Hope for Life Blog

It was a sunny August morning. For me, it was THE sunny morning. I couldn’t remember when everything had seemed so bright. The whole world around me felt clean. I felt clean.

The day before, I hadn’t felt that way. I was wrestling with a decision, a decision that would change my life forever.

I was a teenage boy at a church camp. I had heard a man from a church, a judge, describe things he had seen in his line of work, particularly cases of troubled young people. I came from a good home, but those stories made me take a hard look at myself. And I knew that I wanted a change.

I wanted to be clean. I knew that there were things in my life that weren’t right. I knew that I had done things I shouldn’t have. Above all, I knew that I was living a life focused on me. That way of living had left me stained and dirty.

If someone were to look at me from the outside, they would have seen a good kid. But I knew there was more to the story. I wanted to be right with God, and I knew that I wasn’t good enough to be right with God. I needed His help to be clean again, to get rid of the stains my past had left.

So on a dark August night, I stepped forward and said that I wanted to be born again. I wanted to be baptized into Christ. I was lead into the Central Texas waters of Lake LBJ, cold water that made me shiver. I remember being lowered into the water, seeing it close above my head. Then I came out of the water, a changed person, a new creation as the Bible says. I had been born again into the family of God.

That dark August night led to the bright August morning. Where I had felt stained, I now felt clean. Where I had felt weighed down, I now felt nothing but freedom.

The night was gone. The sun was shining. And I was right with God.

If you haven’t experienced the wonder of new birth, merely reading about it isn’t enough. You need to live it for yourself. Go to the front page of this site, read the four steps there, then let us help you get right with God.

I was helping clean up my sister-in-law’s yard after a recent wind storm when it happened.  The neighbor’s dog got me.  I knew he was not happy with the chain saw, the activity, and the work going on.  After all, he kept barking at us.  I was carrying a load of wood to the back gate, walking about one foot inside the fence.  All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of this dog trying to jump over the fence.  As I jumped sideways, he managed to extend his head over the fence and catch my arm.

There was not any lasting damage.  My arm was swollen and stayed bruised for a couple of weeks.  The dog was as surprised as I was.  My father-in-law worried about whether the dog should have gotten shots.  Ha, ha.  The neighbors were apologetic.  The yard got cleaned up, and we all stayed several feet away from the fence.

And I thought about how much like life this was.

We all know there are dangerous things in this world.  There is war, crime, and evil.  People steal, lie, gossip, and murder in our world.  We just do not expect it to happen to us.  Until it does.  Tornados, fires, hurricanes, and tsunamis occur around the globe.  We assume those things happen to other people, not us.  Until it does.  We even know intellectually that people get sick, sometimes even sick enough that they die.  We just do not think it will happen to us.  Until it does.

Hard things, bad things, tough things happen.  They happen unexpectedly.  Sometime it is our fault.  Sometimes it is someone else’s fault.  Sometimes it is no one’s fault.  Life happens.  Life goes on.  So how do we cope?  How do we survive?  How do we find hope, peace, joy, and purpose in a world like this?

I have found the answer in God, and so have millions of others throughout the ages.  He will get me through anything this life throws at me.  He has, and He will.  He gives my life hope, peace, joy, and purpose.  And He gives me life forever.  He has done this through His Son Jesus. 

Blessings,

steve

Billy the Kid is still waiting for his pardon. The notorious teenage outlaw was promised amnesty by New Mexico Territorial Governor Lew Wallace back in 1879 in exchange for testimony against three men in a murder trial. Apparently, Wallace never kept his word.

In recent years, Governor Bill Richardson announced his intention to pardon Billy (whose real name was Henry McCarty; “Billy” came from his alias, William Bonney). However, Richardson decided against doing so on his last day in office, and Billy continues to wait for his pardon.

None of this matters to Billy, of course. He’s long past caring about whether the State of New Mexico considers him a fugitive or not. Politicians can say what they want, but young Billy’s fate was decided long ago. As the writer of the biblical book of Hebrews says “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)

What about my pardon? I never killed anyone, as Billy the Kid is said to have done. I’ve done no time in prison nor ever been in trouble with the law. But I need a pardon, just as badly as Billy does.

The Bible says that everyone has sinned and needs God’s mercy. (Romans 3:23) Without God’s pardon, I’m no better off than Billy the Kid or any other villain who has lived on this earth. Fortunately, God doesn’t make me wait. The same passage that says that we’ve all sinned also says that Jesus paid the price for that sin, so that I don’t have to. (Romans 3:24)

If you don’t know how to receive the pardon God offers, read through the four steps you’ll find on the home page of this site, and you’ll learn that you don’t need a governor to declare you not guilty. God can do that for you today. No waiting involved.

I have the greatest remote control anywhere. It is amazing what it can do with my television. If I miss something, I can replay it until I catch it, and then jump back into real time. If I cannot watch a program when it is scheduled, I just record it and watch it at my leisure. If it is boring, I just fast forward right until I reach the parts I like. I can watch anything I want, any time I want, and any way I want. I am in complete control. So where is my remote control for life?

