Free Ride?

Read James 4

A long time ago while I was still in high school, a song called Free Ride by the Edgar Winter Group was near the top of the charts.  It had a good tune, but you didn’t give much pause as you sang along with the lyrics.

The mountain is high

The valley is low

And you're confused on which way to go

So I've come here to give you a hand

And lead you into the promised land

So (ooh, ooh, ooh) come on and take a free ride (free ride)

(ooh, ooh, ooh) Come on and sit here by my side (ooh, ooh, ooh) Come on and take a free ride

All over the country

I'm seeing it the same

Nobody's winning at this kind of game

We gotta do better it's time to begin

You know all the answers must come from within

So (ooh, ooh, ooh) come on and take a free ride

Come on and take a free ride.  It’s a catchy tune but it is also the theology of many Christians.  This whole grace business is just a free ride.  The gift is free but the ride that follows the gift should be another thing altogether.

What follows must be purposeful, deliberate, and intentional.  We are living for God and we are doing it on purpose.  The gift of life is all from God.  It is free when we receive Jesus as Lord.

The life that follows is about bringing glory to God with every breath!  We no longer just exist.  We are no longer in league with the enemy.

We have been here before.  Are we a friend of God or a friend of the world?  James says that you can’t have it both ways.

If you love the world, then you hate God—you make yourself into his enemy.  How can you do this?  While we were God’s enemies, he sent Christ to die for us.

Do we just say, That’s cool?  My sins are forgiven, now I can live it up like the rest of the world does?

Once again, we find that James is not the Lone Ranger in his challenges to us.  Paul challenged his readers to comprehend grace.

What shall we say then, shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound even more?

This was a rhetorical question.  It required no answer.  The answer was obviously no.  But considering the sinful nature of humankind, Paul answered his own question nonetheless.

His answer was: No, nadda, by no means!  Don’t you know we gave up all of that!

James is on this same track.  Why do you who claim Jesus as your Lord still have fights and quarrels?  It is because your sinful human nature is still with you.  You struggle internally because you can’t decide if you want to belong to God or to the world.

God placed a spirit within us when humankind was created.  That spirit always longs for God but sometimes settles for less.  That spirit finds satisfaction, companionship, fulfillment in the world.  We become a friend of the world, knowing that the world never truly reciprocates.

The world cannot truly be our friend and our satisfaction level is never quite what it was designed to be, but we settle for what the world has to offer.  We accept the world’s friendship.

We want the grace and forgiveness of God and the Free Ride through life as a friend of the world.  Here is the theological term for that:  That dog don’t hunt.

Once we received Christ as our Lord and Savior, we drew a line in the sand.  The devil, our sinful nature, and friendship with the world were on one side and we as a disciple of Jesus Christ on the other.

So we are up against the devil, our sinful nature, and the patterns of the world.  That’s a tough battle.  It might seem like we are surrounded. 

We are.  We are surrounded by our enemies.  Let me put this in Marinespeak.  We’ve got them just where we want them!  We can attack in any direction.

But how?  Resist the devil and he will flee!

Why would the devil flee?  C’mon, we’re surrounded.

We belong to Jesus and we know it with certainty.  We submit ourselves to God.  We don’t sit on the fence.  We are not double-minded.  We are his and his alone.  We are on the winning side.

That’s it?  That’s the plan of attack.  Every attack needs good logistics, so here you go:  Draw closer to God and he will draw closer to you.

Anything else?  Quit being the wave that is tossed about the sea.  Stop being double-minded.  Purify yourself!  Do the modern-day version of sackcloth and ashes.  Show God that you have repented of evil!

Instead of pointing fingers and throwing penalty flags at how other believers receive God’s grace and respond to it, realize that you are on the same team and your Leader is the Lord.  He alone will judge your response to his gift.

Once again, James is not the Lone Ranger.  Paul put it this way.  Who am I to judge another man’s servant?

We are humble before our Lord and ferocious before our enemies.  God opposes those whose strength is in themselves.

Where does that leave us as we consider this free gift of salvation?

We are a disciple.

We are a warrior.

We are a friend of God

We are growing in God’s grace.  The spirit within us from creation hungers to have the perfect relationship with the Spirit of God that lives within us now.

The gift is free.  The ride is full of challenges—struggles that might be received as adventures, which if we will recall from the very beginning, we should regard with joy for we are being made complete in Christ Jesus.

