Author Archives: Pastor Jim Driskell, Lutheran Church

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About Pastor Jim Driskell, Lutheran Church

I am the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Chestertown, Md. I pray that you will come and worship with us, worship is 10 am Sundays. We are a renewal church and we are lifting God up in classical worship, and being faithful disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. 101 Greenwood Av, Chestertown. Plenty of parking behind the church.

Equality by Friedrich Nietzsche he didn’t believe there was, Jesus does!

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This is being written on December 23, when cyber-space is filled with all kinds of Christmas greetings. So if you really don’t want to deal with anything else you may want to avoid this blog. However, you may want a little break from the Christmas stuff, you might find this interesting.

“Equality is a lie concocted by inferior people who arrange themselves in herds to overpower those who are naturally superior to them. The morality of ‘equal rights’ is a herd morality, and because it opposes the cultivation of superior individuals, it leads to the corruption of the human species” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Hmmmm, interesting, this is from the one who is practically the inspiration for the egalitarianism of today. The humanist, “progressive”, secular – “God is Dead”-movement, etc, this is actually what the “progressive” humanist leaders of today truly believe. They look at you and lie about how equal everyone is, they are lying. Their education comes in faux areas like “feminist literature”, they thing they know something because they know who Nietzsche is, but because of their very shallow learning and experience, they really don’t go any deeper into the subject.

Having said that, in stark contrast and in the Christmas spirit, we remember Luke 2: 10, the angel is speaking to the humble shepherds, out in the fields alone, not equal to anyone, the lowest on the rungs of the social scale: “But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good new of great joy that will be for all the people.” In terms of human history, this is the first time that this idea was ever uttered. That something was for “all the people”, no less that God was for all the people. While there was a slip – back in human history making Jesus more for some people and less for others. None the less, for those who teach and preach Jesus, we know that in God the Father’s eyes, we are completely equal, equally sunk in our sins, in our lives, our accomplishments. The secular, the humanist, believes that there are those who are our superiors, and we need to heed them. Christians may not be the best at it, but we know that now and in the future judgment, we will all be equal in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is totally in love with you Ezekiel 34 First Saint Johns Nov 26, 2017

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We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit and all those who know that God pursues them with a relentless and ultimate love said … AMEN!!!

God is totally in love you, He wants the absolute best for you. God does love you! Not in any trite way, I love pizza, I love the Red Sox. No!!! I might give up on the Red Sox, God is never, going to give up on you. As long as you’re alive, as Ezekiel describes, “I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock.” Each individual sheep was very valuable to its owner. Having a very valuable piece of property; that could produce more sheep, produce wool to sell season in and season out, produce food for your family, each sheep was very valuable in and of itself. No shepherd was simply going to write off losing a sheep. As valuable, as important as that sheep was to the shepherd, how much more valuable are we to God? Look around you, look at all He’s done.

There are often discussions about how arrogant Christians are, ya in a lot of ways. You should hear the incredible arrogance of those who say such things. I would submit that we are the only beings in the universe. I would get push back as to how arrogant that is. I can do the mathematical calculations to justify my case, for those who are so sure that they have a scientific argument. They don’t, most people who actually understand the facts would agree with me, most people who like to think that they are “so scientific”, really don’t even begin to understand the science. I’m not married to this concept. It’s certainly God’s domain, if He wishes to populate more planets in the universe. It is a massively huge universe. If God wanted to He surely could and that would not impact what we have in Jesus on this planet at this time. Our all powerful, all knowing God can do what He wants. If He chooses to create a massive universe all for the benefit of His people here, He certainly could, regardless of what the pretentious, secular person wants to believe. A universe we could look up at anytime.  A universe so massive and so incredibly complicated, we can’t even begin to truly conceptualize it, yet, God promises us “I myself will search for my sheep and I will seek them out.” In all that huge space, trillions of cubic miles, God will search us out and find us in all that immensity.

Dr Luther writes: “Noah and his family needed comfort. They were terrified by God’s anger, which had just destroyed the world. Because their faith was shaken, God wanted to show himself in a way that would make them expect nothing else but His good will and mercy.” That is how God is with us, Luther goes on to write: “…He was present at their sacrifice , talked to them, that He was displeased at having to destroy the human race and would never do it again.”[1] God was comforting His people in the face of all the tragedy of the world as He does for us who are in Jesus. God comforts us through His ministers, the family He’s given you, all that He has blessed you with.

