Whatever the Future Holds

Knowledge of the future is simply not helpful in preparation for it when the future is totally out of our control. Don't be misled - your future is in God's hands whether or not you admit it to yourself - you are not in control and that's okay! :)

The days I cannot see
Have all been planned for me
His way is best you see
I'm in His hands
(Stanley Ditmer)

Example:
Suppose we can communicate with caterpillars and one of them was very curious about his future. We explained to him that, in time, he will have wings to fly. What would that little caterpillar say?

"What are wings?"
"I'm going to fly?"
"I'm content with crawling safely on the ground."
"I'm afraid of heights!"
....and on and on and on

Eventually, that little caterpillar will be locked in a confined cocoon where he will complain. As soon as he is in it, he will be asking again and again with bold faith that God removes him from the cocoon. Little did he know the transformation that was taking place. From this mini jail, he will break out with magnificent wings - bright, new, and colorful. He even gets a new name! He is now the butterfly. His old self is gone without a trace. He has become something new. I wonder if that butterfly ever thought to himself, "I wish I could return to crawling on the ground."

Do you have something in common with that caterpillar? Are you also interested in God's plans for your life? Maybe you have been asking the wrong questions lately. Check out what God's Word tells us about God's plans for our future.

Jeremiah 29:11
"'For I know the plans I have for you,'
    declares the Lord,
'plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
    plans to give you hope and a future.'"

Psalm 139:16
"Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be."

Habakkuk 1:5
“Look at the nations and watch—
    and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
    that you would not believe,
    even if you were told.

"I don't know what the future holds,
    but I know the one who holds the future."
-Major Tom Hinzman

Friends,
God has a plan for you (which is already happening) that would most likely terrify you if you knew it all right now. In God's time, if you are faithful to Him, it will be revealed to you along the way. You will get your wings. Live within the discomforts of holiness! Persevere through it all. You will find, after all, that it is not worthwhile to discover what the future holds; it is far more important to know the One who holds it. I'm in the hands of the Almighty God. God will have His way in me.

I doubt you will ever look back and think to yourself, "I wish I could return to life on my own terms."

"Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)

___________________________

Matthew 6:31-34
"So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
___________________________
 
I'm In His Hands
Stanley E. Ditmer

Verse 1
I shall not fear though darkened clouds
May gather round me
The God I serve is one who cares and understands
Although the storms I face
Would threaten to confound me
Of this I am assured I'm in His hands

Chorus 1
I'm in His hands I'm in His hands
Whate'er the future holds
I'm in His hands
The days I cannot see
Have all been planned for me
His way is best you see
I'm in His hands

Verse 2
What though I cannot know
The way that lies before me
I still can trust and freely follow His commands
My faith is firm since He it is who watches o'er me
Of this I'm confident I'm in His hands

Verse 3
In days gone by my Lord has always proved sufficient
When I have yielded to the law of love's demands
Why should I doubt that He will evermore be present
To make His will my own I'm in His hands

YOU Give and Take Away

If you take the time to read at least the first chapter in Job, you'll see exactly what I'm saying.

This is awesome. Let me sum it up.
Job was righteous in God's eyes.
Satan blamed God of being overprotective of Job, and that his righteousness wasn't legit.
Job was also wealthy and had a huge strong family line.
God challenged satan on this point.
Satan accepted the challenge to prove that Job was not committed to God.
Satan killed all of Job's kids and burned up all of his wealth.
It is very clear that satan was the one who did all of these terrible things.
If you want to know what Job did, you have to read the chapter.

Have you ever noticed Job's response to the desolation of his wealth and loved ones?

Job 1:20-22
20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.[c]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.”
22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

He gave the credit to God.
Interesting huh?

Although satan tries to hold my attention and tear me down, I believe it is important to see God's wisdom in the midst of these trials instead of satan's disastrous efforts. I still try to make sense of it all, when what I really need to do is follow Job's example and take Proverbs 3:5-6 to heart again.

Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

You give and take away! 
You give and take away!
My heart will choose to say:
Lord, blessed be Your Name.

God's Commands Are LIBERATING!

"Don't touch the hot stove"
"Play nice"
"Don't run into the street"

These are commands for a child.
They are commands that are, for that child, limitations and gifts.
While, these commands are demanding structure and obedience,
they secure safety and deliverance from the death in those dangers.

To Mom and Dad, these commands are not burdensome for the child to obey.
Because they have wisdom and understanding to see the consequences of not abiding by them.
But not all children understand what their moms mean when they say,
"I love you - listen to me.  Not just because I want you to - but because it's what is best for you."

Don't you wish all children could understand those words from their parents?
I do.

1 John 5:3 "This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome..."

This does not say: 'When we obey God, we need to obey Him without being burdened.' If it did say that - then we would be saying things like: "We should not be obedient in a bad way, but in a good way."

.....that just hurts my head.

The message in this verse has nothing to do with how we obey, but how we understand God's commands.  And the truth is found in that verse: "His commands are not burdensome."

So why do we still feel burdened so much of the time when we are truly trying to live up to God's standards?  It's because of lies.  The lies from the enemy.

The devil can twist these words (1 John 5:3) to burden us with this task: the task of being sure that we are not burdened.

...that hurts my head too.

IT IS A LIE!  True peace and wholeness (being "not burdened") is a gift from God - not something we can 'burden' ourselves with attaining.

That gift is His Liberating love.
His liberating commands!
"This is love for God: to obey His commands."

God's commands (love) are not burdensome.
God's commands (love) bring peace and rest.
God's commands (love) are a gift. Like good advice.
...
Much like the commands that good mothers and fathers give to their children.
...
Hmm.

Come Home

I am here - It's okay
My Words are still true

In your weakness - I know
Darkness towers over you

But when you cry out for me
My Son-shines through

So come to Me when you are weary
Let me love come over you
.......

Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling
Calling for you to come home

Light and Truth

"Send forth Your Light and Your Truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight." Psalm 43:3-4a

How is your soul?

Where do you meet with the Lord?

Has He become your joy and delight?

"Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else." -2 Corinthians 9:10-12

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power! Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Prepare your minds for action; be self controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jeremiah 29:13; 1 Corinthians 4:20; 1 Peter 5:6-7; James 4:7; Romans 12:2a, 13:14, 12:12; 1 Peter 1:13-16; John 3:16;

The New Jerusalem - God's Covenant Blessing

What do you think the significance is of Heaven being referred to as the New Jerusalem? I have not studied about Heaven. I am not talking about the essence of Heaven, I am talking about God's act of giving Heaven to us. Here are my thoughts around this question. If you think I've overlooked something or missed an idea or a thought, comment and add it right in! I'm just writing what I think.

The OLD Jerusalem, the promised land, was a land 'flowing with milk and honey.' A very blessed land that will be the epitome of 'good land.' This promised land was near water, it was flourishing with crops and plants and animals. The Israelite's troubles were taken care of in that land!

I want to suggest that Jesus was, perhaps, a second form of 'promised land' given to mankind. As Jerusalem was a physical gift that met their physical need, So is Christ an eternal gift to meet our eternal need! It was in Christ that God overcame sin. God met with His people on a level they could not have foreseen! His provision of forgiveness in Christ was far beyond what their imagination would consider. The Israelites had the mentality that the Christ would come much like Moses and Abraham did. They actually thought that the Christ would be a human prophet and/or king figure who would overrule the Romans - setting the Israelites free from oppression. If only they had known God better than they knew His statutes; they would not have missed the Christ.

Heaven will be the NEW Jerusalem! A third promise! Jerusalem was a physical blessing, Jesus is the eternal blessing, and Heaven...I will call the beautiful blessing (In this case, the word beautiful can describe no other thought, feeling or thing! There is not a word appropriate for titling Heaven!). Jerusalem brought tangible provision, Jesus brought Spiritual provision, and Heaven will bring us into the Glory of God. The religious leaders were oblivious to Jesus' teachings. Jesus did not match up to their tradition, so they ruled Him out before seeing Him in light of Scripture "In light of Scripture" is not an easy term. They would have had to read into many of the prophet's writings in a way that hadn't been done before. We're talking about a reformation, here! Rewriting theological structure that the leading religious people held - about everything: especially about Christ, but in turn, they would have to revise their thinking to conform to Jesus. Understanding the culture in context really helps us to see why the pharisees and teachers of the law never believed Jesus. To accept Jesus was to deny the legacy of their ancestry, as it had become a vile institution of false worship and teaching.

We are the ones looking for the New Jerusalem! The third promise! In a sense, we are the 'Israelites' and the 'religious leaders.' Just as He did for the Israelites and for the teachers of the law, God is bringing about us a wonderful promise that we cannot imagine (not even if we were told! Habakkuk 1:5). The reality is, our response is within the same principles as the Israelites and the teachers of the law as well - meaning that our receiving the promised blessing hinges on the condition that we are obedient and faithful to God first. So our inability to imagine the promise is bittersweet. The Israelites knew what their promise looked like - a land flowing with milk and honey was very difficult to oversee. The teachers of the law knew every thing there was to know about the Christ who was to come, yet they did not walk in obedient faith with God, and so their knowledge was irrelevant. This leads me to wonder - what marvelous things God can do! What marvelous things He WILL do. How dreadful it is to have missed the Christ. I will not be among those who will miss His glory.

Take Heart. Strength Will Rise. Believe!

I wrote this literally talking to myself. Every 'you' is meant for me. I post it in hope that some others can relate.

What is your hearts desire? Is it worth your attention and effort? Is it something you must strive for, or something you merely insist on waiting around for?

Do you have you a desire that runs exclusively deep in your mind, even in your heart, whether it is that you are praying for your child to know Christ, for a personal preference, for your friend to be healed, or for your congregation to grow? I believe in you. The Lord believes in you. I believe that if, by prayer, you do still find that one thing to be deserving of your time and effort, of God's time and effort, and if you believe that God has in mind to bless you and/or others in that way, you must keep on believing.

Believing in God's promises is a sacrifice that this world renders foolish. Many of my friends have rendered me foolish in my dealings. When I am influenced in their words, however, I slip up and am reminded that I can trust the voice of God even when it is the only voice of it's kind. I know these truths all the more: Jesus is my hope. I must choose to hope for nothing else. He will keep His promises. I will be blessed and protected and will be being satisfied when I dwell in the shelter of His presence.

Be encouraged in this: In the deepest realm of my being (whether it's my mind or my heart or my actions or presuppositions, who knows), many things are at war with God for my time, but at least one thing is even at war with God for the actual throne of utmost worth. I would never consciously (as it seems to me) give up God's place of worth to any other thing. I know that God is most worthy, but sometimes, perhaps I know it less.

So your prayer must be absorbed into every inch of what God made humans to consist of, because of faith in Jesus. God must have all you are; yet, nobody has adequate understanding of humanity to know what 'all' may entail. God must be all you want; still, the blows of the enemy discourage and tear you down, even now. It seems you can barely coherently think even sufficiently to survive! And too, the pressure of being continually aware of where you place value is wearisome, not a natural practice in your society!

Do not fear. Do not be discouraged.
Be courageous. Dwell in God's encouragement.
BE STRONG in the Lord. He is Mighty to Save.
Dwell in Him, and He will be the Rock upon which You will stand firm.