It\'s on my mind...
It would be nice if faith made life easier. If belief in Christ made for smooth sailing and all sunshine but that’s kind of the point. We don’t live in a fairytale. We live in a sin-cursed world. A world radically affected by the Fall. When Adam rebelled, everything changed. Adam’s relationship with Eve, Eve’s relationship with Adam, Adam and Eve’s relationship with the creation and their relationship with the Creator! The whole of creation has changed due to sin. To the praise of God’s grace, everything changes when we come to faith in Christ. Immediately we are brought out from under the curse of sin and are no longer under the just and holy wrath of God. Our eternal destiny is secure. We are declared righteous in the sight of God because of Christ. We become the object of God’s love, mercy, and grace, yet we are in the process of being made holy by the presence and power of the Spirit of God now residing within us. A process that will not be completed until we are taken to glory. The creation’s woes will remain until there is a new heaven and a new earth. Man’s struggle with man will continue until that great and awful day when God’s final judgment will be carried out. Thus, as the people of God, we live in the “now and not yet.”
We know God and have fellowship with Him now, and yet there is coming a deeper, more intimate knowledge in glory. We are declared righteous now and yet we await that moment when we will be changed into the likeness of our Savior when we see Him. There is coming that day when He will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no more death, mourning or pain, until that day we will have tribulation. How are we to live in the “not yet?” By faith. By trusting in the grace, the mercy, and the providential care of our God. We find peace in the fact that our God is ever-present and always working. That He works all things for His glory and for the good of His people. As we learned in Sunday’s passage from Esther, life isn’t fair and is often filled with danger, difficulties and genuine sorrow. A truth unbearable were it not for the comforting truth of God’s providential care. Providence reminds us that we cannot, we must not, live by sight. We must not determine what is happening based on what we see or what we are able to discern. We live by faith, trusting in the promises of God. It is when life is hard, and the future seems bleak we trust all the more in the One who has proven himself faithful. Faith is not blind, it is not a leap in the dark, it is resting in the promise of the ever-faithful, covenant-keeping Sovereign whose promise never fails. Therein is our peace.
I’m going to be gone Sunday, May 21. Pastor Bobby Reid, longtime pastor at Carbondale Baptist Church, will be filling in for me this coming Sunday.
Have a blessed week!
Rod
We know God and have fellowship with Him now, and yet there is coming a deeper, more intimate knowledge in glory. We are declared righteous now and yet we await that moment when we will be changed into the likeness of our Savior when we see Him. There is coming that day when He will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no more death, mourning or pain, until that day we will have tribulation. How are we to live in the “not yet?” By faith. By trusting in the grace, the mercy, and the providential care of our God. We find peace in the fact that our God is ever-present and always working. That He works all things for His glory and for the good of His people. As we learned in Sunday’s passage from Esther, life isn’t fair and is often filled with danger, difficulties and genuine sorrow. A truth unbearable were it not for the comforting truth of God’s providential care. Providence reminds us that we cannot, we must not, live by sight. We must not determine what is happening based on what we see or what we are able to discern. We live by faith, trusting in the promises of God. It is when life is hard, and the future seems bleak we trust all the more in the One who has proven himself faithful. Faith is not blind, it is not a leap in the dark, it is resting in the promise of the ever-faithful, covenant-keeping Sovereign whose promise never fails. Therein is our peace.
I’m going to be gone Sunday, May 21. Pastor Bobby Reid, longtime pastor at Carbondale Baptist Church, will be filling in for me this coming Sunday.
Have a blessed week!
Rod