Establish Your Hearts.

James 5:8 “You also, be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

I find in this day and age, people aren’t as patient as they used to be.  They want things the day after they order them from a website.  They want their shows to be nicely wrapped up by the end of the episode.  They want a quick fix to their problems.  

People are offered a pill to solve their problem but does it? (Have you heard or read some of the side affects to some of these medications that can result in death?  They are often worse then the problem itself.)  And does it solve the problem or just mask the symptoms or issues? 

(Not much good to say about many of man's quick fixes as the mind goes to things like abortion and death at convenience.)

Patience is difficult.  It is also difficult in the most difficult of circumstances.  
 
When we don’t avail ourselves to God we don’t have patience.  When we think we should be the one in control, we don’t have patience. When things aren’t going the way we think they should go, what happens?  Many destructive and sad things happen when we try to control.  True in the bible and true now.

Do we really have control?

The word of God says that Spirit of God (The Holy Spirit) gives us self-control/self-restraint.  He is given to those who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  He is to help us from wandering into the busy unsafe highways of lust, fear, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, worry, frustration, and doubt.

He establishes our heart.  He feeds the heart of what it needs most. He prepares our heart.  He encourages our heart.  He gives our heart hope.  He gives our heart boldness and strength yet humility.  He gives our heart the ability live in the satisfying will of Himself… IF we just avail ourselves to Him.

  

The issue is… we as people of Adam and Eve are accustomed to availing ourselves to us and our understanding, not to Him/God.  God says not to depend on our own understanding because often it leads to harm and hurt to us and others.

We each have been given a will and it is our choice to trust God or not.  God’s word says he has put a measure of faith of Himself in each one of us to see and know He exists.  God knows what is going on in our hearts and what is happening in our days.  Like flipping the pages of a small book with his fingers, He has seen our so brief life.  He also knows our eternity and our choice to trust in His Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior or not.

The baby that was born of a virgin on Christmas morning will be returning as King for those who have surrendered their heart to Him (Jesus Christ).  Some have and will scoff at this and the bible speaks of people who will scoff at this.  BUT what matters more then the temporary scoffing, which will mean nothing in the complexity of eternity, is that our heart is established for His coming?

 

If this truth doesn’t warm our heart but unsettles our heart think why?

If our heart is unsettled maybe a reason is because we haven’t surrendered or completely surrendered our heart to Jesus (the reason for Christ-mas) who lives and establishes our heart with this comforting reality that He is coming back for us.

Our relationship with God is suppose to be daily- (for me it needs to be an hourly thing… I need it.)  But in journaling, reading His word, listening and conversing with Him, God settles and confirms our heart.  As we avail ourselves to Him, God avails Himself to us.  

True. This takes time. Time not to be filled with just ourselves and our own schedule but time with God.  For we must remember this time in which we live is all we got.  There is no more and we really don't know how much we do have.  But time with God is worth every little bit to our soul.  And I am a bit amazed when He expands on what was previously thought already expanded upon.  And how what was so dry and crusty before can become a refreshing piece of food for my soul.    

 For the Word of God says, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.”

This experience we call “life” (this type of school, this type children’s camp, this type of hotel or boot camp) will soon be over, as we know it.  Jesus will be loading up the “spiritual buses” and taking us home… a home He has created for those who have trusted and believed in Him.

Some of you know this but let the "knowing"… remain in the living knowing of the heart not just the mind -for what comes out of the heart will also come out of our words and actions.  Amen.

Again, in love… “You also, be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

 

Time 3

Recently a pastor publicly mocked the idea of a boy going to heaven and coming back again…. 

WHY?

I don’t understand it myself. 

I mean Jesus has resurrected people from death and they have shared their experiences of heaven- so why not a child? What is so far fetched about this? Is nothing impossible with God? Is He not sovereign over time?  

How about those of us filled with the Holy Spirit that have experienced Heaven while still physically here on earth? 

“It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.  Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  They were calling out to each other,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
    The whole earth is filled with his glory!”  Isaiah 6:1-3

“I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don't know--only God knows.”  2 Corinthians 12:2

“Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.”  Ezekiel 43:5

As I have shared before I have had such a vision but I am not going to retell this experience but another one. 

Some time ago, as I was resting I had vision.  I was young child maybe 6 years of age but I was no longer here on earth.  I pass through a small gate where a girl dressed in white with brown hair took my hand.  I didn’t recognize her from the past or even the present but it was apparent I knew her.  There was a forest of trees on the left side filled with this warm yellow light. 

As I continued in the vision I seem to go back and forth from being in my child self to watching myself as I am now.   I watched the younger me dressed in white holding this girl’s hand.  I remember feeling so filled with joy and energy.  We laughed and giggled as we ran up this tall grassy hill without even having to catch our breath.  And that is where the vision stopped- as if God didn’t want to give away the surprise that awaits on the other side of that tall green hill.

