What Does Your Heart Earnestly Yearn For?

Dear Friends,

     Maybe I should start by asking:  What is it that you really want?   What is it that you really desire?   What does your heart earnestly yearn for?   Do you even know? 
     This week's "thought" addresses that issue: What  your heart truly yearns for.   The answer I offer today comes to you from David Downing, co-director of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. It is taken from an Advent Devotional book called, "The Grand Miracle."  Enjoy.

"I Am the Bread of Life."

John 6:35

     "It is not what God can give us, but God that we want," said George MacDonald.  He was a seasoned old soul, and what was true for him may have been more of an ideal for other pilgrims on the journey. The rest of us may feel more inclined to pray: "Father, forgive us, for we do not know what we want."   We seek a gilded afterlife when we could have Eternal Life.  We seek breadcrumbs of earthly pleasure when we could have a heavenly banquet.  We avoid pain when we could embrace joy.  We plead for words that will give us comfort and light, but our own darkness does not comprehend the Word. 

     Help us, Lord.  We ask for a road-map to heaven when the Way, the Truth and the Life stands right before us.  We want the crown without the cross, and we fix our gaze on the crown more than the King.  We look to Glory, but others do not see the glory when they look at us.  We do not ask too much in prayer, but too little.  We follow the One who multiplied the loaves and do not see the Bread of Life.  We want to quench the thirst of the moment, but do not ask for Living Water, the cup of heaven.

     The Everlasting took human form so that we might lift our eyes from the gifts to the Giver. He emptied Himself so that from His fullness we might receive grace upon grace. The baby lay in a feeding trough so we might not be forever hungry. The child spoke in His Father's house, so we might put away childish things. The man told us that we must die to live, that sorrow would turn to joy, that those who seek will find.  He rose that we might rise. He came to be with us for a time, so that we might be with Him forever.  Lord, teach us to know what we want, to want what you want, and most of all, to want you.  Amen." 

     So many today do not realize that their pursuit of joy, happiness, pleasure, contentment and peace in their souls' is really an inner craving after God.  "God has placed eternity in our hearts," says Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 3:11.  And that "eternity" which God has placed within us has left a hole in our soul that can only be filled, as Pascal put it, "by an infinite and immutable object, that is, by God Himself."

     Yes, most people fail to see that their clamoring after all those things -- even sinful things -- is really a pursuit of God and what He alone can supply when He enters our being, by His Spirit, in the grace of regeneration.  To quote Pascal at greater length, "There was once a true happiness in man, of which there now remains only an empty trace, which he vainly tries to fill with things from his environment. Yet all these efforts are inadequate, because the infinite abyss in the human soul can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is, by God Himself."

     Maybe our prayer should be:  Lord Jesus, forgive us for chasing after things that can never truly satisfy when you have told us time and again in your Word that we can find true and lasting satisfaction only in You; in having You.  So often we clamor after everything but you, even venturing into the pursuit of sinful and forbidden things, before we finally come -- broken, empty and damaged -- to see the error of our ways. Convince us, we pray, that our inner hunger can only be satisfied as we feed on You the Bread of Heaven, and our inner thirst can only be quenched as we drink deeply of You the Living Water -- the only water a person can partake of and thirst no more.  Lord, as Mr. Downing has correctly prayed, "teach us to know what we want, to want what you want, and most of all, to want you."  Amen.

In this time of anticipation and waiting, Pastor Jeff

A Selection of Short Thoughts

Greetings All!

     Sometimes you can say a lot in very few words!  Therefore,  today, instead of one longer thought, I offer you many short thoughts -- all which struck me as worthy of sharing.  I trust one or more may hit home for you as well!   Enjoy!

     “Prosperity cannot be a proof of God’s favor, since it is what the devil promises to those who worship him.”

John Piper

     “When we deal seriously with our sins, God will deal gently with us.”

Charles Spurgeon

     “Evangelism must start with the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, the demands of the law, and the eternal consequences of evil.”

Martin Lloyd-Jones

     “I frequently hear persons exhorted to give their hearts to Christ, which is a very proper exhortation. But that is not the Gospel. Salvation comes from something that Christ gives you, not something you give to Christ.  The giving of your heart to Christ follows after receiving from Christ the gift of eternal life by faith.”

