Not Global Warming.....Global Groaning!

By John Stallings

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body….but theSpirit itself maketh interession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:18-23-26)


When you’ve spent as much time as I have over the years visiting hospitals, nursing homes, and standing beside new- made graves, you’re no stranger to groaning.

My father spent the last six years of his life in nursing homes. Our family sometimes felt like we lived there. I’ve been known to do a little groaning myself from time to time. Kidney stones and Migraines do that to you. I’ve heard people groaning in pain, despair, and in deep sorrow. When young people are ill or injured, they groan, but they groan with a hope that their bodies will be restored to full health, and they will be able to resume their normal activities.

Older folk have little hope that these present bodies of ours will be restored to the full vigor of youth that they once enjoyed. Many people groan to be released from the pain that they are experiencing. Some people have been made so sad by the various tragedies of life, they too groan for some sort of release from this present pain of mind and spirit. Some even groan, hoping for death. They believe that even death would be preferable to the pain that they are experiencing.

Then, there are those who have hope for a better life in another world, and they groan for that day when they will be released to enjoy a life that is free from all the distresses of body and soul. There is a desire in many people to be “redeemed,” in the sense of being set free from the pains and sorrows of this life.

Paul tells us that creation itself groans for redemption:

“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Rom. 8:22).

This passage of scripture is indeed mind-boggling. Paul says that even inanimate creation, even the natural elements, even the animals that are not capable of rational thought, know that something is wrong in this world. The world shouldn’t be filled with this kind of suffering, decay, and death, and the creation itself longs for liberation. This passage teaches us that even the non-rational part of creation longs for deliverance from the consequences of sin.

I read somewhere that in Taos New Mexico there’s a subtle, high-pitched humming or some sort of noise that can be heard 24/7-365. I’ve never personally been there but it doesn’t surprise me, because if we had a keen listening ear, we could no doubt hear our whole planet groaning. Do you think I’m taking Paul’s words too literally? Though I know about “types and shadows” and realize some things in the Bible are of a symbolic nature, the overwhelming majority can be taken literally.

Paul personifies all of creation, gives it a voice, and describes that natural order as looking at us and saying, “We’ll be glad when you’re delivered from the effects of your sin, because on the day that happens, the entire universe will be delivered from the effects of sin.” Nature fell on man’s coattails and will someday rise on his coattails.

When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, that sin didn’t affect human beings only. After the fall, we became subject to decay and death, but it not only came to us, it came to all of creation as well. The whole universe has suffered the consequence of man’s sin. When Adam sinned, God said,

“Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.”

I grew up in Florida where grass burrs are plentiful. As I remember we used to call them “sand-spurs.” They took a lot of the fun out of going bare-foot. If you walked through most yards in the summer months you’d probably pick up some grass burrs and you know how painful they are. Had it not been for the Fall, we could walk through fields with bare feet and never experience any kind of pain. The ground was cursed because of sin. As a result of sin, this world became a violent and bloody place where the motto is “Eat, or be eaten.”

Certainly there’s much beauty in this world but there’s much that is horrible in creation. I was watching one of the nature specials the other night about anacondas, these huge snakes that squeeze their prey to death. They were showing a scene where an anaconda was squeezing a turtle to death, but the narrator said that it may take 20 hours for that turtle to die. I think that’s a pretty horrible scene. Food didn’t taste the same to me until I could get that picture out of my mind. Watching those nature shows can be every bit as chilling as a murder mystery.

The condition of nature is the result, not of God’s original design, and not for the most part, the presence of man but rather, the result of man’s sin.  Paul said,

“For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.”Romans 8:20.

The creation suffered as a result of man’s sin, but this passage tells that creation itself has hope, for verse 21 tells us that the creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. The Cosmos/Creation is looking forward to a liberation.

Creation will be liberated from its bondage to corruption. The word for corruption in verse 21 is the word “phthora,” which is the same word Paul uses it in I Cor. 15 when he talks about how these mortal bodies of ours are sown in “corruption, but raised in incorruption,” not subject to perishing or being destroyed. Sometimes this word for corruption was used in a moral and ethical sense, referring to moral corruption and decay, but that is not the sense in which it is used here.

We’re talking about the non-rational part of creation, so it wouldn’t be correct to think of creation looking for some kind of deliverance from sin or a sinful nature that human beings have. The bondage of corruption refers to the death and decay that has come into the world as a result of man’s sin. Nature seems to be locked into an unending cycle of decline, decay, death, and decomposition, which is nature’s bondage, and it seems that it will always suffer that kind of bondage. Right now, the creation is experiencing what Paul calls vanity, or futility. Paul says, “For the creature was made subject to vanity, futility.”

Creation still works in a beautiful, orderly fashion because God made it in such a way that it still runs smoothly in spite of the consequences of the fall. But, as a result of the fall, it became subject to futility; that is, creation cannot fully achieve the end for which it was brought into existence. Creation wasn’t meant to be something subject to decay and death and Paul says that even though this is the condition of creation right now, it won’t remain this way forever. The universe is not going to be destroyed, but liberated, fumigated, transformed, and permeated with the glory of God.

As someone has said, “The universe is not headed for annihilation, but transformation.” The NIV translates verse 21,

“The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” The Good News Translation has it, “Yet there was the hope that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

As we look at creation, in the midst of all its beauty, we also see decay and corruption. But the creation is looking forward to the time when it will be delivered.

One day, this horror will come to an end. We are told that the creation will be liberated into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Creation is going to go from slavery to liberty. How is that transformation going to be accomplished? Paul tells us that creation will share in the glory that is going to be bestowed upon the children of God. When we are totally redeemed, when all lingering vestiges of the results of our sin have been taken away from us, the effects of sin are going to be taken away from creation as well. The children of God are going to be glorified. We are going to receive glorious bodies like the glorious body of Christ, and when that happens, all of creation is going to be transformed and reflect the glory of God in a way even more amazing than it does now.

