“Death is no more than passing from one room into another. However, there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.”

Helen Keller

Have you buried any dreams lately?  We thought our dreams were God’s dreams. We prayed, believed, made plans and worked hard. However, now it is over.  So here we sit, graveside, by our lifeless hopes. As we sit, we begin to doubt… “Did I miss something? Should I have prayed or done more? Or perhaps I never really heard God in the first place…if this was not God’s will, then how can I trust myself to ever think I hear Him?”  The disciples knew exactly what you are going through.  They had a dream that was cruelly crucified right in front of their eyes.  They were looking for the Messiah and they thought they had been following Him.  However, after a few years their dream was shattered by the penetration of an iron spike into the hands and feet of that dream.  They scattered in fear, thinking that all hope was gone and there would be no real tomorrow.  They felt that everything they had put stock in was faltering.  The sealed tomb confirmed the fact that the dream had died – Jesus had died.  Speechless, Jesus’ followers kept watch until the very end. They held on to flickering hope until its flame was extinguished. Then they gave themselves permission to bury their dream. Burial is a symbol of respect.  When dreams shatter, we too need to give ourselves time to gently collect the broken pieces and wrap them respectfully in tears. This is not about prematurely abandoning hope. This is about accepting reality. Denying Jesus’ death would not return Him to the disciples. It was healthy for them to permit a burial. Faith is not threatened by funerals.  Take the time. Prepare the spices. Preserve and honor the memories. Rest. Rest is essential—a need, not a luxury—if we are to remain healthy through the burial of dreams.  The exciting part is that just like the seed that dies in the ground, and just like Jesus died, in just a few short days the dream that seemed dead will sprout to life in an even greater fashion.  What dream seems to have died in your household?  Have you buried it yet?  When you do finally bury it, get ready because a great resurrection is about to take place.

Read I Peter chapter 1

Immortality is the glorious discovery of Christianity.”

       William Ellery Channing

The brightness must have been incredible. It was so bright that the strongest sunglasses would not have prohibited the penetration of the light’s rays. It causes man to fall to his face and bury his eyes in the ground. When Moses saw the brightness of God’s glory, he could not physically bear the brightness thereof. The most exciting part is that Moses did not see all of His glory, but only the hind parts, or the leftover parts of His glory. 

Peter lets man know that there is an inheritance that is free from corruption. It is the full aspect of the brightness of the glory of God. It goes beyond our imagination and comprehension of things that are eternal. In this life, everything has an ending. From the time of a day to the end of physical life, all things bear a conclusion. Our finite minds only comprehend things that end.

However, we know of three things that never end, and often, it is  impossible to grasp. God, His Word and our inheritance are the only things that will never end. What a promise. Someday soon, everything that we know will be gone, and everything will be new. All hurt, sorrow, stress and heartache will end and be replaced by a joy that we really do not even understand yet. With all of our imperfection, it goes beyond reason that we should be able to dwell with a holy God, but through the blood of Christ, we receive our inheritance; we are able to dwell with God. 

We often look at this passage as referring to some future event, and that is correct, for it is the primary purpose of this writing. However, we have received the earnest of our inheritance when we were born of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, we have the opportunity to dwell in the spiritual realm with God Almighty. We can boldly enter His throne room, and we can lay our petitions at His feet. What needs or desires have you refrained from asking God for because you felt unworthy to receive it? What would you ask God if you would receive it without question? Well, our inheritance allows us to ask our heavenly Father anything, and whether He says, “Yes, no, maybe or we’ll see,” we know He has heard. All of heaven is at your beckoned call because you are a part of His family.

