Thursday, October 29, 2009

Thursday Thoughts - The Scariest Reality

Saturday is Halloween. It is a time when many visit haunted houses and look to horror movies and scary stories to be frightened. So, on this Thursday before Halloween for those that enjoy their heart racing and the inability to drop off to sleep, I can’t think of anything more frightening than an eternity in the furnace of fire! Jesus preached more on hell than any other subject and yet today many churches are afraid to mention this truth much less preach it for fear of offending someone. John MacArthur does a great job on a subject that too few truly understand and appreciate.

What is this furnace of fire? What is hell? Let me give you four truths about hell ... that I think will answer that question. Number one, hell is a place of unrelieved torment. It is a place of a horrible misery. And the Bible defines it as darkness, outer darkness. That is deep pit darkness, darkness that's way out from the light, impenetrable darkness. Darkness that closes in. And it is darkness without the hope of light forever. Have you ever been in the darkness and longed for the daylight? Have you ever been in the darkness and longed for someone to turn a light on? To be in that encroaching, encompassing, moving kind of darkness and know that for all the eons of eternity, you will never see light ... is how our Lord describes hell ... unrelieved darkness forever ... with no hope of the light ... no hope of the dawn. And the Bible also says it is a fire. Now it is not a fire that we would know as fire, to burn something in this world. But fire is God's way of describing it because it is a tortuous, unrelieved kind of fire ... more terrible than any fire that we would ever know. But fire describes the torment of the damned; blackness describes the torment of the damned, no light, no light ever, ever ... no relief from the suffering, the agony and the pain, forever. And there's only two times in all of Scripture that we have any insight into how people respond to hell. The one is the Lord's parable in Luke 16 where He says the man cried out in torment and said - Cool my tongue for I'm tormented in this flame. And the other is that constant statement of our Lord there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The response to hell is not fun, it is weeping, that's crying, wailing, screaming and grinding of teeth in pain. That's what the Bible says. That's hell.

Secondly, it is a place of unrelieved torment for both body and soul. Soul being the inner part. When a person dies, their soul goes out of the presence of God, into the torment of hell. It may not be the full final lake of fire that comes after the judgment in the great white throne, for that needs a transcendent body to endure it, but it is a torment just as well as illustrated by the rich man who in hell was tormented. When a person dies now, their soul descends into that torment. In the future, there will be a resurrection of the bodies of the damned; they will be given a transcendent body that will then go into a lake of fire. It will be a body not like the body we have now. It will be a very different one. They will be resurrected just like we will, as Christians. We will be resurrected because this body could never live eternally in heaven, right? We have to have a transcendent body, a glorified body, a different body, and so do the damned. And they will be raised, John 5, they will be raised in new bodies for the single purpose of being punished forever in those bodies. That's what the Bible says ... tormented forever. They have to have a body to fit that eternal torment

And that's why Jesus in Matthew 10:28 said, "Fear not them that can destroy the body, but fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." You see, hell is soul and body. Some people think it's just bad memories. No, it isn't just bad memories. It isn't just the inner thinking processes; it is that body as well. Transcendent, eternal bodies, greater than anything we have on this earth, are going to be given to the damned so that they can suffer in those bodies forever. And that's the only reason that they'll have those bodies. With the present body, man couldn't endure hell. You ... the body that we have now would be consumed in a moment. So as God fits the redeemed with new bodies for heaven, He fits the damned with new bodies for hell.
We know a little about that ... from two things the Lord said. He said, first of all, the worm dieth not. Now what did He mean by that? When a body goes into the grave and to decay, worms descend into that body and they begin to consume that body and the worms will die when the food is gone. So once the body is consumed, the worms die. But in hell, the worms never die because the body, though it is continually being consumed, is never consumed. So the worm never dies. In other words, the Lord was saying the unrelieved torment of body goes on and on. And it says also, the fire is not quenched. Now a fire always goes out when the fuel is gone. But the fuel will never be gone, though the burning goes on, the fuel is never consumed. And so you have unrelieved torment of body and soul.

And that brings me to the third thought, you have in hell - a place of relieved torment of body and soul in varying degrees ... in varying degrees. In other words, for some people, hell will be worse than others. For all who are there, it will be horrible, it will be ultimate suffering, there will be no relief for that ... but there will be even more severe degrees of suffering for some. It says in Hebrews 10, "Of how much more severe punishment shall they be thought worthy who have trodden underfoot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing." People who have stepped on Jesus Christ, who have rejected his cross, will know a greater hell than those who have not. There will be degrees, just as there will be degrees of reward in Heaven.