Amen!

Disturbing the Peace

Read Luke 16

Psalm 46

We have talked for some time now about God’s peace and living in God’s peace and knowing God’s peace even when the world is a mess.  We can have peace in the worst of circumstances.

We will have trouble in the world.  We can enjoy God’s peace in spite of and in the midst of that trouble.  We are growing in God’s grace and learning to live in his peace.

For us, peace is part of an abundant life. 

For some, peace is a part of existential tribulation.  For some, peace causes turmoil in the here and now. 

Whoa!  Hold your holy horses preacher!  How can peace bring turmoil and tribulation?

Many have made peace with the world.  The world is their friend.  The peace that they know is not the peace that our Lord gave us. 

The god of this age rules in their lives.  Many are blind.  Many know only the rules of the world.

If you have heard me preach for a few months or many years, you know that I don’t really have a hellfire and damnation sermon.  I could preach one, but it would be contrary to the ordination given to me.  I am educated enough to give you a Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God message and it would have fidelity with Jonathan Edward’s message by the same name.  It’s not that I don’t know how to give one. 

It is that they are not effective and use one of the primary tools of the enemy—fear.  People who come to profess their faith in Jesus through fear often are only professing their fear of hell.  Even the demons are not looking forward to that experience.

I am not talking about the fear of the Lord.  That’s a good thing and the starting blocks for greater things.  I am talking about coming to Jesus out of the fear of hell.  That’s the road most traveled in too many places and the road that ends before reaching discipleship.

And there are many who are not blind but still live by the rules of the world.  They may have even professed their faith in Jesus but do not trust him with their lives.  They believe but don’t trust. 

These are people whom we know.  These are people whom we help.  These are people who may pray every day but have not trusted the Lord with anything important for a single day.

These are people that want the salvation of the Lord and likely have received it.  Only the Lord knows if they indeed professed their faith—that they professed aloud that Jesus is Lord and believe with their hearts that God raised him from the dead.

They want their salvation from the Lord, but they seek their peace in the world.  We talked before about Jesus bringing a sword.  We have entered the third millennium since the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  We are approaching the beginning of the third millennia since he ascended into heaven and the world has made a lot of friends. 

I don’t know the day and the hour but I suspect the axe is at the root of the tree.  Surely the time is near when God’s Spirit will be poured out.  Surely we who follow Jesus must make the most of every opportunity. 

Many do not know salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ but many others have professed their faith; yet both groups have united themselves to the world.  Both groups are friends of the world.  They seek their peace from the world.

Some have become friends of the world over time.  I have used this analogy for years.  It’s not my own.  It was around for decades before I employed it.  Leadership gurus, management analysists, and paradigm pioneers use it still today, as will your preacher.

Drop a frog into a pot of boiling water.  It jumps out of course.  But if you put another frog—it probably wouldn't be the same frog.  If you get thrown into a boiling pot once, you're not going to get caught by these crazy management analysts again.  If you put another frog into room temperature water, it will sit contently as you heat up the water one degree a minute until the frog boils to death. 

There are many Christians in this world boiling to death one degree at a time.  They are making peace with the world.  They are seeking the world’s peace.  They are vested in the world’s peace.

Many have received the salvation of the Lord but their response is to sin and sin profusely.  What shall we say then?  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound even more?

Paul was asking a rhetorical question, but he must have thought that some might take him up on this as a challenge, so he answered his own question with a resounding, “No!”

Have you seen the posts that pick on one group and sarcastically ask us to quit saying, “Could they get any more stupid?  They are taking it as a challenge.” 

It seems that some people today are doing the same with becoming a friend of the world.  We died with Christ.  We come to life in Christ.  We belong to Christ.  Why would we unite ourselves with the world when we belong to Christ?

The answer is that most of us do not, but we know so many who do.  Are we content to leave them in the peace of the world?

If the answer is no, how do we keep them from boiling to death?

The world is becoming busier by the minute.  The world demands more and more of you.  The psalmist proclaims, “Be still and know that I am God.”

The world says, “You don’t have time for that” as it turns up the temperature by another degree.

I look at parents today.  Sports take up big chunks of life.  You can’t not play.  You have to play every chance you get, or you kids will be left behind.

I look at technology today.  You can’t not be connected.  You can’t not play video games.  You can’t not miss a day checking posts.

