REALLY ONLY DUST

That's a question that I have often pondered. How success is defined can greatly influence the path we take in our lives. 

The natural human fleshly tendency is to relate success to numerical increases in things that we can number. More income, more popularity, etc. But for someone who labors for the Lord, the answer can be quite different. I say "can be" because in His providence, the Lord CAN provide large increases in these things. Abraham is a prime example of a goldly man whom He blessed with riches and influence. However, we make a fatal mistake when we automatically consider such increases in our lives to be blessings from God when in fact they could be stumbling blocks that the devil has placed in our path. The devil can "bless" too, and he knows how quickly most of us are likely to attribute our "successes" to God's favor.. even when we are living outside of God's will!

The words of Jesus come to my mind, when He told us to enter the strait gate (Mat. 7:13) and warned us that wide is the way that leads to destruction. Numerical increases of wealth or influence should be carefully examined to see whether they are from God's favor as we stay faithful to Him, or merely a devilish appeal to our "pride of life" (1 John 2:16). Finding success in God's eyes often means following a lonely, unpopular path that few are willing to pursue. It is the path to do what God has called us to do with our gifts and our lives regardless of the outcome, numerical or otherwise.

My greatest inspiration comes from Jesus, who died poor, naked and deserted by everyone when He went to the Cross. And yet His story is the greatest success story of all time! Think of all the millions of souls that will spend eternity in Heaven because of His faithfulness! In a much smaller way, God knows that as we stay faithful to Him in the little things He has called us to do, we may reap a spiritual harvest that can't be measured by mere numbers. So be encouraged as you labor for the Lord today, no matter how you measure your success!

In case you haven't been following me on social media lately, I've mentioned that my second album Home With The King will be officially available December 1, 2017 from places like iTunes, Spotify, etc. However, I am very happy to announce that the album is now available for immediate download from my Store page. 

Just as with my previous release, all tracks are available either as MP3 320 files or as high resolution WAV files. But for this release, I've taken the sound quality to the next level. All tracks were recorded, mixed and mastered in 96K/24 bit resolution. Although the MP3 files sound better as a result of this, the 96/24 WAV version will blow you away! I had one of those rare moments this weekend when I totally forgot about the different hats I wear as writer, performing artist, engineer, etc. As I listen back to my recordings. I found myself just enjoying the music! What a concept! 

As with my first release of Really Only Dust, the purchase of the Audio CD version will include the download version in whichever format you choose at no additional cost. The Audio CD is now $8.99 with free shipping in the USA. The album download version is $7.99 in either file formats. Individual tracks are 99 cents. The Audio CD will not be available to purchase until around December 1, 2017, which should still give you time to get it before the holidays. If you want the CD but wanted to get its included downloads now, please reach out to me and I will take care of you. 

I wish you and your family a blessed time throughout the holidays, and for those of you in the USA, have a great Thanksgiving Day this coming Thursday! 

Compliance.

Brute animals complying with their drivers, blissfully unaware that they are headed towards an eventual slaughter and death. But are we humans any different?

Jesus mentions Hell 62 times in the Bible, more than He mentions Heaven. That's how concerned He is for the eternal destiny of our souls. He knows that Hell is real, it is eternal, and it is awful. And without the salvation Jesus provides to those who believe on Him, Hell is the destiny of all mankind. We are born with the sin nature and therefore come into this world condemned already, but God in His mercy and grace provides the opportunity for us to repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Satan is likewise already condemned to an eternity in Hell, but without any chance of salvation because he is pure evil and has no capacity for repentance.

I used to have trouble understanding why Satan fought so hard against God if he knew that his future was already decided. But then I thought about what jealousy and blind fits of rage can do. Knowing that he is going down, the devil wants to take every human soul with him if for no other reason than to spite God. He knows that God is grieved by that, not willing that any human soul should perish. But perish they will if they don't repent before they die, and Satan wants to make sure they never get that chance.

