For Your Consideration

It isn’t my intent for this column to be exclusively about Christian matters. Lately, however, with all that has been going on with the Coronavirus pandemic and so many thousands of people dying, my thoughts do seem to have centered on God. Understandable, I suppose, all things considered. So it is that once again, my thoughts here in the desert return to the consideration of heaven.

If you also name the Name of Jesus Christ, and believe that He came to Earth, preached a gospel of love, obedience to and relationship with the Father, was crucified unto death for it, and was raised again to life on the third day, then here are a few things to think about. Hopefully, one or more might bring you closer to God.

The Holy Spirit lives in every believer, every moment of every day. He is our Guarantor of the salvation we have been promised, as sons and daughters of the Most High God. He is always available to us whenever we chose to pray. Wouldn’t it then be interesting if, when we arrive in heaven, we have that same kind of constant access to Jesus, for the rest of timeless eternity? Imagine, asking Him all of the questions you’re curious about….forever? Never having to wait for access to Him, never having to share time with Him with someone else, always having access to all the wisdom of the universe? What a mind-bending gift, all by itself, to have an unending private time with God.

In the seventh chapter of the book of Judges, God tells Gideon that his 32,000-man army is too big, and He eventually reduces it all the way down to 300 men. The 31,700 people that God, through Gideon, sent home did the will of God – by going home, and doing nothing! I can’t imagine this would have broad application in our day-to-day life, but it certainly is worth considering. Might there come a time in your life, when the best way you can serve God is by not doing anything? Perhaps a time when you have the opportunity to revenge yourself, or to take up verbal arms against someone who opposes you?

According to Revelation 21:23, “The city {of heaven} does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” (NIV) But many people believe the sky is at it’s most beautiful at sunrise, or sunset. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God placed an eternal, ever-changing sunrise or sunset in His heaven, just for the enjoyment of His children?

The Bible has many stories of God exerting power over His children’s perceptions; one example is in Luke chapter 24, when Cleopas and another walked along the road to Emmaus with Jesus for most of a day, then sat down together for the evening meal with Him, without recognizing Him until He chose to reveal Himself to them – and then disappearing from their sight. Likewise, Jesus used many different methods to perform His miracles. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the city of heaven, the New Jerusalem, likewise was perceived by each person in a different way, perhaps even changing it’s appearance, simply because God can do such things if He chooses?

Readers of this column might know that I enjoy playing video games, and often in such entertainment, water in strange realms different from our own is portrayed as being a glowing sky-blue color. Wouldn’t it be delightful if in heaven the rivers of the waters of life looked like that? A beautiful, translucent blue, which glows with the love and the power and the life of God? Imagine drinking such a fluid, feeling it revitalize you, or bathing in it, feeling the life flowing into you, washing over you, refreshing you, any time you desired it?

Finally, there is a passage early in the seventh chapter of Matthew, which is often taken out of context, sometimes by those who want to bend the Bible to their own desires, who seek to see God as a magic genie subject to their prayers, rather than to use God’s Word as an instruction manual explaining how we should live, how we can grow closer to God, how to be “transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Romans 12:2A (ESV) I must confess that I have fallen prey to that mindset myself, upon occasion. The passage is “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV) But there are two keys to understanding the real meaning of this passage. The first lies in recalling that when the words which eventually became the Bible were originally written down, there were no books, no chapters, no verses. It was all just written down, on scrolls, with no real organization beyond simply putting the sentences in the right order, one after another, in this case the order that Jesus spoke them. With that guidance in mind, the second key is to look to the context of this verse; specifically, look a few sentences earlier, which is now considered part of a different chapter of the Bible, but was only a few seconds earlier when Jesus originally spoke these words on the hillside. Look near the end of chapter 6, at what we now call verse 33: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (NIV) This is what we are to ask for, to seek, to knock upon the door to gain access to. Not possessions, not wealth, not ease. This: God’s way, God’s will, God’s righteousness. Don’t be fooled by earthly desires, as I all too often have been.

Lastly, and of least importance, honesty compels me to confess that none of this came from me. Even the speculation comes from my imagination, which itself is a gift from God. Wisdom comes by way of the Holy Spirit, and the teaching on the verses in Matthew from my pastor. If I am useful at all, it is merely as a vessel for the Spirit, or as a re-transmitter of the wisdom of others. Glory belongs to God; I’m merely here to be used by Him.

When That Time Comes…

Understanding can be an ephemeral thing.  What we see at night may not be what we see in the light of day.  What we see through a gray mist may not correspond to what we view gazing upon the same scene in bright sunshine.  Our perceptions of a thing standing next to it may be changed by viewing it from several thousands of feet in the air.  What we perceive as truth from one point of view may not be true from another point of view.

