Are you ready?

One of the things that absorbed my attention during the 1970s and 1980s was the excitement about the Second Coming of Jesus. Ever since Jesus left earth (see Acts 1:6-11), believers have been anxiously awating the time when He would return to set up His kingdom on earth. Hal Lindsey‘s book, The Late Great Planet Earth fascinated me. The book did not presume to set a specific date, but explained the Bible verses that dealt with the Second Coming, and how those prophecies could very well be coming to pass in this present time.

The timing of Jesus’ return is certainly not something that can be predicted with any accuracy (Mark 13:32-33), but what Lindsey’s book did was to show the accuracy of prophecy in the Bible that was fulfilled in the past. This solidified to me the reliability of the Bible when it came to prophecies that had not been fulfilled.

The whole topic of the return of Christ is a complex one, and no one understands it fully. There are some things we know for certain, and many others on which we have to speculate. One of those is the Antichrist, the great enemy of the Church, who will oppose God’s people during the last seven years before Jesus returns. The Bible implies many things about this person, and popular culture has made him into a character who is fearful and impossible to oppose. Even the popular Left Behind series of books can only take the theories about his nature and what he will do on earth, and put it together into a possible story.

The Second Coming of Jesus was a popular topic of singers and songwriters during the early years of the Jesus Music revolution. One of the songs that I stumbled upon recently on YouTube was by Degarmo & Key, on their 1984 album Communication. This song, Six, Six, Six was made into a music video, and was the first Christian music video the ever played on MTV. However, this video was removed from their playlist for supposedly being “too violent”. After it was edited somewhat (the scene in which the Antichrist is caught on fire was removed), it was again in the MTV playlist. 

This music video also caught my eye because of the computer used by the main character in the video (see my other web site here).

Also, since the video and the album version are slightly different, I’ll include the album version here also.

Tags: Degarmo & Key, second coming

In my church this past Sunday, the message delivered included the story from Mark 2:1-12. This passage deals with a man paralyzed, who wanted to be healed by Jesus. The problem was in getting access to Jesus. He was in a house, teaching, surrounded by a standing-room only crowd that spilled out the door. So the paralyzed man, who had been brought there by his friends, ended up coming face to face with Jesus by being lowered down to him through a hole they cut into the roof. And Jesus healed him!

Now, the purpose of this post is not to get into the details about healing and prayer and how God works. Suffice it to say that faith is a necessary component for God’s work in the world. And this passage does not indicate that the paralyzed man had any faith. Instead, it reads in verse 5, “When Jesus saw their faith [that of the men who lowered the paralytic to him], he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.'”, and then in verse 11, “‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.'”

Jesus didn’t heal the man based on that man’s faith; he did it after he saw the faith of his friends, that they stopped at nothing in bringing their friend to Jesus. This paralyzed man’s need was greater than theirs; indeed, his only hope was to come to Jesus. And his friends made it possible.

As I listened to that message in church, I was reminded of Steve and Annie Chapman’s song from their 1986 album, Times & Seasons. The song, Faith Of A Few Close Friends tells the very story I’ve just related above. But it is more than just scripture put to song. Both the message I heard in church, and the remainder of the Chapman’s song takes this a step further. The extra step was pointing out that I can bring someone to Jesus, whether it be through my words, or my actions, or my prayers. And when brought to Jesus, it is not necessary for the faith (or lack thereof) of that person to result in God’s intervention in his or her life. My faith can be the key to unlocking a touch of Jesus for that person, the touch that could change a life!

Tags: faith, friends, healing, prayer, Steve & Annie Chapman

In the past several posts I’ve discussed the longing for heaven, for the peace and joy associated with that time, when I see Christ face to face, and reunited with those who have gone before me. And I also discussed the fact that exactly what heaven will be like is so mysterious to me. There is simply no way to know ahead of time.

Like me, everyone has questions about what heaven will be like. Amazingly, a song that I’ve heard by a new artist, Rachel Scott, looks at this. Especially notice that she asks whether we will even remember our life on earth. Since God wipes away every tear from our eyes, will it be possible to remember events on earth, especially if those events are perhaps unpleasant to remember? 1 Corinthians 13:12 tells us, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” How do we reconcile “knowing fully” when some of what we know is even painful when we don’t fully know?

From Rachel Scott’s album Resolution, here is I Wonder. This is a live recording from a concert she did here in Omaha.

Tags: Heaven, questions, Rachel Scott

This it the third of a trilogy of posts about the longing for home (see here and here for the previous two). I previously talked about the warm feelings about returning home after being gone for a period of time, and the longing in my heart for a return to this time in my past. I also talked about the dreams of what heaven might be like, as expressed in song.

Heaven has a different connotation to everyone. For some, especially those who have not looked much into it, heaven is angels with harps, floating from cloud to cloud. Popular culture views it as clouds with a golden gate, and St. Peter either letting you in or not. It can be viewed as an experience of pretty much every dream coming true; rent and watch Robin Williams 1998 movie What Dreams May Come to see one concept of this. ((Recognize that the concept presented in Williams’ film, though emotionally moving, does not fit with what the Bible tells about the afterlife. The movie seems to reveal no clear evidence of God, and it is possible to leave the hell that you have yourself have created yourself, if you just have the right help.))

The problem with trying to describe what heaven might be like is that we have really very little description of it in the Bible. The experience of death and what comes afterward is addressed only in general. There are some examples that Jesus used to illustrate a point (the rich man and Lazarus, for example, in Luke 16:19-31). We see in Revelation the visions of the apostle John of the end of days, both events on earth as well as events in heaven. But none of these descriptions really address the question of what exactly will happen to me when I die.

Because of these limitations in specifics, poets and song writers have had to take the various clues provided in the Bible and use them to try to explain what it might be like. What we do know about heaven is:

• admission to heaven is based entirely on what Jesus did for me, and my acceptance of it
• heaven will be forever, and in the presence of Jesus
• worship is the major event of heaven

Based on these certain Biblical statements about heaven, writers in the Church over the ages have added their own guesses and opinions, which try address the blank spots in our understanding of heaven. This is where the harps, angels, and clouds have entered our cultural understanding. Are they true? Perhaps … but recognize that they are all just guesses.

The best descriptions of heaven (to me) are the ones that explain it in terms of the feelings associated. That brings me back to the whole concept of home. The place where I am welcome, where I am loved, and where I belong.

Which brings me to the song lyrics for this post. Home Where I Belong was written by Pat Terry in 1976, and that year appeared on the album Songs Of The South. It was also recorded by B.J. Thomas as the title song on his first Christian music album in the same year. I like both versions, but I have a better quality copy of the Pat Terry version, so I’m going to include that version here:

Tags: Heaven, Pat Terry