A Crucified Life - - Is At Home With The Lord

 

2 Corinthians 5:8

We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 1736

At Home:  to be in one's own country, to be at home

From the Greek word 'endémeó' (pronounced en-day-meh'-o): to be among one's own people, dwell in one's own country.

    Someday. Someday always comes. God's people have been longing for someday ever since we became separated from God in the garden of Eden. We look forward to the day when we are no longer apart and are in His presence permanently.

    On this side of heaven we get glimpses of eternity. We read of this place called heaven in the Scriptures. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:12 "Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

    Its size cannot be measured. Its landscape is dotted with a variety of buildings, animals and trees. Its population consists of God, His angels and His people.

GOD

>Only One God - Deuteronomy 4:39, 6:4; 1 Corinthians 8:6

>Father  - Matthew 6:9

>Spirit - John 4:24

>Love - 1 Corinthians 13:8

>Holy - Leviticus 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16

And so much more than this, God is.

HIS ANGELS

    We read of some of the different types of angels and their ministrations in God's kingdom. Seraphim (Isaiah 6:2-4) and cherubim: (2 Samuel 22:11 [living chariot]; Isaiah 37:16  [His throne]; Ezekiel 1:4-14 [descriptive].

   Archangels [chief angels, rulers of angels], mentioned specifically as archangels occurs twice in Scripture (1 Thessalonians 4:16 and Jude 1:9). All other references to archangels refers to them as princes [Daniel 10:13] and guardians [Daniel 12:1] and defenders [Revelation 12:7].

HIS PEOPLE

>Children of God - John 1:12; 1 John 3:2 

>The Holy People, The Redeemed of the LORD - Isaiah 62:12

>A chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession - 1 Peter 2:9 

>Martyrs - Revelation 6:9

>A great cloud of witnesses - Hebrews 12:1

Giving you just a few verses of our relationship with God.

HIS HEAVEN

>An Unshakeable Kingdom - Hebrews 12:28

>Eternal Day - Revelation 22:1-5

>Filled With Worshipers - Revelation 4:8-11; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 7:9-12 [point of fact: the Book of Revelation is filled with instances of worship]. 

    Someday. Someday soon. 

AT HOME WITH THE LORD

I Can Only Imagine - MercyMe

What Happened To Your Hands - Tammy Jones

Scars In Heaven - Casting Crowns

There Will Be A Day - Jeremy Camp

Hymn of Heaven - Phil Wickham

If I Could Take My Family - Tammy Jones

Holy - Jeremy Riddle & Tayla Rede

To Worship You I Live 

Heart & Soul - - God's People

 

Psalm 7:9

Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 7451

Wickedness: badness, evilness, adversity

From the Hebrew word 'ra'' (pronounced rah).

REPENTANT PEOPLE

    In this part of David's prayer, he prays for the end of sin in his own heart and in others' hearts. He prays, "Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end."       Here, too, the Christian desires the same thing: I turn my heart and my face to You, Lord. I turn my back on the unlawful things I have done and I commit to obeying Your Word and following Your ways. I repent of the wickedness of my heart and ask that You remain in me and clean Your tabernacle, that I might be made presentable to God. 

    "We pray that adversity towards God be overthrown and that our hearts be made clean and pure for His Name's sake. We determine in our hearts and our minds to be steadfast and sure, not moving from our foundation of faith in God through Christ."

ESTABLISHED PEOPLE

    David asks that God establish the just, that He build a firm immovable foundation in the believer. The deeper we dig into the Word of God, the longer and deeper our roots will be. As oaks of righteousness (Isaiah 61:3) we need to know this. We are the planted of The Lord. We plant (read and study our Bibles) ourselves in His Word and He plants (John 15:4, 5) His Word in us. 

    Being both planted in Him and built up in Him we are stronger than many of us realize. Just before The Lord ascended into heaven, He gave instructions  to His disciples (and to us):

Matthew 28:18-20

Mark 16:15-18

Luke 24:45-49

John 20:21-23

Acts 1:8

    Being planted in Christ through His death and His resurrection, we are now being built up in Him through the power of His Holy Spirit. As long as we trust God and obey His Word and live a holy life, we will see God and remain with HIm when we die. God is holy. His holiness demands a holy people, for sin cannot be present where God is. 

    1 Peter 2:9 tells us that as believers, as God's people, we are not like the people of the world, the people who still live in darkness. We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. The chosen generation is the generation of they who seek Him (Psalm 24:1-6). 

    He has called us to be His royal priests. We are a holy nation. Though we are to pray for the leaders who rule over us in this world, that they may be saved and sanctified, our allegiance is to our God. His laws are higher than men's laws. When the law of the land is lawlessness, the law of God must still be obeyed. Know you that we are living under such laws even now? It's only going to get worse.

PECULIAR PEOPLE

    We are a peculiar people. Strange. Odd. Weird. To many people God's people are foolish. Why? We believe God. It is more than believing God's existence, it is believing God's Word is Real, Faithful, Truth. It is a knowing and an understanding. 

    But to the people who live outside of God's reality we are unusual. And so we should be. We should shine as lights in a dark world, shining with the light of God's love bursting through us. Radiance lights up our faces from the Joy that is within us: the love of God in Christ which we received when we believed. 

    For "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world that He might shame the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world that He might shame the strong." (1 Corinthians 1:27). To quite a few folks, God's plan of salvation is foolishness. Unable to recognize their own sin they refuse to believe that God's Son would die in such a shameful manner, if they even believe that God has a Son. 