I thank God that I was able to repent and believe in Jesus, but I had a few close calls with death in my youth that could have sent me straight to Hell. Satan knows this, so he is working every day to make sure people die prematurely. And what more efficient way is there to kill as many people as possible prematurely than war?

Over 100 million people died in the wars of just the last century alone. It is by far the greatest killer, and therefore the best vehicle for the damning of souls. As an added bonus, it enriches satanically influenced people who instigate these wars for profit.

My plea to anyone who will listen is this: Jesus said in Matthew 5:9: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Do we want to be blessed as a nation and give everyone as much opportunity as possible to repent and believe in Jesus? Then stop complying. Withdraw support for immoral, unjust and illegal wars. Romans 12:18 says that if it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

This does not mean giving up on self-defense. We have a God-given right to life and self-preservation, but governments have a long and sordid history of inciting its citizens to support wars with phony pretexts. Rarely has America been directly threatened in the myriad of conflicts it has been involved in recently. And the whole idea of preemptive war is repulsive. Attacking someone first because you THINK they are planning to attack you is the very definition of aggression at best, and paranoia at worst.

Do not let partisan loyalty or some misplaced notion of patriotism convince you that it's okay to do wrong so that right will come out of it. This is yet another deception from Satan.

If choosing right over wrong puts you in the the minority, so be it. Hitler had millions, Jesus had 12.

And the herd is usually wrong.

 

One of my Instagram followers pointed out that the post shown above was deep yet simply laid out. After thinking about it, I realized that it merited some elaboration on this blog. 

When Pontius Pilate asked the question, "What is truth?", he meant it rhetorically as if to say that nobody knows what truth is. Of course, we as believers know that Jesus is Truth. Difficulty comes from not knowing and understanding exactly who Jesus is as revealed in Scripture, so that we are not in error when it comes to discerning the truth. This is why we not only need to study all the scriptures in context, but also to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to us and help us to have a right understanding of what we read. Once we have knowledge of the truth, we need to apply it. Both are required, and both are more easily said than done. 

There are some truths than are more obvious, and there are some that require much more illumination, wisdom and instruction. An example of an obvious truth would be the wrongness of simple theft. Even a small child naturally knows that it's wrong for another child to take candy away from him. A not so obvious truth would be the wrongness of homosexuality. I'm going to use this example to point out why the search for truth is crucial to the understanding of right and wrong. 

In the United States, we live in a country where the practice of homosexuality is legal. Most Bible-believing Christians know that the scriptures condemn it as a sin. However, when we read the scriptures in context we find that homosexuality is just one of many sins which the Bible condemns, and in fact is not even the worst sin. In Matthew 10:15, Jesus, referring to the unbelieving Jews in the cities he was sending His disciples to, said, "Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city." Sodom (from where the word sodomy originates) and Gomorrha were ancient cities rampant with homosexuality. 

The worst sin is the sin of unbelief in Jesus Christ. By not believing in Him, you have no redeemer and no hope. You will need to pay your own sin debt to God, and that means spending eternity in Hell. Obviously in a country like ours that was modeled on Christian principles of individual liberty, unbelief in Jesus is also legal. Christian liberty includes the freedom of conscience given to us by God. He does not coerce us into submission to Him, and therefore tolerates our unbelief while we are here on this earth. 

And so it is with the legality of homosexuality. As a nation guided by Christian principles, we do not legally persecute homosexuals as in some Islamic countries. The problem is that legality confers certain rights and privileges which in turn set up conflicts in society, some of which are foreseen only by God Himself. People generally equate legality with rightness, and to some extent that's understandable. The original lawgiver is God, and all His laws are right. Governments such as ours that seek to model right principles have established laws which are purportedly consistent with those principles. But when laws contrary to His character and nature are enacted, it forces citizens to choose whether they will stand with God's Word or with man-made laws.