The trouble with life is that it is so unpredictable. It just happens. If I am not ready, it goes on anyway. Birthdays come, children grow up and leave home, cars break down, and teeth get cavities, whether I am ready or not. Even the exciting things of life can come and go without giving you time to get ready: a baby’s first step, a first kiss, a “take it or leave it” job offer. Sometimes the unexpected is not exciting, just painful: natural disaster, life threatening illness, or a child’s crisis. If I am going to handle the surprises of life, I need a way to be as prepared as I can be for the road ahead.

I need to understand what is important in life, I need to know what my purpose is for living, and I need to know how to make sense of what happens when life interrupts my living. Something needs to make sense out of all this. So here is what works for me. I believe God is in control of my life, I believe he has a purpose for me during my life, and I believe I will live forever because of his love for me.

So the unexpected curves and events of life make sense to me; not that I understand everything that happens, but because I trust in the one who does understand everything that happens. And frankly, if I didn’t believe someone bigger than me was in charge, I am not sure I could take it. However, I know I am part of a bigger plan and I have a purpose within that plan.

You too can know that your life makes sense because it has purpose. Let me help you find it.

I’ll confess it now: I don’t like to read poetry. When we had to read poetry in school, it was the rare poet who appealed to me. One that did, however, was Robert Burns. One of his poems that stands out in my mind is one called “To A Louse,” with the subtitle “On Seeing One on a Lady’s Bonnet at Church.” The poem addresses a louse which is crawling around on the head of a young lady.

The real point of the poem, however, is the vanity of the young lady. She, noticing the looks and pointing directed her way, vainly thinks they are admiring her and begins to toss her hair. The last stanza, in modern English (Burns wrote in Scottish), says:

O would some Power the gift to give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even devotion!

It’s a brilliant thought, and I could certainly do worse than write on this idea. Yet my thoughts are turned a different direction. I can’t help but think how many people are like this poet. They go to a church service and spend their time focused on the people around them. How many times do you hear people say, “I’m not interested in being part of a church… they’re all a bunch of hypocrites”?

I think we need to raise our vision. We need to accept that churches are made up of humans, with all their flaws. When we become part of a group of believers, we are seeking more than human interaction; we are admitting to a belief in something above and beyond those people. Attending a church service should be more than seeing and being seen; our focus should be on the One who is unseen.

If you think that church is full of vain and shallow people, like the young lady in this poem, let me invite you to look again. Look beyond the people. Church isn’t mainly about us; it’s about the God that calls us together.

If you haven’t found a church home, I’d like to help you do so. I’m in contact with Christians around the world; I’d love to connect you with some of them. Just fill out the form under the Contact tab at the top of the page. Hope to hear from you!

It was a chanced exchange that happens when you sit next to someone on an airplane. “What does Herald of Truth do?” she asked. I smiled and gave my standard reply, “we tell people about Jesus.”

Then almost rudely she queried, “Why?” As I looked at her face, I realized she didn’t understand the motive and I started to formulate an answer that should have been obvious to her as well as to me, but I had rarely framed a response. “It’s about souls to Heaven. It’s all about heaven. We want people to get to heaven,” I finally affirmed.

“Oh,” she countered and her book came out, signaling that our conversation had ended.

The book of I John talks about: Doing what God wants you to do, believing in Jesus, confessing sins, loving your brothers by actually do things in addition to saying them and then in chapter 5, verse 13, he writes:

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

In his gospel, John says God loved the world so much that He gave Jesus so we can believe in Him and have everlasting life. John 3:16-17:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

It’s All about Heaven!! Our mission, obligation and responsibility is to tell the remaining 2/3 of the world’s population (4.4 Billion) about Jesus, so that those who do what God commands will go to Heaven.

Sooooo:

For you, is going to Heaven important?

Why?

How do YOU get to Heaven? And what are you going to do about it?

I believe that God exists with every fiber of my being.  I have given my life to following that conviction.  But I cannot prove that He exists by scientific standards.  How can I?  If He is God the Creator, how can those he created understand and prove His existence?  I am not sure I would want to follow a God so ordinary that His Creation could prove His existence.  So my decision to believe in God is very much an act of faith.  But there is a basis for my faith because I can see evidence of God.

Creation is evidence to me that there is a Creator God.  It may not be definitive proof, but it seems reasonable that there is a Creator.  I marvel at nature.  It is beautiful, it works, it is astounding in the way it functions.  Our bodies are amazing.  Mind, heart, and body working together in a way that is incredible.  The way of a man and a woman made for pleasure and procreation.  Some would attribute all of this to randomness and chance.  That seems more a leap of faith to me than accepting the existence of God. 