Charles Spurgeon

“I’m just a nobody telling everybody about somebody who can save anybody.”

Anonymous

“Your personal testimony, however meaningful to you, is not the Gospel.”

R. C. Sproul

     “In our day it is considered worse to judge evil than to do evil.”

Os Guiness

     “Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible.  Faith begins where man’s power ends.” 

George Muller

     “Worry is believing God will not get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong.”

 Tim Keller

     “You will derive far more benefit from a single verse of Scripture read slowly and prayerfully and duly meditated on than you will from ten chapters read through quickly.”

A. W. Pink

     “I must listen to the gospel. It tells me not what I must do, but what Christ the Son of God has done for me.”

Martin Luther

     “If you are really saved, brethren, not a hair of your heads belongs to yourselves. Christ’s blood has either bought you or it has not. And if it has, then you are altogether Christ’s – every bit of you – and you are neither to eat nor drink, nor sleep, but for Christ.”

Charles Spurgeon

     “The doctrine of grace and redemption keeps us from seeing any person or situation as hopeless.”

Tim Keller

     “God has given me everything, forgiven me everything, promised me everything, and I lack nothing except the faith to believe it.” 

Martin Luther

     “The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.”

Elisabeth Elliot

     “You have become blind when you see nothing wrong with something God has called sin.”

Anonymous

Many blessings in Christ, Pastor Jeff

The Unity of the Bible

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" will take some thought!  It's not your typical, casual, quickly processed quote.  It will require you to think. Hopefully you are up for the challenge!  It is the response I often give to those who say ask: "What proof we have for the existence of God?   Where did God come from?  And, "Did God create because He needed someone to love, or because He was lonely?
     The following quote seeks to address these three questions and explains why it is that God did not create out of a sense of need within himself.  Part of the answer to question 3 is taken from Daniel Fuller's book, "The Unity of the Bible" -- a must read, in my opinion, for any earnest believer.  Enjoy!

The God Who Has No Needs

     1.) "What Proof Do We Have for the Existence of God?" The best proof for the existence of God goes something like this:  Being cannot come from non-being.  That is, something cannot come from nothing.  Yet, most all scientists agree that at some point in the long-distant past the space now occupied by the physical universe was empty and void and consisted of "nothing."  But its precisely because something cannot come from nothing that helps us see that the creation itself is the greatest proof of the existence of God.  Since being cannot come from non-being, our existence as beings proves His existence.

     2.) "Where Did God Come From?" To answer this, we can take the previous argument a step further.  Because being cannot come from non-being, our existence as beings proves His existence, and His existence proves He always existed.  If God is, He must always have been.  Most all theologians have tended to agree on this, and Malachi 3:6 confirms it where it says, "I am the Lord, I do not change."  Change is part of that which is limited, lacking, or finite. A God who changes would be finite and limited and could not by definition be God. To be infinite is by nature to be changeless, immutable and everlasting -- none of which would be true of God if He had a beginning.  If being is, it must always have been, since being cannot come from non-being.  Even the fact that God is all-knowing demands that He must have existed forever, for if He was not an eternal Being, or came into being at some point in time (which is an impossibility since being cannot come from non-being), then He could not be omniscient, for He would not know what transpired before He came into existence.

     3.) "Did God Create Because He Needed Something to Love, or Because He Was Lonely?  The Christian answer, based on the fact that God is a Trinity, is best given by Daniel Fuller in his book "The Unity of the Bible," in the section entitled, 'Why Did God Wait So Long to Create the World?'  In this section of his book he points out: "The declaration in Psalm 90:2 that, 'Before the mountains were born or you (God) brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God,' indicates that vast eons of time elapsed before God acted to establish the earth so it would reflect His glory.  But Irenaeus, Augustine, and Calvin -- some of the church's greatest leaders -- have sternly warned people not to ask what God was doing before he created, or to wonder why he waited so long to create...  I believe, however, that it is both lawful and expedient to ask why the Triune God waited a long time to create the world.  For from the very fact that God waited, we know that he did not create out of the necessity involved in need-love. [That is, he did not create because he was lonely, or needed someone to love, as many often suggest].