NOT DEATH PANGS-BUT BIRTH PANGS!

Paul goes on to tell us that this eager anticipation on the part of the creation should be obvious to us, because he says when you look around, it seems as though the creation is groaning and travailing in pain. These groans and travails are not death pangs, but birth pangs. These are not the death throes of creation, as though it is about to go out of existence. No, these are birth pangs. These are not groans of despair. These are groans of hope. These are the kinds of groans that a woman in labor has—groans filled with hope that the child will soon be born.

 At the present time, creation is travailing like a woman about to give birth. Paul uses the phrase “until now” to show that the travail has been going on for quite some time. She is still in labor,- groaning. Just as that woman in labor has hope that this will soon be over, so the creation has hope that all of this suffering, pain, decay, and corruption will soon come to an end. Notice with me….

GLOBAL GROANING

In the last few years, more than 300,000 people world-wide died as a result of natural disasters, which is far more than the average of 77,000 deaths each year.

The earthquake in Chile killed almost 1,000, and the floods in Pakistan and China killed more than 3,200. There were 950 major disasters recorded last year, more than any other year since 1980. There were almost three major disasters every day somewhere in the world.

Something is happening. The people of the world have no idea what is the cause. Craig Fugate, the director of FEMA, which is the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency said, “It just seems like it's  back-to-back and coming in waves… The term ’100-year event’ really lost its meaning."

EARTHQUAKES

On the afternoon of January 12, 2010 the residents on the island nation of Haiti were going about their business as usual when a violent earthquake shook the island into upheaval, killing approximately 225,000 people and leaving 1,000,000 homeless.

250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings were all destroyed. A year later, more than a million people are still homeless, living in tents and other makeshift structures. Then in October 2010 the misery worsened as a cholera outbreak began sickening over 100,000 people and killing more than 3,300 earthquake survivors.

FEMA handled 79 disasters in 2010, which was a record. The average is 34.

In 2010, earthquake activity was more than all the years prior to it, except 2007, particularly for magnitude 5.0 and higher quakes. There were more earthquakes above 7.0 magnitude in 2010 than in any previous year at least as far back as 1970 but probably in all of recorded history.

It is also important to note that up until 1999, earthquakes above magnitude 5.0 were well under 500 per year. Then in 2000 the number of large quakes started to climb rapidly. For the first time, there were more than 500 earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.0 or higher. Then in 2002 it was over 1,000. Then by 2007 it was around 2,200 earthquakes with magnitude of 5.0 or higher. While the total number of earthquakes each year will vary, it is important for students of prophecy to know that in the last 9 years especially, there has been a substantial run-up of major earthquakes by a staggering factor of at least 600%.

Also, the “normal” number of earthquakes greater than magnitude 7.0 is supposedly 16. But in 2010 there were 22, a whopping increase of 72%.

Big quakes of 7.0 magnitude or higher struck Indonesia four times, Vanuatu and Japan twice each, the
Philippines, the Solomon Islands, India, Mexico and Ecuador as well as New Zealand. There are countless thousands of smaller earthquakes that don’t make much obvious impact. Something is
happening. The acceleration of the number and magnitude of earthquakes lays a foundation for further instability in the near future.

Then there was the powerful Icelandic volcano last April. The spewing magma and ash grounded the whole airline system over Europe, which spread its effects to almost every corner of the globe. 100,000 flights were cancelled over 6 days. And if the Volcano would have erupted for a longer period of time, there would have been substantial difficulties in getting food and other basic necessities into the shops and warehouses of Europe. If it would have gone on long enough, it would have been more than stranded travelers who would have panicked. European society could have been greatly stressed, or even unraveled. Imagine a whole sophisticated society like Europe in a state of panic because they cannot get their needs met.

Something is happening, and it’s worldwide. Natural events of all sorts are coming at a rapid-fire pace. The world is under siege. Why? What’s the reason?

FLOODS

Major floods were recorded in Poland, Portugal and Pakistan; Brazil, France, Romania, several places in Canada and the USA, China, Hungary, Peru, Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Indonesia, Serbia, Argentina, Kenya, Nigeria, Guatemala, Singapore, and several places in Australia. In fact, the relentless floods in Queensland, Australia covered an area larger than Texas. That’s a lot of land! Several people were killed and more than 200,000 were stranded without access to supplies during this unprecedented catastrophe, with over a billion dollars in damage.

Other weather records were set in 2010. Extreme heat was recorded in Los Angeles, California in September of 113 degrees Fahrenheit [or 45 degrees Celsius] while Pakistan took a hit of 129 degrees Fahrenheit [54 degrees Celsius] and may be the hottest temperature on record in an inhabited area of the globe. Drought struck too. China, Russia and Ukraine had severe droughts. So did the Amazon. Parts of the Amazon River basin were at their lowest water levels in recorded history.

Something is happening? Why the wild weather? What is the reason for these extreme changes?

Have you ever heard of a 2-pound hailstone? One fell in North Dakota during a storm that did enough damage to class those areas as one of the seven disaster areas for that state in 2010.

A tornado recently even struck in New York City. It happened on September 16 of last year killing one person and walloping Brooklyn and Queens with a brutal storm.

In one day, Indonesia got hit with a trio of deadly catastrophes; an earthquake of 7.7 magnitude, a deadly tsunami, and volcano – 500 dead, 390,000 homeless. But that was “after flooding, landslides and more quakes which had killed hundreds earlier in the year.

Many scientists, news writers and other media outlets are quick to claim that all this severe weather and other disasters are because of global warming, and they blame humans for causing much of it.