I’ve come to understand that this last bit of wisdom seems to apply to many truths from the Bible.  As one grows in faith, one begins to perceive things differently, both in one’s views about this world, and also in one’s views of God’s Word.  I have come to understand that God sees things differently than we do, here, in this limited vantage point.  And if one accepts God as, well, God, one is obliged to also accept that when one’s point of view differs from God’s point of view, one changes one’s point of view.  This can, and does, affect our perceptions of truth.

One of the ways in which my own way of viewing the things around me has changed involves the passage of time.  I flatter myself into believing that I do not write this blog for merely my own amusement, that there are at least one or two others who also gaze upon it from time to time.  My sparse and erratic schedule of updating it surely has not encouraged such behavior.  And yet, I persist in this attitude.  Were I to check on the statistics for this page, my perceptions might change, and that would make it yet another example of how we can understand the same thing differently, depending on circumstances.  Time, or its passage, can be a powerful modifier of one’s point of view.  Now, as I make my way through the middle ages (hopefully) of my life, I do not perceive many things as I did in the fiery, busy days of my youth.  I see value in things that I never used to, and have seen things that I once valued greatly lose much or even all of their value to me, as I have been changed by the years that have gone by.  Time changes us, and through us, it changes both the world around us, and how we perceive that world.

Some months ago, I learned of a musical group that inhabits an genre of music the existence of which I was completely unaware.  As I have been a lifelong fan of music in general, the fact of my ignorance took me somewhat by surprise.  The group would perhaps be better described as a music production company, and the genre for which they create their music is a fairly small one, yet it is likely you have heard their work.  The genre is music created exclusively for movie and video game trailers, and the production company is called Two Steps From Hell.  An unsettling name, to be sure, and yet their music is unlike anything I’ve ever heard.  But if you’ve watched the video game trailer for “Mass Effect 3“, or watched the movie trailers for “The Dark Knight“, “Star Trek“, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes“, “No Country For Old Men“, “The Fighter“, any of the recent Harry Potter movies or dozens of other high-profile ‘blockbuster’ movies and most recently “Cloud Atlas“, you’ve heard their work.

Most of their albums have only been released within the industries in which they work, and so the vast body of their work is difficult or impossible for the public to gain access to.  But a few days ago as I write this, they released a new album to the public, called “SkyWorld“.  As usual, I was completely taken by several of the tracks, but one in particular has grown on me, until I found myself possessed by it.  The track is called “Back To The Earth“.  When I first listened to it, I wasn’t sure I liked it.  But after listening to the entire album, it was the first piece I went back and listened to a second time.  It is unlike almost all of their other music, and so I would encourage listening to a wider selection before deciding whether to purchase SkyWorld.  (That said, I do strongly recommend purchasing the album.)  But this song found a place inside me, and began to resonate there.  In the days since then, I haven’t listened to anything but this one song, over and over.

And this is where your perceptions, Gentle Reader, may differ from mine.  If you have lived only a tender number of years on this green Earth, then I think this song may reach you differently than it has me.  When I listen to it, I hear a yearning, an exceptional beauty, a sadness, I hear a mental image of…something…that I view with a certain sepia tone, granted or cursed upon me by the passage of many years.  I don’t think young ears can hear it, unless they have heard many, many other things first.  Perhaps I’m wrong; I hope so, as I would like the whole world to feel the things I have felt since I began listening to it.  And my perceptions have been changing, and they continue to change.  But the truth is, I can no longer tell whether it is my perceptions of the music changing….or if it is me doing the changing, because of what I’m hearing.

Somewhere amongst the third or fourth hearing, I found myself in tears, which surprised me at the time.  It isn’t a “sad” song, in the traditional sense.  Or perhaps what I should say is, I frankly have no fixed idea of what the song is actually about.  I have listened to the words closely, but I have yet to determine the subject of the piece.  But that’s alright, as the words don’t necessarily convey what meaning I have found in it, or at least not all of it.  And the meaning continues to grow, as I continue to listen to the music over and over and over again.  And that’s in the nature of things; meaning can change, as we change, as we age, as we love, and hate, and forgive.

The one thing I do know is that when my time on this Earth is done, and the Good Lord has called me away from friends and family and back home to be with Him…..I’d like this song played at my funeral.  There are, and have been, others I’d like played as well.  But now…this one will be included.  Whatever other meanings it has now or may have for me in the future, there is something about it that speaks to me of loss, and sadness, and wishes, and the yearning for something better.  Those things are all present at that final ceremony which marks the ending of a life.  When my turn comes as surely it will, this is one of the songs I want to accompany me on that journey.