Where Do I Find My Faith?

Over the past two weeks, my FaceBook inbox, my email inbox and many comments left on my Facebook feed have all begun to point at one main question.  “Where is my faith?”  Or “Where can I find peace.”   Is it possible?  And the answer is “Absolutely.”  I know that many others are talking about it, but for the sake of my friends who are asking, I’d like to take a stab at it.

First of all, I think many of us get confused when we hear the word faith.  Where is it found and what is it?  Well, it’s found in the dictionary, which is where most people would logically start.  Oxford defines it this way:

faith | fāTH |

noun

1 complete trust or confidence in someone or something: this restores one's faith in politicians.

2 strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof: bereaved people who have shown supreme faith.

• a system of religious belief: the Christian faith.

• a strongly held belief or theory: the faith that life will expand until it fills the universe.

It starts out good by saying, “complete trust or confidence in someone or something”, but then goes downhill when it mentions politicians.  Then we see “strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion” but then we see stuff like “based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.”  The we see “a system of religious belief, and Strongly held belief or theory.”  And none of those are really helpful in restoring my faith.  No wonder we are confused.  I don’t want a faith that is simply based on my spiritual apprehensions or blind trust or simply chanting the mantra, “I believe, I believe” over and over as if God were Santa Claus and I really want to see him at Christmas. 

Here’s the problem.  While the dictionary can take a great stab at defining it, the type of faith we are talking about is not centered in a system or doctrines or even just strongly believing and hoping.  None of those is where true faith lies.

True faith lies in a relationship with a Person.  And the funny thing about relationships is that you can never really prove that they exist, you can only give evidence of them existing.  For instance, I can say that my wife, Sandy, loves me.  But I can’t prove it.  I can believe it to be so.  I can hope it to be so. But I can only point to the evidence of that love.  She treats me nice.  She continues to stay with me after almost 40 years.  She cooks and cleans for me.  She says nice things, etc.  But all of those are not proof—only evidence.  

Each of you could point to examples where the above evidences were only in place until that person could gain what they wanted or something of greater importance to them.  Let’s look at them one at a time.

“She treats me nice”...you already know intuitively that people can treat you nice because they want something from you.  So that is not necessarily a proof of love. “She continues to stay with me”...maybe she has no where else to go and she is comfortable with the lifestyle.  “She cooks and cleans.”  Could be she just sees that as a trade-off for a roof over her head and some groceries.  “She says nice things”...maybe she doesn’t want to mess up her good gig.  

So you can’t point to any of those and say you have conclusive proof.  BUT...if I take all of those pieces of evidence and put those together, and combine that with the ongoing nature of such evidences, I can conclude that my wife loves me.

Nice, Pastor, but I still haven’t found my faith.  Ok.  Since we are talking about God, why not see how HE defines faith. And since the Bible is His self-revelation to us, let’s see what it says.

In Romans 10, Paul points out that the Jewish people were having some of the same struggles that we have when it comes to walking in faith.  

Romans 10:1    Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. 2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

Here is often where we get stuck.  We want to know God.  We want to follow Him.  We want to have faith in Him, but we don’t understand God’s way of making people right with Himself.  Why is that?  Because many well-meaning people in our past have obscured it with well meaning words and rituals and practices that hinder a true view of Jesus.

In my faith tradition, especially during my youth, we often confused a relationship with Jesus with following of rules to help us live better lives.  Nothing wrong with the rules per se, but it caused me to miss Jesus, the person I need to have faith in, as I focused on being a good member of my church community.   And, as I am friends now with clergy from many other denominations, our comparing notes has led me to conclude that most of them have had a similar time in their history where following rules was more important than following Jesus.  

So does that mean they were bad people?  No.  I believe they were wanting to follow Jesus, but simply bought into what someone else had told them they needed to do, ultimately leading to a type of legalism in the church.  And in their misguided zeal, the true picture of God was marred and many were led to conclude, “well if God is like that then...”   The problem with that conclusion is that the premise was never challenged.  If God is like that.  Perhaps instead, we should have asked, “Is God really like that?”  And then gone looking in Scripture for the answer.

Other things that keep us from understanding God’s ways are expectations that we have learned or deduced or heard that may or may not be true.  I had such expectations when my dad got cancer and then consequently died while I was begging God to spare his life.  It really made me question if I could remain a minister.  I mean, why minister to the goodness of a God that you suddenly didn’t feel was so good?  If you are interested in reading that story, it’s here on my blog from a few years back.

