A date to anticipate

We took some time this week to remember a devastating date in 2001 when terrorists sacrificed their lives to bring harm to our country and its citizens. They believed they would be rewarded eternally for their crimes. They definitely received an eternal consequence, but it wasn’t at all like they had been promised. 

Christians, however, have been promised an eternal home in heaven. Do you look forward to receiving your promise? 

Jim and I received a copy of Anne Graham Lotz’s new book, Preparing to Meet Jesus, which she co-wrote with her daughter Rachel-Ruth. The book is a twenty-one-day challenge to get spiritually prepared for that day when each of us will meet our Savior face-to-face. I’m working through the book right now, and I highly recommend it. Anne and her daughter remind their readers that our salvation is the promise that Jesus’ second coming is a date we can look forward to with joy. 

Are you prepared? 

I really can’t say when I became a Christian. I heard a revival preacher say one time that if you can’t name the date and hour of your salvation, you probably aren’t saved. His words made me nervous, but, at the same time, I knew he was wrong. 

I didn’t grow up in a denomination that emphasized a certain date or moment of salvation. In many ways, I just grew up and into my faith. But, there was a time when I was in the fifth or sixth grade that I prayed a prayer of salvation. 

I had been riding my bicycle through a park and rolled across a Bible tract. I stopped to see what it was but knew not to take something that didn’t belong to me. I rode around that park several times. When I was convinced that no one was going to come back for it, I took it home. 

The cover of the tract had been torn off, but I read the other pages and did my best to memorize the prayer of salvation at the end. (I wanted to memorize it because I wasn’t sure prayers worked if my eyes weren’t closed!) The tract said that if I wanted to be sure I was going to heaven, I just needed to pray that prayer. So, I knelt beside my bed and prayed. In full confession, I did open one eye a time or two and peek, just to make sure I was getting that prayer right. Honestly, I don’t know if that is when Jesus became my Savior, but I think he knew I was sincere in my desire to trust him and go to heaven. 

I can’t name that date or the other times when I prayed to tell Jesus I trusted in him. I have spent a lifetime learning about the Lord, and I have tried to be faithful to each new lesson I learned from God’s word. I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t want Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and I can remember several times I made a new commitment to him as Lord. Several times I needed to seek his forgiveness and renew my commitment to walk with him as my Lord. 

I do know with the certainty of God’s word that I have asked Jesus to forgive my sins, come into my heart as my Lord and Savior, and guide me as my King. I know the Holy Spirit dwells in me; therefore I am a Christian. I can’t name the date, but I am certain I can call myself a “born-again child of God.” 

If you read my blog post each week, I trust you have asked Jesus to be your Lord and that you have experienced the power of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit. If you aren’t certain, you can be. You can visit my husband’s site for his article “Why Jesus?” 

Are you prepared to meet Jesus face-to-face? 

That is a different date than the date of your salvation. Jesus is going to come again. When he does, it will be to take every Christian to their eternal home. Peter reminds us that, until that date, “according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). We are waiting to go to the perfection of heaven. 

Anne Graham Lotz believes that day could come at any moment. She is a Spirit-led person who knows God’s word. She has been my teacher for many years now. She is getting older and closer to that day, like the rest of us. She knows she might meet Jesus face-to-face like her parents, Billy and Ruth Graham, met Jesus. They closed their eyes on earth and opened them in the “New Jerusalem” where the streets are paved with gold. She also knows that she might still be living her earthly life when that moment comes and the skies open up to the return of Christ. 

Anne recently buried her husband after his lengthy illness. Her daughter Rachel-Ruth has had cancer, and her son Jonathan battled that disease as well. Anne had cancer too. Anne believes our culture and the world continue to make choices that indicate the return of Christ could be soon. But, she also knows that God’s word makes clear that no one can claim to know the date of Christ’s second coming. 

But, Anne would also remind us of God’s complete word on the subject. We will see Jesus face-to-face, but we will also stand with him before God the Father. Paul taught us, “Do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5). 

In her book, Anne spoke about meeting Jesus as his “bride.” In Scripture, the church, the body of believers, is referred to as the bride of Christ. She compared that day to the day she walked the aisle of her church to marry her husband, Danny. She wanted Danny to be pleased with his bride that day. She taught that each of us should feel that same way about the day we step into heaven to meet our Lord. 

Is your heart full of love for your Lord like it was full of love the day you married? Or the day your child was placed in your arms? Or the day you saw a friend or family member after a long absence? Do you eagerly anticipate that very important date, when the skies open up and Jesus returns, or when you see Jesus coming for you at the end of your earthly life? 

A date to look forward to

It’s normal to fear death because more is unknown than known. Heaven is a mystery, but it is also a promise of God. We don’t have to know about heaven to look forward to the date of our homegoing. We know and love Jesus, and that date is the moment we will be able to meet him face-to-face. 

Anne’s new book, co-written with her daughter Rachel-Ruth, is titled Preparing to Meet Jesus. It is a twenty-one-day guide to help readers be well-prepared to meet Jesus when that important date arrives. 

We will be meeting the One we love so that we can spend all of eternity dwelling in his house. If we will prepare our hearts and lives to meet Jesus, then his second coming into our lives will be a date to look forward to as we wait here on earth. 

Paul reminds us, “As it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’” (1 Corinthians 2:9). We are blessed with the hope of heaven.  

If St. Peter wrote to California

I was cruising through Facebook the other day, enjoying the many “I just left my child at college” posts. Then I ran across an ad for a T-shirt that made me grin. 

