Because you never know.

Call me morbid, call me crazy, but no early morning goes by without me wondering if today is the day.

Of all the passengers lost in the air over Washington DC this week, I wonder how many pondered the same thing Wednesday morning.

Because you never know when or how your number will be called, we all remain poignantly aware and certain that someday it will.

And at that instant the only thing that will matter is the eternal comfort or the eternal sorrow of those we leave behind.

Our own eternity will already be decided.

What will matter is the emotional remnant. The light legacy of confidence about where we went or the heavy burden of anguish and loneliness of our sudden departure.

While there’s no fully adequate preparation we can make, we can make our destination clearly, joyfully, and apparently known.

God bless and comfort all those families and friends left behind at 9pm Wednesday night.

Our hearts are with you.

They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.”

‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭17‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Ya think?

Everyone worships something.

Religious, spiritual or a liquor bottle, we all choose an object of undying affection and pay homage to it as if it were the savior of our desperate lives.

Though we all know that Jesus Christ is among our options, the enemy feeds us lies and reasons to choose otherwise and like sheep, we follow him to the slaughter of our souls.

The trap is not inescapable.

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

Darkness prevails in the absence of light.

You need light in your life.

Real light.

The kind that pierces the darkness of this world. That’s what’s missing. The light of Jesus’ love illuminates a path of forgiveness and new life.

No slaughter.

Know Jesus.

I am the light of the world.

John 8:12

Naaman, the leper’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”

We expect God’s healing to arrive with fireworks when a single match will do.

So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

No fireworks.

Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”

Nothing’s free.

The prophet Elisha answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.
‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭5‬:‭13‬-‭16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The gifts of God are always free and take little more than another with compassion to pass them on.

God is no showman. He speaks and acts quietly on the hearts of men in prayers of compassion.

A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.

“How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.

But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’ ” Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.”

‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭4‬:‭42‬-‭44‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The old testament mirrors the miracles of Jesus in many instances. Healings and resurrections back to life and this story mirroring Jesus feeding the 5000, the connection is obvious.

So many impossible miracles back then and yet today we struggle to see God’s miraculous hand in our own lives.

What is the difference?

What explains the drought of miracles today that seemed so plentiful back then?

Are we praying wrong? Do we lack faith? Do we reason or explain away actual miracles too quickly as if they are mere magician tricks?

God of the old testament is the same God of the new testament and miracles were widespread and documented in both.

Surely, humanity’s belief in Jesus would rise exponentially if a few miracles could just make the evening news. And isn’t that the answer to all our ills?

Hebrews 1:1-2 is about God revealing himself “in these last days” through Jesus, his son, representing probably the biggest shift from widespread miraculous signs to the single ultimate revelation of Jesus and his resurrection. 1 Cor 13:8-10 refers to “when the perfect comes” bringing the grace of God as an everyday miracle.

Matt 13:58 says that because of their unbelief, he didn’t perform many miracles in his hometown.

Everyone wants to be a first-hand witness to a major miracle but remember the words of Jesus:

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed—John 20:29

He’s in the business of saving lives.

Whether by providing Elijah food and drink several days in the wilderness…

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭17‬:‭2‬-‭4‬, ‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

or by providing resurrection through Elijah for the son of the woman who helped him…

Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!
‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭17‬:‭21‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

throughout the Bible, the theme is always the same.

God created us, and God preserves us.

Saving us from hunger, from sickness, and all from the effects of sin, God is a life preserver.

As with Elijah, he saves us from peril, and he uses us to save others from peril.

Life is his gift if we will only reach out for him.

Our God is a jealous God.

Despite his great wisdom, Solomon and his wives lost everything including his loyalty and faithfulness:

I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.”

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭11‬:‭33‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Never say never.

The enemy is insidious, always seeking ways to tear down our faith.

We say we will never abandon our love for and loyalty to God but suddenly it happens.

Our faith is constantly tested and passing each test is, while we occupy this earth, what life is all about.

Never forget where God has brought you and what he has brought you out of.

Mine was addiction.

Though it’s been almost 13 years clean and sober, I’m still an addict, still the sinner saved by grace, still with reminders all around me every day.

Being always mindful and thankful is your best defense against the enemy.

King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth.

The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭10‬:‭23‬-‭25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If you recall, Solomon’s first and only request was for wisdom. Not for riches or power.

Wisdom was what built his kingdom into riches and power never seen before.

1 Kings 9:4-5 is the pact he made with God that assured the continuation of his riches, power and rule.

Too many of us have focused on prayers for riches or power and devalued the wisdom that made them possible.

What a world this might be today if we all craved wisdom and insight over money and fame and acknowledged it as the gift it is.

Wisdom is the currency of God that keeps us humble yet makes us wealthy beyond measure.

Wisdom starts with a healthy fear of a holy God.

But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!
‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Even after all the magnificent work creating a temple for the lord, Solomon regarded it insufficient and nothing more than symbolic.

It could only serve to satisfy the human desire for a tangible place to worship an intangible God as if he may do his best work in a temple made by human hands versus within the human heart.

Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Church is not a building.
Church is in the heart of every man.

We were made to worship and to do so with or without four walls around us.

However, God indulges our desire for a place where an invisible God may become visible within the best splendor we can muster, even if it’s only symbolic.

Elaborate temples of gold and riches may be out of fashion these days, but the local church is often the very place many of us experience the majesty and beauty of Jesus for the very first time.

If you build it, they will come.