A Clean Start Culture

By my guestimations, 79% of all active blogs have written some sort of “New Year” post. You can find all sorts of resolutions and goals and commitments expressing the authors’ intentions to leave 2012 different than they enter it. We are drawn to the idea of starting over. Its a new year! We don’t have to be the version of ourselves in 2012 as we were in 2011! We desire to usher in the new me along with the new year. Clean slates for all! But why do we strive for newness? What in our hearts and our souls conjures up a yearning to be something tomorrow that we aren’t today? Because regardless of whether you want to leave 2012 skinnier, healthier, smarter, wealthier, more connected to your family, less connected to your job, cooking without a recipe, an expert in throwing ninja stars or having mastered the art of playing the washboard, you are striving for something new – you want to be different tomorrow. We are created to desire newness.  See, if we dig deep into who we are, if we peel back the layers of our vanity and pride that hide behind, we find an “us” in desperate need of newness.

You are a sinner. I am a sinner. I get me. I know who I am. Kelsey Hency, sinner. If you are reading this, your description starts that way, and I know because the Bible tells me so.  In Romans 3:9-20 Paul uses universal terms like “all” and “no flesh” and “none” eleven times in reference to who deserves the title of sinner. In doing so, he quotes two different psalms (Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3). Yup, even the Old Testament testifies to our guilt before God. In case you missed the point in the first eleven verses, Paul really drives it home in verse 23,  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). It’s telling that the verse says “fall short.” It doesn’t say “fallen short;” you fall short time and time again. You didn’t fall short one time in the past and if you just had another chance maybe you would make it. Nope, sorry. You aren’t capable of rising to the task. You fall short and we are all sinners. It’s an easy formula: “Your Name Here”, sinner. We desire newness because at our core we know this formula is true.

God is the ultimate fulfillment of our desires, newness included. In his Son, Jesus, we find the newness that changes us from sinner to righteous in the sight of the Lord. And the newness we are offered is much more than we could add to any resolutions list. God offers us complete renewal through his Son. In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born again” in order to see the kingdom of God. There are few things that connote new as well as a baby, we even call them newborns. We are offered complete and total newness. Like tiny fingers, tiny toes, first cry, hello world newness. God sent Jesus to be born of a virgin, live a perfect life that completely fulfilled the law, to die on the cross for our sins and to be raised to life again. We all fall short. He didn’t have to send his Son. We don’t deserve it; we didn’t earn it; we fall short. We are offered newness by the grace of God.

The newness my soul needs has been fulfilled. I am a sinner, yes. But one who has been saved by grace. Kelsey Hency, sinner saved by grace. And not only am I made new but I am called to newness. Romans 6:4, We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. There is nothing wrong with resolutions. I make them. In fact, I have a few for this year. Goals are a good thing that can be very beneficial for all who remember them into the great frontier of February and beyond. I have been raised to a new life and that means that this year, and all of those that will be given to me, I need to both recognize and live my newness. So maybe you will leave 2012 having mastered the in’s and out’s of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, but don’t forget that you either have been made new or that newness has been offered to you. May you be committed to realizing your newness this year.

So I’m Back – Let’s Talk Marveling and Time

So I have inadvertently given you a lesson in waiting. This was not my intention but I am determined to give my blogging break a purpose relevant to you. We are in a posture of waiting. The reality is I am currently inundated with school. Tests, papers, projects, reading reports all due by December 23. Yes I do go to a seminary. No I haven’t a clue why they keep us in school up until the closest day to Christmas possible….a mystery to me and you both. That said, I would like to do a quick drive-by of the past few days and into this week. I am hopeful to post more next week but promise nothing. So let’s just talk about a lot of stuff I should have written about already.

So in the last post I talked a little bit about relief for those who are afflicted…which is all of us. We all have hurts and pains and we are all persecuted to some degree–this will end. In fact the biggest enemy of all, death, will be overcome. When Christ returns and is joined by his bride, the church, there is no fear of death because death is not an option; that card is not on the table. Paul says some really interesting stuff in 1 Corinthians 15.  In his explination of the resurection of the dead he says, “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Death itself has an end date. I don’t know it, you don’t know it, that dude in Cali that said he knew it didn’t know it. But it is nonetheless a reality. This is why we can say “death has lost it’s sting.” Because we have hope in the day that death will be no more. Today it stings, right? But it’s hopeful for those of us who believe because of this promise. A promise whose fulfillment we wait on.

