Are You Waiting to Hear I've entered my Final Rest?

The writer of Hebrews promised a time when we will enter His Final rest (Heb. 4:1, 9,11). In my experience, too many people don't understand "Final Rest," and are therefore unable to enter it!

The reason God rested is that His work was finished. The reason we are able to rest is that our ‘work’ is identical. Jesus finished it for us! We are free from self-effort. Quite simply, the Sabbath Rest means we are “dead to sin and alive to God” (Rom. 6:11). John says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on, so that they may rest from their labors” (Rev. 14:13).

Think of this. Under the Old Covenant, the "day of rest" was on the last day of the week. Under the New Covenant, the first day of the week became the "day of rest,” illustrating a principle: you must enter His rest before you begin to do His work; and you must enter His rest in order to do His work!  Should I be waiting to hear one from telling me about yours too?"

Walking on Water

When Peter tried to walk on water, he took his eyes off Jesus and sank. But Jesus picked him up, saying, “You have so little faith. Why did you doubt me?” (Matt. 14). Likewise, on our journey of faith, each of us is confronted by doubts—we cry out, “Lord, help me overcome my unbelief”  (Mark 9:24). Having doubts is normal. The important thing is how we handle them.

Imagine that doubt is a fork-in-the-road of faith (we'll have many of these in a lifetime). One road leads to the resolution of doubt to greater faith. The other is a dead-end of double-mindedness (James 1:8).

Double-mindedness (not doubt) was the primal sin: “I am afraid that you will be led astray from your pure and undivided devotion to Christ just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s craftiness” (2 Co. 11:3). Jesus attributes Martha's anxiety to double-mindedness while honoring Mary's singular attention on Him. (Luke 10:41-42). So, to the degree we fix our eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12:2), we will overcome troubling doubts and walk on the waters of bigger faith (Col. 3:2). Just like Peter did!

Personal Milestones

In yesterday's post, I wrote of historical milestones of 2 monumental men. The word “milestone” is a clever word picture. First used by the Romans to help travelers know how far they had come on their journey, today it means significant life-changing events that mark psychological and spiritual growth. “Milestones” are personal; and sometimes very private. Looking back on our milestones gives us perspective. Yet, while they reveal where we’ve been, they do not tell us where we are going. In fact, Solomon says God does not show us “the beginning from the end” (Ecc 3:11) of our journey.

We can take comfort from Abraham whose milestones—some of success and some of failure—were a testament to his patience. And though Abraham could look at his milestones and ‘see’ where he’d been, he could only ‘see’ by faith where he was going (Heb. 11:8). It is in the uncertainty of the next milestone that faith is forged. Paul understood this: “forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead... we walk by faith, not by sight” (Phil. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:7). And by faith we can say, ‘the best milestones are yet to come.’

An Unused Gift on the Top Shelf

Have you noticed that when tragedy occurs, like that at Sandy Hook, faith shows up?  Crises bring it out. In their helplessness, people turn to God. But where is faith the rest of the time?

Have you ever given a gift to a close friend, sibling, or parent that you never saw him or her using until one day you happen to notice it on the top shelf of their closet—unopened and unused? You tried to hide your disappointed. But I wonder if this is not how many Christians deal with God’s most precious gift to them—the gift of faith (Eph. 2:8). God is no less disappointed (Heb. 11:6) that we put His gift, metaphorically speaking, on a top shelf—unused!

During one life-threatening crisis, the Disciples panicked and cried  out to Jesus. After calming things, he asked, "Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:24-25). Then on another helpless occasion, they asked the Lord to increase their faith! But the Lord responded by saying even the smallest faith, if used, could produce great things (Luke 17:5-6). In other words, if we were using the gift of faith, He would never have to say “Where is your faith,” or “What did you do with the faith I already gave you?”

Loosey-Goosey Christianity

Last Friday, I mentioned I had read an editorial in USA Today about the future of faith in America. The author, Oliver Thomas, said the new generation’s faith is becoming less creedal, in favor of experience and relevance. According to Thomas, “the days of orthodoxy [a prescribed set of beliefs] are numbered.”

These are the same people who say they are “spiritual but not religious” (see my blog post “Burger King Spirituality,” June 11, 2010).  They say they want a faith that is unbound by doctrinal restraints—and a God who is not so uptight, one they can relate to. While on the surface it might look like a good thing that the new generation wants to experience God, the fact is, what they are really doing is replacing faith with feeling—relation over reason. Even the author, whose sympathies for the new generation were quite apparent, referred to this new style of Christianity as “loosey-goosey.”

As I read the article, two things struck me. First, an article ostensibly written about Christian faith had no mention of Jesus. And second, it seems to me it is yet another proof that Christianity is under attack by “deceitful spirits” and “doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). To the Thessalonian Christians Paul wrote there would be a time of “falling away” [apostasy] before Jesus' return. Jesus had previously warned this deception would be so severe that even the 'elect' would be mislead (2 Thess. 2:3; Matt. 24:24). Watch and pray. With the recent publication of Rob Bell’s book “Love Wins,” suggesting that a loving God would never send anyone to hell, it appears the apostasy is rapidly approaching.

Will Tomorrow be the Judgment Day!?

Harold Camping is claiming tomorrow we will be raptured and the 'day' of God's judgment will begin, ending six months from now on October 20th, when the world will end. But that’s not all. Did you know that Harold Camping, who formerly predicted judgment day on September 6, 1994, also teaches that the church age is over, that the Holy Spirit has left the church.

You may be wondering how Camping came to this conclusion. He focuses on the "hidden" meanings of texts and numbers—for example, the number of servants in Abraham's house or the number of swine drowned in the Sea of Galilee. But this is no laughing matter. The whole world is watching this embarrassing debacle—Camping has paid millions to mount a billboard campaign all over America’s freeways, proclaiming the imminent disaster.  Pundits and cartoonists are having a heyday!

Last week I read an editorial in USA Today about the future of faith in America. The author Oliver Thomas says the religious landscape is changing: today’s new generation of Christians no longer want to adhere to doctrines and beliefs but want a new brand of Christianity with a “big God who is unbound by Scripture of learned scholarly limitations.” After this, can you blame them?

Paul’s words ought to be shouting at us today: a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching but will follow their own desires and look for teachers to tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear, rejecting truth and chasing after myths. (2 Tim. 4:3-4). Oh, and by the way, I’ll see you Monday!