When Paul says that the creation groans and travails “together,” he doesn’t mean that creation groans “together with believers.” He means that the entirety of creation, all parts of it are joining together in this groaning, this longing. One commentator puts it like this, “The entire creation, as it were, sets up a grand symphony of sighs.” Creation is looking forward to the day when Christians will be completely, finally, and totally redeemed in every way.

Sound strange? Not really!

The idea that nature itself would be renewed is one of the key Old Testament visions about the Messianic Age. In Isa. 65 we read,

For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD” (Isa. 65:17-25).

Think about it…there is coming a time when Lions will stop eating Lamb-chops.

THEN PAUL SHIFTS FROM CREATION..TO US!

In Romans 8:23, He says that not only does the creation groan, but we also groan. Since creation groans, how much more should we groan who have the first fruits of the Spirit? As you remember, first fruits point to the certainty of the final harvest. When the people of Israel gathered the first fruits of the harvest, they looked upon those first fruits as a guarantee that more was to come. In this passage, St. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit is our first fruits.

The Holy Spirit has been given to us, and He is the guarantee of even greater blessings that we’ll receive in the future. The Holy Spirit has given us such wonderful blessings in this life, but we still groan for a better life, a better world. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives now is a pledge that we are going to receive the full blessing of our redemption at the time of the resurrection of our bodies. The Holy Spirit in us is a constant reminder that we haven’t experienced all of the blessings of our salvation.

Paul says that what we are groaning for is the redemption of the body, the time when this body will have been delivered from things like sickness, age, decay, and death. Though we have been redeemed spiritually, we are still awaiting for the final blessings that await these bodies. Like the creation, we live in frustration, our bodies still being subject o the bondage of decay, pain, and death. But the Holy Spirit is the pledge of the adoption, the redemption of our body.

We groan within ourselves. We are groaning for the completion of our redemption. We are groaning under the burden of the imperfection that we see in our lives. The Holy Spirit is purifying us, making us more like Christ, but as we grow in holiness, we also have a hunger for more of it.

We only have a partial enjoyment of the harvest but the first fruits of the Spirit have whetted our appetite for more. In this present life, the Holy Spirit gives us joy, and when we think about the future we rejoice because of the hope we have, but this interim period fills us with a kind of painful cosmic longing. There is a longing for the glory that shall be revealed in us. It is a groaning like the groaning of creation to be liberated from this decay and death. In II Cor. 5:4-5, Paul said,

“For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”

Here Paul talks about how we are groaning to receive that new body that the Lord has prepared for us. Again, he mentions that the Holy Spirit is the earnest, the down payment, the guarantee, that these bodies are going to be clothed with immortality.

As Christians we have a great deal of joy, and we want to show the world that we have joy. But even in our most joyful moments in this world, there is present with us this groaning, wanting to be home with the Lord, wanting to experience the full blessings of our redemption.

There was a time in Church history when Christians always looked sad, and they thought that those sad expressions were a sign of spirituality. We have rightly rejected this, but now has the church gone too far in the other direction? Though we have many joys in the Christian life, we still do some groaning.

Don’t we groan for the time when will no longer see our loved ones and ourselves wracked with pain? Don’t we groan for the time when we will never have to be separated from our loved ones? Don’t we groan for the time when will never again have to use those words, “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”? We groan for the redemption of the body, which Paul refers to in this passage as “the adoption.”

We’ve already been adopted into the family of God, but the fullest expression of our adoption, the crowning proof that we are the children of God, will be when these bodies of ours are raised from the dead, that moment when we receive a body like his glorious body. The resurrection of the body is the redemption of the body. It is also the full manifestation of our sonship, our adoption, so much so, that in this passage, Paul makes “the adoption” and the “redemption of the body” equivalent expressions. There is certainly more to our adoption than the resurrection, but evidently, we are to see the resurrection of the body as the culminating act of our redemption.

When we see volcanoes erupting, hurricanes, tsunomi’s, floods and tornadoes, and other natural disasters, we should see them, not as “global warming” but rather as the birth pangs of the creation, longing for the day when the creation will no longer manifest such effects of the curse.

When we see pelicans mired in the oil in the Gulf of Mexico, we should see them as groaning for the day of redemption when such things will never happen again. When we sin, when we fail the Lord, when we hurt one another, when we experience mental suffering or anguish, when we see loved ones taken away from us, it’s O.K to groan for that time when we’ll never groan again, when we will never walk the halls of hospitals and nursing homes and hear those terrible cries of pain.

When we and the entire universe, at the return of The Son Of God, will be delivered from corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.



Blessings,

John

Sometimes The Boat Sinks Anyway

By John Stallings



Shipwrecks are fascinating.

Remember the movie, “Titanic?” It was the blockbuster movie of the year all about the ship which was called “unsinkable” hitting an iceberg & going down on her first & only voyage.

What did the Titanic teach us? For one thing the maritime nations of the world changed their policies about ship’s radio rooms after a neighboring ship turned off its radio set for the night because it was bedtime, when the Titanic was starting to sink with hundreds of souls beneath the cold waves.

Shipbuilders learned about lifeboats becoming useless when a ship lists to one side. And they also learned you have to have enough lifeboats for all on board. And maybe they learned from the Titanic not to boast as if she were actually unsinkable because clearly, she wasn’t.

In this article we’ll look at perhaps the most famous shipwreck in history, Paul’s shipwreck in route to Rome & see what spiritual lessons we can learn. That story is dramatically told in Acts 27.

One thing I’ll tell you up front is that the storm Paul encountered has to be one of the most horrendous experiences any man ever endured. It lasted two weeks & much of that time neither the sun nor stars were seen.

I’ve lived in Florida most of my life & can tell you that two days in the grip of a ferocious storm is about all a human can endure, & that’s’ with the provision that you’re on stable ground, not like Paul, aboard a small ship.

We’ll see one thing for absolutely certain, & that is even in the worst of times, God’s redeeming hand can come forth & give us a reason for hope & good cheer.

