by Chad Lewis on April 21, 2009
Brennan Manning writes about the end of death. “Death, you are a phantom, the bogeyman of little children! The only reason my Father allows you to exist is to usher me into the one experience deserving of the name Life.”
Surely our God has rescued us. He has brought us from death to life. Though the stage of the world looks bleak right now, it is only the backdrop of the work that God is doing. When Jesus breaks forth in glorious light into a person’s heart, He pokes a hole in the fabric of darkness and you can’t miss that point of light. One day, the fabric of darkness in this world will be put away for all eternity. But until that day, let’s seek to shine bright and truly believe that our God has already won. The victory was won on the cross and in the resurrection. And this was God’s plan before time began!
Matthew 5:14-16: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
by Chad Lewis on December 24, 2008
This Christmas, Ginger, Thomas and I are making our usual rounds to Memphis and Knoxville to visit our families. As we go from home to home (and eventually back to our home in Louisville), I think about what makes a home. There is the old cliche’ “Home is where the heart is,” and in many ways, this could be true for all of us. I continually look at the struggles and heartaches of those in my world as well as the fading things that so many put hope in. We often find ourselves dreaming of some tomorrow that will never materialize. We end up blaming others or ourselves for our dissatisfaction.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex.”3
So we all long for a home, but no one will be fully satisfied with any home or acceptance that is found on this earth. Even the best home cannot fill the gap of eternity because everything is fading away. So it does make sense that we are not truly home yet.
I’ve been meditating on 2 passages that point to this fact. Hebrews 11 is often called the “Hall of Faith” as it describes many of the Old Testament heroes who believed in God. It wasn’t that they were great, but rather, it was the God they were trusting in who is great. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, 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 11:13-16). Later, Hebrews 13:14 says, “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”
Many times, the greatest gift we can receive is a life of hardship like these Hebrew Christians. When all is going well, we can subtly be tricked into believing that this is as good as it gets. However, we are lulled to sleep and complacency when so much more is offered. When we are shaken to the core and things do not go our way, let it be a reminder that you are not yet home and this should not be a surprise to us. Our best life is not now, but our best life is to come. Let us continually look to the author and perfecter of our faith and hold fast to believing that His ways are always right and best. He is worthy of all trust and praise!
by Chad Lewis on May 2, 2006
A time is coming when the blinders will be taken off of our eyes. During the day when we see God, we will not be able to stand on our feet. As every knee bows and every tongue confesses, the entire creation will be humbled and the reality of sin and its’ consequences will be seen in bold light.
We often trivialize sin. My attitude has too often been to take sin lightly in my life and in others lives. However, my heart has been shaken as I have been meditating on sin and the ramifications of it. Why does hell exist? Why is it such a horrible place? Well, if sin is no big deal, hell would not have to exist. When we think of the horror of hell we need to tie with it the horrific nature of sin.
When we see in Scripture that we will fall on our faces before God and confess that Jesus is Lord, it would be safe to say that two scenarios will be going on. Both deal with the realization of who we were. As we see God in His glory, I believe that possibly we will be able to see the depth of our sin and the effects that it had in us, towards others, and most importantly toward God. To those who are saved by the sacrifice of Christ, an unparalleled sense of joy and gratitude will enter that we will not get over for all of eternity. Our sins are forgiven and God treats our sin as forgotten. Not only that, He has adopted us as sons and daughters. We will never get over this. However, the second scenario is as ghastly as the first is glorious.
To those who did not accept the sacrifice of Christ and make Him Lord of their life, the reality of their sinfulness will hit them with the weight of eternity. What they once took so flippantly will be exposed and they will see how horrible their sinfulness was and see the eternity waiting for them.
This past week I heard about “The Weight of Glory” written by C.S. Lewis. He wrote that no one is an ordinary person. If you could see what that person will be in eternity, you would know they are not ordinary. For some, they will be so glorious and brilliant that you would wonder if they were an angel from heaven. For others, they will be so hideous and dark that you might suspect them to be a demon from hell.
With all these things in mind, let us rejoice that a way has been made so that we might be reconciled to God. Let us seek God’s face and realize how lovely He is. Even though it is important to meditate on our depravity and sinfulness, their comes a point that we need to lift our eyes to the Father. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. The way to stop sinning is not to try to control your sin. The way we sin less is by filling ourselves with something greater than our sin. That something greater is… you know it – God. Seek His face while He may be found in this life.
by Chad Lewis on March 3, 2006
Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens are declaring the glory of God. As I travel, I often show a slide show of universe slides in order to show the massiveness of God’s creation. Too often, we just look at our everyday world and fail to look up and imagine the awesome works of our Creator.
A few years ago, I began looking into how big our Universe actually is. As a former math teacher, I got my pencil and paper out and began crunching numbers. We know that most agree that we have 9 planets orbiting around the sun in elliptical paths. This is our Solar System. Scientists say that our sun is but one of between 100 billion and 300 billion other stars in our Milky Way galaxy.