     Since God the Father found infinite happiness in Jesus, the Son, then it becomes clear that from all eternity God has enjoyed his Son's love and companionship, showing the creation of the world was NOT a necessary act that God undertook to overcome loneliness, but an act that flowed from the freedom involved in benevolent love. It would be threatening to our future happiness to know that God created us to meet some need in himself... Yet the moment we understand that all of God's need-love was met in being a Trinity, then we see that he was free to act toward us, his creation, solely in terms of the freedom of a benevolent love.  A striking way to represent the difference is to say that if God were to have created us out of need-love, it would be like inviting us to a banquet, only to inform us that we were one of the courses for the meal!  But when God invites us to a banquet out of benevolent love, he wants us to join with him as guests at his table, to enjoy the feast along with him – as the psalmist put it, to drink from the river of his delights (36:8).  So, God's having delayed creation for a long while makes it unmistakably clear that he created us not out of need, but in the freedom of his benevolent love – out of mercy and grace.”

     What a different view of God we have when we consider his eternality in light of his Triune nature.  If God created out of a "need" that was unmet for all those many millions and trillions of eons before He spoke things into existence out of nothing (as the Bible does state), then the only picture one can draw is of a God who was sad, frustrated, or unhappy until He created, due to the long-standing unmet need in himself.  But when we consider God as Trinity, and the love and delight that existed between the Father and the Son from all eternity, we see that the fellowship and love between the Father and the Son resulted in a God who was eternally contented and happy!  A God who created, not out of need, but out of the overflow of delight, love and happiness that existed within Himself.  To put it in human terms, the best of all scenarios is not when a husband and wife seek to have a child to meet a need in either one of them, or out of an attempt to "save the marriage," but when they so love each other that they choose to bring a child into the overflow of love and delight that already exists between them. Not when they create out of need, but out of a desire to share their overflowing love with another.  And not only does it give us a different view of God, but a whole different ground for relationship!  For when we know we were not created to meet a need in God, we are freed to walk and share in the overflow of God's infinite Self-adequacy and Self-completeness!

     At any rate, just something to think about!

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

For Each Day A Prayer

Greetings All,

     This week's "thought" will surely qualify as the shortest one I've ever sent out! 
     It's a prayer by Blaise Pascal, the famous and brilliant French physicist and defender of the Christian faith. He is more well-known for his book, "Pensees" (meaning, "Thoughts") where with great wisdom, insight, reflection and logic he addresses and answers objections to the Christian faith. It has helped many a skeptic on their journey to faith in Jesus. This thought, however, is simply one little prayer he prayed.  A prayer packed with so much faith and profound spiritual insight (even though very short) that I thought it deserved to stand on its own.

     It is found in a book I received in the mail yesterday from Honduras, as a gift from my good friend Edith Peters. (Thank you Edith!)  The title is, "For Each Day A Prayer."  The author (the collector and arranger of the prayers found in it) is Elisabeth Hamill Davis.  It was published in 1905.
     She does not say where she found this prayer, but I offer it to you for your consideration -- requesting only that you might read it, and then honestly and earnestly ask yourself if you could sincerely pray it as your own, stating the truth he states, and requesting those things he asks for.  Enjoy.

     "The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away, blessed be the name of the LORD."

Job 1:21

"O Lord, let me not from this day forward desire health or life, 

       except to spend them for You, with You, and in You.

  You alone know what is good for me; 

       do, therefore, whatever seems best to You.

Give to me, or take from me. 

Conform my will to Yours.

Grant that with humble and perfect submission, 

and in holy confidence, I may receive the orders 

of Your eternal Providence; and may equally adore 

all that comes from You; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen."

In His Service, Pastor Jeff 

God Has United You to Himself

Greetings All!