Secular literary experts & writers have given kudos’ to chapters 27 & 28 of Acts which recount Paul’s shipwreck, saying that for sheer purity of story telling, they are unrivaled in all the history of the literary world.

Luke, who wrote Acts, besides being a physician, was a cracking good writer & storyteller. If it weren’t for Luke we’d not have what has become the classic telling of the Christmas story. If it weren’t for Luke we’d have never heard the line, “There was no room in the end,” nor would we know about the stable, the shepherds or the angels.

Luke alone gives us the memorable parables of the Prodigal Son & the Good Samaritan. Luke introduces us to little Zacchaeus & crafted the post-Easter story about the “Road to Emmaus.”

In the book of Acts Luke tells us about “The day Of Pentecost,” the drama of Ananias & Sapphira, the Ethiopian Eunuch, Saul’s Damascus road conversion, Eutychus falling out the window after a long sermon by Paul, & the missionary journeys of Paul, Peter & the other Apostles.

But nowhere in Luke’s writings are his rich descriptive powers on display better than in the last two chapters of Acts.

Luke’s telling of Paul’s shipwreck has even been studied by scholars as a kind of primer in ancient sea-faring techniques. Luke’s description of the sailors, the ship, the riggings are so detailed as to give us an accurate, technological glimpse into how they used to navigate the seas back then.

But as an evangelist, Luke never wrote only for the artistry of it all. His purpose was always to help the reader to come to a better & stronger faith in The Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world.

As Acts opens, Luke is encouraging Theophilus & his flock to see that there were always struggles in the Christian life & that there was never any “golden-age” of the church during which there were no problems, quarrels among believers, no mistakes & no suffering.

In my opinion nowhere in scripture do you see that message more clearly than in Acts 27. Paul’s shipwreck is an actual historical event but it’s also a kind of parable & metaphor with its high seas, storms that come & winds that howl, for the trials & difficulties in the lives of believers.

Paul had been traveling across the Near East for nine months preaching through Israel & Syria, Turkey & Greece & now he’s headed for the greatest city in the land, the center of military & political might on earth, Rome.

He’s requested an audience with Caesar. He’s been under arrest for a while & has exhausted his legal options in the smaller venues so as a Roman citizen he has this final right to take his case directly to Caesar & it couldn’t be denied. You have to give Paul some credit, he went for it. So now, finally he’s being transported via ship to Italy.

Paul is on a grain-carrying ship, which is also a ship full of prisoners. Against his advice the sailors are going to try a wintertime trip during the stormiest season. During this era, massive amounts of grain were being transported by ship which was a money-maker for the ship owners, thus their willingness to take a risk.

As Paul predicted, the ship & its crew encountered a nightmare of a storm. It didn’t take an experienced sailor to know there’d be no saving of the ship. The sailors did all possible to keep the ship afloat, including throwing grain overboard & finally things that were vital to the ships viability. In the end all that was saved were the souls on board. This brings me to the first important point;

WHEN YOU ENCOUNTER A STORM, DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN YOURSELF.

The sailors worked night & day, undergirding the ship, which means they ran cables underneath the ship to keep the planks from separating & twice they lightened the load to keep it afloat. If you & I are in a storm & our boat is sinking, if we don’t do everything we can it will probably sink. While the saying “God helps them who help themselves” isn’t in the Bible, the principle & thought most certainly is.

When I was a kid they used to say, “Work like it all depends on you then pray like it all depends on God.” Good advice.

Ephesians 6:10-17 admonishes us to “put on the whole armor of God,” & it lists all the battle dress for the child of God. God doesn’t put the armor on us, we do that ourselves & though God will help us, we’re expected to put on the armor & be ready to fight the fight of faith. Next;

PRAY AND ASK FOR GOD’S ASSISTANCE—Acts 27:29

The sailors prayed they’d see the light of day.

I remember reading about a woman who worked in a factory & was trained to operate an expensive machine. After her training, her superior told her if the machine ever got jammed, not to try to force it to work, but to call for him.

One day the machine jammed & the woman began to do everything she could to get it working. She cut it off, then cut it back on, pushed & pulled to no avail. She worked frantically with the jammed machine until she smelled smoke & finally cut it off & called her supervisor. When the supervisor came & checked the machine out, he saw that the well intentioned woman had burned up its motor. The woman cried & said, “I did all I could do to get the machine running again.” Her boss said, “Lady, you’ve never done all you can do until you’ve called me.”

After you & I have exhausted all our efforts & seen no success, & we’ve come to the end of our abilities, we can call on our heavenly Father in prayer & be assured of His help.

If however we fail to call on God & our boat hits the bottom, we have to take the responsibility for the calamity.

Have you ever wondered---?

WHAT’S GOD’S GREAT MAN OF FAITH DOING IN A STORM ANYWAY?

Some people believe if you have enough faith you’ll never encounter a storm but in this story, Paul, “God’s man of the hour, -of faith & power” gets into a killer hurricane & it goes on for two weeks.

This may shock you, but—Faith produces storms!

There’s nothing in the Bible even remotely hinting that a Christian will be exempt from trouble. You very well could come under persecution in your life just for being a Christian. Jesus, Job & many of the Bible greats got into trouble not because they were bad but because they were good.

There is more persecution of Christians worldwide at present than there ever has been in history. We should be grateful we’ve not been called on to resist unto blood. In countries like Australia & Canada the pulpit has been declared a public place & ministers have been fined & threatened for things they’ve preached. Things that heretofore could be said freely are now prosecuted under “hate speech laws.”

Maybe your persecution will be so subtle you hardly even recognize it as persecution. You might have someone say, “You know, you profess to be a Christian but……” --then they proceed to rake you over the coals, holding you to some standard they themselves miss by a million light years.

The fact that they profess nothing & you profess Christ somehow in their mind leaves them freer to condemn you. The real motive behind their attacks against you is their disgust for your love & devotion to Jesus Christ.

