Category: Thoughts and Meditations

“See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:15

This is a fundamental mindshift that every follower of Jesus MUST make. When someone does us wrong, we cannot, must not respond by doing wrong ourselves. The world coaches us to “get back” at those who’ve hurt us but that isn’t the way of Jesus. This verse doesn’t mean that we don’t involve authorities when appropriate, because that isn’t evil, it’s using the structures God ordained for the good of all people. This doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be appropriate consequences within the church or society or the evil someone has done. Appropriate consequences aren’t evil.

What Paul means is that we can’t seek revenge because vengeance belongs to God. He is our avenger and He will make sure true justice is done forever. As Christ-followers we can’t respond in ways that fail to glorify God. We can’t respond in ways that seek to hurt the other person like they’ve hurt us. We can’t respond with gossip, slander, or violence. That isn’t how Christ responds to our betrayals and failures of Him and we must become like Him. When we wrong Jesus, as we often do, He responds with redemptive love and conviction because those are what’s best for us.

Always seek to do good for one another. Even those one another’s who have mistreated you, said false things about you, opposed you, and hurt you. Understand what it means to do good in Christ, then do it, even when it isn’t appreciated or reciprocated. When you do, you honor Christ as your Lord and that’s what’s most important.

“Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!”
– Psalm 142:6

At some point in your life, you’ll probably feel like the psalmist! It may be today or it may be years from now. Your persecutors may be people – abusive coworkers, hurtful family members, angry neighbors, cruel members of your circle of acquaintance. Or your persecutors might be chronic illnesses, painful injuries, permanent disabilities, and pain. Your persecutors might be financial problems beyond your ability to resolve, legal challenges, unmovable bureaucracies, or natural disasters.

When those overwhelming persecutors appear, it’s good to admit they’re too strong for you. Cry out to the Lord just as the psalmist did. God always listens to the cries of His people. Ask Him to both relieve your persecution while recognizing that He often permits such persecution to shape and strengthen your soul. Ask Him to strengthen you to walk through ongoing persecution with Him. Ask Him for the daily bread, grace, strength, and encouragement to keep pressing on. Ask Him for peace in the face of anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Ask Him for comfort amidst ongoing pain.

Confess to the Lord that you’ve been brought low, your pride broken, and your spirit crushed. Pray for your Suffering Savior Jesus to sustain you and wipe away your tears. Ask God for the strength of faith to trust in His ultimate goodness, wisdom, and justice. Cry out when you’re brought low – God will hear you!

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:13

Grief should be very different when Christians are involved. When we lose a loved one who was a follower of Jesus, we have an absolute certainty that they really are in a better place. We appropriately mourn the loss of their company. We mourn that we can’t simply call them, text them, or sit down for coffee with them. We shed tears for ourselves and others who loved them for the void in our lives caused by their absence. However, we know they truly are better off than they were before.

If the person we mourn put their trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, then they’re already with Him. They’re enjoying eternity in the presence of God the Father and God the Son. They’re living in peace, joy, and satisfaction unlike any they ever experienced on earth. They ran the race of life and received the prize that awaits all who run in Jesus Christ. Our hope for them is absolutely certain and even as we weep we can be comforted by their present and eternal reality.

Hope is the key distinction between those who die in Christ and those who don’t. There’s no true hope for those who die apart from Christ, only certainty. Understanding this is very important amidst a culture where many assume that all who die go to a better place (or at least those who are “good people”). That’s false hope and it only hurts us and others.

If we die apart from Jesus Christ, then we go where our lifetime of choices, thoughts, words, and actions have earned us, which is an eternity separated from God. All human beings rebel against our perfect and holy Creator. All human beings do things which are clearly against His will and design – that’s called sin. No human being deserves to enter God’s heaven. If we die with only our own good behavior to justify us, we’ll fall terribly short in death, just as we have in life. Only God’s grace given through faith in Christ can bring us to God thanks to the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus. Apart from Christ, there is no hope, only certainty. For those in that situation, we must all grieve terribly!

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14

A lot’s changed in 3000 years since God made this promise to the earthly nation of Israel. God made this promise to King Solomon at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. That temple is long gone. That nation is long gone and modern-day Israel isn’t the same.

Today, God’s people include anyone of any land who believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. For God’s people, our primary citizenship is in heaven rather than any earthly country. Our true, undying land is in heaven and the renewed earth. God didn’t make this promise to any geographic nation that exists today. The ultimate healing of EVERY land will occur when Jesus returns to defeat Satan and usher in the new heaven and new earth. Moreover, every Christian is now a mobile temple of God as the Holy Spirit lives within each of us!

What hasn’t changed is the character of God. He remains unchangingly, unfailingly good, faithful, loving, gracious, kind, merciful, just, holy, and so much more. Therefore, if His people who are called by His name (everyone who follows Jesus) humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, we know with complete certainty that He’ll hear from heaven and forgive our sins (1 John 1:9).

Moreover, if your heart is broken by the evil, sinfulness, violence, division, injustice, hatred, rebelliousness, materialism, immorality, or ungodliness of your earthly homeland, it’s entirely appropriate for you to pray for and anticipate God’s healing your land by bringing many in it to faith in Jesus Christ. Through the turning of many stony hearts to Christ, earthly nations have been and will be transformed. While this isn’t the ultimate healing to come at Christ’s return, it’s a healing and transformation God certainly desires for every nation on earth, including ours. Let us pray…

“Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” – Luke 10:20

The disciples were flying high because of the extraordinary power Jesus had given them. Then He took them by surprise with simple good news. They were thrilled to be miraculously healing people and casting out demons. Ordinary people like them suddenly had authority over demons! They were thrilled about all they could do for God and for people. It was truly an exciting moment.

Then Jesus reminded them of something even more special and more important…. Their faith in Him meant their names were written in heaven. They were in God’s Book of Life. They had an eternal future in God’s presence waiting for them after death. As great as their impact on the world was going to be, there was something even more delightful ahead!

If you’re a follower of Jesus, if you’ve trusted in Him, then this simple, wonderful statement is also true of you. Jesus’ instruction applies to you. Whether you’ve done extraordinary, attention-getting things for God’s Kingdom or simply serve quietly and faithfully year after year, don’t rejoice in what you’ve done or how God’s used you. Rejoice that God always loves you, has fully forgiven, embraced, and adopted you by His grace, and that your name is written in heaven.

As good as your earthly accomplishments for the Kingdom may be, the greater joy is that you will be loving, serving, worshiping, and enjoying Christ’s company and feasting at His table for billions and billions of years to come!