We get into a lot of eschatology. God prompts Amos to write: “and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.’ 13 Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. …” 14 The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. 15  A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, … and thick darkness,”  This is God trying to scare people straight. This is so necessary, especially in a world like today that is so filled with complacency, that it’s all about me, that what I expect is what’s important. Clearly, God is doing everything He can to make sure that is not how it will be and for all of those complacent people who are so careless in everything in their lives, except of course making the money they need to feed their continual need for worldly pleasure. God is not going to let it slide. There are concepts in the world that explain the different duties we owe to each other. In a hyper-individual world like today, where people truly believe they really don’t owe anyone anything, but of course everyone owes me. It can be readily understood that God is here for each, individual’s benefit, but not that anyone owes God any duty. Yes, God does have a duty towards us! He fulfills that duty constantly, He certainly did when He was pulling down Israel’s complacent world, using King Cyrus, the Persians and Babylonians to do it. That was one of Israel’s apocalyptic events. The Greeks, then the Romans and then essentially, everyone was thrown out of Canaan, Palestine, the Holy Land. It’s been restored, but to a secularized Jewish people.

There will be a final apocalypse, God will refer back to all He said in Amos: “18 Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light, 19… 20 Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? 21 “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies  Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. 24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.“

Many in the world hear that last part and think God means justice in their limited concept of what that means. No, it means God’s justice will pour down on those who have rejected Him. He will exercise His justice on them and they will be completely crushed and immersed in God’s wrath as if they had flowed over Niagara Falls to be crushed between the waters and the bottom of the falls. His justice demands that those who reject Him be destroyed. His justice is that those who have oppressed and persecuted His church will be lost in darkness and aimless wandering, completely alone, with nothing. All they had been so obsessed with in this world. Who were so consumed by what they had and what they could do and completely complacent towards God, will find out how irrelevant and worthless their skills and possessions were and what it will be like to be completely alone, with nothing for eternity. Dr Luther writes: “For if we are Christians and stay close to him, we know that he speaks to us… He wants to comfort us with his words. Everything He says or does is nothing but friendly and comforting words and actions.” [2] God does love us, completely sold out to us, has done all He could do through Jesus Christ to save us. We have duties toward each other, we have duties toward God and yes He has duties to us. Part God’s duty is to protect us from ourselves. Just as we go to lengths to protect those who don’t know better in certain instances, doctors warn us of serious symptoms, people in a lot of areas of our life who teach us what we need to know to function and further our lives. Pastors who God uses to keep up the drumbeat that there will be an end, that we need to trust in Christ. He who died for us to pay the penalty for the sins of the world, who endured so much so that we have the promise of an eternal life of bliss and comfort and fulfillment. Where those who chose otherwise will live an eternity of utter, ultimate misery. Not my words, Yahweh’s words to Ezekiel, Amos. Jesus’ words recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  A person can treat these words carelessly and without thought. But certainly God has fulfilled His duty to us by warning us. People today don’t seem to understand the concept that there is, has been and always will be one sheriff in town. That Sheriff is our all, completely powerful God. He created everything. He created us and so because of that He does have a burning heart, a red-hot desire to bring us into the eternal world.

Despite what we like to think, it’s only on His terms. It doesn’t matter in the least to God who/what you are: “34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:” God created us the way that we started out as being. Yeah, we mess it up right out of the chute with our sin, for those who claim they’re not responsible for “how God made them”. They’re deluding themselves, God did not make us to be sinners, we chose our sins and followed through on them. But in that sense our sins do make us equal and is entirely dependent on God and that we are led by Him and not our sin, which is the practice of the world. “I’m not responsible, this is how I was made…” No! Like the lost sheep of Ezekiel 34: 11, all the lost sheep that Jesus describes and promises to save, God does exercise His duty to relentlessly pursue us: Francis Thompson wrote a poem dated 1890, named “The Hound of Heaven” Thompson describes what he did to avoid Him: “I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways  Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter.”