I have realized in the ensuing years that the devil can create a lot of misunderstood passages and misguided expectations that can lead us to the wrong conclusions, and when we don’t get the desired outcome, he can twist our consequent pain into a blaming of God and an anger at Him that is neither accurate nor deserved.

I prayed and believed and nothing happened...therefore God doesn’t care and He can no longer be trusted.  It spirals downward from there.  God could have done something but He didn’t so I hate Him!  And on we go, spiraling away from where the only real hope is found.

So what does God look like?And how do I find my faith?  The simple answer is God...looks like Jesus. Notice this question and Jesus’ answer in John 14:8,9   Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9   Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 

John 1 calls Jesus “The Word”.  Starting in verse 1 of John 1 we read:  

1 In the beginning the Word already existed.

The Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

²  He existed in the beginning with God.

³  God created everything through him,

and nothing was created except through him.

⁴  The Word gave life to everything that was created,^a

and his life brought light to everyone.

⁵  The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness can never extinguish it.^a

John is saying that Jesus IS God and Jesus was basically saying to His disciples, if you want to see what God is like, look at Me.  Watch Me.  Hang out with Me and I will show you a pure undistorted picture of what God is like and what we want for you!

So, how did Jesus treat people? Matt. 14:14 Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.   Over an over we see that Jesus led with compassion.

How did He deal with those that made mistakes?  Read the story in John 8:1-11 of the woman caught in the very act of adultery and then read the ending.  You will see Jesus response.  

John 8: ⁷ They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” ⁸ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

v.9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. ¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

v.11    “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

And of course most people have heard the greatest statement about what God is like in John 3:16…but don’t often read what John 3:17 says.  And John 3:17 was the continuation of Jesus’ thought when he was talking to Nicodemus.  Check this out.

John 3:16    “For this is how God loved the world: He gave^a his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 

Yep…that’s the part I’ve heard.  But let Jesus continue that thought.

¹⁷ God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

One of the biggest lies that Satan has perpetrated through the centuries is that God hates you and is just sitting up there trying to catch you doing something wrong.  But Jesus didn’t come to judge the world…but to save it.  That means that God wants you to be saved more than you can ever even have the desire to be saved.  He won’t be throwing obstacles in your path.  The devil does that.  Jesus calmly, relentlessly pursues us as we continue to look at the distorted picture of Him that Satan has been pushing ever since the Garden.

All that is required of us is to see a picture of Jesus/God who loves us, wants to save and redeem us and who continues to pursue our hearts in love, and then simply stop and respond in returned love.

Here’s the capstone verse, in my opinion: 

1John 5:11   And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. 13    I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. 

So the questions on the road to faith that we each have to answer are these: Do I have the Son of God in my life?  Have I accepted His forgiveness and am I willing to take the next step of faith that He lays out for me?

Don't Forget Compassion!

Have you noticed that the worst part of this coronavirus thing is the mental game. That's where the most agony lies, because let’s be honest…aside from not being able to find toilet paper on the shelves, for most of us, technically our lives haven’t actually been changed a whole lot.  Sure, our routines are changing daily from what we would “normally” do.  Normally, we wouldn’t be glued to a 24-hour news cycle while wringing our hands in anxious dread and hoping and praying that we don’t get the Covid-19 virus.

Normally, we don’t give a second thought to jumping in the car and heading to a place where hundreds or even thousands of people are gathered; a movie theater, a ball game, or the mall.  Now we have fewer options to choose from, amid the growing cry of social distancing.  And the more isolated we become, the more we are glued to our devices for news and more news—all bad—as we simply “wait it out.”

But in reality…most of us are still healthy.  Still have homes.  Still have family that love us.  Still have jobs.  That hasn’t changed for most of us…yet we are already living as if it had.  We are already acting like animals with a survival of the fittest mentality, making sure that we are the ones with the most stock-piled to last the longest.

Am I saying that we should act as if everything is fine?  No.  We should be cautious and do our due diligence.  But we have to guard the very epicenter of our souls if we are to come through this thing with our humanity intact, as well as our own mental health.

The wisest man who ever lived said this back in the day.  

NIV Prov. 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. 

The New Living Translation even says it better.

Prov. 4:23    Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Great, Pastor Don…so what exactly does that mean?  It means that, as a human being, your life and actions will always be determined by what you harbor in your heart.

If you allow your heart to grow fearful, and you harbor anxiety and worry as a full-time companion, your ability to be totally human will begin to diminish, and acting towards others with graciousness and love will become extremely difficult.  

In fact, if you allow fear to dwell, you will succumb to a survival of the fittest mentality and you will do things that you currently despise in others.  When selfishness rules the day,  the heart shrivels to a hard callous, as the lives of others grow cheaper in comparison to the big “I”.  Without saying it, our lives broadcast the message, “You are not nearly so important as I, and I will do everything I can to make sure that I survive, even if you don’t!”