I look at addiction today.  It seems like it used to just be alcohol.  Then it was alcohol and drugs.  Then it was pornography.  Then it was tobacco.  Then it was video games. 

I look at today’s world and see so many things and events and substances that offer friendship to us.  It’s not real friendship.  The world has no real friendship to give.

So many people will go through this life and will have known little else than busyness.  The sum total of their lives will be defined in one word:  busy.

Now, if that is us, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.  When we feel the peace of the Lord slipping away, we have the presence of mind to ask, “Am I becoming a friend of the world?”

We should have the efficacy to make the desired changes.  That is, we should know what to do and have the desire, initiative, and courage to do it.

What about those who have tied the knot with the world?  How do we reach them?  Do we try to scare the hell out of them, so they have peace?

What do we who believe in Christ, are doing our best to trust in the Lord, are working hard to be his disciples, and who enjoy the peace of the Lord to do?  What are we to do?

We could say, “I’m good.  Good luck buddy.”

We could throw a Bible at them and say, “Better get after it.”

We could sling some Bible verses at them.  That always works. 

We could bring them to worship and they could hear Tom preach.  That’s guaranteed to fix them!

What are we who have peace to do with those whom we know have made peace with the world?

We should do the very thing our Lord and Savior did.  What’s that?  Disturb the peace!

For all the Kangaroo Courts that Jesus went through before his execution, none could prove any charge against him.  Had the self-righteous prosecutors thought about it, they could have come up with the perfect charge:  Disturbing the Peace.

By his own words, he did not come to bring peace but a sword.  Jesus came to disturb the peace.  If you were friends with and at peace with the world, your world was about to be turned upside down, at least from your perspective.

Jesus came to give people a chance to get right-side up, but to do that he disturbed the peace that they had with the world.

So how should we disturb the peace?  Should we start making signs and working on ridiculous chants?  No!

We must shine as a light before people.  We put our very lives on display and the light that shines from us is love, hope, and peace.  There are other attributes, but for now let’s focus on peace.

Do you remember the psalm-like words of Isaiah?

You will keep in perfect peace

    those whose minds are steadfast,

    because they trust in you.

Trust in the Lord forever,

    for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.

When our minds are steadfast in the Lord, when our thoughts always have the Lord first, when our thinking comes from the mind of Christ and not our own understanding, then we have peace.

Then we trust fully in the Lord.  We seek his kingdom and his righteousness first and we are blessed to be called his own. 

We love when the world says get even.

We help when the world says walk on by.

We return love for hate.

We have peace that goes beyond human understanding.  And in so doing, we disturb the peace that people have made with the world.

We are not screaming at people.  We are not constantly reminding people that they are going to hell.  We are living a life of love and of hope and of peace in spite of this world’s demands, and some people who have become good friends with the world and its ways see this and wonder.

Wonder what?

How are these people at peace in the middle of chaos?

How are these people generous when they make less than I do, and I am stressed over money all the time?

How are these people compassionate when others are hateful towards them?

Just what do these people have that I don’t?

That’s where the conversation begins.  That’s where in conversational exchange and gentle words we reveal the love and hope and peace that we know.

That’s when we remind people that we are friends of God—the one true God who has loves us with an everlasting love—and not friends of the world.  We stand firm.  We don’t waffle.  This is who we are, and we are not interested in being a friend of the world.

We tell our neighbors that we will be their friend but not a friend of the world.  We remind them that being their friend might disturb the peace that they have with the world.  Realize that we might not get invited to all of the birthday parties anymore.

When people wonder what’s up with us, that’s when we humbly explain that while we have financial challenges, we are at peace because we are master of our money.  We are master in this relationship.

That’s when we take a risk and become a bit vulnerable and let these friends of the world know that we too face similar challenges, but we have learned to trust in the Lord and be a part of a mutual support network known as the body of Christ, and we have received his peace.

That’s when we tell them face-to-face—remember that speaking the truth in love is an indicator of our maturity—that our prayer for them might not be their prayer for themselves.  We are praying that their peace with the world is shaken beyond belief.

We pray that the grip the god of this age has on them gives way to the truth that they come to know that not only salvation comes through Christ alone but that true peace comes through him as well.

We look them in the eye and tell them that we have come to disturb the peace they have with this world and help them find true peace in Christ Jesus.  We are not condescending.  We are not judgmental.  We are commissioned to make disciples.