We saw that, also, I think, in Matthew chapter 11, when it said, "It will be more tolerable for Sodom than for you." In other words, it's only relative, it isn't going to be tolerable for anyone, but it will appear to be more tolerable for them than for you because of what you have experienced. You had Jesus Christ in your city, they didn't. You rejected Him with more light; therefore hell will be more severe for you.

And then you have, of course, that incredible parable in Luke 12 where the Lord says, "To the servant who knew and didn't do right, many stripes. To the servant who didn't know and didn't do right, a few stripes." So, hell will be unrelieved torment of body in soul in varying degrees. But John Gerstner says, "Hell will have such severe degrees that a sinner, were he able, would give the whole world if his sins could be one less."

And fourthly, hell is a place of unrelieved torment for body and soul in varying degrees endlessly... endlessly. The worm never dies, the fire never goes out, the light never breaks, the sweet relief of death never comes, endlessly. The only reason or the only way in which we in this life can even make it through trials and pain and suffering and disease is because we believe there will be an end to it. But they won't have that. You can imagine the resultant insanity that will come. And you say - Are you sure it's everlasting? It's just as everlasting as heaven is because in the same verse, the Lord used the same terms ...Matthew 25:46, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, the righteous into everlasting life." Whatever everlasting life is in terms of its length, so is everlasting punishment. That's hell.

God never prepared it for people. He prepared it for the devil and his angels ... but people choose to go there. Inconceivable misery ... some people have been in this kind of torment in their souls waiting for that body for thousands of years and they're no closer to the end then they were when they began. No wonder Jesus had to teach this doctrine.

You say - Well, how do you avoid hell? You avoid hell only by the ... receiving of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you don't appropriate the kingdom, you see, if you don't take the treasure, if you don't purchase the pearl of great price, there's no way out.

"So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 13:49-50

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Fun Fall Memories...

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...



One day I found two pumpkin seeds.
I planted one and pulled the weeds.
It sprouted roots and a big, long vine.
A pumpkin grew; I called it mine.
The pumpkin was quite round and fat.
(I really am quite proud of that.)
But there is something I'll admit
That has me worried just a bit.
I ate the other seed, you see.
Now will it grow inside of me?

(I'm so relieved since I have found
That pumpkins only grow in the ground!)


October, 1984


Brothers gotta carve!


Jeremy (Batman), Michael Smith, Josh (Zorro)

October, 1984, Harvest Festival, Champion Forest Baptist Church

And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

Luke 10:2

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Thursday Thoughts

Today in Bible study we covered the thirteenth chapter of Matthew. It is the chapter in which you will find seven parables that Jesus teaches. The parables were a way of "encoding" God's message so the spiritually sensitive could understand, but the hardened would merely hear a story without heaping up additional condemnation for rejecting God's Word. I want to concentrate on the seventh - the parable of the dragnet.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. Matthew 13: 47-48

The kingdom of heaven is like a net ... and you can see the vividness of this imagery. That net moves through the world. It is invisible to those around who can't yet see it. And if perchance it touches the back of a fish, the fish simply flits a little further ahead and enjoys the freedom he thinks is his permanently. And men live in this world imagining themselves to be free, moving about, fulfilling their own desires, going here and going there as they will, with little knowledge that the net comes closer and closer and closer. People float about in the liberty of the wide-deep sea of life, not knowing the invisible lines of judgment move closer and closer and closer. And each time they are touched by it, they move a little further away. And they're touched again and they move a little further away. And finally they've moved one time and they've hit it on the other side because it's moving toward the shore and then wildly the fish may dart for the sea only to be caught again in the same net ... finally to be dragged in the shore and the last throws of a flailing and flipping enter into a silent death. And that's how it is. Men may not perceive the kingdom, they may not see God moving in the world, but He is moving. And men very often when touched by the gospel of Jesus Christ, or threatened by the threat of judgment, dart into the freedom they think is ahead of them but sooner or later they run right back into the same net because there's no freedom there. And they are inexorably moving toward inevitable judgment.