     Today's "thought"  comes to you from one of the first authors I ever read after being converted - Andrew Murray.   In 1980 I was in Marion, Indiana, training to go to the Dominican Republic to work with teens through 'New Horizons Youth Ministries.'  I had just come to Christ months earlier and had no books to help me grow in the faith once I arrived there.  And since my "salary" was a dollar a day (and that's not an  exaggeration!), I had very little cash.  Therefore, I did the only thing I could - I prayed for $50.00 that I might be able to purchase some books to take with me to help me grow.  Three days later a check came in the mail for $55.00(!), which I then took and spent on books -- and all but one was by Andrew Murray.  ("Absolute Surrender," "Like Christ," "Abide in Christ," "With Andrew Murray in the School of Prayer," "Waiting on God," and "Humility."  I still have each one!  The other was, "Love Life of the Lord" by A. B. Simpson.)

     










     Today's excerpt comes from an updated version of "Abide in Christ" published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and entitled, "Abiding in Christ."  This selection is the entry for Day 6: "God Has United You to Himself." I trust it will instruct and enrich your soul. Enjoy!

     "'You are in Christ Jesus.' The believers at Corinth were still weak and carnal, only babes in Christ. And yet Paul wanted them, at the outset of his teaching, to know distinctly that they were in Christ Jesus. The whole Christian life depends on the clear consciousness of our position in Christ.  Most essential to abiding in Christ is the daily renewal of our faith's assurance, "I am in Christ Jesus." All fruitful preaching to believers must begin with: "You are in Christ Jesus." 

     But the apostle has an additional thought of almost greater importance: It is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus" (I Cor. 1:30).  Paul would have us not only remember our union with Christ, but also - and more particularly - that it is not of our own doing, but the work of God Himself.  As the Holy Spirit teaches us to realize this we will see what a source of assurance and strength this is to us. If it is of God alone that I am in Christ, then God Himself, the infinite One, becomes my security for all I need or desire in seeking to abide in Christ. 

     Let me try to explain what this means...  So often, when the believer tries to say, "I am in Christ Jesus," he looks more to the work he has done than to that wondrous secret work of God which united him to Christ. This is to be expected at the beginning of the Christian course.  "I know that I have believed," is a valid testimony.  But it is important that the mind be led to see that at the back of our turning, believing, and receiving Christ, God's almighty power was doing its work of inspiring our will, taking possession of us [raising us from our death in trespasses and sins -- Ephesians 2:1, 2:5, and Colossians 2:13] and carrying out its own purpose of love in planting us into Christ Jesus.

     As the believer understands the the divine side of the work of salvation, he will learn to praise and worship with new enthusiasm and to rejoice more than ever in his salvation. At each step he reviews, the song will come: "This is the Lord's doing."  It is Divine Omnipotence working out what Eternal Love devised. "It is because of God that I am in Christ Jesus." The words will lead him even further and higher, and to the very depths of eternity: "And those he predestined he also called" (Romans 8:30).  One's calling in time is the manifestation of God's purpose in eternity.  For before the world came into existence, God had his sovereign love fixed on you in the election of grace and had chosen you in Christ.

     That you know you are in Christ is the key to understanding the full meaning of this word: "Because of God I am in Christ Jesus."  With the prophet your language will be, "The Lord has appeared to us in the past, saying: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn you with loving-kindness'" (Jeremiah 31:3). You will see your own salvation as a part of that "mystery of His will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ (Ephesians 1:9), and you will join with the whole church as they say, "In him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will" (Ephesians 1:11).  Nothing will exalt free grace more, and make man bow very low before it, than this knowledge of the mystery of God's will: "It is because of God that we are in Christ Jesus."

     Given the fickle nature of humanity, plagued as it is by sin, it is so comforting and soul-strengthening to know, "It is because of God that I am in Christ Jesus."   It humbles, melts the heart, and brings joy unspeakable to the believer's soul to think that his or her salvation is the outworking in time of God's good pleasure and purpose for them from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4-5).

     One of my favorite hymns - “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” - expresses so well our indebtedness to God for this grace. An indebtedness that isn't simply for his grace in joining us to Christ initially, as Murray speaks of above, but for holding us in it's grip when our hearts have wanted to wander, stray, and go their own way -- even after receiving such free and unmerited grace.

     "Oh, to grace how great a debtor, Daily I'm constrained to be

      Let that goodness like a fetter (like a shackle around my ankle), Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

      Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;

      Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above."