Many will accept the rightness of the man-made law because they either do not believe or do not understand the God-given law. Some believe in their hearts the God-given law is right, yet accept the man-made law because of blind submission taught from a wrong interpretation of some passage of the Bible, such as in Romans 13, or a false notion of Christian tolerance supposedly taught by Jesus in Matthew 7. And some accept the man-made law simply out of cowardice. So there are many reasons why people do not follow what God says is right and true or do not insist that man-made laws reflect that truth.

The committed Christian will always side with God's law, even when he or she does not fully understand why God's law is correct. This is where faith comes in. We simply can't know all the specific unforeseen future consequences of abandoning God's Word, but we do know there will be repercussions as surely as ripples radiating from a stone thrown into a pond. So, having at least this much truth revealed to us, we can conclude that legalized homosexuality and the accompanying legal rights such as rights of marriage, adoption, etc., will not result in God blessing a nation that adopts them. And that's just one example. I could give you many more, but it always comes back to the central question posed by Satan in the Garden of Eden: "Hath God said...?". The true answer to that question, and how we respond to it, determines the direction of a nation and its people. 

Do not be deceived. American will never be great again until we make America godly again. When enough people in America begin to do what's right according to His Word, we will see true revival and blessing from God. But it all starts with loving Jesus enough to take Him at His Word, even when the nation's laws, the rest of the world, and even your own opinions tell you not to.

 

Praise the Lord! I am happy to announce that my album, "Really Only Dust" is now officially released and available to purchase!

This is the culmination of over two years of hard work. Much care went into the making of the final release. Some of you may know that in addition to being a songwriter and recording artist, I have also done audio mastering work for many of my clients. I've had a lifelong love affair with high-end audio, and my audiophile roots demand the very best in sound quality. And I want you, the listener, to enjoy the same experience I had listening to the final product in the studio. So I'm making the album available in three different formats here on my website, so that you can choose the one that's right for you:

WAV: If you want the best of me, this is it. These are 24-bit, 44.1 kHz WAV files that are of identical quality to the high resolution playback from the studio mastering software. This is a lossless, uncompressed format, which means it sounds better than any data compressed format such as MP3. You will hear all the sound frequencies that were captured in the original recordings. It is also better than audio CD quality because there is less audible hiss due to the fact that audio CD is 16-bit and therefore noisier. Also, audio CD players employ "error correction and concealment", meaning that when the player's laser is unable to read the data from the CD due to problems with the disc or the player, it makes up the data whenever it can. I bet you didn't know that! This could explain why CD sound is often harsher and more "brittle" than the original source recordings.

Audio CD: Despite its shortcomings, CD is still the industry standard. It's something physical and tangible that you can hold in your hand and, with proper care, will probably outlive you. Although it's a 35 year old format, it still sounds better than any MP3 made today. And it's nice to have the included printed artwork and album notes. The master for this CD release was created from the same 24-bit WAV files as listed above, but converted to 16-bit as required by the CD format and then exported as a DDP file set. DDP (Data Description Protocol) is a special kind of format used exclusively for duplication purposes, because it ensures no loss of information from the mastering house to the duplicator. Without DDP, some duplicators will do additional editing and/or processing to the final master which can degrade the audio quality.

Note: I have noticed that duplicators will accept MP3 files and use them to create a duplication master that is then used to duplicate audio CDs. This totally negates the quality advantage of the audio CD format over the MP3 format, resulting in a CD that has the same lower quality of an MP3. As they say in the computer biz, garbage in, garbage out. Be assured that I will NEVER do that!

MP3 320: Let's face it. Even guys like me that can hear the difference still use MP3's. Why? They're quick to download, they're compatible with just about every device, they don't take up a lot of space on your phone, they have embedded artwork and other metadata, and sometimes they can sound pretty good, especially if you're not playing them back on some super high end audio system that can reveal all their sonic flaws. So I make the MP3 format available as well, and I encode the original 24-bit WAV files to MP3 at 320mbps, which is the highest standard MP3 resolution available. They're slightly larger, but better sounding than most MP3 files.