Etsy is selling a T-shirt with the Texas flag emblazoned on the back with the words “Don’t California my Texas.” 

I grinned because I grew up in California and understood the sentiment.

Peter wrote his letters to people who had left Jerusalem and the surrounding areas to relocate in Asia Minor, or modern-day Turkey. The people in Asia Minor were probably saying, “Don’t Christian up our pagan culture.” 

Peter wrote his letters, which we know as 1 and 2 Peter, so that the Christians would know how to live as missionaries. His lessons are important truth for all of us today. 

All Christians, whether we live in California or Texas, are missionaries to our culture.

California to Texas

I love my home state for many reasons. 

But Texans only think they have a beach. Galveston has dirty sand, and salt water, and the waves barely lap onto the shore, often carrying those nasty, stinging jellyfish. 

Announcement: That is not a beach. 

California has the most amazing sunsets over the water. Much of the time, evenings on the beach require a sweatshirt, even in the summer months. The beaches have volleyball nets, bathrooms, and nice restaurants or food trucks. And, the waves will take you out if you aren’t paying attention and allow you to ride them if you are. 

That, in my humble opinion, is a day at the beach. 

California has Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, Sea World, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the Golden Gate Bridge, Carmel, San Diego, beaches, mountains, redwoods, lakes, deserts, and temperate weather. (Except for this week!) 

So, why did about 660 companies relocate 765 facilities out of California in the past two years, mostly to Texas

And what should Christians be thinking about as all those people arrive?

Texas to California 

I was nineteen years old when I moved with my family to Houston, Texas. 

Honestly, it felt like I had moved to a different country. I still remember driving the wrong way on a “feeder” road, trying to get on the freeway. 

I remember being honked at by a Cadillac convertible with longhorns on the hood. The horn played a few bars of “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” 

And I remember leaving for a vacation road trip at 4:30 a.m., and it was still at least eighty-five degrees outside. 

I told my friends back in California that my parents had moved me to hell, literally. 

Interestingly, I never moved back to California. I never wanted to. 

(Except for the times I was visiting Galveston “Beach.”) 

If I did move back . . . 

I’ve been back to California several times, and I always enjoy it. But, I think I would feel differently if I were actually moving there. 

I think I would feel like an outsider in their culture now. 

I was a Christian when I lived there, but what I didn’t realize at the age of nineteen is that I was already a lot different than much of the culture. Now, fast-forward forty-five years. 

I realize things have changed even more. I honestly think that, if I lived in California, I would feel like those early Christians Peter wrote his letters to in Asia Minor. 

Are we cultural missionaries? 

Regardless of where you live, with the current cultural trends, Christians are going to begin to feel more and more like missionaries in the American culture. 

For those who live in Texas, several changes are becoming more apparent. 

  • For the first time in a long time, Texas is actually considered a political swing state. 
  • Our homes are becoming more valuable and more sellable. 
  • Our schools’ curricula are changing. 
  • Traditional churches are declining or are on a plateau.
  • There are a lot more “non-church” activities scheduled on a Sunday morning. 

What would St. Peter want us to know? 

Peter wrote to churches filled with Christian exiles from Jerusalem, but those churches were quickly filling with converts from the region. Those early Christians had moved to a region known for the pagan worship of multiple gods. 

But those “pagans” were also moms, dads, grandparents, friends, co-workers, and neighbors who were curious about the Christian families moving in. That curiosity often led to a shared faith in Christ. That has always been the best, most natural evangelism. 

Peter had good advice for those first-century Christians. He told them to live “holy” lives, set apart from their culture. In other words, they were not to be influenced by the culture but were to live as influencers to the culture. 

Peter wrote, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:11–12). 

Peter said to those early Christians, and to us today, that we are called to be missionaries to our culture. We are sojourners, just passing through. We are exiles because we aren’t “at home” in the world. Home is heaven. But, while we are here, wherever we live, we are to set a godly example to those around us. 

Peter reminds us that we really aren’t at home in Texas or California. Both cultures have strengths and weaknesses, but there is only one culture we are to strive for. When people look at our lives, they should see good deeds. When they get to know us, they should understand our “goodness” is because of God. 

Jesus is going to come back for us. It will either be when he finally returns at the second coming or when he comes at the end of our earthly lives to take us to heaven. 

When people attend our memorial service, what are the good deeds they will be speaking about? 

The deeds that made them believe and understand that we belonged to God? 

The day of visitation 

We don’t get to know when Jesus will return. 

My “temperate” California is going to find itself in a heatwave next week, with temps over 100 degrees. Californians are going to suffer. They have three major fires in the state, rolling power outages, and an economic crisis to deal with. 

I love my home state of California. I wish I could tell them that the Bible teaches God’s early judgment is almost always indicated by a lack of his protective blessings. Is California experiencing that judgment today? Will Texas be there eventually, if not now? 

As a Bible teacher, I want to remind people we need to be watchful and aware of how God has worked in the past. That is our best indicator of how the Lord will work in the world today. God is unchanging. 

What are the things like weather, natural disasters, trends, viruses, and miraculous events that only God can ordain and allow? What does God want us to notice? Do Christians feel more at home on this planet than we should? 

God wants to bless our lives. Are we aware of an abundance of blessings or find ourselves wanting them? 

Wherever you are a missionary today, live like the “day of visitation” is tomorrow. 

That is what St. Peter would want people in California, people in Texas, and people throughout the world to understand. 

No matter where Christians live today, we aren’t home yet. 

But, we are one day closer to perfection right now! 

I wonder what the beaches in heaven will look like? 

(Not Galveston, that’s for sure!)