I was driving in the car on what felt like a time-consuming and futile errand when the song lyrics from the Charity Gayle song I Believe caught my attention—

Coming back for a spotless bride

I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty spotty. The image I have in my head is of a woman dressed in a previously glistening gown which was once pristine, but she has been mucking through the wildfire- and flood-prone slog of Christian life (see James 1) of trying to do what she is supposed to, and in the process, cleaning up feces and having it occasionally flung at her. More mud-based and covered than spotless.

Jesus has always been the God of tautologies and paradoxes. Faith is the spotless bride. Faith and the call to be washed in the blood of the Lamb.

I do not exactly know how the muddied, bloodied, messed up Bride of Christ will emerge spotless, but I know that “the servant is not above the Master.”

Jesus was broken for his bride, why should we not be broken for him?

He is worthy of it all, and

Tend your lamps, girls

He is coming back soon.

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sa=X&sca_esv=7848dc2536e4d400&hl=en&q=&si=ACC90nxRWvuwqTR4TiacZ7sCfkHhcGgWdDOv2v2HxpHAAuIhwd0hqVQcoOD2_2OWmYVP1pjgoR-2MIYg0HgOh9KkP4eNpgwCsWW8RH9Hr27VXPaSaH4CZEsP-3YUkP50qxBd199h2AmW&ved=2ahUKEwinu4LE1-qGAxVU4ckDHVLaA3AQjukCegQIRxAE&ictx=1&biw=375&bih=623&dpr=2

Matthew 23:33-39 NIV
[33] “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? [34] Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. [35] And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. [36] Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation. [37] “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. [38] Look, your house is left to you desolate. [39] For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”

Recently I read an article about a famous person who made an unbearable statement. I wrote him an email about what was true and how high the stakes can be.

He is an atheist, so at one point I told him that he should believe in hell for an hour.

The injunction is solid. If anyone as smart as you are is going to risk so much on randomized notions of self-determination, you should consider hell real for one hour.

This does not seem like a big ask. Hell is breaking through the windows and doors of this world every day. War is an iteration of hell, Child abuse is an iteration of hell. Starvation and violence and human cruelty all come from hell.

Believe in hell for an hour. Do the research if it helps.

Then what?

Jesus is the only one who has ever promised us the chance to escape hell. This is a purely substitutionary offer—he went to hell to save us from it.

Believe in hell for an hour.

Put your trust in Jesus forever.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68790673

This is a story of how laying down palm branches can save your life.

As a landlubber who gets sea sick on a calm day, I am at once awed and dubious about three experienced mariners setting off in a skiff on the sea, storm forecast or no.

The bones of the story are evocative—

Sailors

Storm

Disabled boat

Rescue sign in the sand

Searchers

Help comes

Officially rescued.

I am so grateful these unnamed men are rescued and I can see the parable as well—

We have to know we are lost

Put out the “HELP” sign

Then search the sky for our Rescuer.

Thank you, Jesus, for rescuing me.

John 10

People who say they have “seen” Jesus’ face should be regarded with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Yet doesn’t he tell us all to do just that?

He says we are supposed to look for him everywhere—in the light and in the truth and in the faces of others.

Sometimes we need him so much that we are driven to seeking his face, like young loves do or shipwrecked sailors do, clinging to shards of boat in an endless ocean.

Throughout my life I have sought Jesus in pain and grief and loneliness. I sought him because I needed him to get me through.

But there is something more now—a sense of urgency and expectation.

Jesus is coming back soon.

Seek his face

https://www.christianpost.com/news/detroit-pistons-player-says-jesus-is-coming-back.html

Psalm 95:1-11 KJV
[1] O come, let us sing unto the Lord : let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. [2] Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. [3] For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. [4] In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. [5] The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. [6] O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. [7] For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, [8] Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: [9] When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. [10] Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: [11] Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

I just read this—

https://www.christianpost.com/news/priest-shaken-after-fake-funeral-with-paid-actors.html

I can understand why the pastor stopped the funeral, but it seems like a missed opportunity.

After all, we all have the same eulogy. Why not give it?

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn a human. All of us live our lives with a certain amount of illusion regarding our autonomy, our choices, and the significance of our individual accomplishments.

In fact, little of that matters and none of it matters after we are gone.

What matters is Who we trusted with our lives. There is only one person in recorded history who can make a difference to a person at the point of death and beyond and that person is Jesus.

Jesus promised us all eternal life

His life for ours

His ransom for our sins.

If you don’t know Jesus and haven’t let him have your questions, doubts, sins, and lies, then ask him now—

Ask him if he is real

Then let his realness change everything.

John 3