A word about "Mastered for iTunes": Apple has been touting this as making their releases sound indistinguishable from the original masters. I think they are stretching the truth. The fact is that they still employ a "lossy" data compression format similar to MP3 which (at least in theory) will never equal the sound of the original 24-bit master. However, they do require the master submitted to them to be created by an "approved" mastering engineer in order for them to list the release as "Mastered for iTunes", and the mastering engineer has to employ "best practices" in the mastering process. I believe this is the only reason the "Mastered for iTunes" releases can sound better than the standard iTunes releases.

Well, guess what? I've been employing those "best practices" all along, even before Apple came up with them! So rather than me having to release a special "Mastered for iTunes" version of the album, and you having to pay Apple an extra 30 cents per song to get it, why not purchase from my website and get the highest sound quality included at a lower price?

The WAV and MP3 320 digital album versions are available to download right now from this website. The digital album will soon be available from all the usual music sources like iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc., although the sound quality will vary depending on the audio format supported by each distributor partner. The Audio CD is expected to be in stock July 2017. If you're interested pre-ordering the Audio CD, contact me and I'll put you on the list to notify you as soon as they're in stock.

Enjoy!

Freedom.

Most people will agree that freedom is a desirable thing. There are many kinds of freedom, and today I'm only going to discuss the kind of freedom Jesus was talking about in John 8:34-36: freedom from the penalty and the power of sin. This is the freedom from which all other freedoms flow.

But first, we have to understand exactly what is sin so that we know what we are being freed from.

Simply put, sin is anything that is contrary to God's character and nature as revealed in Scripture. This is crucial to understand, because people have a tendency to create a god in their own minds, whether intentionally or not. If we worship a made-up god, that is a form of idolatry. That's why we need to rely on who Scripture says that Jesus is so that we know the true God and therefore know His character and nature.

But why do we rely on Scripture to tell us? Because it is authoritative, because it is inerrant, because its prophecies are fulfilled, and because the historical, archeological and scientific evidence back it up. And Scripture makes it very clear that Jesus is God.

No one can say that Jesus never claimed to be God. There are numerous Scripture passages that attest to His deity, such as in John 10:30 when Jesus said, "I and the Father are one". Take just one example: the explosion of miracles that Jesus performed while He walked this earth. Even the Pharisees that wanted to kill Jesus never questioned whether those miracles were genuine. Jesus performed those miracles to authenticate His claim to be God.

The evidence for the authority of Scripture can't be fully discussed in this brief blog post. Let's just say that if there are any skeptics out there who don't trust Scripture and what it says about Jesus, I suggest they do their own research and find out why the Bible is still standing after people have been trying to knock it down for over 2,000 years. 

Once we know who Jesus is, we can then start to examine who we are. And when we take an honest look at ourselves, we know that we don't reflect God's character and nature perfectly as revealed in Scripture. And that's what sin is: anything that's contrary to God's character and nature.

We agree with the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Leviticus 11:44 says, "Be holy, for I, God, am holy", yet we know that we are far from holy. If we look at just the Ten Commandments alone and we're honest with ourselves, we know we've broken them all...  even the ones that it would seem as if we have kept.

For example, take the seventh commandment that forbids adultery. If I never sleep with another man's wife, I haven't broken it, right? Wrong! God is referring to a principle in Scripture, which defines adultery as sexual activity apart from that of a natural man & a natural woman bound in matrimony. Anything apart from that is adultery. That covers a lot of territory.

And adultery doesn't even have to be the physical act. 1 Samuel 16:7 says that God looks at the heart, and Jesus said in Matthew 5:28 that if a man looks with lust at another woman he has committed adultery in his heart. So Jesus "upped the ante" and made it clear that spiritual adultery was just as sinful as physical adultery in God's eyes.

You see, it's all about what's going on in your heart. Some of us have broken it more and some of us have broken it less, but we probably have all broken the seventh commandment. I know I have, which is why I wrote the song "Freedom in Christ". Sexual lust was a besetting sin for me. And so I was a slave to it because I couldn't stop.