One of my favorite verses in the whole advent calendar is 2 Thessalonians 1:10. It’s one of those verses that is apart of a larger section that is full of greatness. I mean, it’s the Bible so it’s all great, but I have a particular fondness for this idea that when Christ returns we will marvel at him. That he comes to be glorified in his saints and marveled at by all of those who believed. I could talk all day about the idea of Christ returning and being glorified – and it would be worth a full 24 hours – but I am going to skip that for now so we can talk about marveling.

My hubs has gotten into watching the short TED talks. TED talks are self described “ideas worth spreading” that come in the form of “riveting talks by remarkable people.” They keep asking me to come give one but I just keep saying they are going to have to wait, life is busy…riiiiiight. Unlike me, some of the people are indeed remarkable including the one hubs and I watched last night. This guy started out by saying something along the lines of, “I am a lead medical researcher at Yale working on coding and developing the systems to scan for, diagnose, and do surgery on astronaut in space via a robotic capsule.” Remarkable. He goes on to say  ”And the interesting thing is…” Wait a second, dude. You don’t have to say anything else, your introduction more than fit the bill for “interesting.” He could have walked off the stage right then and I would have said, “that was awesome,” but good thing he continued speaking. The research for their scanning technology was done on babies in the mothers womb from conception (which is a little confusing but I refrain from asking too many questions) to birth (same comment as before). He showed a video that was a fascinating picture of the development of the baby and when it was over he said there is no human explanation for this. Astronaut medical engineer says, “The information needed to form a human body is an incredible amount of mathematics and I know of no human mathematical thinking that is capable of  directing the complex and sophisticated development of a single cell into a complicated system that is the human body, let alone to tell a body how to establish this growth within themselves. The only explanation is divinity.” This man marveled at creation. When he was talking I was also marveling at creation and thinking of how creative, how unimaginably genius, my God is. God knows all of those equations, they were his idea.

I have never been to the grand canyon myself but I have never heard of anyone coming back from overlooking the vast landscape and saying, “You know it was ok. It’s not really all that big, don’t waste your time.” No. We marvel at creation. People go on and on and on about the Grand Canyon. “It was huge! You’ll never believe it!” Then I say something like ,”Well, they do call it Grand for a reason and you went there 67 days ago, can we move on?” But when we stop to think about the beauty and vastness and the microscopic complexity of our surroundings we are captivated, we are consumed by the thought of it, we stand in awe of it. How much more will we marvel at our Savior when he arrives? When the creator of all of which we marvel stands in front of us we will be captivated, we will be in awe struck wonder, we will be overwhelmed by him. In fact 67 days won’t cover it; we’ll need an eternity to express how amazing God is.

I love seeing things that are breathtaking. Dwelling on what God has done for me by sending the Son to take my place and to reconcile little me to incredible Him is breathtaking. When I meet my Savior face to face I will be in awe. When my Savior returns I will marvel like I have never marveled. And I can’t wait.

To add to the excitement, Jesus will return “soon”. I put soon in quotes because God does not see time as we see time: “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:8-9).” The Lord is not slow to keep his promises. I love that. He is faithful. He is coming soon. Jesus himself tells us this in Revelation, “He who testifies to these things say ‘Surely I am coming soon’.” Jesus says, “surely” he is coming soon. Surely really drives the point home. This is a promise.

Revelation is full of crazy stuff, such as Jesus with a huge tat on his leg and swords coming out of his mouth. And John was given this entire revelation and what is his response? “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” Do you long for the day like John? Do you think on the things to come and feel a stirring in your heart, a hope and an anticipation? Does your heart beg “Come, Lord Jesus?” I confess mine does not continually express this posture, but thinking on the promises of the Lord’s return makes John’s cry real to me. Amen, Lord. Please come soon. End this affliction. Defeat death. Allow me to give you glory and marvel at you. Come, Lord Jesus. May we marvel at the Lord’s promises and with John long for the day our Savior returns.