"So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 13:49-50

Look at verse 49, "So shall it be at the end of the age." When man's day is over and Jesus returns to set up His glorious kingdom, then comes the judgment. The angels are the separators, just as we saw in verse 41, just as we see in Matthew 24; the angels come with the Lord to act out judgment. Just as we see in Matthew 25, just as we see repeatedly in Revelation, particularly chapter 14. The angels are the agents of God's judgment. So while the kingdom may, for a while, tolerate good and evil growing together, the separation is moving closer and closer all the time.

Jesus spoke of this same thing in Matthew chapter 25 when He said in verse 31, "The Son of man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory." And what will He do when He comes? It says, "And before Him shall He gather all the nations and He shall separate one from another. Separation. "And He'll say to them, on His right hand, Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And He'll say to them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

And Jesus said in John chapter 5 that there's coming a resurrection of all men, some to the resurrection of life and some to the resurrection of damnation. There will be a final separation, an eternal destiny will be determined for every soul that has ever lived on the face of the earth.

The Bible also says God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. The Bible says that He is not willing that any should perish. The Bible says that God our Savior will have all men to be saved. Jesus wept over Jerusalem and said - 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft I would have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her brood, but you would not. You will not come unto Me, He said pensively, that you might have eternal life. His heart of compassion is one that warns because He loves.

It goes back to Matthew 9:38. "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." Jesus saw the world as a harvest moving to judgment, He saw that God would come and put that sickle in the harvest. And He said - I ... pray with Me that the Father would send forth laborers, send forth people into His harvest to warn men. And so in chapter 10 He called the disciples, didn't He? And in chapters 11 and 12, He trained and prepared the disciples. And in chapter 13, He taught the disciples. And now He says - Are you ready to go out and be those warners in the harvest?

"Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."


Thank You that we can be a part of the kingdom. Thank you, Lord, that after the announcement of judgment, there was always the message of grace, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest." "He that doeth the will of My Father, the same is My brother and sister, and mother." Always the message of grace.

And so, Lord, to this rejecting world, we must preach the message of judgment because they too have rejected the King, but for some, their hearts are opened to do Your will to come for rest. And I would ask, Lord, that if there are any who are reading this and do not know Jesus Christ, that today they might open their hearts to Him that they might be translated, as Paul put it to the Colossians, from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. May they believe the gospel and repent, turning from their sin in sorrow and brokenness. And may they enter the kingdom to walk forever with the King. Amen.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Texas 16 Oklahoma 13

Go Horns!!!!!


A win is a win no matter how ugly!!

Friday, October 16, 2009

It's a ....



Grandson



Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.
Psalm 127:3

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Thursday Thoughts

True Greatness Defined

"Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
~ Matthew 11:11



In all of the human greatness of John, personal character, privileged calling, powerful culmination in human history, you take all of that human greatness and human status and historical value, all that he is born of women, all that he is in physical perception and he doesn't come up to the least person who is in God's spiritual Kingdom. Do you see? Great truth. You know what true greatness is? When all is said, true greatness isn't being like John the Baptist, that's beneath true greatness. That's earthly greatness. True greatness is being in God's Kingdom. That's true greatness.

Our Father, we hear the echo of the words of our Lord in Matthew 18, "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven." Father, may we know that all of these marks of human greatness are fine, and may we know that they're especially wonderful when they are doubly endowed by the presence of the Holy Spirit as in the case of John. But that the greatest greatness is not which... that which is ours humanly, but that which is ours divinely as we become citizens of your eternal Kingdom. And may we know that to be a little child, to be the very least in Your Kingdom is to be the greatest. The John of Your Kingdom was greater than the John born of women, as great as he was. May we be those who are truly great because we know You. Amen. ~ John MacArthur


"Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;" ~ Matthew 18:4-5

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Happy Birthday Tony!! October 14

Happy Birthday To You, Happy Birthday To You...



I love you and I hope you enjoy your new television!!

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Monday, October 12, 2009

Fall Weekend Road Warriors

Saturday night freezing at the UT vs Colorado game in Austin!!




Sunday morning teaching five year olds in Houston.




Why we nap on Sunday afternoon ...




and why we have been driving back no matter how late the game for the past 10 years...
and why we have been teaching for the last 27 years...

The opportunity to partner with faithful parents in laying the foundation of the love of Christ which will one day lead to a personal relationship with their Lord and Savior!