And it doesn't have to be sexual. You can lust for money, for power, for influence or status. Then there's gluttony, gossip, drugs, alcohol, etc. The list of lusts is endless. 1 John 2:16 calls it the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life.

The problem is, you don't just wake up one day and say to yourself, "Okay, I'm not going to lust anymore". Because you know you can't stop. You know there will be a "next time". That's when you realize you really are a slave to sin. I'm sure you've heard the joke about the smoker who said, "I can quit whenever I want… I've done it a hundred times!"

The bottom line is this: apart from Christ there is NO freedom from sin, other than the freedom to pick which sin you want to commit. You cannot stop sinning on your own. That's why Jesus said in John 8:34 that anyone who sins is a slave to sin.

But Jesus also said in John 8:36 that if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. And in Luke 4:18 He said He came to liberate the captives. That is, captives to sin. Acts 13:39 says that through Him (that is, through Christ) everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.

When we trust Jesus as our Savior, we are free from both the the penalty of sin and the power of sin. The penalty of sin is death and damnation. Believers are free of that because they are fully forgiven and possess eternal life. But believers are also free from the the power of sin, which means we now have, through His Spirit, the ability to say "no" to ungodly lusts.

Jesus, God's only Son, not only paid for my sins by dying on the cross and taking the punishment that I deserved, He also gives the power to be obedient when I appropriate that power. That power is called grace. That power is through His Spirit, which the Bible says lives within every believer. So now, through Christ, I have the power to be freed from sinful lusts.

The question then becomes, will I appropriate that power? Do I really WANT to be free?

That's the reason I chose the photo above. Did you notice that the man could easily slip his arm out of the shackle if he chose to?

In John 5, there is a story about a man who had an infirmity for 38 years, and Jesus asked him, "Do you want to be made well?" It's a fair question.

Sometimes it seems easier to be a slave. It provides a convenient excuse. "Well, I can't be free of this because.... "(you fill in the blank). To someone who has been accustomed to slavery their entire life, freedom can be so unfamiliar as to be uncomfortable or even downright scary. Or perhaps, like the Hebrews wandering through the desert, they loved slavery more than freedom. They loved the lie instead of the truth. "Take us back to Egypt where at least we had leeks and onions instead of this manna!" they cried to Moses. How quickly they had forgotten the tyranny, the bondage, the abuse, and the hopelessness of slavery!

So it seems to have been with the man Jesus healed from infirmity, because after being healed, it says in John 5:14-15 that Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you." The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. In other words, that man went right back to the slavery that Acts 13:39 talks about. The man trusted the Pharisees and betrayed Jesus by snitching on Him!

Scripture does not record what happened to that man, but I'm sure that betraying Jesus can't end well for anyone.

How much loyalty do we have for Jesus? Once you know that He has freed you from the power of sin, it takes away the excuse for failure. Because now when you sin, it's not because you can't help it. You CAN help it! Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength".

And that's Freedom in Christ. What will you do with your freedom?

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about legacies.

So much of our time on this earth is spent on things that have no eternal value. They're only here for a short time.

Think about all the time we spend taking care of our physical bodies. Most of us nourish them, clothe them, exercise them, and make them as visually appealing as possible. Until a deadly accident or sickness comes along.

And then our bodies start to decay minutes after our death. Often, there are only a few photos and a grave marker to remind anyone that there once was a living body.

Or, think about your possessions. Many have spent entire lifetimes building careers or businesses. They have spent untold hours working and studying to create some kind of a legacy, perhaps as an inheritance for their families or as a testament to future generations that they spent their lives accomplishing a cherished purpose.

Some have succeeded. They have left monuments to their lives that we can point to and benefit from. But many others have worked just as diligently, or even more so, and yet the fruit of their labor has vanished from memory after their death as quickly as the morning dew. Perhaps it was squandered or neglected by the heirs. Perhaps it was destroyed by a storm or a war. Perhaps it was stolen by a tyrant, a thief or a divorce court. Perhaps, just because of the passing of time, it was forgotten.