If you are a Christian, then recognize that this is the very mindset that Christ calls you away from…not just when times are easy and because you have compassion to spare, but precisely when times get difficult and the rest of the world has swept the shelves bare of everything to give them the best chance of survival.  Recognize that Christ is calling you to demonstrate the difference, not because it’s easy, but because it is hard and in fact, is counter-intuitive to what the world is doing. I believe it was for times like the ones we find ourselves living in that he said, in John 13:35 “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples.”

There are some who would call that insane.  There are others who will sit up and take notice of the difference.  Christians through the ages have always waded into the mire to be difference makers.  To rescue others.  To lift up the discouraged.  To be the hands and feet of Jesus to a world that is dying without Him.  Not because it was easy, but because it was a hard thing, yet the right thing, to do.  It is the hard thing…but it is always the thing that makes us more human, more in the image of the God we claimed to be created by.

Again, I’m not saying be stupid. Be cautious, take precautions…but don’t lose your compassion.  Don’t allow fear to shrivel your heart.  Instead recognize that we can live this way because we have a different focus.  A different perspective.  We understand that this world is not all there is.  We know that we are just traveling through and that one day, sooner or later, we will all die here.  It all ends the same here, no matter the cause.  We die.  Car accidents, plane crashes, homicide, suicide, war casualty, heart attack, stroke, cancer or corona virus.  We can’t outrun death forever.  But even as we face death, we recognize that death simply doesn’t have the final word.  It’s only a temporary stop on the way to eternity.  

Our hope is not in this world and in the mess we have here.  Our hope is in a person, Jesus, and He is of another world and because of this fact, we recognize that it is far more important to be eternally safe than it is to be physically safe here.  So instead, we set our sights on a better world.  A better kingdom free of the junk we deal with down here.  

The book of Revelation describes it for us: Rev. 21:1   Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Rev. 21:3   I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.^a 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Rev. 21:5   And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”

That’s what makes a difference in how I can live through the uncertainty of the next few weeks.  I’m not looking to just survive…but to thrive…for eternity.  I write this, not as a young, healthy, not-much-to-worry-about-from-this-virus person, but as one who has been identified as a high-risk, potential casualty should I contract it.  And yes, I’m taking the prescribed precautions, but I will not let a virus rob me of my humanity.  I will seek to reach out, even if it is from my keyboard to your screen.  I will seek to encourage you.  I will continue to pray for you. And I will seek to remind you that this world is not our home.  And I hope you do the same for me.

Heb. 12:1,2    Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. ² We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.^a Because of the joy^b awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Allowing God's Love Song to Dissolve Your Past

Haunted by your past?  Can't seem to shake it?  You aren't alone, you know.  It's  happened before.

Go to the well of Samaria in John 4 and see the search of a woman trying to escape her past and hear the Song of God's Love in response to her life. Religion has told the Samaritan woman about the possibility of a Messiah, and then she meets the real Messiah, who immediately recognizes her thirst and offers her the living water of His grace.

What this woman expects from the Messiah is a lengthy critique of her life, or an enlightening lecture on what she should do or a justifiable reminder of the consequences of her destructive choices on others. What she receives instead is compassion, gentleness, kindness and a way out of the ruins of her life. She hears God’s love song for her. Jesus goes straight for her longings, finds them and, in the process finds her. And in so doing, His love song liberates her from her past.

After her conversation with Jesus, the woman at the well is just beginning a whole new way of living, but none of the facts of her life have changed! She is still living with a man who is not her husband. She still has been divorced 5 times. Her reputation is still a disaster. Jesus often told people not to tell anyone what He had done for them, but not this woman.

Her faith is only a few minutes old and already she becomes an evangelist with a huge impact on her community. What does she say? Not much. “Uh….come see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done.” Everyone in town knows what this woman has done. Big deal. What she says is not the point. The fact that she can talk about her shameful past publicly is what grabs their attention.

Her words are few and seemingly insignificant, but her saying them is very significant. In effect she says, “I know you know who I am, but I just met a person who liberated me from my past, my reputation, and I am no longer the person you think I am. I am no longer hostage to my bad choices. I am free!”

Still, nothing has changed. But everything has changed. Her neighbors can hear it in her voice and see it in her eyes. Her words are all they need to race to the man she describes. For reasons they don’t understand, who this woman is now seems more relevant than who she was then.

