Morning Devotion 5-8-07

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for the beautiful day He has given us. It will be warm and wonderful with bountiful sunshine. We have many flowering trees, such as flowering crab apple trees, on the parsonage grounds which are about to explode with brilliant colors. I talked to some of my friends in India today. It is Mid-summer there. The mercury reaches 110 to 120. At times it can become oppressive and dangerous. The schools and colleges are closed for the Summer . They will reopen towards the beginning of July. In India they harvest many kinds of summer fruit. Mango is the passion fruit of India. They harvest mangoes of various sizes and shapes, colors, and flavors. As a young boy I spent my summer vacations under the mango groves, gathering and eating the mangoes with soul full, and making friends and keeping them.
"O Lord our Lord how excellent is your name all over the earth." Praise the Lord for the way He is real. He is the Lord who feels our pain, and He is the Savior who is touched by our sorrows. He is the Lord of life. He is the Alpha and Omega. As we pause and ponder about life we come to the conclusion in the light of the Word of God, that life on earth is short. Eternity is very long. Hell is for real. Heaven can be ours because of the finished work of Christ. In Christ all God's promises are "Yes".
The Bible is full of wonderful promises, but perhaps the most wonderful of all is this: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). There are many things we do not know about what heaven will be like, because it is beyond our ability to comprehend. But one thing we can be sure of is that it will fulfill our greatest longings, it will dazzle us with its beauty, it will obliterate our greatest problems with its power and splendor, it will be greater than anything we could imagine or dream, it will be a place where love and joy will reign unspoiled. The Lord of the Church is busy preparing it for His people. It took Him only 6 days to create the first creation. It is taking Him thousand years to prepare it for His people. Heaven will be a real place with real, meaningful and rewarding work for us to do. Heaven will be the fulfillment of what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” T. S. Elliot wrote: We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.The prophet Isaiah wrote: “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17). The Bible says, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27). I read about Eric Clapton, who in 1991 lost his five-year-old son, Conner, after he fell from the window of their forty-ninth floor Manhattan apartment. Clapton poured out his grief in song and wrote “Tears in Heaven.” In the song he asks the question: Would you know my name If I saw you in heaven? Would it be the same If I saw you in heaven?It is the question to which a lot of people would like an answer. The truth is, we will meet again those whom we have lost who have known Christ and lived for him — if we belong to Christ. Our relationships will not be lost; they will be regained and renewed. We will experience these relationships at a level we have never known before. Deep, rewarding and fulfilling relationships will be the hallmark of heaven. Our relationship with God will be healed as well. No longer will our love for God be compromised by a selfish love for ourselves and an enchantment with the things of the world. Our love for God and our relationship with him will be unspoiled. There will be nothing between us — no separation. Our sinful nature will be taken away, and we will no longer struggle with sin and temptation. Our relationship with God will be so intimate that the book of Revelation describes it as a bride coming to her husband — full of love and passion, with arms open wide. C. S. Lewis, in his great book The Problem of Pain, struggles with the problems caused by the pains of life. In writing, he says, “Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.” I think he is right. Home is on its way, but it is not here yet. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it is. When it gets here he will make “everything new.” Jesus said, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done” (Revelation 22:12). Every sacrifice you have made will be remembered. Every sorrow you have experienced will be dispelled with countless joys. Every rejection will be overcome by an explosion of love. At last we say, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for [us], who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5). In C. S. Lewis’ wonderful books The Chronicles of Narnia, (The Final Battle) the characters who have lived in Narnia have completed their time and work there. In a closing chapter entitled “Further Up and Further In,” Aslan, the lion who represents Christ, has come for them in order to take them home. They are headed away from Narnia and are about to enter Aslan’s land. But they are met with familiar scenes. One of the characters cries out: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.”
Because of Christ, the Lion of Judah, the BEST is yet to be.
Brown

Please take note: this daily devotional will be posted on my personal web page. You can visit it at www.brownnaik.com . This page has been constructed and will be maintained by my friends Larry and Mary Beth, who live in Texas, and Julie, in Oklahoma. Results from my surgery will be posted on this web page. Thank you for your prayer.


P.s. I made an error in stating that the author of the book" Heretics/Orthodoxy" was C.S. Lewis. It not Lewis but G.K. Chesterton.
Happy Birthday to Linda C. A, Becky D. B, Joan D. They are all sweet servants of Jesus.

And what might this noble Lord do of more worship and joy to me than to show me (that am so simple) this marvelous homeliness [i.e., naturalness and simplicity]? Thus it fareth with our Lord Jesus and with us. For truly it is the most joy that may be that He that is highest and mightiest, noblest and worthiest, is lowest and meekest, homeliest and most courteous: and truly this marvelous joy shall be shewn us all when we see Him. ... Juliana of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

May 8, 1603 • Who Is Elect? Arminius Differed with Calvin.
by the Staff or associates of Christian History Institute.
After a lengthy exchange of letters, the curators and burgomasters of Leiden officially appointed Jacobus Arminius Professor of Theology at their university on this day, May 8, 1603. When first proposed for the position, Arminius doubted he would take the job. He had formed loving ties with his flock in Amsterdam. Furthermore, he had found theological research a hindrance to his growth in personal sanctity. His working relationship with Amsterdam's authorities was good and he seldom found it necessary to oppose them for the sake of conscience. Most importantly, he had a lifelong contract with Amsterdam which he could not simply break.
Arminius thought the Bible could legitimately be interpreted a little differently from Calvin
Arminius was Amsterdam's favorite minister. He had served there fifteen years. Yet the possibility of appointment to Leiden raised the question of his orthodoxy. Calvin and Beza taught that Romans 7 referred to a regenerate man. Arminius held that it was the description of an unregenerate person. His chief opponent in Leyden, Franciscus Gomarus, confessed he had never read Arminius' work. After Arminius explained his views, Gomarus agreed they were defensible if not the interpretation he preferred. Arminius showed that his position had been held by a score of eminent theologians from church history.
Everyone was appeased. His appointment had cleared its last hurdle.
Amsterdam was persuaded to release Arminius. The city promised to provide his widow a pension should he die before her and they gave him a substantial parting gift.
Arminius had not cleared his last hurdle of controversy, however. At Leyden he became embroiled in theological arguments not of his own choosing. He was compelled by the lecture schedule to speak on predestination, a topic on which his views were already suspect to strict Calvinists. His lecture consisted almost entirely of scripture with minimal comment. Arminius' careful pastiche of scriptural quotes did not follow the Calvinist line as closely as they desired and the Calvinists challenged him. Strict Calvinists believe Christ died only for the elect. Arminius held Christ died for all (although not all would be saved). "Let those who reject the [teaching that Christ paid the price for the sins of all men] consider how they can answer the following scriptures, which declare that Christ died for all men..." He also said people have genuine free will and grace is resistible. The Calvinist views seemed to preclude free will because they said grace is irresistible.
Arminius tried hard to keep peace, even deliberately withholding some of his views. He tested each of his views to make sure none nullified the doctrine of salvation by faith. Furthermore he was careful to avoid anything which smacked of Pelagianism. He never denied predestination. All was by God's choice. God predestined those he knew would obey him in faith.
After his death, Arminius' views were condemned at the Synod of Dort. But in 1795 the Dutch recognized them as a legitimate interpretation of scripture. Many notable Protestants have held Arminian views, including the Wesleys. Protestant groups are often divided into Arminians and Calvinists.