We are not commissioned to save people.  That’s the work of the Holy Spirit, but we are commissioned to take the gospel to the world, make disciples, and teach others what Jesus taught us.

So many in this world have professed their faith at some point in their lives but have not taken a single step in discipleship.  Instead of following Jesus wherever he leads and receiving his peace, not because of our circumstances but because of our faithfulness to him, they have made peace with the world.

Do you remember God’s instructions to his people as they prepared themselves for war while in the wilderness?  One day they would enter the land promised to them.  They might negotiate peace with cities outside of the Promised Land, but once they were claiming this land, they were to leave no breathing thing.

This sounds harsh, but God is a jealous God and any ungodly people still left in the land would corrupt his own people and steer them away from the laws that he gave them.

Today, we must not be a friend of the world if Jesus is our Savior and our Lord.  Consider these simple dichotomies.

Friend of the world or friend of God?

Make peace with the world or receive God’s peace?

Trust in the world or trust in the Lord?

Not everyone will be happy with us speaking the truth.  Many only want to hear what they want to hear and have no problem omitting or redacting the truth.  Disturbing the peace is not the most direct route to acceptance in the world, but we are only temporary residents here.

Consider Gideon.  God called him to tear down the altar to Baal and destroy the Asherah poles.  He did and the people wanted him to pay for it.  So the people came to Gideon’s father and demanded that he turn over his son so that he could be put to death for offending Baal.

Joash, Gideon’s father told the people that if Baal is indeed a god, then he can take care of this himself.  From that point on, Gideon was known as Jerub-Baal, meaning let Baal contend with him.

Are we afraid today that we will offend Baal if we destroy his altars and smash the Asherah poles of our day?  Exactly who are we afraid of offending with the truth?

We are not talking about pulling down statues as seems to be the fad these days.  We are talking about a different sort of confrontation. We take down false arguments.  We speak the truth.  We lead people to see a house build on sand that needs to be firmly affixed to solid rock.

The truth is that you cannot be a friend of God and a friend of the world.  You are not going to enjoy God’s peace if you have made peace with the world.

You know that, but do your neighbors?  Isn’t time that we disturbed the peace?  Isn’t it time that we loved our neighbors enough to disturb the peace that they have made with the world.    

How?

Our example must be so godly that it disturbs the peace of those who love the world more than God.

Our language must be so purposeful that it says as for me and my house we serve the Lord even when talking about the football game.

We must be thankful and full of hope even in our worst trials, so people know that our strength comes from the Lord. 

And our love takes center stage.  They will know we follow Jesus by our love.  We disturb the peace people have made with the world by our love. 

Let’s disturb the peace.

Amen! 

Parable: The Rich Man and Lazarus

Read Luke 16:19-31

God is good.

Sin is not.

Please choose wisely.

Because Hell is hot.

Hmmm…

Let’s start this parable with a couple of agreements.  First, we will not define what we think we know about heaven and hell by this parable.  There are some things that just don’t’ fit well if we get too literal here.

First, conversation between the two places seems a little farfetched.  How can God wipe every tear from our eyes if we can look on those in torment?  Could one drop of water really provide relief? Does our Spirit go to a temporary holding area—Abraham’s bosom—or are we with Jesus when these clay vessels that encase our spirit turn to dust?

Second, neither riches nor poverty define the heart of a person.  Don’t read or listen to this parable and think that if I have some money, then I am going to hell.  Surely, don’t think if you have little of anything that means you are on your way to heaven.

Please do not view this parable with a scarcity mentality.  What’s that?  There is only so much good to go around.  If I use it all up now, there won’t be any later.  Because you had good things in this life, there isn’t enough for you to have good things in the next.  Our God is an abundant and a generous God.  He is not going to run out of anything that he has stored up for us since the creation of the world.

Some of the very rich are among the most generous people we know; and some of the poorest do not long for God’s kingdom but for the riches of this age.  This parable doesn’t seem to be about having wealth.  That said, Jesus did remind his followers that it is very difficult for a rich person to enter his Father’s Kingdom.

Most of us find ourselves somewhere in the middle when it comes to wealth, at least by local standards.  We have what we need to meet our daily requirements, and usually enough to help others.  We are blessed to be a blessing.

Jesus uses extreme contrast here.  A very rich man had everything he wanted every day.  A man named Lazarus suffered every day and hoped for scraps from the rich man’s table.  He had sores on his body.  He was surely in pain and suffering.