Changed lives point to God.  I have seen broken marriages healed, families restored, alcoholics made sober, angry people made gentle, and sexually immoral made pure.  And they give credit to God.  I have seen prayers answered.  I have seen people’s health restored after asking God for healing.  This is where some would ask me to explain why every prayer for healing is not answered.  I do not know how or why God acts in the way He does.  He is too far above my understanding to explain.  And it is absurd for the created to attempt to defend the Creator.  So I choose to believe. 

Creation, changed lives, answered prayers.  To me, that is evidence of a God greater than my understanding.  I cannot prove He exists because I am one of the created.  So I choose by faith to believe in the unbelievable.  Because I have seen where He has been.  Because He has touched my life and changed me. 

Blessings,

steve

Summer starts this week. Officially, that is. In the Northern Hemisphere. According to astronomers, who wait for the solstice to declare that summer is actually here.

For most of us, however, summer had already begun. For school children, summer begins when classes end. For meteorologists, summer begins when June arrives. The Irish Calendar considers May 1 as the first day of summer.

From what I can tell, none of that really matters as far as the weather is concerned. Sometimes it gets hot early in the season. Sometimes it gets hot much later. Men can debate when summer is going to begin, but the truth is, summer will do as it pleases.

Kind of like some of the debates I hear about who God is and what He can/will do. Men debate everything from the age of the earth to the existence of hell. They wrangle over whether God knows the future and whether God determines the future. Some present philosophical questions like: “Can God create a boulder so big that even He can’t lift it?”

In the end, though we may be entertained and enlightened by such discussions, none of them will actually change reality. I believe in God and believe that God will be who He is, no matter what men decide. He will act as He chooses. He will do things as He deems best. Nothing I can say or do will change that.

No scientific discovery will change who God is. No theological treatise will make Him any more or less holy. God will be God.

Rather than defining summer, we’re better off learning to enjoy it while it’s here. Saying “It’s not summer yet!” won’t make it any cooler, nor will declaring the end of summer affect how things are outside.

In the same way, our job as humans isn’t so much to define God as it is to seek to know Him and obey Him. As the old Westminster Catechism states, the chief end of man is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” That’s what we need to be about.

I’d love to talk to you more about how to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Write to me at tarcher@heraldoftruth.org or contact us via our www.hopeforlife.org website.

I sometimes talk to people who say they believe in Jesus but do not attend church.  Or if they do attend occasionally, they are not involved.  Their reasoning is that they are able to worship God anywhere, or that the churches they have attended have not met their needs, or they have not felt connected.  While there may be some validity in these viewpoints, it is possible they are missing the point that church is more than worship, what I need, or how I feel.  Church is not a building, nor is it just about how we worship.  Church is a place to be part of a community of believers.

A glimpse of the purpose for church is seen in the book of Hebrews:

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another … (Hebrews 10:24-25)

Meeting together as a community is where we inspire and motivate each other to love and serve in this world.  Even in the early days of Christianity, there were those who did not see the need to meet together.  You need to be an encourager.  You need to be motivated.  That happens in community.  We show unity as we share in the supper of the Lord, engaging again in his death.  We are inspired by singing together.  We petition and praise God together.  We listen together to God’s Word.  We build relationships over weeks, months, and years of worshipping together.

Church is a place for us to help each other, not just a place to receive help.  It is a refuge in times of trouble and sickness.  It is the place to find help in battling the evil One.  It is where people can confess their sins to you and know you will pray for them, encourage them, and help them.  It is a place where you can confess your sins, receive encouragement and know you will be helped.

But you cannot give – or receive – these things if you are not part of community.

Blessings,

steve

In the Bible, we read about something called the Sabbath. It was a day of rest. One day each week, God’s people were to abstain from work.

They didn’t stay in bed all day. It was a day for being with family, for worship and for recreation. It was a time for all the things that could get neglected during the regular work week. The principal goal of the day was rest.

Rest has a bad reputation today. For many, the word “rest” smacks of laziness and sloth. We live in an “always on” society, where people brag of their ability to multitask (which is another word for not concentrating on any one thing!). Our cell phones beckon us night and day. E-mails clamor for our attention. We want instant, we want immediate, we want everything done now. Where does rest fit into such a society?

If you’re getting ahead of me, you probably think I’m going to propose that we return to one day per week of rest. While that’s certainly a positive thing, I don’t think it’s enough. I don’t think we should be satisfied with one day of rest. I don’t think we should be satisfied with weeks or months of rest.

We should be seeking rest that has no end. In the Bible, the writer of the book we call Hebrews says, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:9-10)

This isn’t a one-day-a-week rest. It’s a one-day-that-never-ends rest. He’s talking about the rest we’ll have when this life is over, the rest that we’ll have with God.

That’s the Sabbath I want. Not just one day. I want to come into the presence of God and know that I can forever turn off my cell phone, shut down my computer and enjoy being with Him. I won’t have to worry about work or bills or retirement any more. All I will have to do is rest.

That same writer goes on to write, “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:11) Sounds like a good goal, the same goal people had under the old Sabbath. The goal is rest, God’s rest, the eternal Sabbath.