That is a metaphor for all of us, we flee God imposing His will on us, even though Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:30, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Despite that we, like Thompson, flee because we are going to impose our own abuse, lies, and onerous burdens on ourselves and condemn ourselves, even though God in His duty to us, pursues us relentlessly to save us from ourselves. Certainly on this Thanksgiving Day weekend, this is our ultimate thankfulness that God warns us, He pursues us, He reaches into our hearts and minds through His Holy Spirit to do everything possible to reach us. His Son died to make the Father’s promise very real that He wants to save us, on His terms, to give us an eternal life in the resurrection. Jesus died for us, stretched out on that Cross, brutally beaten, separated from His Father taking our sin on His shoulders. The Hound of Heaven like a sheep dog pursues its sheep, infinitely more passionately so that He does everything He can to save us, despite ourselves. God is completely in love and sold out to you and will go to great lengths to save you. Never forget that He loves you with an everlasting love through Jesus our Lord.

The peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amin and Shalom        He has risen! He has risen indeed! Hallelujah!

[1][1] Through Faith Alone Devotional Readings from Martin Luther June 1

[2] Ibid January 13

The Star of Bethlehem Points (Also) to the Eternal Impact of Our Work

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Hugh Whelchel  on the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics blog site
November 30, 2017

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“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant”

—Robert Louis Stevenson

A wave of relief washed over me as I pushed the “Send” button. One more blog finished, sent on to my staff to be edited and posted. An odd thought occurred to me: I’ve been writing at least a blog a week for the last six years—I wonder if it really makes any difference?

This is a question that we all ask about our work from time to time, especially when things are difficult or we are in a rut.

Faithfully Serving

Over a decade ago, my friend and brother in Christ, Admiral (Retired) Tim Ziemer, was asked by President George W. Bush to run the President’s Malaria Initiative. The stated goals of this U.S. executive-branch effort were to reduce malaria-related mortality by 50 percent across 15 high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Over the subsequent ten years, I am sure there were many days, as he traversed washed-out roads in sweltering tropical heat to visit remote clinics, that Tim wondered if his work was ever going to make a difference. I am also sure there were days when he encountered even greater challenges in the halls of Congress and thought to himself, “Why am I doing this?”

In a 2014 New York Times article in which Tim is dubbed the “The Malaria Fighter,” he muses about his work:

All my ex–flag-officer colleagues work for Beltway bandits. They play a lot of golf, go up and down the Chesapeake in their boats. At reunions, they’ll give me grief. “Hey, Z, you still saving the world?” And I’ll say, “Yep, still saving the world.”

Despite his playful understatement, Tim Ziemer understands the notion of calling as well as anyone I know. He realizes that, for that season of his life, God had called him to fight malaria as his vocational calling. His response to that call was to be faithful—to do the work, day in and day out, using all the skills and talents given to him and do the best job he could do regardless of the problems, setbacks, or disappointments.

In his Jan 18, 2017 farewell message to his colleagues, Ziemer celebrated the fact that through the work of his small team, more than 6 million people are alive today in Africa who would have died of Malaria. Who knows, one of those children might grow up to be the next Nelson Mandela.

Faithful Obedience that Impacts Generations to Come

As we move into Advent, I want to tell you about another government employee whose work had a huge impact. His name is Daniel and he worked for King Nebuchadnezzar in ancient Babylon.

While most of us know the story of Daniel, one of his jobs is often overlooked. King Nebuchadnezzar assigned the prophet Daniel to the high office of “chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners” (Dan. 5:11). In other words, Daniel was appointed Chief of the Magi.

Why is this important?

As Christmas approaches, we will see images and hear stories of the “Wise Men,” (or, as they are often called, Magi), traveling from the East, following a star in order to pay homage to Jesus Christ, the newborn king. Many scholars believe that these Magi were Persians from Babylon.

Have you ever wondered what led the wise men to undertake the thousand-mile-plus journey to Bethlehem?

How did Babylonians know about Jewish prophecy at all, and what led them to believe that this particular star was the one that would lead them to a great, newborn king?

The Magi must have had an unmistakably clear astronomical/astrological message to urge them on such an ambitious quest. In Matthew 2:2, the Magi indicate that they saw something in the night sky that was so significant it convinced them to make the lengthy and dangerous trip to Jerusalem.

How could some celestial event inform the Magi that a king of the Jews had been born?

