Puzzle pieces

Today, in church, the pastor mentioned how many people just want things to get back to normal. I get it. 2020 hasn't been the greatest year for anybody. The pandemic has ruined plans for weddings and funerals and extended families just getting together. Businesses are closing, people have lost their jobs, we have to wear masks everywhere we go (if we go anywhere), and nothing is the same. Many, many people just want it fixed, so we can get back to the life we're used to. 

Many of the mandates in place right now are attempts to get us back to the way it was before, when there was no virus. Stop gathering. Stay six feet apart. Wear a mask. Clean and clean and clean. And wait for the vaccine that will bring back ordinary. 

I realized today that a great many people would accept things they would previously have considered intolerable or even impossible if it would just put our lives back together. If those things come with strings attached, well, that's just the price we have to pay, right?

How do you view the world in 2020? Is it coming apart, like a carefully constructed puzzle that somebody then dumped on the floor?  Do you feel like you had your life fairly ordered, the pieces fitting together, interlocking, and then someone put their fist through it? Even in a regular year, divorce, sickness, death, and unemployment can all feel like punches through through that jigsaw puzzle. Add in the events of 2020, and some people are barely holding together. And sadly, some have totally given up.

I would like to suggest a different way of looking at this whole situation. And, I would like to gently propose that setting your mind on getting back to normal, no matter the cost, may be a huge mistake, because the jigsaw puzzle is not coming apart. It's coming together.  

Piece by piece, the events of the world are falling into place, just like the Bible has long foretold. Sometimes, when you try to say this, you get accused of "newspaper theology." In other words, don't interpret the Bible based on what you see happening. I absolutely agree. Instead, you need to interpret what you see happening by what the Bible says. 

You might be surprised to realize that Jesus held the Jews of his time on earth accountable for failing to recognize prophecy being fulfilled. On the day of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus intentionally chose the exact day to fulfill Daniel 9:25-27 and did it riding on a donkey, just as Zechariah 9 said he would. Those people were supposed to realize prophecy was being fulfilled. 

As (Jesus) approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Luke 19: 41-44 

Why was Jerusalem destroyed and the temple burned and torn apart in 70 AD? Because the people of that city failed to recognize prophecy being fulfilled. Is prophecy being fulfilled today? I believe it is, but that's a conclusion you need to come to on your own if you're going to benefit from it. 

I think there is great comfort in seeing the world as a puzzle that God is putting together, bit by bit, rather than something you are trying to construct and hold in place. You may be mature enough in your faith that you KNOW that God is in charge, that nothing is happening that is out of His control. But, to see for yourself that things are coming together just like the Bible said they would? That's actually a reason to get excited, because it shows you that Jesus really is coming soon. 

When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

Luke 21:28

So, how do you get to that place of actually recognizing "these things"? Well, you have to read the Bible, but perhaps in a way you haven't tried. I know this is practically sacrilege, but if you aren't used to the idea that God says what He means and means what He says,  put away your study Bible with the notes at the bottom of every page of what it's supposed to mean. Put away that Bible that you took to church and constantly wrote in the margin what the pastor said it meant. Get out a Bible translation (so not The Message, which is not a translation) that you will actually read and then just read it. Pray for understanding. Ask God to teach you, as David asks in the Psalms, and the Holy Spirit will teach you. Don't look for men's explanations of what it means until you have a firm grasp on what God is actually saying. Little bit by little bit, the Holy Spirit will teach you, at the pace that's right for you. You will not get everything the first time through. You will not get everything the 100th time through (we will be learning through eternity what all was there) - but every time you read, you will understand more than you did. 

