2020: A Year's End.

- What will 2021 Look Like Because of 2020?

- Is Church Essential?

- What is something our Society is Not Talking About but Should Be?

- Pulpit & Politics

- Expecting Heaven on Earth

 

These were the topics we took on in 2020. Let’s be honest…who would have ever thought we’d see the day when topics like these would even be questioned? If there is something good to be found in 2020 it is this—deep-seeded questions that have long been buried have found themselves unearthed because of the circumstances of this past year. 

The essentiality of church is frequently weighed but rarely questioned aloud and yet because of many churches having to go strictly online and congregants being at greater risk when they returned it became greatly relevant. The balance of pulpit and politics has continually been questioned, but it seems like this year answers were a must from pastors all around this country. The rest of these topics fall into the same category of once buried under the busyness of life but now uncovered as that same life came to a screeching halt. Like trash in the streets of your neighborhood remains hidden in the crevices unseen until a windy day when it is all revealed so too are these issues we now face and finally discuss. 

As Christians we have answers to these questions that stand out from the crowd or at least should. Our answers are not dependent on our choices, our shoulders, or our perfection—for our choices are affected by sin, our shoulders found too small, and our perfection always found wanting. Instead, our answers should always point to God, His Word, and His Gospel.

What will 2021 Look Like? -  That’s ultimately up to God’s sovereignty (Colossians 1:15-17).

Is Church Essential? – In some fashion or form God says it is (Hebrews 10:25). 

Pulpit & Politics – God’s chosen mouthpiece should speak the Gospel above all else (Romans 10:14-15). 

Expecting Heaven on Earth – One day we should…but maybe not fully just yet (Revelation 21:1-7). 

And what is something our society is not talking about but should be? – The real answer should probably be all of the above. 

Many people, including us, are looking forward to 2021 and ready to see this past year in the rearview mirror. It has been a tough year for all of our families and we know it is probably true of yours as well. But if we could leave you with one encouragement at the end of this year and into the beginning of the next it would be this—don’t waste any day—the lessons they teach, the memories they hold, and the opportunities they present. 

We started this blog not because we had planned on it but because 2020 presented us an opportunity of time and we tried our very best to use it wisely.  The Apostle Paul uses this phrase twice in the New Testament—“Redeeming the time.” In essence he was saying to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity to do good. Although the circumstances surrounding this year might be different God has given us the same opportunity to do this very thing in 2020 as He does every year.

Don’t waste it. 

Don’t wish it away.

And don’t miss it. 

For the opportunity to redeem the time might just be the greatest gift 2020 had to offer each and every one of us. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! 

“Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.”

Colossians 4:5

Expecting Heaven on Earth: Idealism in a Cynical World – Ben’s Answer

Every leader has to manage expectation if they want to succeed. This is leadership 101. Set an unreasonable expectation and people will feel like they've failed. Set too low of an expectation and people will feel like they've accomplished very little—which is failure masquerading as a success.  Real success is finding that "Goldilocks zone" where the expectations are equal parts inspirational and achievable. 

Now when it comes to “heaven on Earth” managing expectations is a tricky business. How can we know if heaven is actually on Earth? What does it look like? Is it evident to all or just a few? Are there tangible clues that prove or disprove heaven's presence here on Earth? 

Personally, I can answer those questions both pessimistically and optimistically.

BEN, THE CYNIC

Because of what I've witnessed during this pandemic the cynic in me argues for the total absence of heaven on Earth. It's hard to imagine that heaven has any kind of presence on this planet when a deadly virus lurks in the shadows, businesses are struggling to stay open, and I cannot find even a single roll of Charmin's mega-ultra-gentle toilet paper infused with lotion to save my life.  I have truly suffered in a way which words cannot properly express. 

BEN, THE IDEALIST

On the other hand, I am a man of faith. My whole life is built on the premise that the impossible is possible all because God makes possible the impossible. If He can be born of a virgin, live a sinless life, die by crucifixion, and then rise again, who's to say what's impossible and what's possible? These truths encourage me to exhibit characteristics that are more in keeping with an idealistic frame of mind rather than a cynical frame of mind. Where the cynic cannot see even the shadow of Heaven. I should be able to see the literal hand of God at work in my everywhere. Faith leads the believer to see beyond our limited perception of reality into the realm of infinite possibility where a God who can do anything is in control and is at work in our world. 

But which "Ben" is the correct Ben? Is the cynic right or the idealist? The answer is both. I believe heaven touches Earth at the border of cynicism and idealism. The Christian mind must be rooted in the pragmatism of the "here" and "now" while also being open to the impossibilities of the "what-ifs" and the "maybes." Reason and rationale are the safeguards of the mind and they keep us from blatant pitfalls.  However, if we only walk by sight we will only do the expected thing.  Whereas if we walk by faith we will find ourselves doing the remarkable thing. And though the extraordinary thing can be both intimidating and terrifying it is better to fail at something extraordinary than succeed at something ordinary.  Or as DL Moody put it, "Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter." And there are too many Christians who are "succeeding" at things that do not have any eternal value simply because they believe heaven on Earth is an impossibility. Apparently their cynicism has proven to be far more robust than their idealism. 