This is where the prophet Daniel comes in. Not only was Daniel chief of the Magi, but his prophecies became known throughout the ancient Near East. Even the Romans were aware of his prophecies of a coming king of Israel.

The Magi of the first century would have most certainly studied the writing of Daniel and possibly other Jewish writings Daniel likely referenced, such as the book of Isaiah. This connection between Daniel and the Magi may help to explain why almost six hundred years later, the Magi in question expected a Jewish king to arrive in Judea near the end of the first century B.C. It is likely that the Magi followed the star based on their study of the prophet Daniel’s writings.

I would assert that the work done by Daniel may have helped the Magi, centuries after Daniel’s death, connect the dots between a light in the night sky and the “Light of the World.” (Explore this connection further in my seminary research paper here.)

Does What You Do Impact the World?

Now, you may say, I am no Daniel or Tim Ziemer, but you have no idea how God may use the work he has called you to do nor the impact it might have a year from now, ten years from now, or even much further into the future.

We need to rest in the knowledge that:

…we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10).

That work includes even the most mundane thing you will do today; this work will not be wasted.

On that note, I think I will go write another blog post…

 

Editor’s Note: Read more about the eternal impact of your work in How Then Should We Work?

Help encourage someone that their work matters to God! Support IFWE today. 

 

Photo source: Wonderlane

Gay Prayer Remarks for Prince George Described As “Un-Christian and Anti-Constitutional” — GODINTEREST – Christian magazine covering faith, culture and life

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LONDON — A prominent Anglican cleric and gay rights campaigner Reverend Kelvin Holdsworth said that people should pray for Prince George age 4, be gay to help the Church of England recognize same-sex marriage. But his comments about the four-year-old, who is third in line to the throne, have been described as “unkind” and “destructive”.…

via Gay Prayer Remarks for Prince George Described As “Un-Christian and Anti-Constitutional” — GODINTEREST – Christian magazine covering faith, culture and life

Luther’s Reformation of Beer NOVEMBER 3, 2017 BY GENE VEITH

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Not only did Martin Luther reform the church.  He also reformed beer too.  Specifically, the Reformation gave us beer brewed with hops.

So says Nina Martyris, who takes the prize for an influence-of-the-Reformation-on-its-500th-anniversary story with The Other Reformation: How Martin Luther Changed Our Beer, Too : The Salt : NPR.  She is drawing on a book by William Bostwick, the beer critic for TheWall Street Journal:  The Brewer’s Tale: A History of the World According to Beer. 

So how did Luther give us hoppy beer?

The story begins with another prominent figure in religious history:  St. Hildegard of Bingen.  Recently canonized by Pope Benedict XVI and made a “doctor of the church,” this 12th century abbess was a talented musical composer, an innovative playwright, a mystic, a theologian, and an influential herbalist.  She taught against the use of hops, saying they “make the soul of a man sad and weigh down his inner organs.”

So the church said that beer should no longer be made with hops.  More to the point, the church established a  monopoly on gruit — as Bostwick explains it, “the mixture of herbs and botanicals (sweet gale, mug wort, yarrow, ground ivy, heather, rosemary, juniper berries, ginger, cinnamon)” that took the place of hops.  Beer made with this gruit was also subject to a heavy church tax.

But with the Reformation, brewers celebrated their freedom from the tyranny of the pope by renouncing gruit!  Instead, they turned to hops!  Just as Luther recovered the Gospel, as taught in the New Testament church, after it was covered over by accretions of human teaching, the Lutheran brewers recovered beer with hops, as brewed in older days, despite the accretions of human innovations such as mug wort, heather, and ivy!  (My analogy.)

There were other financial advantages to making beer with hops.  The flower was plentiful.  And beer made with that ingredient was not taxed at all.  Furthermore, says Bostwick, hops are a preservative, making it possible for beer to be a trading commodity.  The making and selling of beer thus became part of the new commercial growth that accompanied the Reformation, fueled mainly by the “work ethic” associated with the doctrine of vocation.

