Letting Go

Much of my life I have heard the term, “Letting Go.” Truth is, I never thought much about it. As a young person you think about acquiring, reaching for your goals, finishing school, getting the degree. In your mind life is ahead of you. Dreams become realities and letting go is the last thing on your mind. Something happens along the way Suddenly you realize much of your life is behind you and the stuff you worked for does not mean as much as it once did.

My dream was to become a pilot--to soar among the clouds, to feel the exhilaration of turning “final,” to look down on the green earth. My dream did come true and for that I am very thankful, but dreams all come to an end.
Sooner or later you wake up and the dream is gone. One of the sad days of my life was selling my airplane. It was like loosing an old friend. Truth is, I was more excited the day I got my pilots license than the day I received my college degree. Flying was my passion, college was work. I am now turning final in my life--it is the season of letting go. Everyday as I walk in the woods behind my house I see leaves let go and twirl their way to the ground. They furnish the nourishment for the next generation. I hope that is true for me. I pray as I let go of all the stuff that makes this life exciting that my life will nourish my children and grandchildren. Knowing when to let go is important. I want to do it on my own, I don’t want life to take it from me. When the time comes I want to voluntarily let go. I want to be able to say with Paul, “I have finished MY course….” Letting go of the temporal to gain the eternal is a good thing.

A glance backwards now and then is good, but you cannot live life looking back. Memories are not life. It is what is ahead that matters most.
I hold on to the promise, “Eye has not seen nor ear heard what the Lord has in store for those who love him.” I do. Do you? jfs

2Ti 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
1Co 2:9 But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

Facing Death

Yesterday was not an easy day for me. I don’t like saying goodbye to friends. I felt his departure all day, and truth is, I didn’t want to face it. After a quick shower I headed to the hospital to face what the Bible calls our last enemy. He can look mean and scary and has no respecter of persons. For me it has been one of the difficult parts of being a Christian minister. Goodbyes are not easy. They always remind me of how temporary life is, a fleeting vapor, here today and gone tomorrow. Walking into my friends room I knew he would be leaving soon. I always feel so helpless, so powerless but God’s word is not powerless. I quoted Paul’s words which always bring hope to me, But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." 1Cor 2:9
I know death does not have the final say, God does. Death is a reality but there is another reality and that reality fills us with “His” hope. In these difficult moments we must have eyes of faith, we must see with our spiritual eyes, we must hear with spiritual ears. Our Lord has spoken clearly to these goodbye moments. “Because I live you shall live also” For all of us in His family the goodbyes are only temporary. We have reunion to look forward to. I told my friend I loved him and then we prayed for our Lord to take him home The angels must have been close by because in a few minutes I watched him take his last breath in this world saw in my spirit a glorious entry into glory. I am trying hard to always remember the two views, the earthly view and the heavenly view. This world sees only in one dimension, the now, the physical, and if that is all you can see you are missing the most important part. The eternal, the lasting, the no more pain part, the no more dying part, the enter into the joys of the Lord part. Oh Lord, living in a world that is passing away, help us to focus on the eternal. jfs

The Real Remedy

Why is it that most of the world thinks life’s problems can be solved either with money or education? Smart people don’t necessarily make good neighbors and money can’t mend a broken heart. A petty thief with a good education becomes a corporate thief. Educate a man with a blow gun and he will shoot you with a rifle. How the world can be so blind to its heart trouble is a mystery to me. The Bible says, “out of the heart are the issues of life.” What does this mean? It tells me that we try to fix the symptoms instead of the cause. Educate wicked people and you end up with educated wicked people. No amount of money or learning can touch an evil heart. Man is not basically good. It takes someone with his head deep in the sand to believe that what a man knows can save him from what he is. Evil has a death grip on all of us and the condition of the world is just one proof. The Word speaks of us as “desperately wicked” and our usual answer to this is, “I’m not so bad.” If the death of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross means anything, it tells us what a miserable condition we are in. The death of Jesus was not about His weakness because he said, “no man takes my life from me I lay it down of my own accord.” His death is about His love for us and it exposes evil for what it is. That the creation can be so spiritually blind it does not recognize its Creator is proof of the darkness in the human heart.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ speaks loud and clear to our spiritual condition. The remedy reflects the disease. Our sin may not be a big thing to us but it is to God. The sin in us has brought death and separation from our Maker. We can’t come home on our own. We are bound by the web of a thousand bad attitudes and held in the murk of our self indulgence. The Grace of a loving Savior has turned the light on and offers to set us free. It is the only deal I know that is too good to be true, but it is. Coming home is about turning to Him it is about opening the door of our heart and finding in Him a new life.
Joh 10:10 "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. NKJV
jfs