November 14 - I Don’t Want to be Sad-You-See

 Read today’s texts first: Psalms 149; 1 Corinthians 15-16

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

The promise of our soon-coming King keeps our
heart in heaven and our feet on the earth.

The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection – that’s why they were sad-you-see!  It’s an old joke, but true.  The same teaching was creeping into the early church (15:12), and it was only 25 years after over 500 disciples had seen Jesus rise from the dead.  Given enough time, pessimism, cynicism, and even skepticism will eventually infiltrate any community.

Now, after 2000 years, it should be expected that Christians will doubt at least the literal interpretation of Christ’s soon-coming and the final resurrection of the dead.  Knowing that, I’m glad the founder of the Foursquare church decided to make that hope one of the four corners of our faith.  I’m with Paul - without the fact of Christ’s resurrection and the hope of ours, there is no good-news-gospel.  We should be very sad, because, if there is no victory over death, both Christ’s first-coming and the promise of His second-coming are pointless.

It’s the imminence of Christ’s return that compels us to live holy lives and share the gospel as often as we can.  It’s what keeps our heart in heaven and our feet on the earth.  This world is not our home, but we are here on assignment. We may not agree about the eschatological events to come or their sequence in time, but we must agree that Jesus will return as He promised and that the dead in Christ will rise.  That is core to who we are as Christians – and that’s why we’re not sad-you-see!

“Lord, help me to keep my heart focused on Your return and my hands busy doing the work you’ve assigned me until You come again.”

November 13 - Revelation Beyond The Revelation

 Read today’s texts first: Job 39-40; 1 Corinthians 13-14

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY

We need glorified bodies before we learn the answers to all our questions. Right now, it would blow our minds!

I love this part of the book of Job – when God has the last word!  His series of unanswerable questions gives all of us perspective on how little we know.  Paul described it well when he said “we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror” (13:12).

That’s why we have spiritual gifts – they give us insight and power beyond our limited resources.  And that’s why we know they are for today – right now, in this day of the completed canon (cessationists believe spiritual gifts became out-moded after the Bible was complete).  They only become unnecessary when we see Jesus face-to-face (13:12), when we know what He knows.  We will need glorified bodies by then because when we learn the answers to the questions He asks of Job, it would blow the minds we have right now!

There are so many questions I have for God.  I don’t always understand why things don’t go exactly as I plan or even as I pray.  I often try to help God with His planning!  But I’ve learned with Job that God has a better plan and that He doesn’t always let me in on it.  God never does tell Job why he went through his trials.  The inference from the questions God poses is to just trust Him – there’s stuff you don’t know and can’t know yet.

“Lord, I trust You with my life and I want to endure any test that comes my way with unwavering faith.  Let me learn from Job not to condemn You by trying to justify myself (40:8).  As I remain on this side of heaven, I will continue to seek Your plan and power by using the gifts You offer to and through me.  Yet I long for the day when I will see you face-to-face and ‘I shall know fully even as I am fully known’ (13:12).”

November 12 - Who Has Seen the Wind?

 Read today’s texts first: Job 37, 38; 1 Corinthians 12

MAXIMize YOUR DAY 

The unseeable wind of God’s Spirit
is now the very breath of our spirits.

In reading God’s description of His incredible creation and His capacity to control it, we can’t help but be impressed with His power.  Then to juxtapose those images beside the description of spiritual gifts, suddenly we realize how much power is now resident within us.

There’s so much we don’t know about God and the universe He created.  The unanswerable questions He posed to Job and his friends put them and all of us in our place.  We are only the created. None of us were around when this world was formed and the stars were tossed into space by the hand of God.  The realization that there are those among us, with PhD degrees, who believe that God’s handiwork is a random accident of “nature,” illustrates how limited our knowledge is.

And yet, that same Spirit who brooded over the waters at creation now works His creative power in and through us.  The source of the wind, which in Job’s day was so far removed from us (38:24), blew into the upper room at Pentecost and into every Spirit-filled believer since that day.

“Lord, may I not take for granted the all-encompassing responsibility of being a temple for Your Spirit and the profound privilege of moving at your impulse. When I take time to listen to that still small voice, I can gain glimpses of that awesome power and wisdom Job was unable to understand or experience.  I have seen the wind!”