Though the ship Paul is sailing on is tossed around like a toothpick & he hasn’t seen the sun in days, he doesn’t panic. He stands before the 276 sailors aboard & assures them that God will spare all of their lives, with one provision; they unequivocally must stay with the ship. Here’s another lesson;

WHEN YOU’RE IN A STORM--DON’T JUMP SHIP!

One of the temptations in a storm is to try to get away from the problem.

I’m tempted to laugh when I hear young ladies say things like, “I’m tired of all these house rules & pressures from my parents, & I’m going to leave home & get married.” This young lady doesn’t know much about marriage if she thinks it means liberty to do exactly as she pleases.

I smile when I hear young men say, “I’m sick of people telling me what to do & having to live with curfews & all that stuff, I’m going to join the Marines.” This young man will get a surprise when he arrives at boot-camp.

Here’s a question for all of us; --how are we ever going to see God perform a miracle if we leave the place where the miracle is needed?

The most important thing a person could possess to be successful, outside of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, is stickability. Staying power; the ability not to run when the going gets tough. You may need a vacation, but don’t jump ship. You may have to fast & pray but don’t jump ship.

LIGHTEN YOUR LOAD DURING A STORM.

Luke tells us after a few days rolling around in this killer of a storm that the sailors started lightening the ship. To show you how desperate they were, they even threw overboard the grain which could have been eaten.

Then things got so desperate they threw overboard the tackling of the ship.

If I knew exactly what tackling was I’d share it with you but for the life of me I can’t tell you. It must have been masking & sails & other paraphernalia but I know they had tackling on the ship. They probably went out & bought tackling before they shoved off. I can hear two sailors talking a day or two before the ship was to sail, “Hey Sam, we’ve got to get some tackling for the ship before we sail you know?” “Right Joe,” Sam retorts, “we have to get that tackling.” Hey Sam, what’s tackling?” Sam probably said, “Well, I don’t rightly know what tackling is either but they told me to go buy some & there’s a tackling store down on Main Street.”

TACKLING IS ANYTHING WE DON’T ACTUALLY NEED TO SURVIVE.

I don’t know what the tackling is in your life. It would probably be different than my tackling but we all have tackling. I think a good rule of thumb would be; --tackling is whatever we don’t really need to survive when things start getting stormy in our lives.

We’re entering choppy waters in America economically & politically. Sadly we’re seeing unprecedented home foreclosures, high energy costs & people of all strata’s are feeling the squeeze. We’re entering an era now where things that we’ve always had in abundance will be harder & harder to come by.

Yet our culture is a consumer oriented culture geared toward always showing us things we need to “be happy.” I have a car with over one-hundred thousand miles on it & it’s a great car. However now & then I get itchy, wanting to buy a new car with that new car smell & look. The advertisements tell me there are 48 easy payments. I know that’s a lie. There may be two easy payments, the first & last ones, but those other 46 payments are hard.

In America we strive for bigger houses, better cars, more money & power. Jesus never taught us to directly condemn wealth but He spoke often about the danger that wealth could cause.

IT’S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER- MONEY HAS A DEMONIC DIMENSION.

What would drive a person to sell their body? Why would someone risk prison by selling illegal drugs? What drives people to cheat on their taxes or break into homes & steal? M.O.N.E.Y.

Jesus taught that there only two masters, not God & the devil, but God & money. Mammon is a Syrian God of money & people bowed down to it & worshipped it. They prayed for its success in their lives. In short there was a demonic stronghold & it held sway over people. When Jesus spoke of the God/mammon, people knew what He was talking about.

Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:10—For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness & pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

MONEY ALSO HAS A SPIRITUAL DIMENSION.

In Luke 19:11-27 Jesus told us about 3 men who were entrusted with money & then God basically stood back to see how they’d handle the money that He deposited into their care. When we stand before God He will ask us how we spent the time & talent He invested in us while on earth.

When Jesus went to church, He didn’t sit on the front seat or the back seat. Believe it or not, He sat over by the offering plate actually watching what the people were dropping in. What if your preacher did that?—Matt.12:41

GIVING IS THE STRONGEST ANTIDOTE THAT EXISTS AGAINST GOD-MAMMON!

I don’t have space to drill down into the true nature of tithing in this writing but suffice to say it’s a weekly reminder of who’s in charge of our lives, God or God-mammon.

After Paul & the other passengers on board this ship had struggled for two weeks, the ship they were sailing on splintered into pieces & all of them made it safely to shore on a little island called Melita, or modern day Malta.

GOD CAN BRING US SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES WHEN WE’RE STRUGGLING TO KEEP OUR HEADS ABOVE WATER.

Here’s something amazing; while Paul was fighting for his life & the lives of others aboard a ship that was just about to disintegrate, with all kinds of violent wind, an out of control steering gear & steady pounding by huge waves, Paul had a dream or a vision.

Isn’t that something? This dream didn’t come when things were going smoothly, this appearance of an angel from God. There was no mood music playing & pastel lights turned low. No, thanks be to God He spoke to Paul when things were in chaos, when there was trouble on the left, disaster on the right, problems up ahead & tragedy right behind. That’s when God chose to speak to Paul.

When things get a little crazy, maybe God knows He has our attention. God speaks to us through thoughts, dreams, visions, instincts & a multitude of other ways. Many times He’ll speak when we are full of adrenaline trying to meet the clear & present danger that we face. God can & does often speak when we are so exhausted we don’t think we can do another thing productive to keep things afloat.

Are you going through a storm? It won’t be all bad if God uses that time to let you see things in a different light.

SOMETIMES, AFTER ALL OUR PRAYERS & EFFORTS-- THE BOAT WILL SINK ANYWAY.