The implications for us are almost overwhelming. Those of us who want to move on from our past, those who have come to the end of the road, can start with our unchanged life, now. We don’t have to wait until we are “mature.” We don’t have to move to a new town or convince others we are serious; we simply start. We begin. We hear God’s Love Song and respond. We take the first bumbling, stumbling, teetering steps toward the spiritual life, even if we are not very good at it.

What a gift of God.  To leave the past in the past.  And as we continue to tune into the Song of Love and allow it to permeate our guilt-ridden hearts, our very lives begin to change and a daily new beginning will allow that past to melt into the story of our lives, where it has meaning and significance but no power to harm us anymore.  It simply is the setting to show off still another example of God's Amazing Grace.

When You are Stuck in the Prison of Your Soul or I HATE to WAIT!!!

Genesis 41:1 "Two years passed…” After Joseph had interpreted the dreams of the baker and butler and the butler had been restored to his job, promising Joseph that if it all came true he would tell Pharaoh about him, the butler was reinstated and then...promptly forgot about Joseph—so the next verse starts with “Two years passed…” Two years! PASSED! While Joseph sat in prison!

Interesting that the Bible inserts those words. Two years passed. We have nothing recorded about Joseph’s life during those two years. We can only assume that it was lived the way the previous years had been lived because of what we see AFTER the two years. How had he lived? Gen 39: 20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. 22 Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. 23 The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.

"But I don’t LIKE to wait." Neither did Joseph. "Well, if my story ended up like Joseph’s I wouldn’t mind the waiting so much." Joseph had NO CLUE how his story would end up. He just found himself stuck in “wait” mode. He must have wondered a million times if he would ever get out of prison and be able to fulfill some of his goals and dreams for his life…even if they were to be spent as a slave. He could at least work to be head of the household.

No. I think Joseph must have gotten pretty tired of the waiting. Two years passed. Two years! But God hadn’t forgotten about Joseph. He had greater plans and Joseph’s character would have to be equal to the task. Like a blacksmith forging his iron, or a glassblower who knows just exactly when to take the glass out of the flames, God knew what it would take to bring Joseph’s character to be strengthened equal to the task. He knew that Joseph would have to be able to wield power carefully. God knew that Joseph would have to be kind. He knew that Joseph would need to be wise and that ultimately, Joseph would be able to preserve his family instead of annihilate them because of unresolved hatred. God knew that Joseph would have to be able to forgive.

So maybe you find yourself in the waiting period. Nothing seems to be moving. Your career. Stuck. Your passion. Gone. Relationships. Stagnate. Two years pass. Maybe 5. And you wait. And wait. How do you deal with the wait?

I have been there. Waiting. My soul passionless. Sometimes even the food I ate tasting bland and grey. No aliveness in my soul nor song in my heart. Unable to feel all but the strongest of emotions: mainly anger. Waiting and praying that God would somehow, someway deliver me from the prison of myself. My job as a pastor was crushing at times, seeking to bring hope to those that God brought to me while the grey in my soul was eating me alive. Week after week, month after month, year after year, writing sermons, counseling, giving Bible studies, planning and executing mission trips to Appalachia, seeking to keep hope alive in my own soul and my spiritual nose above water.

To be sure, there were some times better than others. There were times when it seemed like I would be getting out of this soul prison. It would seem that the door were starting to finally swing open and new hope would spring forth, but just as quickly, something would happen that would slam the door in my face. The death of friends and family members through cancer, heart attacks, strokes, car accidents, plane crashes and sometimes, even old age, all of these stretched out on my life line to slam the cell door of my soul back in my face.

I read a story once, about Mother Theresa saying that she had gone 22 years without hearing a word from God. She called it her “dark night of the soul” experience. She was asked, “How in the world did you keep going when you felt God was so distant?” Her response stunned me. She reportedly answered, “I just kept going back to the last place I KNEW I heard God speaking to me and sought to be obedient to that."

So how do I endure the waiting, especially not knowing how long it will last? I think it is found in the same way. It is in my belief that God is in control and that it isn’t so much what happens to me, but IN ME, that matters. Somehow I keep going back to the time where I KNOW I heard God speaking to me distinctly and I, like Joseph, like Mother Theresa, seek to be obedient to that until I next hear God change my calling.

And so I continue to wait. Totally dependent upon Grace to help me administer grace to the graceless, hope to the hopeless, help me write sermons and give counsel and dispense wisdom that calls people back to God. Grace that gives me strength for the journey, not knowing if today I will be in the cell, or suddenly promoted to the palace. To be sure—I rest in HIS promise: 2Cor. 12:9 NLT Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

Two years passed… how will YOU wait?

Could you love a God like that?