"And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them."  Mark 10:13-16 

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Thursday Thoughts

Today in Bible study we covered Matthew 8, 9, 10. There is so much there that I hope to simply whet your appetite to read for yourselves in chapters 8 and 9 just who Jesus is. In those two chapters the power of the King is revealed and so much more. We see the Messiah’s compassion, His authority, His sovereignty, and His fulfillment of prophecy. And then in chapter 10 we find the ambassadors of the King, His disciples and their instruction. I thought John MacArthur did a nice job in establishing the first hallmark of discipleship found in chapter 10. And I wanted to include the following because it reminded me of someone who deserves remembering…


The 10th chapter in total is our Lord's preparation and sending of the twelve, and so it is in the context of the training of the twelve that He gives this general teaching about discipleship. He starts out for example in chapter 10 with just the twelve, and then the chapter begins to telescope, and it telescopes outward until finally it embraces all men in all times, in all places who will name the name of Jesus Christ. It starts with the twelve and even names them. But it begins to move outward, and I think the key is verse 23, the end of the verse mentions, "till the Son of man be come." In other words it talks about the second coming, and that is the key to seeing this instruction as pressing all the way through all time until Jesus comes again. Some of what He says in the first 23 verses is explicitly to the twelve, some of it begins to reach beyond them, some of it is explicitly for that time and that place, and some of it begins to reach beyond, but by the time you hit verse 24 it is a full-orbed general instruction on the matter of being a genuine disciple. He uses general terms such as, the disciple, or the servant, or whosoever, or he that, and He says, he that, he that, he that over and over, it could be any he, any whosoever, anyone who calls himself a servant or a follower, a disciple of Jesus Christ.


And so in a sense then we're looking at something that was for them and for us, what a marvelous thing that the Lord should have such a clear word on discipleship that it embraces all people in all time and all places. This is the genius of Scripture, it knows no limitation as to date, it touches us as profoundly as it touched them in their own lifetime.


Now basically speaking it is written to a disciple, verse 24, and a servant of the Lord. That would be anyone who follows Jesus Christ.


Anyone who lines up to go after Jesus Christ. Anyone who decides that he wants to belong to Christ. Now having said that, it is important that we learn the marks of a disciple so we can tell the true from the false, right? And what are they? Well the hallmark is in verse 24 and 28. "The disciple is not above his teacher, the servant is not above his lord. It is enough," in other words it is sufficient, "for the disciple that he be like his teacher, and the servant like his lord." And you remember we talked about Luke 8:40 where it says, and when a disciple is fully matured he will be like his teacher.


The goal then of a true disciple is Christ likeness, that's the basic hallmark. First John 2:6, "If we say we abide in him then we ought to walk as he walked." In other words if you say you are a Christian it ought to be manifest in the way you live, right? And if it isn't then you're not very convincing, and you may not be a Christian at all.


This is the message of the Scripture, I'm absolutely appalled at how many people miss this message. But the Scripture is inevitably saying, you say you follow Christ then show me your Christ likeness. Is His character manifest in you? It has to be if you're genuine, it has to be. For you are in the process of becoming like your Lord, it doesn't mean that there aren't some lapses, oh there are. There are times when we fail but there is a flow and a pattern of Christ likeness, there.

So the first thing is that we are called to be like Him, that is the meaning of discipleship. So when somebody comes along and says as J.p. Murray of Trinity College Dublin once said, "I am a Christian but inoffensively so." What do you mean by that? Well I mean that I don't want it to interfere with anything. Then that's not what Christianity is. There is this basic Biblical principle that if you follow Jesus Christ, you will be becoming more and more like Him.


Again, there is much more to discipleship in Chapter 10 but I am stopping here because I want to remember someone who was a disciple for Christ. You may ask me how I know and I know because of the fruits of her life. I want to introduce you to Sarah Sullivan, a young woman who recently went home to be with the Lord. I have never met her but as a sister in Christ had the privilege to pray for her, her husband and newborn. Even in death, her life in Christ has the ability to change lives.




http://bandssullivan.blogspot.com/2009/09/happy-birthday-sara.html



"the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." 1John 2:6

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Trenton's Road Trip

Meet one of my granddogs - Trenton.
He was my first granddog and one of the sweetest. Recently, he went to visit his other grandparents in Iowa and his parents shared a few pics of his trip.
I hope you enjoy...