Then think about your children, if you have any.

Most people see their children as their most treasured legacy. Good parents literally pour their lives into their children, hoping to instruct them in the right way. If you are a Christian, that means raising them to know the Lord Jesus (Proverbs 22:6, Ephesians 6:4). This is what God requires, and it is also should be your greatest desire for them.

Some of these children go on to live godly lives and continue the legacy to future generations. But others do not, and many heartbroken Christian parents watch their children grow up to despise everything their parents taught them and instead go down the path of evil.

So, what is the point to all of this, then?

If your hope is on the things of this world, then there is no point. All is a meaningless grasping of the wind (Ecclesiastes 11:10). Your life is like a vapor that vanishes with the dawn (James 4:14).

You may or may not be successful in the building of your legacy. Even if you are, your life probably won't be remembered much by future generations, if at all.

But if your hope is on the things of God, it really doesn't matter.

He has an eternal inheritance for you in Heaven. This inheritance is a spiritual one. One that cannot be destroyed by moths or stolen by thieves (Luke 12:33). What you do for the Lord on Earth is counted towards your legacy there, despite the outcome here. This is crucial to understand, because we often base so much of our well-being on the outcomes we see here on Earth.

It is only with our faith in Him that we can even muster the courage or effort to keep doing what is right even when there are no satisfying results.

As John Quincy Adams said, "Duty is ours, results are God's".

I wanted to encourage you today with this, because I know there are some of you who are wondering whether the life you are living is worth living or the things you are doing are worth doing.

If you know Jesus and you're doing it for Him, then the answer is yes! Your spiritual legacy is as eternal as the Word of God that promises it (Isaiah 40:8).

And words on this page cannot describe the incredible joy that you will experience the day you hear these words from Jesus Himself:

Well done, My good and faithful servant.

What is unconditional love?

In humans, it doesn't exist. At least not the kind of unconditional love that God gives.

The Bible teaches that God chose us for salvation. Before the foundation of the world, before we even existed. And later while we were sinners. In other words, He chose us before we chose Him. (Romans 5:8)

So before we even wanted Him or had a chance to clean up our act and stop sinning (as if we could ever stop sinning on our own!), God loved us.

He chose to love us, not because we were lovable. Just because! God can do that because He is sovereign. To be sovereign means He can do whatever He wants, because He rules.

But why does God love us? To show His glory. To show that He can take a worthless sinner like me and change him and use him. God has a lot of ways to display His glory. This is one of them. And He showed His love for us by sending Jesus to die for us. (Ephesians 1:9-12)

Tell me, would you send your only son (or other loved one, for that matter) to die for someone you knew was a horrible person? A person who had no idea what you were doing for them and wouldn't appreciate it even if they did?

This kind of love is totally unconditional. It matters absolutely nothing to God how good we are when He decides to love us. Our goodness plays no part in His decision. We can't do anything to change His mind. He chose to love us and to save us, and there is nothing we can do to add or subtract from that. His love is going to be the same forever. God decides, and that's that.

And yet, we are also told in the Bible to believe in order to be saved. It says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9) Even before that in the Old Testament, it says to choose for ourselves this day whom we will serve. (Joshua 24:15)

So, if we have to choose to love Him, isn't that a condition in itself?

It depends on how you look at it.

Not only does God choose to love us, He also gives us the ability to love Him back. In other words, our faith in Him is actually a gift from Him. (Ephesians 2:8) Even our faith is not from us!

So then, is it really our choice to make? Why would God tell us to make a choice that He has already decided that we will make anyway?

My dear friend, that is one of the many mysteries of God that man has been trying to solve for centuries. Theologians have a word for it: antinomy. The dictionary defines an antinomy as a contradiction between two statements, both apparently obtained by correct reasoning.

In other words, two correct ideas that in human reasoning contradict each other, but work together perfectly in God's mind. And, after all, who knows God's mind better than God Himself?