Sometimes in spite of all your efforts & all your tears & all your prayers & all the love you've invested , all of it will die right before your eyes. Just like the destruction of the boat Paul was traveling on, after the victory he saw in the salvaging of every soul on board, his boat sank anyway. In these times it's important to remember that God is still in control & His children will be rescued no matter what.


Most of us are familiar with the eccentric [I almost wrote crazy man] cable television billionaire Ted Turner. At an American Humanist Association banquet when he received an award for his work on the environment & world peace, he openly criticized Christianity.

He said, “Jesus would be sick at His stomach over the way His ideas have been twisted. I’ve been saved seven or eight times but I gave it up when despite my prayers my sister died. The more I strayed from the faith the better I felt.”

Ted Turner is dead wrong but his attitude isn’t much different than many, especially people who’ve been around as long as Turner. It’s interesting at least to me that Turner & I, give or take a few days, are exactly the same age.

Like Ted Turner, I’ve seen my share of “boats” sink & hit the bottom. Some of my greatest heartaches have come because of the failure of people I’ve loved.

I know I’m not alone in this but I’ve helped people in my life & have been shocked & disappointed when they turned against me & did everything in their power to destroy me. I’ve lived to see [not believe] that seemingly “no good deed goes unpunished.”

If God had put me together differently I’d have long ago sworn-off helping anyone ever again. But something in my heart has demanded that I keep reaching out to others as much as is in my power.

I’ve had friendships but certain things have happened which broke the friendship & the wreckage blights the landscape of my life.

Like Turner I also have had prayers that so far have seemed unanswered but the difference is, I truly believe that God’s at work in every detail of my life & the only reason He didn’t give me what I asked for is so that He may, in His own time, give me something better.

No matter what happens to you today it will be better tomorrow.

I believe that if you just live, you’ll outlive many of your problems. I’ve learned that people love the human touch, a warm hug or just a pat on the back. I believe that even when I’m in pain I don’t have to be one.

I’ve learned that no matter how many “ships” I see sink God will put others in my life if I refuse to get bitter & keep an open heart.

I have learned, I truly have learned, that I still have a lot to learn.

Paul understood that even in the midst of life’s storms, God proclaims, God performs & God provides,- in your storm, or in mine, ---in a private storm or a public one,

In the life of an individual ---or a church or a nation.


Blessings,


John

When We All Get To Heaven

By John Stallings



A story is told of a wealthy man who arrived at the pearly gates with several large suitcases. St. Peter met him & explained that he could bring only one suitcase with him into heaven.

The man began to go through all his possessions in order to comply with the rule & finally made the decision that he’d carry a suitcase full of gold bars with him.

When he approached the gate again with the single suitcase, St. Pete asked to see what he’d be bringing in. The man opened his suitcase & when St. Pete saw the gold he exclaimed, “You brought PAVEMENT?”

WHY STUDY AND RUMINATE ABOUT HEAVEN?

The word heaven is found 582 times in the Bible. It has different senses & meanings, like the atmospheric heavens, the planetary heavens, or outer space, then the one we’re discussing, the heaven where God dwells. Have you ever heard someone say, now let’s don’t get too heavenly minded because if we do we’ll be no earthly good? Friend, it’s not possible to be too heavenly minded. If a person is useless on earth it isn’t because they think too much about heaven, but too little.

There’s a deafening silence these days about heaven among Christians. In this era of prosperity, it seems that heaven has fallen off the radar screen. About the only time we hear about heaven is at funerals or when we’re singing one of the old Hymns. In our prayers or sometimes in conversations we give heaven a ‘wink & a nod” but very little in-depth study occurs regarding heaven. This shouldn’t be.

-We should study heaven because Christians are going there. If you were going to move to a foreign land in another hemisphere, wouldn’t you be interested in what the country was like where you’d be living? Wouldn’t you like to learn all you could about your new home? To me it would be indeed strange for a person to take no interest in learning all he could about his new abode. It seems that we can get more interested in the doctrine of last things or eschatology, than we are our final destination where we’ll live throughout all eternity. If I were not interested in heaven, where Christ lives I’d have to ask myself what that lack of interest or desire stemmed from because the Bible makes it clear that if we love this world more than we love Christ the love of the Father isn’t in us. We should be interested in heaven because that’s where Jesus is if for no other reason.

Colossians 3:2 says—Set you mind on things above, not on earthly things.

Do we really want to go to heaven? Sometimes I wonder. I look around & see folk preparing for their future—but not their future in heaven. I see very little eagerness for heaven. Why? I think it’s partly because we have gross misconceptions of what heaven is like. Let’s try to clear that up.

If you want to get a spring in your step & get some “Jesus Joy” in your soul, stop & think with me about the beautiful city we are going to when we leave this planet. I’d like to re-kindle the fires of hope & anticipation within your soul. I’d like to remind you that you & I have something worth talking about & shouting about & singing about. We have something to look forward to & get on our “tip toes of expectation.” The moment we take our last breath on earth we take our first breath in heaven.

Friend, if you are a Christian you’re marching to Zion. Every day you & I get closer to heaven. We’re marching upward to Zion that beautiful city of God. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says speaking of the saints of old;

….for they were strangers & pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country….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.
Heb.11:13-16

Over the centuries, many things have been written about heaven. Books about heaven are easy to find & there are many who’ve had visions & dreams about the beautiful place called heaven. I’ve heard many moving testimonies from good folk who’ve been, in a vision or dream, escorted by angels down the streets of gold & I have no reason to doubt what they saw. No reason at all. But as wonderful as these stories may be, I don’t think we’re safe building theology around them. I’m going to use the Word of God as my guide as I write so that when we are through we’ll know what we need to know about heaven straight from God’s book.