     If it were up to me, and me alone, I know all too well where I would be.  Right where I was when in time He called me - dead in my trespasses and sins.  Murray is right: "As the Holy Spirit teaches us to realize this we will see what a source of assurance and strength this is to us. If it is of God alone that I am in Christ, then God Himself, the infinite One, becomes my security for all I need or desire in seeking to abide in Christ...  As the believer understands the the divine side of the work of salvation, he will learn to praise and worship with new enthusiasm and to rejoice more than ever in his salvation. At each step he reviews, the song will come: "This is the Lord's doing." It is Divine Omnipotence working out what Eternal Love devised."

In the Service of His Grace, Pastor Jeff

A Man in Christ

Greetings All!

     Each Christian has certain authors, preachers, or teachers that they click with.  People who speak to them in a way others do not.  I have many of them just as I am sure you do.  Some of the people who have profoundly affected me range (the list is not exhaustive) from Charles Spurgeon, to J. I. Packer, to A. W. Tozer, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, John Owen, John Frame, Tim Keller, Richard Sibbes, Jonathan Edwards, Jerry Bridges, Wayne Grudem, R. C. Sproul, Ravi Zacharias, Gordon Fee, John Piper and the person you will hear from today -- James S. Stewart.  Some of you may be scratching your heads wondering who some of them are, when they lived, and why I'm enamored with their take on things, just as I likewise have wondered the same thing after reading some authors people gushed about and said, "you just have to read_____________"!

     Anyway, if you do have the time today, maybe you could zip off a quick response telling me your top three authors.  I'd be very interested in knowing which one's "speak your language" and have fed your soul (along with the book titles that helped you most).  If enough respond, maybe I'll share the results.

     Yet, today, you will hear from James S. Stewart, from his book "A Man in Christ."  For me it has been a "go to" book whenever I want something of substance to challenge or feed my soul. These excerpts simply give you the essence of what he fleshes out in greater detail throughout the rest of the book.  Enjoy.

A Man in Christ

     “The evangel of an ethical example (salvation by trying to be good) is a devastating thing. It makes religion the most grievous of burdens. Perhaps this is the real reason why, even among professing Christians, there are so many strained faces and weary hearts and captive, unreleased spirits. They have listened to Jesus' teaching, they have meditated on Jesus' character; and then they have risen up and tried to drive their own lives along Jesus' royal way. Disappointment heaped on bitter disappointment has been the result. The great example has been a dead-weight beating them down, bearing them to the ground, bowing their hopeless souls in the dust.

     One of the vital distinctions between true religion and false, is that, whereas the latter is a dead burden for the soul to carry, the former is a living power to carry the soul… "Christ in me" means something quite different from the weight of an impossible ideal, something far more glorious than the oppression of a pattern for ever beyond all imitation. "Christ in me" means Christ bearing me along from within, Christ as the motive-power that carries me on, Christ giving my whole life a wonderful poise and lift and turning every burden into wings. This is what the apostle means when he speaks of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27)... This, and this alone, is the true Christian religion.

     To be "in Christ," to have Christ within, to realize your creed not as something you have to bear, but as something by which you are born. This is Christianity. It is more: it is release and liberty, life with an endless song at its heart. It means feeling within you, as long as life lasts here, the carrying power of Love Almighty; and underneath you, when you come to die, the touch of everlasting arms…

     The heart of Paul's religion is union with Christ. This, more than any other conception – ­ more than justification, more than sanctification, more even than reconciliation, is the key which unlocks the secrets of Paul’s soul. Within the Holy of Holies which stood revealed when the veil was rent in two from the top to the bottom that day on the road to Damascus, Paul beheld Christ summoning and welcoming him in infinite love into vital unity with Himself.

     If one seeks for the most characteristic sentences the apostle ever wrote, they will be found, not where he is refuting the legalists, or vindicating his apostleship, or meditating on eschatological hopes, or giving practical ethical guidance to the Church, but where his intense intimacy with Christ comes to expression. Everything that religion meant for Paul is focused for us in such great words as these: "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). "He that is joined unto the Lord is one with him in spirit" (I Cor. 6:17)…  Paul declares his conviction that in Christianity the final stress must ever fall on one thing – and on one thing only – union with Christ.  Life in fellowship with Christ.”

