We Don't Belong Here Forever

Caleb was a friend of mine; he died Sunday night.  We played Ultimate Frisbee together at Auburn; he was good.  We went to church together in Auburn.  We ate at Cracker Barrel together twice; we both ordered chicken fried chicken both times.  He beat me at the peg game that sits on the tables at Cracker Barrel; he was good at that too.  I can't say that I knew Caleb extremely well, but I can say that he was an excellent teammate, a hard worker and a sincere lover of Jesus Christ.

I heard a song today that put Caleb's death in perspective for me.  Simply titled Heaven, Paul Wright says "we don't belong here forever. No, no, we don't belong here.  We'll be dancing, singing, bringing our praises and lifting our voices to Jesus.  They'll be no more crying, lying, or dying when you and I are in heaven."  I have to believe that God has placed each person on this earth for a very specific purpose.  People aren't "called home" too early.  People's lives don't get "cut short" as many of us sympathetically claim in times of unexpected tragedy.  God knows what he is doing; He calls us to be with him at exactly the right moment.  What a glorious moment that must be--the moment when crying, lying and dying cease and our eternity becomes dancing, singing, and bringing praises to the creator of the universe!

Eternity becomes heavy on my mind in times like this.  The thought of the afterlife being eternal  becomes, if only for a split second, tangible.  That is when my heart breaks.  So many will not experience dancing, and singing, and bringing praises to Jesus because they never knew him.  Fortunately, Caleb will experience that; in fact, he is right now, and I'm sure there's no place he'd rather be.

If you do not know Jesus Christ, I beg you to meet Him.  I don't want you to claim Him solely so that you will be in heaven for eternity.  Yes, that's part of it, but I want you to meet Christ because I can assure you that nothing else can hold a candle to the satisfaction found in Him.  Nothing else in all of creation that you could possibly lend your attention to will be able to satisfy you like Christ.  In Christ is where the only eternal satisfaction is found. Eternal peace.  Eternal paradise. If you could, just ask Caleb.

I will go to Caleb's funeral on Thursday.  He will be buried.  The sun will set.  Then it will rise again.  Life will come calling the day after Caleb is buried, and as long as there is life, there is hope.  As long as the sun rises again, there is hope that you too will be able to join Caleb as he dances, sings, and brings praises to Jesus.

So please, look to Jesus.  You don't have to look far, He's not hiding.  He's calling and waiting.

Please.

Let Everything That Has Breath...

A lot has happened since I last wrote a post.  I finished my thesis, I graduated college, I moved to Birmingham, I started a new job, my sister got married, I went through training/orientation for Honduras, I have began support raising/partnership building for Honduras, and I moved again.  Life has finally slowed down enough for me to write; unfortunately, however, there are so many things I'd like to write about that have happened in the last 10 weeks, I have quite a bit of catching up to do.  God has taught me so much and begun to open my eyes to so many new things about Himself, that I really don't know where to begin.  Eventually, I'll get around to talking about Honduras and preparation and partnership formation and the like, but for now, I want to share three chapters of Psalm that God has revealed to me that have dominated my thoughts for the last month.

Prior to about 6 weeks ago, I had never read the last three chapters of Psalm (148, 149, 150).  I had heard the phrase "let everything that has breath praise the Lord," but I had never bothered to look up its source.  I'm so grateful to have found these chapters, because they have literally reformed the way I think about the purpose of life.  To sum it up, the psalmist commands everything on earth, all creatures, all humans, all plants, all creation, to praise the Lord.  The concept is simple, and its exhaustive.  It starts out by commanding all of creation to praise the Lord.  All his angles, all his heavenly hosts, the sun and the moon, all shining stars, the highest heavens and the waters above the skies are all commanded to praise the Lord.  Then all of earth is commanded to praise the Lord.  Great sea creatures, all ocean depths, the weather, mountains and hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and cattle, small creatures and birds, kings and princes and rulers, young men and maidens, old men and children are all commanded to praise the name of the Lord because His name alone is exalted.  Then the people of earth are told to praise the Lord.  With dancing and instruments and joy they are to rejoice in their maker and praise Him for His greatness.  The last 11 words of Psalm sum it all up: "let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord."

If these chapters don't already make it clear enough, the destiny of every creature on earth is to praise the Lord.  This is the heartbeat of God--for every creature to praise His name.  Every human being WILL praise the Lord in one of two situations: as we enter the gates of heaven where we will sing "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty" for eternity, or as we descend into the depths of hell where we will suffer for eternity.  These two options make clear the distinction of God's grace versus his wrath.  It shows the haunting reality of God's unquenchable wrath for those who deny him, and the unwavering hope received from God's unending grace for those who embrace Him.

These chapters have so greatly reinforced in my life the ultimate reason why we exist-- to praise the Lord.  It seems to me that the God of the universe is powerful enough to make this happen.  It gives me hope to know that His name will one day be thoroughly praised by all.  This hope is no reason to back off on sharing this good news, but is all the reason more to spread it so that God's glory is more famous today than it was yesterday.

"May the praise of God be in their mouths...let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord."