How He Went Back Home

 Jesus' resurrection and appearances to His followers removed any doubt that He was, in truth, their long-awaited Messiah! Their Immanuel!

He apparently only appeared to His believers and followers -- not to Herod, or Pilate, or His outspoken belligerent critics in the religious circle.

He only stayed around 40 days before He left them and ascended to His place of honor and glory --He went back home! Certainly His best day!

Here's how Luke describes it in Acts 1:9-11 -- As the disciples watched in wonder -- 

"He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 'Men of Galilee,' they said, 'Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.'"

As I write this I am looking at the sky -- some lovely morning pinkish clouds and billowing white displays of morning beauty -- I am looking for Jesus! You probably are, too. This would be a perfect day for Him to come back and call us up to be with Him!

Yes, Maranatha!  Our Lord Jesus!

(I guess we'd better get busy - there's lots to do yet!)

So what's new?

The more things change, the more they remain the same...



Words from the Parson:

"...Then his face got serious...You know, Harriet, sometimes I get the feelin' that people are beginning to be a little ashamed of religion. They seem to think there is something old-fashioned about it. In this house we wouldn't notice it. Religion is part of our everyday life. It should be because it's mah business. But there's something about religion that seems to make people uneasy nowadays. Some of them seem to think it makes them look a little ridiculous if they say they believe in God and what He stands for."

-- From Stars In My Crown, written in 1946, by Joe David Brown. In the book he recalls his minister grandfather (Josiah Grey, a Civil War veteran) and events and conversations with his beloved and much admired grandfather occurring between 1900 and 1910. Stars in My Crown was made a movie in 1950.



For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes...for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith... just as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
  -- Romans 1:16

(God's own righteousness is revealed in the gospel)

Do we have a soul?--C. S. Lewis & Eugene Peterson

Spirituality is the attention we give to our souls, to the invisible interior of our lives that is the core of our identity, these image-of-God souls that comprise our uniqueness and glory.  -- Eugene Peterson, Subversive Spirituality.




We do not have a soul; we are a soul. We have a body.
                                   -- C. S. Lewis 



And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7).   .

Reveille - Winston Churchill

 

Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). 

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after he dies (John 11).

One man who believed this was Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England during World War II. He died in January, 1965. He carefully planned his own funeral, paying close attention to every detail and leaving his instructions with his family.

He wanted to make certain that everyone understood that he believed in the truth of Christ's words about the glorious resurrection of believers.

(About 6,000 people attended Winston Churchill's funeral service. And it is estimated that one million people lined the streets as the funeral procession passed by and that 350 million watched it globally!)

He was particularly interested in the concluding moments of the service.

Here is how he planned it:

He directed that two buglers were to be positioned in the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. At the conclusion of his funeral service, the first bugler would play "Taps," the recognized signal that proclaimed "Day is Done." This call told soldiers to lower the flag, turn off the lights, and end their day. And the second bugler was to then to play "Reveille," which told soldiers to "Wake up! Raise the flag and go to roll call!"

-- a new day had begun!

Churchill wanted everyone to consider these two ideas: that death is not the final chapter of our life story! It opens the first chapter of our eternal life story!

He also loved these words from Isaiah: "Your dead will live, LORD, their bodies will rise  -- let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy!" (Isaiah 25)

Don't you wish you could have been there for his funeral?

He wanted to go with Jesus

 

                                                      He Wanted to go with Jesus!

"The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 'Return home and tell how much God has done for you.' So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him." 

(Luke 8:38).

Think about it --! Simple, immediate joyful obedience from an overflowing grateful heart!

Isn't that what Jesus wants from us?