Father I Turn To You

I recently listened to the song "Father I Turn To You" by Jahaziel, and I thought it would be encouraging to people who are trying to overcome addictions to pornography. In this song, Jahaziel gives his own testimony about his previous addiction to pornography, and he explains how Christ set him free when he truly surrendered his life to Him.

This World Is Not My Home

I can’t help but say ‘amen’ to this passage by Joni Tada in her book, Heaven, as she shares her thoughts during a trip to the LA airport:

With eyes of faith I looked beyond the sight of bumper-to-bumper traffic, the smell of sweat, cigarettes, exhaust fumes, and the sounds of my harried co-travelers, and began humming quietly...

This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through,
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue,
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door,
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

For me, it was a moment of faith. Faith merely the size of a grain of mustard seed. Remember, that's all it takes to be sure of things hoped for - future divine fulfillments - and certain of things you do not see, that is, unseen divine realities.

Of what was I so sure and certain? Here, let me sing it again: "The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, / And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore."

I hum that haunting tune in other places besides the Los Angeles airport. Sometimes I get that "can't feel at home" sensation ambling down the aisles of K-Mart, watching women grab for the blue-light specials. Sometimes it happens sitting with Ken watching Monday Night Football’s fourth instant replay of a team’s third-down conversion. And I definitely feel "this world is not my home" as I sit on the Ventura-Freeway-turned-parking-lot.

Don’t think I’m strange. Christians have felt the same for centuries. Malcolm Muggeridge, a British journalist who spent most of his years battling Christianity, finally succumbed to Christ in his seventies. The intellectual world had always been home to him, but now, in the hallowed halls of university life, he found himself saying,

I had a sense, sometimes enormously vivid, that I was a stranger in a strange land; a visitor, not a native…a displaced person.... The feeling, I was surprised to find, gave me a great sense of satisfaction, almost of ecstasy.... Days or weeks or months might pass. Would it ever return - the lostness? I strain my ears to hear it, like distant music; my eyes to see it, a very bright light far away. Has it gone forever? And then - ah! the relief. Like slipping away from a sleeping embrace, silently shutting the door behind one, tiptoeing off in the grey light of dawn - a stranger again. The only ultimate disaster that can befall us, I have come to realize, is to feel ourselves to be at home here on earth. As long as we are aliens, we cannot forget our true homeland. (Muggeridge, Jesus Rediscovered, 47-48)

(Joni Eareckson Tada, Heaven, 96-97)

Oh how there is more to life than what is seen. Although I am filled with such awe at the sky as the sun is setting, or the smile on the face of someone I love, there’s just something about the unseen realities to which they are pointing - love, hope, trust - things that are eternal - that is so beautiful...and oh how Jesus is the most beautiful of all.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

Come quickly, Jesus. Amen.

Why Hell Is Hell

When most people think about hell, they think about torture, eternal fire, and other physical punishments. Although these things will take place in hell, there is something far worse that will be the defining characteristic of what makes hell result in eternal suffering. When Jesus returns, the glory of God is going to be revealed to all people. The Bible says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, "to the glory of God the Father" (Philip. 2:10-11). In other words, God will be glorified when all people bow before his Son and confess that he is Lord over all. So, which would glorify God more - if he forced people to bow down to him who really didn't want to do so, or if all unbelievers saw how amazingly glorious God is and genuinely fell down and worshiped the One who they had shunned their entire lives? I think God would be much more glorified if the most hardcore atheist in the history of the world fell down and worshiped him genuinely than if he was merely forced to do something that he had no desire to do. Thus, I believe that the greatest suffering in hell will result from people seeing how amazing and glorious their Creator is and facing the reality that they are shut out from this amazing glory forever because they shunned him while they were on earth. Emotional pain can be much worse than physical pain. Imagine that you have deeply fallen in love with someone, but because of the way you have treated him or her, you are thrown into a dungeon forever. It is really cold in this dungeon, and you feel the pains of hunger since you only get one slice of bread per week, but your deepest pain comes from being eternally separated from the one you have fallen in love with and the overwhelming remorse you feel from having treated him or her so badly when you've now realized how kind and loving that person was to you all the days of your life.

So, why does God send people to hell who reject him while they are on earth? Although there are a number of reasons why he does this, I believe the most convincing one is that when people die, God just gives them what they wanted their entire lives. If you live a life pursuing non-God things instead of your Creator, then he gives you the very thing you wanted (separation from God) when you die. Why should God force people to spend eternity with him who desired other things instead of their Creator? Nobody can blame God for giving people what they want when they die. If God himself is your heart's desire, then he will give you what you want when you die (himself). How can we know if God is really our greatest desire? Do we spend our time pursuing him instead of godless things? Is he the chief object of our affections, the One who gives us the greatest joy and satisfaction? Do we reject the things that God hates and pursue a life that is pleasing to him? Are we unashamed of the glorious Son of God who bore the full wrath of the Father as the price for our sins? All of these things are evidence that a person has truly come to know Christ as their all-satisfying Treasure!