Three things come to mind when I think of the vision. 

1. My grandfather told me when God took his name down off the “hook” he would go over those green hills.  I never gave it much thought until after the vision.  What made him say such a thing?  Had he seen the green grassy hill himself? 

2. Then a sister in Christ told me when she has experienced heaven she is always a child as well. Now there were two of us that experienced the same thing.  We must be children in heaven.

3. Jesus says, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]. Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” Matthew 18:2-4 AMP

These types of experiences are windows to things that have not happened yet they have been shown to us as things to come and are…

GOD is sovereign over time and the experiences in time.

He can do what he chooses….

For “nothing is impossible with God.”

God’s predestined timeline might have been what the Apostle Paul thought when he wrote, “When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.”  EPHESIANS 3:14

God knows the plan…. It is already written.   When I think about God knowing us, I think all that has been before us… I think of our past, our present, and our future- I think of words of prophesy, visions, dreams and even those déjà vu experiences.

Let us look at some encouraging scriptures about Jesus/God and Us and time.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” JEREMIAH 1:5

God knew us! God set us apart and appointed us for "spirit-filled" tasks in this life.  I say "spirit-filled" tasks because God is suppose to be helping us in those tasks but because we don't seek God's help and guidance that may seem too difficult for us to do or even mundane.   But the tasks that God gives are not to be mundane- we are not to think we are too good for any tasks for Jesus who was God took the servant's position and cleaned the disciples feet.  That was the job of a servant or a slave.  He died a death he did not deserve!

Let us look at Gideon who said, " “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” JUDGES 6:15 
But God did not see Him as the least.  God seeing all that Gideon would become in time gave him this message, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” JUDGES 6:12
  
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” ROMANS 8:29-30

“No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” 1 CORINTHIANS 2:7

^“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,” EPHESIANS 1:4-5

“but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”  1 PETER 1:19-21

Thinks about what Jesus says here, “Yet even in Sardis there are some who have not soiled their garments with evil deeds.  They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.  All who are victorious will be clothed in white.  I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.  Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”  REVELATION 3:4-6

JESUS knows who names are and are not in the book of life before they are even born.   There is no reason not to believe this if He knows everything. 

Is he not the author and finisher of our faith?  Does he not know us in time and out of time?

Time 2

--> God In Time

 ^“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”  JOHN 3:16-17

“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.  And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” JOHN 3:18-21

How can a person already be judged? How is this possible? 

God knows all… He does not just know what is in a person’s heart but what "has" and "will" happen in our life.  He is El Olam- the Everlasting/Eternal God.  He sees past, present, and future all at once.  He knows the outcome of our lives.  He knows if we are going to come to Him or not in the time we are allowed here on earth.  So God, who knows all, can judge based on what he knows from beginning to end.  As Christians, God knew the time of our salvation in Jesus, before we were ever born.

Imagine Jesus who spoke everything into existence, in essence, wrote the book of time and then he inserted himself into the book of time.  The book of time is “figurative speak”- I don’t know if there is an “actual” book of time but there isn’t a better way I can come up with to convey this truth at the moment.
    

God sent Himself into time to save those he created in time.   Jesus, The Son Of God, subjected Himself to time when the Spirit of God impregnated Mary who was a virgin.  Jesus was born fully God and fully man. 
 

Think of it…. The author of life came to save his creation but almost all his creation did not even recognize Him.
 

John 1:10 says, “He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him.”

Jesus being God in time, he had wisdom beyond his years. LUKE 2:46-50.   Yet being God in time he did not perform any “public” miracles until after his water baptism by John the Baptist.  Why is this? I do not know. 

I do say “public” miracles because his mother Mary seemed to know he could do miracles as when she asked him to provide wine at the wedding in Cana.  (JOHN 2:1-12).   John writes in 2:11: “This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was Jesus’ first “display” of his glory.  And his disciples believed in him.”  Another version uses the word “manifest” instead of display, which is to “make known, realized, and/or exposed to view”.

It is obvious Jesus was concerned about the “timing” of revealing such power publically.  “How does this concern you and me?” Jesus replied.  “My time has not yet come.”  It is as if God and SON had “events” schedule to thread in the ribbon of time.  I might even say the “story” of time.

And Jesus doesn’t just refer to time once but several times and the apostle John was aware of this “timing” as well in his writings.   John wrote, “….”yet no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.” -JOHN 8:20 

And… “At this they tired to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.” JOHN 7:30.  Is this not an odd statement?  Odd but not so odd if God had a plan in place.
 

This idea of timing, points to events as being governed and predestined by God.   We see this not only in New Testament scriptures but Old Testament scriptures where prophecies were written about Christ.  These prophecies date back all the way to Adam and Eve.   Probably the most well known prophecies are the ones written 700 years before Jesus Christ’s birth.

“Who has believed our message?
    To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
² My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
    like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
    nothing to attract us to him.
³ He was despised and rejected—
    a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
    He was despised, and we did not care.

⁴ Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
    it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
    a punishment for his own sins!
⁵ But he was pierced for our rebellion,
    crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
    He was whipped so we could be healed.
⁶ All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
    We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
    the sins of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and treated harshly,
    yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
    And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
    he did not open his mouth.
⁸ Unjustly condemned,
    he was led away.
No one cared that he died without descendants,
    that his life was cut short in midstream.
But he was struck down
    for the rebellion of my people.
⁹ He had done no wrong
    and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
    he was put in a rich man’s grave.

¹⁰ But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him
    and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
    he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
    and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
¹¹ When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
    he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
    my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
    for he will bear all their sins.
¹² I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
    because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
    He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.”

ISAIAH 53:1-12

Literally the LORD’s good plan to save us was accomplished in his hands.  His act of pure sacrifice cleansed all those who believe in Him from Adam and Eve to when time as know it finally ends. 

 “For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us.  We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.   God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times.  And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus.”  ROMANS 3:24-26

Time 1

--

“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—“ Ecclesiastes 3:1

King Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived, wrote this verse.  He understood that God appoints time…. to everything.   

Our concept or understanding of time is not God’s understanding of time.   And we are often indoctrinated in God by God’s use of time.  However, we are often ignorant of time and it’s use.  We miss use time.   We are possessive and selfish of what we consider “our” time.  We are possessive of the people and things in time, which cannot be possessed.  We fail to realize (repeatedly) is what we hope for others and ourselves cannot be destined and/or governed by us.  And what we force on our own accord often brings negative consequences and un-satisfaction.    

Jesus teaching is disciples to pray said to pray like this to the Heavenly Father, “May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10

May God’s will be done on earth, as it is in heaven…. Not our will be done on earth. 

When things don’t happen the way we expect we become impatient and frustrated with others, ourselves and with God.   Sometimes God's  “appointed time” for a certain thing has not come or become realized yet. (Remember Abraham, Sarah,  and Hagar.)

Often in unexpected death of a loved one we become angry and resentful with God because we think God has wronged them and us of the short time we got to spend with them on this earth.   What we do not fully understand is that all souls created by God a- belong to God and we are just brief stewards of what God fully owns -for he is the one who created us and gave us what we have.

“For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”  Ephesians 2:10

We are to take care of young, old, family, friend, neighbor, and even foe as if they belong to God- even if they don’t have a relationship with the LORD. 

So they might see… as we live as ambassadors of Christ, and come to the LORD and be not only saved in the LORD but have a more satisfying life that the LORD gives to those who trust Him.   

I believe the more we understand God is responsible for our life and others people’s life -the more we see life is truly in Him.  (Read that again.)

When a person tries to control what they can’t control there is no peace.  When a child, striving for control, disobeys the rules of the house - what ensues? What ensues when we try or presume we have control over our life?  Foolishness takes over does it not?  

For those living in God have to daily/hourly relinquish in thought and prayer what they thought they might have control over so they may have what God promises of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Note Galatians 5:22-23)

Philippians 4:6-7 says “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

What is this saying to you about control, time, and your life? 

“Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money. Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears [into thin air]. You ought instead to say, ‘If the Lord is willing, we shall live and we shall do this or that [thing]’.  But as it is, you boast [falsely] in your presumption and your self-conceit. All such boasting is wrong. So any person who knows what is right to do but does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:13-17

How do you think about life, time and who has control?

I want to tell you about an event I heard in church years ago while the Lord had us living in a little eastern Washington town.   A family was heading to church camp.  The mother and father were in one car leading the way as the grandmother and granddaughter followed in a car behind them.   During the trip the granddaughter spoke up excitedly from the backseat.  “Jesus said he is taking me to heaven.”

The grandmother replied with what I understood as a kind presumption.  Something like…. “Yes one day you will be with Jesus in heaven.”

The little girl smiled and said, “No I am going now Grandma.”

It was then the grandmother’s car was struck by another car and instantly the precious child was killed.

This event and loss must have been more difficult then words can express… I am sure her mother and father had hopes for their daughter and thoughts about her future - as all parents do or should.  I am sure she is still thought about often as they live out the rest of their appointed time on this earth.  But even though this was a great loss- I think they find great comfort in their little girl’s recited excited words that came from the backseat that day and how she was instantly taken to be with Jesus to heaven.     

We often “feel” restrained by time but God, who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow is not and someday at our appointed time we, who have put our trust in Jesus, will be with Him.      

 Things maybe beautiful for a time but without God everything becomes meaningless- not to mention disheartening.  May the love of God, hope in God and faith in God encourage us always- in Jesus name Amen!