Furthermore, Reformation beer had different effects than Catholic beer.  I’ll let Nina Martyris, via William Bostwick, explain it:

Another virtue in hops’ favor was their sedative properties. The mystic Hildegard was right in saying hops weighed down one’s innards. “I sleep six or seven hours running, and afterwards two or three. I am sure it is owing to the beer,” wrote Luther to his wife, Katharina, from the town of Torgau, renowned for its beer. The soporific, mellowing effect of hops might seem like a drawback, but in fact it offered a welcome alternative to many of the spices and herbs used by the church that had hallucinogenic and aphrodisiacal properties. “Fueled by these potent concoctions, church ales could be as boisterous as the Germanic drinking bouts church elders once frowned on,” writes Bostwick. “And so, to distance themselves further from papal excesses, when Protestants drank beer they preferred it hopped.”

Can we still see this, sort of, in obnoxious beer drunks who get loud, start fights, and “make poor sexual choices”?  Are they not always drinking tasteless mass-produced beer with few hops?  Whereas those who drink hoppy beers in brewpubs find themselves relaxing, becoming calm, and engaging in good conversations?  Or not?

The reporter asks Bostwick if the Reformer could be considered the patron saint of beer:

“Luther might blanch a bit as a good Protestant at being called a saint,” points out Bostwick, “and there’s already a brewery saint called St. Arnold, who saved his congregation from the plague by making them drink beer. In the interests of Protestantism, I wouldn’t call him a saint, but he was certainly a beer enthusiast, and many a beer bar and brewery today has a picture of Martin Luther on their wall. So let’s say that while we certainly don’t genuflect to him, he’s known and appreciated.”

Well, Luther’s kind of Protestants still have the category of “saint,” though I’m not sure about “patron saint.”  (Can anyone address that?)  All Christians, he said, by virtue of their salvation by Christ, are simultaneously sinners and saints.

But remember Luther and the Gospel the next time you taste hops in your beer.

God’s promises to us in prayer

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The last Tuesday of the month is out monthly prayer breakfast at First Saint Johns Lutheran Church. It is a time to lift up prayer for each other, for the church that God has put us in, for our community, any other needs that people bring up. Everyone is welcome, it’s a great breakfast and a really great time of fellowship in prayer.

It is also a time for a little teaching. We can all always use a little more guidance in our prayer/devotional life and I found he following is from Martin Luther which will be a topic of conversation:

“Good prayer that is heard by God has two prerequisites. First, we must consider God’s promise that he will hear us. By reminding him of his promise, we can dare to pray confidently. For God hadn’t asked us to pray and hadn’t promised to hear us, then all people praying their requests together wouldn’t be able to receive even the smallest item.

So no one receives anything from God because of the quality of the prayer, but only because of God’s goodness. God anticipates all of our requests and desires. With his promise, he prompts us to pray and desire these things so that we will learn how much he cares for us. He cares for us so much that he is prepared to give us even more than we are ready to receive or to ask for. Because he is offering us so much, we can pray with confidence.

Second, we must not doubt what the true and faithful God promises to do. He promises to hear our prayers – yes, he even commands us to pray. He promises this so that we might firmly believe that our prayers will be answered. As Christ says, ‘That’s why I tell you to have faith that you have already received whatever you pray for, and it will be yours’ (Mark 11:24; Matthew 21:22). Christ also says, ‘So I tell you to ask and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive. The one who searches will find, and for the person who knocks, the door will be opened’ (Luke 11:9-10). By trusting in these promises and obeying thee commands, we can pray with confidence.” (Through Faith Alone  365 Devotional Readings from Martin Luther October 30)

As in everything in our relationship with God it is about Him guiding us in prayer, it is about Him leading us in everything. We can certainly lift up inspired, high prose in our prayer, but that’s not really the point. Often we would do well to wait in prayer for the Holy Spirit to move us to understand what we really should be praying for and get on God’s track for us instead of us trying to force our prayer and struggle. God truly is waiting to God us in all parts of our life. That is faith, trusting His leading instead of fussing about what we’re supposed to do.

What Will Work Be Like in the New Heaven and Earth? Russell Gehrlein October 12, 2017

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In your job today, you will likely experience the “thorns and thistles” that have come as a result of the Fall; the reality is that work will be difficult until Christ returns. But what happens to work when Jesus comes back, and Adam’s curse from Genesis 3:16-19 is no more, as it states in Revelation 22:3: “No longer will there be any curse”?