And when prophecy in God's word becomes familiar to you (taking it literally whenever that makes sense), suddenly "global governance" and "global citizen" take on a new meaning. A vaccine that's required to work or travel (or maybe someday even to buy or sell?) might make you wonder what it's leading to. Iran moving into Syria makes you go "hmmm". And Damascus, the world's oldest, continuously inhabited city becoming a pile of rubble? (Go peek at Isaiah 17:1)

There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible. Reading 3-4 a day will get you through in about a year. Twenty chapters a day will get you through in about 60 days. Choose the pace that's right for you and just read. If you come to parts that seem mind-numbing (like all those numbers in Numbers or laws in Leviticus) then skim them at first. Don't let that be a reason to stop reading.  Eventually, God will start showing you things even there. You'd be amazed what's hiding in those numbers of Numbers. You may not see it the first time or even the tenth time, but when you do, it's like finding treasure. That's what Jesus meant when he said there would be "new treasures as well as old." 

There are nothing wrong with teachers. We are supposed to teach each other. Just treat cautiously those who explain scripture by explaining it away. Scripture interprets scripture. And as you become more familiar with it, the more you will see that something confusing in one place is explained in another. For example, if you wonder about the woman in Revelation 12, go back and check Genesis 37.

And while you are reading God's love letter to you, you will gain a lot more than familiarity with prophecy. His promises to you are real. Reading them for yourself will make them personal. Remember, too, that faith comes from hearing (truly "getting" it) the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). As you read and understand, your faith will grow. And as your faith grows, I think you'll start to see the puzzle coming together, not coming apart. Jesus is coming. The signs are all around us. Just hang on.

 

Do not tremble, do not be afraid.
    Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago?

Isaiah 44:8

 

 

Saints Triumphant

 

Bulletin cover; St John's/Montello, Wisconsin, WELS

 

This day on the Lutheran calendar is called "Saints Triumphant." It's the day we acknowledge those believers who have gone before us and who are already in the presence of the Lord - and how, we, too, will one day (maybe soon) be there with them. 

I walked into church this morning unprepared to see my husband's name on the screen. I had forgotten what day it was,  so when I sat down and looked up at the screen as I waited for the service to start, my husband's name there was a very solid kick in my heart. It has been ten months, but the tears started flowing like it was yesterday. My purse was soon filled with soggy tissues, and my face mask quickly became uncomfortably damp. But, I perfectly exemplified one of today's verses: 

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 

As Christians, we still grieve. The tears still come, and it's OK. I remind myself often that Jesus wept over Lazarus, even though he was going to be resurrected that same day. (John 11:35) We just don't grieve as those who have no hope. The verse goes on: 

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 

1 Thessalonians 4:14 

My sweet husband and all of our loved ones who have gone ahead of us are not lost. They are alive - living more fully than they ever did on this earth. Remember what Jesus said?

But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob^'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

Matthew 22:31-33  

Yet I was surprised this morning at how close to the surface the tears still are. Apparently I can be fine (more or less) one minute and sobbing the next. I have been dealing with it in two ways. Most of the time, I keep myself so busy and work so hard that I don't think about it. But, that doesn't heal - it just postpones. 

The second way, the better way, is to remind myself (as often as I need to!) that my husband is not dead. He has just gone ahead to the place where all of us believers will be, perhaps very soon. I - we - need to live in that reality. This world is not our home. We were not created to live in a fallen world. We were created for a world that God called "very good." Here, now, even nature groans, waiting for the redemption to come. (Romans 8:18-21)

That day is coming, though, and on that day, I will see my husband, my mother and father, and my little son, because none of them are gone. They have just gone ahead. Best of all, we will be with Jesus from that time and forevermore.

 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 

Thank you to my church family who reached out to me today with exactly that encouragement. And to you reading this, that encouragement is for you, too. Jesus is coming soon to make all things right again. This world is fallen, flat and colorless, full of darkness and evil. The real world is the one that's coming, full of light and life and only goodness. That is the world we were created for and it for us. Your loved ones who claimed Jesus as their savior are not gone. They have only gone ahead to that place. If Jesus is your savior, too, you'll be with them again. Just hang on ♥