If you looked at a diagram of the Milky Way, we would be on the outer portion of the swirl. I began wondering how long it would take to travel to the center of the Milky Way. I found it in light years but thought it would be interesting to see how long it would take if we could fly in a jet airplane going 600 mph. After some calculations, the numbers were astounding. I found that it would take approximately 40 trillion years to get to the Middle of the Milky Way from the outer rim.
If this was not mind boggling enough, the Milky Way is thought to be only one of 100 billion other galaxies.
When I consider the heavens declaring the glory of God, I rarely think of their vastness. I rarely remember that God spoke these things into existence. This is the same God who created physics and mathematics to explain our world and who created the beauty of the sunset. This is the same God who is in control of our eternal destiny and He bids us to know Him more.
In Isaiah, it talks of how God measures the universe with the span of His hand. As massive as it all is, it cannot contain our God. He is bigger and better than anything we can ever imagine.
Maybe you should jump on a NASA website and just marvel at our Universe and then remember that God did this to show His incredible glory and majesty. Let us remember that the God who thought all this up hears your prayers and knows you by name. Oh how wonderful and awesome is our God!
by Chad Lewis on February 23, 2006
As I was sitting in Dr. Ware’s theology class this week, he told a story from his youth that I would like to relay to you this week. On Thanksgiving each year, his family was allowed to eat breakfast, but they were required to skip lunch. Their mom’s thought process was that they would definitely be starving by the time dinner came around and they would be able to enjoy everything all the more.
Sometime during mid-afternoon, the young Bruce Ware would be smelling the incredible aroma of the feast and would be driven by his starvation to go into the kitchen and ask for something so he wouldn’t die. His mom would slice off some small portion of what she was working on to tide him over.
He compared this to us having the Holy Spirit as a pledge in our lives. For now, we can experience God in real ways as we daily worship Him and as we commune with other believers. If you can imagine a time in your life where you felt closest to God and the Spririt was welling up inside you, then you got a little scrap from the table. Our bodies groan for redemption and God is gracious enough to remind us that the best in this world is but a small nibble for the feast that is coming for all eternity. Hunger is a good thing because it reminds us that we need to eat. C.S. Lewis said it was a good thing that we have longings that cannot be filled by anything in this world. He said that it was a good sign that we were made for another world.
As we think of heaven and our brief time here on earth, let us strive to rest in Christ and abide in Him each day. We will have all eternity to enjoy God, but we must seek to enjoy Him now. As we are not guarenteed our next breath, let us strive to seek God’s face and show love to a world that is in desperate need of the truth of God’s amazing grace. Our home is coming, and it is a good thing to be encouraged by the thoughts of eternity. However, we must make the most of these moments and proclaim the truth of the gospel to a world in need so that they may hear how they too can join in on this amazing feast.
(I will post one more installment on Heaven next week concerning the massiveness of the Universe and some possible implications on our eternal dwelling place.)
by Chad Lewis on February 17, 2006
When I was a youth, I imagined heaven to be a big, golden box where everyone present sat around and sang from a Baptist hymnal. I probably would have tried to use some elevated descriptive terms to make it sound better but inside I was never truly excited about my eternal home.
As I have learned more about God and His amazing creation, my view of heaven has expanded greatly. I once secretly hoped that I would not die before I had experienced some of the best things this world has to offer. One of these areas was marriage. I recently got engaged to the most lovely creature imaginable. More excitement is welling up in me than ever before concerning this new chapter in my life, but it still cannot begin to compare to what heaven will be like.
Paul said, “for me to live is Christ but to die is gain.” If we can imagine the best this fallen world has to offer, it is only a mere taste of what eternity has for us. The most intimate relationships, the greatest excitement, the fullest joy, the least insecurity, or the greatest moment of spiritual bliss cannot compare to what we will find on the day we stand before our Father.
All sin, heartache, insecurity and selfishness will melt away like ice in the blazing, summer sun. Our greatest gift will be right before us, and that gift is God, Himself. It will not be a crown or room or street made of gold in which we will glory. We will glory at the majesty of our Creator and His amazing love for His children.
C.S. Lewis imagined that God will send us to and fro across this massive universe He created (I’ll talk more next week about the unbelievable dimensions of the universe.) We will no longer be bound by time or space so adventure is limitless. As we discover more of this infinite God who created all, we will find our greatest joy in knowing Him. So the parallel is complete – in this life the greatest gift we can have is God. In the life to come, the same will be true. Let us seek to know the One who rescued us from eternal punishment and has a place for us to call home for all eternity. There will be no more need for light for He will be our eternal light.
Meditate on Philippians 2 and ask yourself how important knowing Christ was to Paul.
Brennan Manning writes about the end of death. “Death, you are a phantom, the bogeyman of little children! The only reason my Father allows you to exist is to usher me into the one experience deserving of the name Life.”