Here are some key points worth considering:

  • At the consummation of all things, Christians and the earth will be fully redeemed (Rev. 21:1-5)
  • Many aspects of human work will continue in the New Jerusalem (Isa. 65:21-23)
  • It may even include the best of human culture and achievements, past, present, and future such as the wheel, Handel’s “Messiah,” food, architecture, roads, government, technology, etc. (Rev. 21:24, 26)
  • There will be no more need for doctors, lawyers, counselors, or wheelchair manufacturers

If we understand that some of the things we do now could be carried over into eternity, it can radically change our attitudes and actions in our work. It means it has eternal value.

Tom Nelson, in Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work, states,

If our daily work, done for the glory of God and the common good of others, in some way carries over to the new heavens and new earth, then our present work itself is overflowing with immeasurable value and eternal significance.

In plain terms, we need to see the huge impact of the great reversal of the curse, where sinless humanity and its relationship to work are restored to pre-Fall conditions.

Focus on the New Creation

Just imagine what our work could be like in the New Creation without the pain, frustration, stress, difficulty, unpredictability, sweat, and interpersonal conflict between sinners that we currently experience in our labor due to the Fall.

The possibility that there will be work for us to do is implied in the scriptures. The prophet Micah suggests that we don’t just lay down our weapons, we will pick up instruments of work: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Mic. 4:3).

If there is work, it will not seem like it, as the quality of workers and the workplace will be fully restored. There will be no corrupt leaders, workaholism, unemployment, sexual harassment, racial discrimination, greed, exploitation of workers, etc., that exist in a fallen world. We will no longer experience the power or the presence of sin. Work relationships will not be characterized by conflict, but by peace, fellowship, and unity. The hopeless message of vanity of Ecclesiastes 1 will vanish. There will be no meaninglessness in life and work “under the sun” because we will all be “under the Son.”

Revelation 21:1-5 gives us a description of what to expect at the consummation, after Jesus returns and the judgment of Satan and his followers is complete. You can see that contrary to popular belief, heaven is not a place of disembodied spirits playing harps up in the clouds. The New Jerusalem will come down to earth, where God will dwell for all eternity with those whose names are found in the Lamb’s book of life and where there will be no more death or sadness or pain.

Michael Wittmer, in Becoming Worldly Saints, reminds us that God’s future plan is not destruction, but restoration:

God did not say, “I am making new everything!” but rather “I am making everything new!” He does not promise to make new things to furnish the new earth, but to renew the things that are already here.

Paul Stevens, in Work Matters: Lessons from Scripture, agrees, “Our final destiny is not a workless utopia but a renewed world in which we will work with infinite creativity and fulfillment.”

Nelson concurs: “Your work in the new creation will be even better than it was in the old creation. God has a great future in store for his image-bearing workers.”

In his book, The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, Darrell Cosden ponders more specifically what our work will be like,

Our sanctified imaginations can only suggest what we think God’s promise to make all things new might mean…There will be, no doubt, some specific products of our work that through judgment will be transformed and incorporated into the “new physics” of the new creation. I am quite hoping that Handel’s Messiah will be regularly in concert in the New Jerusalem.

Wittmer suggests that Bach and Michelangelo will be there with time to create even better works.

What Kind of Work Will We Do?

This is only my biblically informed speculation, but it appears to me that there will be two categories of jobs that we will not find anywhere in the eternal kingdom.

  1. There will be a small number of obvious jobs that will no longer exist because evil is no more (e.g., pimps, hit men, counterfeiters, porn film directors, and drug dealers).
  2. However, there will be a much larger number of jobs that will no longer exist because they are no longer needed since fallen humanity and the Earth have been restored. While the eternal value of the earthly work remains, these types of jobs and career fields will be unnecessary in the New Jerusalem: morticians, law enforcement, light bulb manufacturers, lawyers, doctors, wheelchair manufacturers, psychologists, and many more. Those that served in these areas will likely continue to apply their unique design to work that is needed.

Stevens writes that our future work will be all that God originally designed it to be—fulfilling,

Work in the new heaven and new earth will be all that good work was intended to be. Perhaps what we will be doing is what we have done in this life but without the sweat and frustration experienced here…Since there will be no curse on work, the workplace, or the worker, labor will be personally and completely satisfying, far more than was obtainable in this life.

