrible tragedy in Connecticut leaving 20 first grade children and seven adults dead.  Rest assured that none of that was of God.  Such a things would not happen in God’s world.  God said through Paul, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we  ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”  Romans 8:22-23
The 11th chapter of Hebrews calls the people of God, aliens and strangers on earth.  “Instead they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”  Hebrews 11:16    Remember the words of Hebrews 13:14: “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”

  I prefer this song:  “This World Is Not My Home.”  Read the words:
“This world is not my home, I’m just passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.  The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
They’re all expecting me and that’s one thing I know, my savior pardoned me and now I onward go.  I know He’ll take me through though I am weak and poor and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
Just up in Glory Land we’ll live eternally, the Saints on every hand are shouting victory.  Their songs of sweetest praise drifts back from Heaven’s shore and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
O Lord you know I have no friend like you, if Heaven’s not my home then Lord what will I do?  The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

Jesus said, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”  Mark 8:36

WARNINGS

  This article in the Gainesville Times caught my interest.  It was written by Jennifer Peltz of the Associated  Press and entitled, “What does it take to get people to flee a storm?   She wrote, “Despite days of dire forecasts and explicit warnings, hundreds of thousands of people in New York and New Jersey ignored mandatory evacuation orders as Super-storm Sandy closed in. Now, after scores of deaths and harrowing escapes, emergency officials will look at what more can be done to persuade residents to get out when their lives are in danger…We know of the stern warnings, scary ads, and laws that threaten fines or jail time.  And yet people refuse to leave, and some come to regret it – that is, if they survive.”

  As, I read this article, I thought about God and how He has warned mankind repeatedly.  It started back in the very beginning with Adam and Eve. God told them that they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and if they did, they would surely die.  The warning was given but not heeded, they ate and suffered the consequences.  Their disobedience brought sin into the world and we are suffering from it.  God’s chosen people, Israel, were told clearly to trust God or they would suffer the consequences of their disobedience.  All who left Egypt died in the wilderness, except those 20 years of age and younger and (Joshua and Caleb).  They never entered into the Promised land because of unfaithfulness.   In reference to Israel’s failure, the Hebrew writer wrote, “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest (Promised Land), so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.” Hebrews 4:11   Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”  Matthew 7:21   Paul writes in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”  God makes it even clearer through the pages of His holy book, the Bible.

  There are two Biblical books which speak primarily of apostasy, deserting the faith, falling away: those are the books of Hebrews and Jude.  God urges His people to pay attention.  Hebrews 2:1-3 “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.  For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?”   The author is writing to Christians, because you cannot fall away or ignore something that you do not possess.   God urges us to hold firmly to the faith we profess.

  In the book of Jude, the Christians are urge to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.  The faith was in peril.  Jude is the only book in the Bible devoted entirely to the apostasy, falling away. There were those within the church whose conduct and teaching was a threat and a menace to the Christian faith.  In view of this situation the need was not so much to expound the faith as to rally Christians in defence of the faith.

  The Christian life is a battleground not a playground.  Build yourself up in the faith, edify yourself in the Word.
2 Peter 3:18  “But you,  friends, are well warned.  Be on guard lest you lose your footing and get swept off your feet by these lawless and loose talking teachers.  Grow in grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.”  (The Message)

VICTORY IN JESUS

  Eugene Bartlett authored this song, “Victory in Jesus” when he was only 54 years old. He suffered a massive stroke which left him largely incapacitated and unable to speak. He spent the last two years of his life bedridden.  Although broken physically, he was far from broken spiritually.  Bartlett spent his time of paralysis in praise of God.  The words and music of a hymn began to form in his mind, and with painstaking effort he managed, over a period of many weeks, to write this hymn down letter by letter, musical note by musical note.  He wanted to demonstrate that his faith had not cracked under suffering. Today, that hymn, while most of his other hundreds of hymns are largely unknown to the public, remains one the most beloved hymns in the world.  It is titled: “Victory in Jesus.”  Read carefully the words to this inspiring hymn:

“I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory,
How He gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning, of His precious blood’s atoning,
Then I repented of my sins and won the victory.

I heard about His healing, of His cleansing pow’r revealing,
How He made the lame to walk again, and caused the blind to see;
And then, I cried, “Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit,”
I then obeyed His blest commands and gained the victory.

I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory,
And I heard about the street of gold beyond the crystal sea
About the angels singing, and the old redemption story,
And some sweet day I’ll sing up there the song of victory.

O victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever,
He sought me and bo’t me with His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory, beneath the cleansing flood.”

  I am indebted to Al Maxey for the information on Eugene Bartlett from his weekly Reflection.

  No matter the circumstances of life, our faith can sustain us.  
“Thanks be unto God who give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  I Corinthians 15:57  

 

SLEEPING IN CHURCH

  I read where a preacher told his congregation that he knew they agreed with his sermons because he could see them ‘nodding.’
It is told that a deacon yelled to the preacher that a certain person had fallen asleep.  The preacher said to the deacon, “wake him up.”  The deacon replied, “You wake him up,  you put him to sleep.”

  In the Bible in Acts 20: 7-12, there is the story of a young man falling asleep in church.  Remember, the Apostle Paul was the preacher “and he kept on talking until midnight.”  (Preachers do get carried away sometimes.)  “Seated in the window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead.”  Paul brought him back to life. “The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.” 

  This then is the first record we have of a man who slept in church. But, it certainly is not the last for he has had many successors. My concern, as a preacher, is not that you physically sleep in church, your heart is with us even through your mind is not.  But, what about the many people who’s bodies are awake but their soul is asleep?  Those who are asleep to the potential and purpose of the church.  Those who are asleep to the impact and influence of their lives.

  We must be awake to the truth that the church of Jesus Christ is the pillar and ground of the truth of God.  The church is the body of Jesus through which the Good News (Gospel) is proclaimed.  Just know that it is through the preaching/teaching of God’s Word hope is given to the hopeless, strength to the weak, and salvation to the lost.  God has ordained that through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.  The real value of the church is through her message, proclaiming the mind and will of God to man.   Romans 10:17  “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” 

  What about the many people who are asleep to God and eternal life?  Someone has said, “No one has the right to hear the gospel more than once until all have heard it at least once.”  We hear the preaching/teaching of the Good News of God and yet for many “they have ears to hear but they do not hear” (understand, accept).  God’s word, through the church, offers to all the knowledge of eternity with God.  It is so easy to sleep away our opportunities for eternal life with God.

  Hear, the story that Jesus taught of the ten Virgins: 5 wise and 5 foolish. (Matthew 25:1-13)  The foolish were those who slept without making adequate preparation for the long wait for the bridegroom. But, the bridegroom came and entered the house.  The foolish had to go into the city and buy oil for their oil-less lamps. When they returned the door of the house was shut and their opportunity for entering in was gone.  All that is necessary to lose eternal life is just neglect, indifference, sleep.

     “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?”  Hebrews 2:3