Although the Bible doesn’t give us a lot of information about heaven we do have some tantalizing hints. Here are a few Bible facts about heaven;

-Heaven is God’s dwelling place-Psalm 33:13

-Heaven is where Christ is today-Acts 1:11

-Heaven is where Christians go when they die-Philippians 1 21-23

-Heaven is a city designed & built by God-Heb.11; 10

-Heaven is The Father’s House-John 14:2

-Heaven is a better country-Heb 11:16

-Heaven is Paradise-Luke 23:43


Here are some reasons I’m looking forward to going to a place called heaven;

1. WE GET A NEW BODY

Our present bodies will be changed. In heaven we get a new body. Friend, I don’t know about your body, & I don’t want to sound ungrateful for the good health I enjoy but the body I’ve got isn’t exactly a picnic. I’m somewhat like the older lady who worked as a housekeeper for a rich family. One day the lady of the house got exasperated with her & said, “Don’t you do anything fast?” She replied, “Yes ma am, I get tired fast.”

Most people aren’t all that excited about their body, & many get all sorts of nips & tucks to lift things up to try to change real or perceived bodily flaws. I heard a man jokingly say, the Doctor couldn’t give him a face-lift so he did the next best thing & lowered his body. These earthly bodies get tired, feel pain, get sick, move slower with age, & sag in all the wrong places. Our eyes get dim & our ears get dull & our teeth keep needing work. Some people’s teeth are like stars, they come out at night. But in heaven you & I are going to get a brand new body. Listen to 1. Corinthians 15:53,--

For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.
Listen to 2 Corinthians 5:4;--For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed upon mortality might be swallowed up of life.

1 John 3:2 says—When He shall appear we shall be like Him.


C.S Lewis said, “Aim at heaven & you’ll get earth thrown in: aim at earth & you will get neither.”

Another reason I want to go to heaven is;

2. WE GET A NEW HOUSE

Listen to Jesus’ words about heaven;

Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions.
I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.—John 14:1-3

Notice that Jesus called heaven a place twice in three verses. So we’re correct in thinking & believing that heaven is a place as real as the city you live in. Revelation 21-22 depicts heaven as an enormous city teeming with people.

I remember the first church I pastored in Alabama. We’d been on the road as full time evangelists our entire ministry & had pulled trailers all over the country so we could have at least a modicum of home life. When we were called to this church they had a beautiful parsonage in a nice area of the city. It had a large front yard & also a big back yard where the kids could run & play.

Since we had no furniture the church allowed us to go down to a whole-sale furniture company & by furniture for the house. There are no words to describe how it felt to walk into that beautiful home, decked out with all new furniture. We’d lived in Trailers & Motor Homes so long it took us a while to get used to not walking in a straight line all the time. What a feeling to close the door behind us & actually have all that living space.

I’ve lived in many beautiful homes since then, but I’ve never lived in a perfect one. Living in a perfect house, a house built by God will be an indescribable experience, don’t you think?

Years ago when I first wrote the song, “You’re all invited to my mansion” I sang it one night in church. After the service a man came up to me & explained that he knew Greek & Hebrew & that my song was unscriptural. What he didn’t know was that I also knew a little Greek & a little Hebrew. The little Greek ran a deli & the little Hebrew ran a dry cleaning business. But anyway, this man told me that in the original Greek the word mansion was literally translated-places. He wanted me to know there were no mansions in heaven, only places. I of course accepted what he had to say, but as I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that it really doesn’t matter what you call it, any house built by our God will outshine anything we’ve ever seen on this planet.

I am convinced that we can’t even imagine how beautiful heaven will be. Heaven really won’t be anything like we think it will be; it’ll be much greater.

Heaven will be filled with abundant parks, rivers, rolling meadows, & flowing streams. Lining the streets will be flowers in constant bloom, fruit trees of every kind, every species of plant life growing free from pestilence & disease. The streets are made of gold & the walls are made of jasper. The gates are made of pearl & one of those pearls would be worth more than all earth’s riches. Precious stones will lie on the ground like playthings; emeralds, rubies & diamonds galore.

3. THE –NO MORES-OF HEAVEN!

In heaven there will be;

NO MORE hunger,
NO MORE thirst,
NO MORE scorching heat,
NO MORE tears,
NO MORE death,
NO MORE crying in pain,
NO MORE bad guys,
NO MORE impure things,
NO MORE sorrow,
NO MORE bitterness & failure,
NO MORE eyeglasses,
NO MORE hearing aids,
NO MORE braces,
NO MORE bald heads,
NO MORE crutches,
NO MORE nursing homes,
NO MORE paramedics,
NO MORE CPR,
NO MORE Aspirin,
NO MORE accidents,
NO MORE cancer,
NO MORE heart attacks,
NO MORE AIDS,
NO MORE hospitals,
NO MORE cemeteries,
NO MORE funerals,
NO MORE artificial lighting, for the Lamb is the light.
NO MORE darkness for there’s no night there.
NO MORE pollution for the skies will always be clear.
NO MORE violence for no criminals will ever enter.
NO MORE greedy politicians, or drug pushers,
NO MORE child abusers.
NO MORE potholes& power outages.

4. IN HEAVEN WE’LL EAT GOOD FOOD.

In heaven we’ll indulge in the mother of all buffets. I love to go to Cracker Barrel, Outback Steak House, Olive Garden & other great restaurants, but in heaven we’ll be eating the best possible food. How do I know this? The Bible says;

I say to you that many will come from the East & the West & will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven. MT.8:11.

Then the angel said to me, write; blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.—Rev. 19:9

Won’t it be great to say, “Hey Abraham, will you pass me some more Lobster? And I think I’ll have a little more of that steak…. & by all means I’ll have a slice of that coconut pie.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here & suggest that in heaven, we’ll eat a lot of barbequed pork, quail, & fish. Here’s my reasoning; I believe that before it’s all over, there’ll be lots of Jews saved. Some of these folk have been denied the culinary deliciousness of good barbequed pork. Don’t you think God is thinking about this? These good folk deserve a chance to enjoy this fantastic food item.