Although there are a lot of unanswered questions about the nature of our work for all eternity, these insights should still give us a tremendous amount of hope. They should cause us all to reflect on Paul’s words of encouragement in the context of his teaching on the bodily resurrection of believers: “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).

 

Editor’s Note: Learn more about the eternal value of work in All Things New: Rediscovering the Four-Chapter Gospel by Hugh Whelchel. 

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Russell Gehrlein
RUSSELL GEHRLEIN

Russell Gehrlein is a born-again Christian, brother, husband, father, and grandfather. He is also a former youth pastor and junior-senior high school math/science teacher, a published author, and a retired Army Master Sergeant with over 20 years active duty. He is a Department of the Army civilian employee. He received his bachelors of science in mathematics from Colorado State University and a master of arts in biblical studies from Cornerstone University/Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. Read more of his work at regehrlein.wordpress.com/

Tell it to the Church Matthew 18

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We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit, we take this time to remember those who died in the attacks of September 11, 2001 and for the comfort and peace of their families in at this time. We all joined together and said … AMEN!

We lift up in prayer all those in Florida, in the path of the next hurricane, we pray they are kept safe and that minimal damage is done. We thank you Father that the people in Puerto Rico were spared serious damage. We also remember Houston and pray that they continue to recover. Most of us remember well the attacks of 9/11, we certainly know of the war that continues in Afghanistan, although we may not know of a lot of the other activity that has occurred to stop terrorism and to break up and bring to justice those who would murder and destroy for their own purposes, for their own glory and do it in the Name of God. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit does not inflict violence. Only the love of the true God which moves us to know and grow in Him and for those who do not know Him, He continues to move them to focus on Him and His true life here, salvation in heaven and eternal life in the resurrection. Help us to know Him in His love and relationship to Jesus, His Church and His people, in true, everlasting life and love.

Dr Martin Luther writes: “The amaranth is a flower …[which] is easily broken off and grows in joyful and pleasant sort… being sprinkled with water, becomes fair and green again, so that in winter they used to make garlands thereof. It is called amaranth from this: that it neither withers or decays.

I know nothing more like unto the church than this flower, amanranth. For although the church bathes her garment in the blood of the Lamb and is colored over with red, yet she is more fair, comely, and beautiful than any state and assembly upon the face of the earth. She alone is embraced and beloved of the Son of God, as His sweet and amiable spouse, in whom only He takes joy and delight and whereupon His heart alone depends. He utterly rejects and loathes others that condemn or falsify His Gospel.[1]”

A couple of times a year we step outside the walls of our stunning sanctuary. We do all we can to share this church and this great monument to our Lord Jesus Christ. To invite our neighbors, family and friends who do not know Jesus and His church. We have been given a great gift, to be saved in Jesus and in that salvation to be a member of His church. Not everyone who is saved is part of such a magnificent testament and monument to Jesus. Too many think that, by choice, a place that is simple and does not have anything to really honor Him or even remind those who are there that this is supposed to be a place to honor and worship our Lord and to show the world how important Jesus is. Too many in our culture today are more concerned with makes them happy, they’re really not concerned about honoring or worshipping Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Until such time, of course, when it’s very obvious that they need God and expect Him, and yes, His Church to be there for them. We who faithfully serve Jesus’ church know how difficult it is to maintain this place of worship and that it may not always be there.

Many love to tell us how enlightened they are because they’ve made up their mind that the church is wherever they decide it should be. The snarky remarks about worshipping on the golf course, at the beach, some have told me drinking or even taking drugs. They claim that is their form of worship. We live in a truly delusional society that thinks it’s all about them and can make reality any way it pleases them. Those are the same ones who when all is said and done; “will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:12) The same phrase Matthew quotes Jesus as using in Matthew 13:42, 13:58, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30. “Omaha” Jesus makes it plain the fate of those who reject Jesus and His Church. It is a combo package, you can’t have a church that doesn’t accept Jesus, it’s not a church that will save you. Likewise you can’t have Jesus and not the church. The Church is the Body of Christ on earth, to be in Christ is to be a part of the Body of Christ which is saved to the eternal resurrection. You have to be a part of the Body of Christ, His church.