     If what is written here resonates with you, or intrigues you, and you would like to go into it further, I would encourage you to pick up the book. I don't think you would be disappointed. God has given the Church gifted teachers and preachers, it is wise to avail yourselves of the things he has laid upon their hearts to share with us.

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Something About That Name

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes to you from a devotional book entitled, "The Gift of Jesus."  It contains devotional contributions from numerous pastors across the U.S., including Pastor Jeff Crook, who penned this entry, entitled, "Something About That Name."  Since there is much truth in what he says, I thought I would like to share it with you. Enjoy.

     
"God also highly exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above every other name..." Philippians 2:9

     "Every year a celebrity becomes wildly popular in the media, but before we know it, that name fades into obscurity. [Remember Spencer Tracy, Rita Hayworth, Gary Cooper, Gene Kelly, Farrah Fawcett, David Cassidy, Lynda Carter, Robert Redford, Brittany Spears,...]

     Often we see the caption, "Where Are They Now?" Apparently, all names have a shelf life.  All but one. There is a name that will never fade -- the name Jesus is timeless and without rival.  God has exalted Jesus and lifted His name above every other name.

     Does it seem as though the name of Jesus is being downplayed today? Are the name and fame of Jesus Christ fading? Absolutely not!  We shouldn't think we need to "hashtag" or "favorite" the name of Jesus to keep His name relevant. The matter has been settled by God Himself.  It is impossible to ignore the exalted name of Jesus.  One day all people will bow at the name of Jesus Christ, confessing Him as Lord (Philippians 2:11). 

     Celebrities are forgotten. [We often strain to remember who some of them were, what they looked like, or why they were so outrageously popular!]  World leaders fade away. Once-famous names inscribed on graveyard headstones become unfamiliar to the living. Yet the eternal Lord Jesus has an eternal name. When all others have been long forgotten, His name will still be spoken, honored and adored."

     As I read this post I thought back to people I had so admired growing up.  People I would have done anything to meet in person, speak with, or get their autograph.  Yet as time marches on, it has a way of burying their importance in the dust. Their names may ring a bell, or sound faintly familiar, or written on a wall or book, but often times we cannot say why.  And even if we can, we must sometimes confess, "I think they may have been an actor, singer, or writer, but I'm not really sure."

     Yes, the names of people come and go.  For instance, I loved my grandfather Clarence Evans a lot.  As a young boy, he was one of the most important people in my world!  Now he's been gone for 36 years, and though he was equally admired by other grandchildren, two of them have already passed away, and within decades most of the others whose lives he touched will also be gone -- myself included. Then, his name will be an unknown name to all the people who might possibly pass by his headstone as they walk through the cemetery in Norfolk, Massachusetts, looking at old gravestones. And the same will eventually be true of me, and all of you who are reading this post today.

     So I ask: Who is all-important to you right now?  Whose name do you praise, if any?  What name is constantly on your lips, or in your regular conversations?  Who or what are you investing your life, and precious time, and energy in?  What legacy are you building to leave behind after you're gone?  And even if you do happen to be admired by someone now, what will be said of you 25, 50, or 100 years from now?

     You see, no matter who you are, or how important you may be to others now, in time your name will be forgotten (Ecclesiastes 1:11) -- unless it was recorded as part of the unfolding, timeless, and eternal plan of the eternal God. Only if your name is "inscribed in the palm of His hand" (Isaiah 49:16), and has been penned in the book of life written before time began (Psalm 139:16 / Revelation 13:8, 17:8, 20:12), will it ever be remembered years from now, or throughout the ages to come.

     In fact, it will not only be remembered, you will be alive and kneeling in adoring worship before the One whose name is above every name!  Because as God has promised, "Every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11). Throughout endless eternity those who lived for Jesus on this earth, shall live before Him in heaven, joining the uncountable multitude in praising Him whose name is above all other names.

     May His name (and not any other) be exalted and adored by you now, Pastor Jeff