Read Philippians Chapter Two

“You must give some time to your fellow men.  Even if it is a little thing, do something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.”    Albert Schweitzer

When I was a little boy, I wanted to be just like my Dad. I watched the way he dealt with people, the way he played sports, and especially the way he preached. Something inside of me swayed my idea of who I was by who my father was. When I grew a little older, I realized that, as good as my father was, I needed to find my own place in this world, and more importantly, in God’s Kingdom. I began to look at what God desired for my life, and began to question and search for the example of my heavenly Father. It took me to Philippians chapter two. When Jesus was born, he wasn’t born to royalty, although he deserved to be. When he was a young boy, he did not have servants waiting on him, although all of heaven was at his beckoned call. When he was a young man, he built furniture with his adopted father, Joseph, with the wood that he created. When his ministry began, he chose some fishermen, tax collectors and zealots for his companions. These men were hardly the ones that most others would have chosen, but Jesus saw something different in them. That brings us to Philippians 2 where we see the man with all of heaven and earth at his disposal become a servant to you and I so that we one day would be able to reign with him. Notice that he did not pick-and-choose whom he would serve, he served all mankind. It is very easy to serve people that we deem worthy of servitude, but it is entirely Christ-like to serve all. When I realized that Jesus was calling me to serve, I began to focus my life choices to attempt to fulfill that call. The call to serve is not only to the preacher or the teacher, but it is a call for all that want to call Jesus their heavenly Father. If you want to be like Christ, you must begin to do the things that Christ did. Are you willing to serve the neighbor that constantly has music blaring from his home? Would you serve that family that never cleans their yard? Would you be willing to serve your employee? Your spouse? Your children? Would you be willing to serve that friend that slapped you in the face, talked about you behind your back and betrayed you to others? If not, you have not yet achieved the goal of being like your daddy. The good news is that we have something to aim for. Each family can make the decision this week to try harder, and not only try, but also in the mindset of the Spirit, become more like Christ.

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” Carl Jung

It is now a week after the beginning of the New Year and many people, if not most, have already failed to live up to their resolutions.  The problem with New Year’s resolutions is that too many people fail to attain the goal that was set.  For New Year’s resolutions, failure is often something that will not cause great condemnation to befall us, however, the fact that so many have failed in living for God does tend to cause great condemnation.  However, that condemnation is not of God, but conviction is.  Condemnation drives one away from God while conviction draws one to God.  If you have failed and feel you cannot approach God, you are filled with condemnation.  If you have failed and are drawn to the presence of God, you have been graced by conviction.  It is exciting to know that God does not condemn.  It does not matter if you failed a million times last year, or a million times last week, God is ready with open arms to embrace you upon your repentance.  Do not allow the adversary to speak condemnation into your spirit, but allow the conviction of the Holy Ghost to penetrate your life and direct you to the throne of grace.  It is interesting to note that Romans eight begins by dealing with the fact that condemnation is possible, if we do not follow the Spirit, and it ends with the fact that if we do follow after the Spirit that there is nothing in this world that can separate us from the love of Christ.  Christ’s love is the embodiment of God because Scripture tells us that God IS love.  Christ’s love led Him to Calvary, and if that mindset is the embodiment of God, it will have to take someone willfully walking away from God to lose out with Him because nothing we can do is too bad for His love not to embrace us.  If you knew that God’s love would embrace you through all things, what risks would you consider taking?  Loving someone else?  Doing something for God that is beyond your ability?  Take up the challenge and know that God is behind you, supporting you in your endeavors for Him.

It is a New Year. New dreams. New ideas. New goals. New interests. There is something about the turning of a calendar that intrigues even the most stoic person. There just seems to be a breath of fresh air that enters the lungs and fills the soul with new hope for the New Year. We hold to this annual song of hope that things will not only be different than the previous year, but also better.  Genesis 1:1 states that “In the beginning God created…” and there is something that excites the spirit of man that before all circumstance and worldly entities, God had a hand in their creation. While man has perverted the uses of the things that God created, however, there was nothing until God did create. God created all that there is and so it is vital for everyone to realize that if God created everything, He can fix anything. If your life was filled with chaos last year, He can calm the New Year. If your life was filled with heartache last year, He is able to speak from creation and heal from the smallest to the greatest of hurts. If your family seemed detached or dysfunctional last year, He is able to pull together the frayed pieces into a cohesive family unit. No matter what took place last year, God is standing at your door knocking, and if you allow Him, He will enter and make all things new. As a family, what would you like to see different in this New Year? Individually, what would you like to see God create in your life?