POWERFUL PEOPLE

    We are fools for Christ, as Paul says to the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 4:10). We choose to live in obedience to God's Word and God's commands. We choose to share Christ, the Light of God's Love, with everyone whom God places in our path. We choose to live a life that glorifies God. 

    And we are able to do these things because Christ is our foundation, the Chief Cornerstone upon Whom our lives are built. We are trees whose roots are planted near a living flowing water, and whose strength is in Him. We are the established of God. And we have overcome the wickedness of this world.

    Unless a person is a born again, Spirit-filled believer they will not be able to fully and faithfully serve God in the way in which He has ordained His people to serve Him. Every organization, whether small like a club or large like a nation, must have a set of rules by which to live in peace. So it is with God. He has set up the ways in which His people should walk, should live, should serve. 

    It takes an immense amount of power to live God's way. This power is only available from God and it is in the form of His Spirit living and moving through His people by faith. If you don't have His Holy Spirit, just ask God for it. He knows what we need and He's waiting for us to ask because He's not a pushy overbearing God who rams His way into people's hearts and lives. He's a patient (longsuffering) God who waits to hear from us. 

    Now is the time to talk with God. And remember, a conversation is a two way street, not a monologue. 

     

GOD'S PEOPLE 

Generations

                                                   

Basic Timeline

|--Before Time Began----------Time----------Beyond Time--|

     Sat down with Brother Littleton at Family Camp this year and he asked me, “What's the word?” My response? “Generations. How many years are in a one generation?” Bro. Littleton said that generational lengths are determined by cultural eras. What a generation was in early Genesis is not what a generation was in Malachi, nor was that the same as in Matthew or even now. From parent to infant is one generation.

     Consulting King James Bible Word Book*, I read that generations means “the whole body of individuals born about the same period; also, the time covered by the lives of these”. Also from this book I see that generation in the New Testament has two meanings. In Matthew 1:1, 18 the word generation means 'birth'. In 1 Peter 2:9, the word is rendered 'children, offspring'.

     Vines' Expository Dictionary gives these same definitions for generations: (1) Age; (2) Origin, lineage, birth; (3) Offspring. Somewhat helpful, but not as helpful as Brother Littleton. So much more interesting conversations are had with people in person than through a study book, but am grateful I have such books with me.

     Why do I want to know what a generation is? Well.........the first time the word is used is in Genesis 2:4, when God tells us “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that The Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” Here, the word generations means 'history, descent (referring to family), birth) using the Hebrew dictionary.

     But the word is not translated the same in every passage of The Old Testament. In Exodus 3:15 “And God said moreover unto Moses, 'Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Is'rael, The Lord God of your fathers, The God of Abraham, The God of Isaac, and The God of Jacob, has sent me unto you: this is My Name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations.” Here, the word means 'revolution of time, an age, a dwelling: posterity'. A revolution of time goes clockwise in a circular motion, which could refer to passage of time, as the earth revolves around the sun giving us day and night repeatedly. 

     These two definitions of generations are repeatedly used in The Old Testament. The first explains generations as historical fact. The second explains generations as the passing of time. Each reference needs to be separately looked up to know what it actually refers to. For instance, Psalm 14:5 “There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.” Revolution of time, a dwelling.

     Psalm 24:1-6 “The earth is The Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of The Lord? Or who shall stand in His Holy place? He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from The Lord, and righteousness from The God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Se'lah.” Again, a dwelling.

     I bring up these two specifically as examples because we know that God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3 “But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabits the praises of Israel.) In other words, God dwells in the praises of His people. And who are His people?

     In The New Testament, the word generations refers to: kin, diversity, nation, age, kindred, offspring, stock, age, time. 1 Peter 2:9,10 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” These are God's people.

     Acts 8:33 “In His humiliation His judgment was taken away: and who shall declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.” This verse refers to Jesus Christ. His generation, His descendants  are they who believe that He is Lord, that He is Savior, that He is the Only Begotten Son of God. His generations are the people of God; they who love Him and keep His commandments.

     Now, we come to one of the verses on my mind which started this whole thing to begin with. Deuteronomy 7:9 “Know therefore that The Lord thy God, He Is God, The Faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.” How many is a thousand generations if generations vary? Here the definition of generations is the second one: the passage of days, of time. These are God's people.

     A thousand generations of them that love Him and keep His commandments. We cannot know how many this is, because only God can keep perfect track of who is righteous is His sight. Their names are written in The Lamb's Book of Life. We will know these generations later in heaven and we will get to meet all of them eventually. 

     But only if our names are written in The Lamb's Book of Life. How do you get your name in that Book, you ask? You must be born-again. When your name is called by The Holy Spirit and you feel yourself being drawn, led, to Jesus; and you answer this call, you have taken the first step to being born again. Repentance means to turn your back on sin and turn your face to Jesus. How can you do this when you cannot see Jesus?

By faith, by believing that Jesus Is. By believing that Jesus died for you and rose from the dead; the first act washes away the sin from your heart, the second gives you eternal life through His life.

     John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but have ever lasting life.” You are whosoever. You can trust in Jesus to wash away your sins through the blood He shed on the cross He was nailed to. You can trust in Jesus to give you eternal life with Him. You just have to believe.

     Hebrews 11:1, 3 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen....Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by The Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Faith is believing that something is real, is true, even if you cannot see it right now. We believe that tomorrow will come even though tomorrow is not yet. We have faith that the sun will rise at day, the moon at night. We cannot see tomorrow but we believe it will happen anyway, and so we prepare for it.

     Just as we prepare for eternity. An eternity with God is better than an eternity without God. “For whosoever was not written in The Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:15. That is an eternity without God. It is not my eternity, for my name is written in His Book.

Is yours?