I am in Job in my daily Bibel reading. There is a well-known verse that even shows up in our songs. It is a wonderful verse of power, of faith, and of assurance in the midst of an unsure world:
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” (Job 19:25 ESV).
In spite of the pain, the confusion surrounding his suffering as a righteous man, and the misguided accusations of those who loved him most, Job anchors his hope in this timeless truth.
Yes, timeless. I suppose we are like the generations before us. We often feel we have evolved with understanding beyond those who came before us. We understand the reality of God's ways, while those who came before us had little more than superstition and an incomplete faith.
Job spends time talking to his friends and to God about how death will be the end of all. If he dies, there will be no more testimony, no more praise, no more obedience. It's all gone. And we take away from these despondent cries that people of his days just didn't understand eternity as we do.
I contend that many of these great servants of God probably understood the essence of eternity better than many of us do. Sure, they may not have understood the details of how God's eternal nature will be offered to us, but I fear we can pass a knowledge test of the details of eternity while missing the essence of eternal living that our forefathers seemed to understand.
Listen as this suffering servant speaks about what the essence of eternity means to him:
“And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:26-27 ESV).
Job may not have understood all that the Spirit has revealed to us about the new, incorruptible body. He may not have seen the resurrected, transfigured Jesus that foreshadowed our future. He may not have listened to Paul explain that we will be changed in the twinkling of an eye.
But he knew that he would see God in his flesh after his skin was destroyed. This is faith, assurance, and hope.
Sometimes, I fear we are confident in our knowledge while lacking the essence of what that knowledge is supposed to instill in us. Because we know more details, we see those who lacked details as superstitious men and women.
Perhaps it's closer to the truth that these men understood more than we give them credit for. Perhaps we read of Job's despair of death as being a superstitious belief that we live in this life, and when we die, that's it for us.
I see great evidence that the men of old understood that we are eternal creatures. Sure, they understood that we are mortal on Earth, and when we die, all things about us are gone forever—on the earth. But we do them a disservice when equating this fundamental truth of mortal existence to denying an eternal nature.
With the details the Spirit has shared with us, we may have a more sophisticated belief in the afterlife, but do we have a better understanding of what our eternal nature really means to us as we live life on this earth?
I sometimes wonder. Job knew he would see the Lord after his skin was destroyed. That knowledge caused him to hold tight to his integrity when life on earth was falling apart, when his loved ones urged him to curse God and die, and when his friends urged him to repent of sins he had not committed.
“as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit.” (Job 27:3-4 ESV).
My question for us today is this: how does our more sophisticated understanding of our eternal nature cause us to live in our mortal existence on this earth today?
What's the difference between grace and mercy?
Grace gives us what we don't deserve
Mercy doesn't give us what we do deserve.
We serve a God abundant in both.
To be like Him, so must we.
Imagine visiting a Gospel meeting where the preacher stands up and says this:
“Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'
And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'“ (Matthew 7:21-23 ESV).
This is what happened almost 2000 years ago. A traveling preacher named Jesus preached a sermon on a mount to thousands of people and made some bold claims about Himself.
The people who heard Him in person had to decide what to do with His proclamation. So must we. Just like that ancient audience, we must either write Him off as a blasphemous megalomaniac and lunatic or accept Him as God who will judge all men on that great day.
What will you do?
“And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” (Matthew 7:28-29 ESV).
I am in Psalm in my daily Bible reading. Here is an integrity check:
“O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,
let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah” (Psalm 7:3-5 ESV).
How is the integrity of our hearts? Can we go to God as David did and invite God to peer into our hearts, not just our actions but the motives behind them?
David was secure in his integrity to the point that he invited God to act against him if his integrity was lacking.
This kind of integrity is possible when we are fully convinced that we cannot hide anything from God and we are of the disposition that everything we do is an offering to God's glory.
On Wednesday, I wrote a short post talking about the difference between grace and mercy. You can read the post at the link below.
Thursday night, a long-time friend of mine sent me a private message to disagree with my observation. He laid out his argument in a well-articulated manner and made some great points.
His observations are causing me to rethink my distinction between grace and mercy. I asked for his permission to post his private message, and he graciously agreed.
So, I will post his private message on Tuesday in my next Tuesdays With Tony post. I am excited to share his observations with you. But more than that, I want to share how two brothers in Christ can see things differently and approach each other with love and respect.
When you know that the person who is asking you to reconsider something you said loves you, it's much easier to give the benefit of the doubt and approach his or her comments without getting defensive.
To get your juices flowing, here is a link to my post. Tune in next Tuesday to hear more about this
(In this book edition, rather than print a hyperlink, I invite you to back a couple of pages to the five line post where I discuss the diference between grace and mercy. Then, jump to the next Tuesdays With Tony post linked in the table of contents to read my response).
Who do you love and will talk to today?
Your spouse?
Your parents or children?
That friend who is closer than a brother?
How many of us will talk to our God today?
Paul counseled Timothy not to let anyone despise his youth.
While that was once comforting to me, now I am at the stage in life when I must take care not to be the one doing the despising.
When a youth asks me questions, I must be willing to engage that honest, sincere heart without writing the questions off as coming from someone belonging to a generation who just thinks that way instead of giving them the respect to engage with them.
“Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12 ESV).
I am in Psalm in my daily Bible reading. What a great book of praise that exalts God and praises Him for being God, Sovereign, Creator, and the all-sustaining life force of all He created.
Psalm praises God for being King, Savior, Protector, Provider, and Friend.
It praises God for seeing all things and for not being deceived by the secret things in man's heart.
It praises God for His wisdom and truth, for his strength and ability to do all He pleases.
It exalts God as the answer to all we seek, the One in whom we find safety and solace.
Psalm is man's way of using music and poetry to express our most intimate praise and worship to an almighty and everlasting God.
Read Psalm and let the words bathe your heart in praise and speak to the innermost desires that His creation has for its Creator.
“God is not up in Heaven looking for reasons to zap people;
He is up in Heaven looking for reasons to NOT zap people.
He is up in Heaven looking for reasons to forgive people.”
Edwin Crozier, excerpt from his lesson, The Lord Is Slow To Anger.
While this world may not be our home, it was created for us by our God.
While we are pilgrims passing through, God has set us here to subdue our allotment of this world and glorify Him through our interaction with this habitation.
Our yearning for an everlasting home in His presence is not in vain. It is our faith, our unwavering trust in Him, that pleases God and guides our every step in this earthly journey.
As we learn to live on this earth, in whatever role and allotment God, in His sovereignty, has given us, we prepare each day for the glorification that awaits us in eternity.
The widow who gives her two mites and the servant who gives a cup of cold water is preparing for the same glorification as the king who subdues nations in the name of the Lord.
In this world, we do all things for His glory, however big or small, knowing that doing so leads to the communion we were created for in the presence of God through Jesus.