Happy Dependence Day!

“4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare…” (Jer 29)

This is us.  Yeah, we’re not Israelites, but as Paul says, ““Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” (Rom 9).  We are a chosen people.  We are exiles.  Like Cain, wanderers of the earth due to our sin, unable to come home until the days are fulfilled.  So we make the best of where we are planted.  We don’t work to survive, we don’t try and build ourselves paradise on earth.  This is not our home.  We work to redeem and reconcile creation as Jesus taught us, wherever we are planted.  For unlike Cain, we who have been washed in the spilled blood of Jesus have a living hope!

10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” (Jer 29)

How then should we act as we read the signs of the fig tree (Matt 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) and know that the time is growing shorter?

“29 This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, 31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.” (1Cor 7)

I suppose it’s ironic to use a two thousand year old passage to exhort a sense of urgency.  I am not setting dates.  I am not crying “wolf.”  I am trying to get a sense of how we are to live.  Now.  Today.  And this is what I know…

“26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot's wife. 33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35 There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (Luke 17)

“24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.” (Mark 13)

The vultures would have us be corpses.  Living FOR our spouses.  Living FOR our children.  Live FOR eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building as if they were all there was, all the joy we could reasonably expect.  Christ would have us not just live, but live abundantly!  Live for Eternity!  To invest the gifts He’s given us not for ourselves, for our comfort, for our survival and preservation of a life that is no more permanent than the browning grass in the yard, waiting for some igg-nat to spark it to full conflagration with his fireworks but to give all away, including our lives for an eternal kingdom come!  To be fruitful and multiply that kingdom!

“60 Arise, shine, for your light has come,


    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,


    and thick darkness the peoples;


but the Lord will arise upon you,


    and his glory will be seen upon you.

3 And nations shall come to your light,


    and kings to the brightness of your rising.

4 Lift up your eyes all around, and see;


    they all gather together, they come to you;


your sons shall come from afar,


    and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. (That’s us!)

5 Then you shall see and be radiant;


    your heart shall thrill and exult,


because the abundance of the sea (Gentiles) shall be turned to you,


    the wealth of the nations shall come to you.” (Is 60)

“21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (Because we’re all now sons and daughters of God!  One big happy family!) 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, (Yell this next part out loud in big, bold, announcer voice!  It’s fun!) 

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”” (Rev 20)

Now that’s something to celebrate!  Happy Dependence Day!!