The bottom line: we have no idea where God's sovereignty ends and man's responsibility begins in this matter. All we can do is accept by faith what the Bible says.

But, for the believer, what a wonderful and liberating thing it is to know that we can't change God's decision to love us! He loves us the same at our worst or at our best.
There's nothing we can do to make Him love us more, and there's nothing we can do to make Him love us less. It's unconditional!

In those times we are on the spiritual mountaintop and feeling we are closest to Him and living our lives fully devoted to Him, He loves us just as much as when we are in the deepest valley letting Him down and repenting for our disobedience and grieving in our spirit. Amazing!

Our feelings really don't change anything. God's unconditional love is the same reality no matter where we're at today.

That is, if we really belong to Him.

This is not an excuse to sin, because all sin has negative consequences for us. But it is a reason to return to Him when we do. (1 John 2:1) And to praise Him for giving us the ability to do so!

His unconditional love awaits. Run to it.

Before the world even existed, Jesus was in Heaven with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

As finite created beings, we humans cannot possibly understand what this must have been like. However, in John 17, the Bible records that, before He was to be crucified, Jesus prayed to the Father and asked that He glorify Him with the same glory which He had with Him before the world was. That meant that Jesus was going to the Cross, and He would show His glory by conquering death itself and rising from the grave.

Jesus lowered himself and gave up the glory He had in Heaven when He came to walk the earth. But when He rose from the grave and ascended into Heaven, He was glorified again.

God's glory cannot be adequately described, because we cannot even fully see it. In Exodus 33, Moses asked God to show him His glory, but God only let him see His back because God said no man could see His face and live. And that glory was so intense that Moses's face shone from it, so much so that he had to put a veil over His face when he spoke with the Israelites, because the people were afraid to look at it.

God is described in Scripture as a consuming fire, and as light. He is described as having no darkness at all. That means infinitely bright. The disciples got a glimpse of that light when Jesus was "transfigured" to where His face shone like the sun. 

Question: what do you think would happen to your eyes if you stared intently into the sun for a while? You probably would go blind, right? Then imagine what God's full display of light would do to you!

Face it, we as mortal beings simply have no way to approach that kind of awesome, infinite power. The power to create everything out of nothing. The power to do anything, anywhere, anytime. The power to live forever. The power to do what we cannot even imagine.

And then consider God's other qualities: perfect knowledge, holiness, goodness, love, truth and wisdom...

How else can we describe Him?

Glorious!

In Luke 24, the Bible records the appearance of Jesus to the disciples after His resurrection. They knew His appearance well from having spent three years with Him, yet they did not initially recognize Him. But apparently He looked normal because they spent a good part of the day together talking. So we can expect that our own resurrected bodies will somehow resemble our present human form, yet look different.

Jesus instantly disappeared from their sight as they were sitting together at the dinner table. And later, Jesus appeared to them out of thin air as they gathered together in a room. But He was not a ghost, because they were able to touch His body. Jesus even ate in front of them.

So this glorified body must also have the ability to materialize and de-materialize. It can go through walls and travel instantly. For you Star Trek fans, that's way better than having Scotty beam you up!

Most importantly, glorified creatures do not have a sin nature. We know that the end result of sin is always death, both physical and spiritual. But when we are glorified and permanently removed from the presence of sin, we will live forever just like Jesus. Amazing!

It would take more than this blog post to completely describe what our future glory will be like, even if I knew everything. But in His Word, God has shown us a small part of what's in store for us by describing Jesus, resurrected and glorified.

The Bible says that one day we will be like Jesus. And that means that because He is glorified, we also shall be.

This Resurrection Sunday, we meditate on the glory that Jesus demonstrated through His resurrection, and we celebrate what He accomplished for you and me.

He is risen!

Sanctification.

A fancy word thrown around by pastors and Bible scholars. What does it really mean to you and me?