As for Quail, when Israel got tired of manna in the wilderness, God gave them Quail. So I figure that God must think Quail is pretty good stuff. When I was a kid, we’d go hunting for Quail & believe me it’s good-eating.

I chose fish because Jesus seemed to be partial to fish. When He came back in His glorified body, He cooked a meal for His disciples. He could have prepared anything He wanted but He chose to cook fish. And notice He eats with them. I’m assuming if Jesus could eat in His new body, we’ll eat too, & one of the foods will be fish.



5. IN HEAVEN WE’LL FELLOWSHIP WITH BIBLE CHARACTERS.

We’ll get to ask David how it felt to kill Goliath. We’ll be able to ask Noah what it was like living in the ark. We can ask Moses what it was like to pastor a trouble church, & part the Red Sea. We’ll get to ask Daniel & the three Hebrew boys any questions we like & talk to Mary about what Jesus was like during His “terrible two’s.” [My mother said trying to get me through those dangerous years was like being on suicide watch.]

WILL WE SEE GOD & THE HOLY GHOST IN HEAVEN?

Of course we all look forward to seeing Jesus face to face. I’ve had people ask me, “Will we see God & the Holy Ghost in heaven?” To be perfectly candid, I must tell you that much of this is a mystery to me. Maybe you have the answer but I can’t say I can answer every question in regards to this.

I can say of a certainty that Jesus said—Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Revelation 22:3-4 says—the throne of God & of the Lamb shall be in it and His servants shall worship Him: they shall see His face… To be frank, it’s not clear to me all that will happen here & we probably won’t understand it all until we get to heaven. Even then, maybe it will all be understood as eternity rolls but whatever we learn will give us delight & joy for all eternity.

6. WE’LL SEE OUR LOVED ONES AGAIN.

1 These. 4:13-17 says;-…we who are alive will be caught up together with them in the air & so shall we ever be with the Lord.

I remember an old song we used to sing, -There is going to be a meeting in the air in the sweet sweet bye & bye. I’m going to meet you, meet you over there in that home beyond the sky.

Won’t it be wonderful there? Have you ever had the feeling that the Holidays came & went too quickly? Though in one way, you were glad to get back to your routine, there was this feeling of sadness when you said goodbye to your loved ones you knew you wouldn’t see for another year.

Although my parents have been in heaven for many years I still miss them terribly. I used to call them on Sunday afternoons & sometimes now on Sunday, I find myself hungering to call them. Friend we’re going to have a wonderful time in heaven reuniting with our loved ones who’ve gone on before us & the blessed thing about it is we’ll never have to say goodbye again.


ETERNAL GLOWING!

Psalm 16:11 says….in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore

We’re told that heaven will be a place of unending pleasure in God’s presence.

Can you remember times in your life when you had an experience so wonderful that, for lack of better words, you tingled & glowed from your head to your toes? Think about it. Maybe it was when you saw your first child’s face. Maybe it was when you saw your beloved on your wedding day. Maybe it was the first time you flew in a plane. Maybe it happened when you were told you’d won a scholarship or, perhaps you even won a lottery. But you remember this glowing feeling came & went in a flash.

Its not that you didn’t continue to enjoy the feelings of fulfillment, maybe even for many years, but that flash---a flash I’m calling the “glow,” came & went in a nanosecond. We all have these times when we glow & we’d like to make them last longer but it just can’t be done. The glow hits & runs & we never know when we’ll feel like that again. Sometimes we might try to grab hold of those moments & make them last longer but alas they are too fleeting for us to embrace for any length of time.

I’m suggesting to you that these rare “glowing feelings” are God’s way of showing us what heaven will be like. They are “little eternities,” fleeting moments of time God let’s us experience. I think this glowing will be a feeling that will come when we get to heaven & never leave us throughout eternity.

THERE WILL BE NO SURPRISED PEOPLE IN HEAVEN.

Here’s what I mean by that; no one will wake up in heaven & say,
“well what do you know, I made it?” No. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people & if we’re going there we have the witness in our hearts that we’re going.

The late Dr. D. James Kennedy, who pastored the famous Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, FL, told the story of being at the White House attending an evangelical meeting while Ronald Reagan was president. During the meeting DR. Kennedy asked Reagan, “Suppose you were standing at the door of heaven & God were to ask, “why should I let you in?”

The president paused for a moment then replied, “Well, I guess I’d have to answer with John 3:16,--For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

I don’t know about you but I think President Reagan gave the perfect answer because our only hope of heaven is through the Lord Jesus Christ.

One of our most beloved hymns puts it this way;

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood & righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

In 1952, a young girl stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island determined to swim from it to the shore of the state of California. She was an award winning swimmer but on this day it was so cold & foggy she could hardly see the boats that were around her accompanying her on the journey. The young lady swam & swam but after 15 hours she’d had enough & could take no more. She asked to be taken out of the water.

She cried, “Mother, get me out” & her mother told her she was very, very close to the shore & she could make it if she just kept going. Finally the girl was emotionally, mentally & physically exhausted & she had to be winched out of the water. It wasn’t until she got into the boat that she discovered that the shoreline was less than half a mile away. At the news conference the next day she was crestfallen as she said; “All I could see was the fog, I think if I could have seen the shore I would have made it.”

Do you see the shore, believer? Do you have a glimpse of Glory? The old song says, “Just one glimpse of Him in Glory- will the toils of life repay.”

The Apostle Paul was taken up into heaven & the things he saw & heard were so astounding it took him 14 years before he ever brought it up again. It was so amazing, so astounding & so spectacular, that he just kept it between him & God.-2 Cor.12:1-4

Paul knew what he was talking about when he exclaimed;

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for them that love him….
1. Cor.2:9


Blessings,


John