Monday, September 01, 2003

Looking Forward

But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him. 2 Peter 3:13-14

Dear friends, if we truly have any hope at all it is in what lies ahead for us. I’m often asked the same question “how can you see all the sickness, hardship and sadness you see and not lose heart in the goodness of God” I answer with the same resounding conviction I have held on to for seven years of ministry, “This life is NOT all there is! There is a life to come, the life that we were created for - ETERNITY.”

Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:16

On a personal note, one of the most important things I feel God has entrusted to me - is to see His love and to see Him in every situation…
even in the outstretched hand of a poverty-stricken African mother holding her infant
even on the faces of thousands of Russian orphans with no future
even when terrorist acts and war threaten the world
even in a small hospital that has no money to fix life-giving equipment
even in Bolivian where wheelchairs are unaffordable
even in broken bodies of children with disabilities
Oswald Chambers writes in his commentary on Job “A man up against things as they are feels that he has lost God, while in reality he has come face to face with Him…. The Bible reveals that God has taken the responsibility for these things, and that Jesus Christ has bridged the gap which sin made between God and man…”

Let us continue to give Him praise. He is worthy. His ways are not our ways; His thoughts are not our thoughts. And yet, He asks us to join where He is at work in the world. To meet Him face to face. The Harvest is ripe, the workers are few and in need. Remember His love. Acknowledge He is Almighty.