If you read my blog last week, you know I talked about what happens when we have a saving faith in Jesus. We are made right before God. He declares us "not guilty" and we stand before Him in Heaven's court as if we had never sinned. He treats us as if we were like Jesus, His Son... perfect!

But of course, if we are honest with ourselves, we know that we are very far from being like Jesus. We know we are really still sinners, even after coming to faith in Jesus. We know we are far from perfect. We are painfully aware of our shortcomings. We know that God knows all the secret sins of our heart.

Perhaps now we are even more convicted of our sins, and the more our hearts grieve that we are so far from being like Jesus.

Friend, if this describes you, be encouraged! You are ready for sanctification. You are ready to be used by God.

In Mark 2:17, Jesus said something to the self-righteous religious leaders that was very profound. It applied not only to them but to us just as much today.

He said that He had not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.

A proud, arrogant, self-righteous person can never hear the call of Jesus to repent from sin, because they can't see their sin clearly. They only see their good. Or, they see their good as outweighing their sin. They maximize their good and minimize their sin in their own eyes. They do not accurately see how ugly and offensive their sin really is. They do not have the eyes of God, so they can't see their sin clearly.

For the sake of argument, let's say someone was 99% perfect. By human reasoning, that person should be considered righteous by God and should get some kind of a pass from God, right?

Okay, what if I offered you some homemade chocolate brownies, and I told you that 99% of the batter was made from organic imported cocoa, farm-fresh eggs, and pure cane sugar. But 1% was ground-up cockroaches and dog poop.

Would you eat it?

God's vision is perfect. He is holy and pure. Even the slightest sin is horrible and offensive to God. Sin cannot mix with purity and perfection. It pollutes and adulterates. It is poison. It is death.

The Bible says that as high as the heavens are above the earth are God's ways higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. That's pretty high.

And it says that to God, our good works are like filthy rags. In the original Hebrew language of the Bible, "filthy rags" translates to menstrual cloth. Yep, that's KOTEX back in the day.

Knowing all of this, it's a wonder that God can stand us at all. In truth, it's only because of Jesus that He can.

So, when Jesus said He had not come to call the righteous to repentance, He really meant that He did not come to call to repentance those who were righteous in their own eyes.

But to sinners, those of us who acknowledge that we are not righteous, He does call to repentance!

And then, because Jesus has been glorified in Heaven as God's Son who conquered death, and has interceded for us through our faith in Him, we're justified and made right before God in standing and He treats us as if we were righteous! Do you see how that works?

Jesus called us to repentance. We repented of unbelief in Jesus, and now, we are in a position to be used by God. We are ready to be sanctified.

Sanctification is the process of being sanctified, of being made holy and perfected. We begin to see other sins that we need to repent from. He begins to show us how to become more like Him. Conformed to His likeness. Thinking more like Him. Talking more like Him. Acting more like Him.

This is where the rubber meets the road. It's a process. A very long process. A life-long process.

And it's hard.

In fact, without the Holy Spirit, it's impossible.

Thankfully, Jesus said we would have help. Jesus called the Holy Spirit the helper, and He told us He would send Him to help us.
 
We need the illumination that only the Holy Spirit provides. We need the Holy Spirit to prompt us to do (or not do) certain things. We need Him to help us understand what we read in the Bible.

But if we truly belong to Jesus, the Holy Spirit will help us. We will persevere. We will make progress. We will have victories.

Not in a straight line up. Perhaps not as much as we could. Maybe not like someone else. But we will become more like Jesus. The Bible promises it!

There will be some changes in our hearts that will manifest themselves in ways that others may see. And there will be other changes that only God will see, and only God will know just how far He has taken us. Either way, our love for Him will propel us forward.

Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will obey My commandments."

Every step of obedience we take, no matter how small, is a step in the process of sanctification. It is a step in the right direction on the road toward the final destination.

Jesus walked that road of obedience... all the way to the Cross. Perfectly.

Our walk of obedience will not be perfect, and yet...

it will still end in our perfection!

That's glorification, the subject of my next post.