In two places Jesus refers to His church. “ESV Matthew 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And in today’s reading: “ESV Matthew 18:17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Despite what today’s culture likes to think, it is plain that Jesus’ purpose was for His church to do His will on earth. Not for everyone to have their own little worship of whatever I want or makes me happy. In today’s reading Jesus makes it very plain that, yes we are to judge. Not in a pharisaical, harsh way, but in a way that is trying to get the person back into a right relationship with Jesus and His Church. That is what excommunication is about. Not to be punitive or flex ecclesial muscles, but to make it plain that someone’s lifestyle; abusing others, undermining Jesus’ church and ministry, sexual sin, coveting after the things of the world, abusing God and His Name, murder, stealing, lying, that all these things are not acceptable in the Church of Jesus and won’t be tolerated. That the person committing those sins isn’t being judged, as much as condemning him or her own self by their actions. The church’s job is to call them to account on their sin and if he refuses to listen to a brother or sister in Jesus, then to three or more, then as Jesus says: “…if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” (Matt 18:18) The church is given the power to judge, as Jesus goes on to say, what we call “the keys of the church”: “whatever you [meaning the church body] bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Whatever you as the church, truly functioning in good faith, good intentions, truly trying to redirect those who by their actions and rejection of My, Jesus’, Church, won’t listen “even to the church”, note the emphasis. Ok, it’s one thing not to listen to your neighbor, or maybe 3 people from the church, but when the entire church, that you won’t listen to the entire church! Ok, then the church in My authority as Lord of the church, tell you that you should treat this person as a Gentile and tax collector. In the context of the time the most damning condemnation one could make. The lowest person in Jewish society at the time was a Gentile or tax collector. Don’t have anything to do with them, except that you reach out in prayer, love and compassion, always doing what you can to restore them to the church.

This arrogant attitude we have today, really idolatry, that is making oneself the object of worship when you claim that “oh I worship on the beach, the golfcourse”. The attitude being that worship, if any, is going to be on my terms, my time, place, emotion. As if God’s supposed to follow you around like a puppy dog hoping that you will deign to privilege Him with your attention. Doesn’t work that way, that is arrogance, self-worship, quoting CFW Walther: “…pious speech without a living and believing heart in one accord is nothing before God except a hypocritical abomination. Christian fellowship is founded on the promise from Christ Himself, as our text makes irrefutably certain. No Christian can say: ‘I prefer to remain alone. Why should I have fellowship? I derive no blessing from it.’ Whoever speaks like this contradicts Christ and questions His faithfulness.”[2] Clearly Jesus means that when two or more are gathered, no one is entitled to set their own rules of worship, and that more than two are intended to come together in true worship.

Dr Luther writes about the church of Jesus Christ: “…She grows and increases again, fair, joyful and pleasant. That is, she gains the greatest fruit and profit thereby; she learns to know God properly, to call upon Him freely and undauntedly, to confess His word and doctrine. She produces many fair and glorious virtues… the church will by God be raised and wakened out of the grace, and become living again. The church will everlastingly praise, extol and laud the Father our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, His Son and our Redeemer, together with the Holy Ghost.”[3]

It is only in the church that there will be everlasting praise of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Only those who have praised, extoled, lauded God in life, will be there to do the same in heaven, and even more so in the resurrection, where we are restored in our bodies to everlasting life in the perfect world that God originally intended for us, to live our life the way we were supposed to live it. Satan, the world will tell any lie to keep you from Jesus’ church, but as Jesus promises: “ESV John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Nothing and no one can give you any hope or promise that truly matters except for Jesus and He does that in and through His Church. Quoting Luther: “…I am not troubled that the world esteems the Church so meanly; what care I that the usurers, the nobility, gentry, citizens, country people, covetous men, and drunkards condemn and esteem me as dirt? In due time, I will esteem them as little. We must not suffer ourselves to be deceived or troubled as to what the world thinks of us. To please the good is our virtue.”[4]

The peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amin and Shalom        He has risen! He has risen indeed! Hallelujah!

[1] Martin Luther Table Talk Bridge Logos edition p 242

[2] C.F.W Walther quoted in God Grant it Daily Devotionals from CFW Walther edited by Gerhard Grabenhofer p 545

[3] Martin Luther Table Talk Bridge Logos edition p 242, 243

[4] Ibid p 241