Lazarus certainly had some friends or family.  Someone placed him at the gate of the rich man.

At this point we have no indication of the heart of either man, but Lazarus ended up in Abraham’s bosom and the rich man—yet unnamed—was found in torment.  What happens next gives us insight into the heart of the rich man.

As it turns out, Lazarus who is identified by name, has no speaking parts.

The rich man wants relief.  He asks Abraham to send Lazarus to him with water to cool his tongue.  There is no confession or repentance.  The man simply wants relief from his situation.  

Welcome to 90% of the conversations that I have with people who need help but do not belong to a church body.  I just want someone to take care of my immediate problem.  I don’t have time to consider my eternal situation.

This man just wants a little cool water, even a drop.  It is a very conservative request.  I would have at least asked for a Route 44 cherry limeade.

Lazarus is right there with Father Abraham.  Why not send him?  He’s just some ole beggar with nothing better to do.  Surely, you could spare him for this errand.

The reply is that you have already enjoyed the good things.  Much is not said here.  There is no admonishment for not using wealth to bless others.  There is no counsel on wisdom.  There is no statement of why the man is condemned.  There is no further explanation.

Some logistics are explained, namely, you can’t get there from here or vice versa.  So the bottom line is that you are stuck where you are and in the situation in which you now find yourself.

Now, for the first time, we see this rich man think of someone other than himself.  He is concerned that his brothers will end up where he is.  Please, please, pretty please send Lazarus to my father’s house.  If he can’t get here, at least send him back to the living with a message for my family.

The answer is that your family has everything they need to make good choices.  They have Moses and the prophets.

But, but, but if someone from the dead would come to them with a message, they would surely repent.  Now we see that the rich man knew that he had not lived well and should have repented.  His pleas were for his brothers now, but in these pleas is the revelation that the rich man knew he had chosen to be a friend of the world with his wealth.

The answer hits very hard.  If your brothers did not have ears to hear Moses and the prophets, someone risen from the dead with a message of life isn’t going to phase them either.

At this point, the story jumps from parable to prophecy but only Jesus knows that.  He is not really talking about the Lazarus in the parable, or even the one that he would raise from the dead in the 11^th chapter of John, though at that point some people might have recalled this parable.

This foretells the conditions of so many people’s hearts when Jesus was raised from death.  This is about so many people being friends of the world.

C’mon now, someone risen from the dead would get everyone’s attention, right?

Right?

Consider the moments before the resurrected Jesus ascended into heaven.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

Some doubted?

Consider these last few parables.  They were given to many, but among those listening were the Pharisees.  The Pharisees liked money.  They liked the social order of the day.  They liked many things of this world, but they didn’t like the parables of Jesus.  They didn’t like Jesus.

Somehow, each of these parables put the Pharisees at odds with Jesus and what he said was right.

The scriptures between the two parables in this chapter mention how the Pharisees loved money and that now people were entering into the Kingdom of Heaven.  These words said that the law is coming to its fulfilment. 

The next thing you know, Jesus has told a parable about a rich man, who had everything he needed being tormented in Hades.  In a moment, everything changed for two men.

Jesus taught that the one who has believed in him has already passed from death to life.  There is no torment for us, but we minister to a world that will neither see nor hear.  So many refuse to hear the words of life.

They discard the Law of Moses.  People argue about the Decalogue but most don’t know what half of these most basic directives say.  They might argue to keep them on display somewhere or to take them down, but the messages contained in the decalogue are not registering with most people.

They become deaf to the prophets.  Today, if you want to hear what the ancient prophets said, you have to read your Bible.  If you want an immediate message from God, you might need to find your way to a church building.

Even the One who was God in the flesh who suffered and died and bled for our sins; yet rose again, does not register with them.

Jesus defeated death.  He defeated the grave.  He has the gift of life for us but so many are tuned out.

This parable very much takes on the same subject and attitudes as the one which precedes it.  Are we a friend of God or a friend of the world?

What is first in our lives?  I think most people tuned in right now know that God should be first.  God, his kingdom, his righteousness should be first.

But is he?

How can we who are rich by the world’s standards—and we are all rich by the world’s standards—not become a friend of the world? 

I have moved beyond the basic context of this parable to something at the heart of it.  I am talking to the saved, believers, people who said earnestly, “I have decided to follow Jesus.”