Author Ken Gire wrote a series of books back in the 90’s that quickly became some of my favorites.  One of them is entitled Incredible Moments with the Savior.  I want to pull a story from that book and see if we can see things a bit differently. 

“Nain is a cozy community carved out of a rocky slope overlooking the valley of Jezreel.  It is springtime, and the valley is a sea of wind-blown grass, frothing with wildflowers; the air, redolent with the blossoms of fruit trees. 

But in the valley of this widow’s heart, it is the dead of winter.

Twice, death has reached its icy fingers into her family and wrenched loved ones from her.  First her husband.  Now her son.  Her only son.

For years she has faced an uncertain future. Now she faces it alone. With no one to hold her hand.  With no one to steady her steps.

No one to comfort her when she cries herself to sleep at night.  No one to wake up to in the morning.  No one to fix breakfast for.  No one to share the holy days, or the common days, or any days at all for that matter.  No one to grow old with.  And no one to look after her in the autumn of life.

No one.

Nothing remains but an empty shell of a house.  A house that years ago gave up waiting for a husband to come home from work.  And now, no longer waits for that husband’s son.

The sagging house is slumped in its own grief, retreating into itself, silent and still.  There are no sounds of animated talk that chronicle the day.  No ripples of laughter.  No late-night conversations.  Only quiet tributaries of grief running from room to room.

Bundled in her heart is a too-short stack of memories.  Not enough to cloak her from the chill of her present loneliness, let alone to keep her warm in her old age.

The open coffin leads the way to the cemetery outside of town.  Trailing in its wake is the weeping mother, relatives, close friends, and other mourners.  Interspersed throughout the procession are the melancholy, dove-like calls of flutes and the plaintive tinkling of cymbals.  A chorus of women chant their laments while men pray and plod along in silent vigil.

But at the same time this crowd is leaving Nain, another crowd is entering.  The one is following a coffin; the other is following Christ.  The one is filled with sorrow and despair; the other, with excitement and hope.

In respect for the dead the crowd following Jesus pulls back, allowing the funeral procession to thread its way through the gate. 

There, life and death stand on two distinct islands.  The bridge between the two is a mother’s grief, arching over a torrent of tears.

When Jesus sees the tears wrung from the mother’s heart, every thought that had preoccupied Him on His journey flees.  The whole of His attention focuses on this shattered woman.

All He knows is her desperation.  All He feels is her pain.  All He sees is her tears.

And those tears are the flame that melts his heart.

Jesus extends his hand to touch the coffin, and the procession lurches to a stop.  He isn’t concerned with protocol or etiquette or even with the fact that touching a coffin would render Him unclean in the eyes of the rabbinic law.  His only concern is for this desperate mother.

“Don’t cry.”

The words are not out of a textbook on pastoral care.  They seep from the cracks of a heart bursting with compassion.  Jesus turns to the woman’s son.

‘Young man, I say to you, get up.’

Two words to the bereaved, eight to the deceased.  But that is enough.  Enough to snatch a son from death’s pilfering hand and return him to the arms of his mother.

The young man sits up and talks!  What he says we are not told.  But surely one of the first words to stumble from his lips is ‘Mother’.

The miracle is an incredible display of the Savior’s power.  But there is something even more incredible about this auspicious meeting at the town gate.

This mother had not asked for a miracle.  She had not thrown herself at the Savior’s feet and begged for the life of her son.  She hadn’t demonstrated great faith.  In fact, she hadn’t demonstrated any faith at all.  As far as we know, she didn’t even know who Jesus was.

That is what is so incredible.

It’s a miracle done without human prompting.  Without thought of lessons to be taught to the disciples.  Without thought of deity to be demonstrated to skeptics.  It is a miracle drawn solely from the well of divine compassion.  So free the water.  So pure the heart from which it is drawn.  So tender the hand that cups it and brings it to this bereaved mother’s lips.”

 (Incredible Moments with the Savior, Ken Gire ©1990, Zondervan,  pp 41-45)

Let me ask you:  Could you love a God like that?  Would you not want to be near One who has already been moved by compassion at your plight?  He has already responded and provided a way for you to be reunited with your loved ones.  Already death has been conquered and only awaits divine Word before it must retreat and give up those it, even now, holds in its icy clutches.  When Jesus, who conquered death, gives the command, there is no power in heaven or hell that can hold back those who will respond to the call of the Conquerer.  I ask you again: Could you love a God like that?

The Return isn’t about the logistics, it’s about the Person.  It isn’t about knowing the facts, as important as they may be, but about knowing the One who, out of love, has already provided for us.  It’s about relationship.