Things That Are No More

In the last post we looked at the hope of living in the presence of God when Christ returns. But what does that mean? I live a comfortable life. You probably do, too. Living in America makes a lot of that possible. We are free to love Jesus and to gather in his name (but not in a school if you are in NYC…still praying for that). I am overly addicted to comfort. So much that I choose not to do things others enjoy, take for instance camping. I have heard of this phenomenon called lamping, otherwise known as “luxury camping,” and it sounds much more like something I would be interested in. Basically it’s a hotel tent where they start the fire for you and you can make your smores and hobo and then go to bed in a rustic atmosphere that is fully equipped with modern amenities like showers. I feel more like a lamper than a camper. Unfortunately for me, God doesn’t call me to comfort. In fact, I should expect to be uncomfortable. I am an alien in this world, right? I sojourn here. This body is temporary, a tent. My entire life is one big camping trip away from my true home. So if life here is temporary and foreign, what about it will change when I am where I belong, in close proximity to God?

If we continue to read through Revelation 21 we get a promise that should make us all excited for the day we are no longer camping here. Let’s look at 4 verses, Revelation 21:1-4

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

So God shows up, he does away with the bad and we get a new heaven and a new earth. We talk about this already so I won’t rehash it for you but we now have the full revelation of God and he lives among us. There is this whole really cool thing about the new Jerusalem being an adorned bride and I am not going to get into that for the sake of time. Personal study topic. If you study it post a comment with what you learned. Then we get this reaffirmation, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man,” but it goes on, “He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” This sounds awesome when I read it. It’s one of those verses that resounds in your heart. But what does that mean exactly? Well one of the things it means is in the next verse and that’s what we want to talk about, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Death, mourning, crying and pain are part of being campers.

Everyone has experienced these things. Some of us on a scale so grand that our gut wrenches just thinking about them. Our personal experiences are often defined by death, mourning, crying and pain. And it’s not just our own lives that bring us these things. We are to weep with those who weep. When we walk through life in close community with other believers we bear the burden of their pain with them. And what about the rest of the world? Pick up a newspaper. Not an encouraging way to start your morning. You are guaranteed to experience any of these parts of life. The prince of darkness rules this world and we see it and feel it often. But there is good news: the light has entered the dark and the darkness has not overcome it. One of the results of having God himself dwelling among us and having him reign over us in this new sense is that those things will cease to exist. When I think of the times I have longed for the return of the Lord and plead with him to hasten the day, it is when I hear stories of heartache, pain and loss. The pain that I feel is a stinging reminder that I don’t belong here for good. That I am just passing through this place. And that I desire to be home.

But if God takes these things away what is left? Isaiah tells us plainly in Isaiah 35:10, “ And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” We kick sorrow and sighing to the curb and welcome in the permanent guests of gladness and joy. We often call Christmas the “most wonderful time of the year.” And part of that is because we look for this season to be full of gladness and joy. And some of us will be blessed with that this year as we celebrate with family and friends. Others will not. And even if we are given a glimpse into this, it is temporary. Five days into your gladness and joy you remember that January brings with it jobs and school and responsibilities. Gladness and joy quickly fade. But we long for gladness and joy for the same reasons we loath pain and sorrow. God has created us to live in gladness and joy that will never be interrupted by pain and sorrow and death. Lord, hasten the day!

It becomes apparent that suffering here can make us long for our Lord, and that is a right reaction. Thinking of our current predicament, living in a life that rubs against our understanding of what is good and perfect should turn our eyes upward and send us to our knees. We have such a great God. He gives us hope for our future. He didn’t have to do that. We could be asked to follow Jesus without any knowledge of what may possibly lie ahead of us. But our God gives us something to hope for. May the promises of a life lived in close proximity to the God who has saved you give you hope for today.

A New Heaven and A New Earth

We don’t often say that we “long for” something. It’s just not one of those phrases that we use often. To me it’s one that makes a victorian movie so great. You feel like a man in a riding suit may approach a lady riding side saddle in a corset dress and say, “There you are, I have longed for you, my love.” So it’s victorian… and it’s one of those “Christian” words you here a good amount. People “long to be close to the Lord.” This is not a bad thing. Just a reality. The second coming of Christ fits into the latter category of longing. Christians should long for the day of the Lord. The second coming of the Lord should be something we have a burning desire for. It is what we are waiting for, it’s the reason for our current advent.

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