How can we not become friends of the world when have most everything that we want most every day?  That’s a very broad question, but I offer some narrow answers.

Believe—With your heart, soul, mind, and everything that makes you who you are, believe that God loves you and that his great love sent his Son into the world to die and take away our sins.  Believe that God raised him from the dead.  Believe that God’s own Spirit lives within us.

Tithe—Give ten percent to God before everything else.  Tithe means tenth.  Put him first in this.  This is perhaps the biggest truth-teller as to whether or not we are a friend of God or of the world.  Remember that Jesus said if we put God and his kingdom first that he will gives us all those things that the ungodly world seeks after—has made into their gods.  Here is a validation of that promise.  I—and none of the other preachers in this town—have ever had a tither seek monetary assistance from the church.  Why?  God provides.

You might ask, “How did we get from a parable that on the surface seems to be about heaven and hell, to the tithe?”  Remember, these areas are something of a litmus test to see if we are a friend of God or a friend of the world.

Pray—Daily with much time given to listening to what God has to say.  Don’t say “Amen” after you give God your laundry list of requests.  Listen for what he has to say to you.  Think on this.  Are we interested in what God has to say to us or do we just want our requests filled?  Is God our vending machine or our friend?

Read—God’s holy word is alive and active.  If you want God to be first in your life, put reading his word ahead of the newspaper or email or Facebook or whatever television series has you hooked.  Hey, I read my verse for 2 minutes this morning.  I’m good!  Maybe that works, but let’s try this to test that theory.  Try breathing for only 2 minutes all day.

Give—Wait a minute, you already mentioned the tithe.  Give beyond the tithe of you time, talents, and treasure.  It is all from God but will you use it exclusively to satisfy your personal desires or will you take that which has been given to you as a blessing and be a blessing to others.

Serve—In these parts we call this God’s love in action.  Do something for someone because you love God.  You may not like the person whom you help but you love God and will consummate his command to love one another. 

There is nothing in this short list that is new to anyone.  The list could be longer, but this puts us in the framework of knowing if God comes first in my life.  Am I living as God’s friend or as a friend of the world?

Do I believe with all that I am that God will never stop loving me?  Do I trust him enough to tithe?  Am I interested in what God has to say to me in my prayer time and in my reading time.

Do I give?  Do I serve?

If these things come more and more naturally, then do not be concerned if you receive greater and greater wealth.  You have placed God first in your life.  God, not the world, is your friend.

If you struggle with these, beware of receiving more and more wealth.  You are susceptible to becoming a friend of the world. How many people do you know that struggled for a while financially, did not have God first in their lives, came into a sum of money, and somehow ended up worse than they were before?

How does this happen?  The world, not God, is their friend.  Sure, they might throw a few dollars the church’s way when they hit a windfall, much like you would tip a waiter at a self-service buffet.

Jesus told a parable that put our daily lifestyle into an eternal context.  Is it all about us or all about God?  We who have followed Jesus for years, perhaps even decades know that you cannot out give God.  We are not really putting anything of eternal value at risk when we go all in with God.

The more you put him first in your life, the more he blesses you.  

Sometimes those blessings come after a time of trial or suffering, but his blessings do come.

The psalmist wrote that sorrow may last for the night but joy comes in the morning.  Our night and morning may not always be a 24-hour cycle, but joy comes for the faithful, for those who put God first in all things, for those who know God, not the world, is the only friend they need.

We could read this parable and argue over how hot hell is.  We could, but it would be to no productive end.  You are a friend of God and not a friend of the world.

Of all the things that you will know when this life is done, the temperature of hell is not likely to be among them.  If you have to know, you can look it up in heaven’s library because you will not know it first hand.

You are a friend of God and not of the world!

You take what you have been blessed with and use so much of it to bless others.  While you are rich by the standards of the world; you are not the rich man in this parable.

You know that the trials and sufferings of this age are temporary.

You know that sorrow and pain will not last.  Joy does come in the morning.

There will be a morning when we will all be celebrating.

We will not be able to see those who have perished.  If you have concerns about those who are perishing, do something now.

We will have no more tears.

And because we have lived this life as a friend of God and not as a friend of the world, we will have no regrets over any blessing that we have received.

We have believed Moses and the prophets and put our trust in the One that God raised from the dead.

We are a friend of God and not of the world!

Amen!