HEAVEN ON MY EARTH

So even though heaven on Earth may be a pipe-dream to some I am trying to make heaven a concrete reality in my own little patch of Earth. I do not expect this world to be exactly like Heaven because there are still far too many things that have gone so very wrong. But neither can I assume that Heaven has no impact in my own world because I've seen far too many things that have gone so very right. 

While I witnessed riots in the streets, political upheaval, and spiritual turmoil, I have also seen human beings caring for one another, churches banding together, and a concern for the needy I had not seen before. In my own life I experienced dark and depressing days in 2020, but there were many bright and cheerful days as well. Looking back  those good days shine brighter precisely because of the darkness that surrounded them. For instance, my daughter not only learned to ride a bike without training wheels but she also, as she put it, "Asked Jesus to wash [her] sins away." And though my schedule has been in utter disarray since February this disruption gave me more time with my kids than I would've had otherwise—during a phase of their life that is often so fleeting. 

And that's the point really. Heaven is hardly to be found by those who aren't even looking for it. Whereas Heaven can scarcely be hidden from those who know of its existence. This is the point that Jesus was getting at when He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." The pure in heart know there is a God, and so they see God everywhere. But the impure in heart think of God as a mere fabrication. As such, they see only the tines of chance rather than the hands of the Creator. As Karl Marx believed, they think of religion as nothing more than the "opium of the people." What a bleak and woefully deranged outlook on life. But such is the result of a mind that thinks Man is the ultimate determiner of reality. The human race is, at its best, deranged and depraved, and so, apart from God, we can only conceive of a perverse and ultimately heaven-less reality. Whereas, only the Christian can see heaven in the seemingly mundane affairs of everyday life. 

Expecting Heaven on Earth: Peace on Earth - Stephen

I heard the bells on Christmas day

Their old familiar carols play

And mild and sweet their songs repeat

Of peace on earth good will to men

 

And in despair I bowed my head

There is no peace on earth I said

For hate is strong and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men

 

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1863)

 
“Peace on earth, good will toward men!” 
 
That’s the proclamation the angels of heaven made that first Christmas night. But look around you—ever since those angels came over 2,000 years ago, peace seems to be moving further away from earth not closer. War, political unrest, a pandemic, natural disasters—and that’s just a description of this year alone. And how could we forget murder hornets…doesn’t sound very peaceful to me. 
 
So that leaves us with two options in relation to the angels’ words that first Christmas: (1) they lied or (2) we have misunderstood the kind of peace that Christ had come to bring. As a believer in Christ (aka Christian), I tend to believe it is option #2. I do believe we have all been guilty at times in our lives to believe that Jesus bringing “peace on earth” that first Christmas meant that we should expect a form of “heaven on earth.” But, as believers and unbelievers alike, is that what we should expect? 
 
Should we expect the never-ending wars of yesteryears to magically become the never-ending peace of tomorrow? Should we expect the dark clouds of history to become an unending supply of sunshine in the days to come? Should we expect everyone to get along where once they never did? Should we expect wars to cease, evils against each other to evaporate, and the wickedness of the sex trade, the porn industry, and the drug cartels to be completely vanquished from the face of the earth? Are these things we should realistically expect?
 
Most of us, if we’re honest, would call someone who believed those things to take place crazy! Yet isn’t that what we talk like we expect? For many of us here are some statements we have made over the last year— “I never thought it would get this bad,” “I never thought that could ever happen,” “Why can’t everyone just get along,” or “If that person becomes president, I think everything will get back to being just fine.” These statements reveal something within us all—we expect things on this earth to be better than they are. Deep down we all, for some reason, expect a little “heaven on earth.” But why?
 
If we believe the Bible when it says our world is sinful and fallen, and where the people who live here are people with hearts “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9), why do we expect it to be better? It would seem we are expecting people deemed sinful and fallen by scripture to live according to the rules of heaven. Yet, as Christians, we understand that it is only as fruit of the Spirit that we can even begin to obtain “love, joy, peace” and other Christ-like traits in our own lives, so why would we expect someone apart from the Spirit to possess those same traits? 
 
Now I am not seeking to shame those who have a desire for heaven because I believe that is God-given to us all. But may we as Christians be sure that our expectations are realistically divided between those of heaven and those of earth. For if we unrealistically (and unscriptually) expect “heaven on earth” we can’t help but continue to be disillusioned with this world; but if we realistically see this fallen world for what it is our hopes and desires for the life to come will only grow as God intended. As C.S. Lewis famously said: “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”  
 
How we as Christians view this world (properly or improperly) will influence how we view the next. So how then shall we live in this life? Let’s look to the examples of those who have come before us in the faith— 

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

Hebrews 11:13-16

 
The promises of heaven will not come as long as we are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” That “peace on earth” Jesus brought that first Christmas was the bringing of peace now available between a holy God and a sinful man. Therefore, as long as sin exists, peace should exist within us but won’t always with those around us. 
 
Yet when Jesus came He also gave us a glimpse of what that peace will be when it is completely fulfilled in eternity—the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will walk, and the mute will talk. Add to that no more sickness, no more death, and no more tears for as the Scripture reveals before it’s close: “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)
 
THAT is the hope of “heaven on earth” that now dwells within us…and one day soon will exist forever around us.

Then rang the bells more loud and deep

God is not dead, nor does he sleep (peace on earth, peace on earth)

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail 

With peace on earth, good will to men!