By Pastor Jon
I know it is Wednesday as I publish these words, which means it is relatively late, in our normative weekly plan.
But, this is the life, where change is always a potential waiting to happen.
And quite a lot has since I was personally listening to the Associate Pastor preach from RELOVUTIONARY’s pulpit this past Sunday. It has been quite the number of days travelling to another part of the country for a close family member’s funeral and remembrance.
Death has so many sobering realities, but one is to remind and illuminate all that we have in Christ. This painful constant in our human experience can also provide an encouragement to read the online chapters of Volume One, where death is a theme considered over a number of chapters (inside chapters, 3-6, to be precise).
And in this tough season, I have been reminded and challenged on words from Keller, which condition how we respond in the present through what we conceive of the future. As I watched the casket, carrying the shell of a former temporal glory, I was penetrated with the reality that without the promise of the future, there is no real hope in the present, and the best we can offer is a delusion that keeps us distracted. This underscores both the vacuous nature of finding all your Meaning within this immanent frame, but also the vital demand to believingly locate each unfolding day in all we have been given in Christ.
Now you may be thinking, this is a slightly torturous transition to the title of this piece’s point. After all, when are we getting to the intersection of a supposed sermon reflection?
Well, Patience, here you go!
This time and place has created a question in my own mind as an elaboration from Pastor Dan’s message, which I will summarise with – What amounts to true wealth?
If you are in Christ, Paul affirms you have been gifted with every spiritual blessing. Not one is missing. Now, you will not experience every one in its fullness, at this time, but every follower of Jesus has an immense wealth that this world can not afford, nor can it buy with only an earthly Caesar’s inconsequential wealth to supply.
It is only gifted in Christ!
Because we can become so consumed with what happens in this life, and the worldview without God has little motivation otherwise, it is easy to subvert the beauty of this truth, through what is temporal and fading.
Death can simply become the exclamation and executioner that what we wanted to prove most through our mortal coil is now totally unravelled. We are not in control. We can not decide our own destiny. We can’t do life our way always. And a real interaction with death should compel each to consider the pursuits of this present time because death will find you no matter how much you do your best to avoid.
There is only true avoidance strategy.
As a result, death is ultimately devoid of its hold, and you can count your blessings.
You will not be able to contain the total, which only grows with your interest, and as time lengthens, the impracticality of every other pursuit under the Sun in financing the future is proven to become totally bankrupt.
Now, at this point, if you haven’t already, then do listen to this week’s sermon, and allow the depth of reality to wash over your life into the future days, like a wave on life’s shoreline. Because when the tsunami does hit, His truth will be less insurance policy, but more like the only equipment available to keep riding still, in the Flourishing of God’s abundantly promised future.
Therefore, Yes, through the tears, we should have real hope, as we will, finally, smile at the storm!
For the Fame of His Name