"Are we there yet?" "My seatbelt was on!"

"If you can't run with the 'big dogs' get off the couch!"

"Dog butt?! Do I see a dog butt?! Thought I saw a dog butt!!!"


"I love the city!"

"Curse you Red Baron...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."

“It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me."Jeremiah 27:5

Saturday, October 3, 2009

All Dressed Up...

And no game to play!!







Honestly, this picture was shared with me by my daughter-in-love, Jamie, and I was so impressed with how it turned out I had to share. It is of Josh and his dog, Trent, taken downstairs in their University of Texas inspired gameroom. Texas does have a bye week this weekend! :(


Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6

Friday, October 2, 2009

Girls Are Fun...

Boys are ..................boys!!!

Tony shared some pictures off of his iphone with me and I was struck with the exact representation of the moment and how much our daughters-in-love have enhanced our lives!!

(Try to look past the poor quality of the pictures - Tony was a reluctant photographer with just the phone as the camera!)

These were taken when Josh and Jamie were in town for football but were seeing Jeremy and Meagan for the first time since news of the pregnancy!! They had brought a beautiful Vera Bradley baby bag for Meagan. The first picture is of Meagan opening their gift. Can you see the joy on the faces of the girls!! Where's Jeremy?!




Is that Jeremy with his iphone in his hand next to his brother?! Could he be checking football scores?! Gee, both boys have their University of Texas shirts on - no surprise there! The girls are still in the "there's a baby coming" joyful moment! Josh is thinking, "I'd like to take my iphone out but Mom's watching and I'm in the hunt for 'good son status'!"





Thank you girls for bringing such love and joy into our lives. You were both answers to prayer!


I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
Philippians 1:3

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Thursday Thoughts


13"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

14"For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

These two passages in Matthew were a part of our Bible study today and the end of verse 14 always makes me sad. I thought I would again look at why the gate is small, the way narrow and few find it.

Jesus has been speaking on the Mount of Beatitudes and in His sermon we see a contrast between two kinds of righteousness...a righteousness that does not satisfy God, and a righteousness that does. A religion that does not satisfy God and a religion that does.

And then in verse 13 an invitation - two gates, two ways, two destinations! It begins with a command, “Enter through the narrow gate.” It’s not going to happen apart from a commitment and a decision on your part. The gospel itself is a command, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not enough to admire the gate, study the gate, or appreciate what the gate stands for. Hell is going to be literally filled with people who admired Jesus, who admired His teaching and His ethics and who may have particularly admired the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” Jesus says, “I am the Door, if any man tries to come in any other way, he is a thief and a robber.” In Acts 4:12 it says, “There is no salvation in any other name, for there’s no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” There’s only one way to be saved, there’s only one person who is the Savior and faith in that person is required for salvation.

Listen to 1Timothy 2:5, “There is one God, one Mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” No other Mediator, no other Savior, no other Way. Faith, saving faith, demands... Romans 1:17 says...hearing with faith the message of Christ. Faith comes by hearing the message concerning Christ. Christ and Christ alone is the gate. No Christ, no salvation. No Christ, no heaven. In that sense it is very narrow.

The narrow gate is like a turnstile, admitting only one person at a time. It is intensely personal. It is not a group experience. It doesn’t happen to everybody who joins a church, or everybody who is baptized, or everybody who is in a family of quote/unquote Christians. It isn’t something you inherit from your parents or your grandparents. It is totally individual. It is exclusive in that sense, intensely personal. It requires a break from the crowd. Jesus said, in fact, if you’re not willing to hate your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, your wife, you’re not worthy to be My disciple.

But, the two doors and the two ways lead to two destinations. First, the wide gate, the broad way leads to destruction. The pleasures of sin for a season, Hebrews 11:25, it’s easy, it’s crowded, everybody’s there, can’t be the wrong road, look how many people are there. No restrictions, it just doesn’t end up in heaven, it ends up in destruction. The religion of human achievement from humanism and atheism and any other ism in any other religion without Christ and without a gospel of grace and faith alone, ends up in hell.

What does destruction mean? Everlasting judgment, everlasting punishment. On the other hand, the narrow gate leads, verse 14, to life... life, eternal life, the fullness of life, the life of God, the glorious state of unclouded fellowship with God, the eternal satisfaction, unspeakable joy.


What road are you on?


Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
John 14:6