While the world at large milks what remaining giggles it can out of the recent non-judgment day (May 21, 2011) prediction, there are many of us who will not surrender the importance of keeping an eye focused upward.
Were we in the Old Testament era, and following the Law, we'd be stoning Harold Camping right now. False prophets were not to be tolerated (cf. Deuteronomy 18:20-22). Today, we simply laugh with Leno and Letterman.
Yet despite our guilt-by-association with (so-called) Pastor Camping, we who follow Christ by the enabling of His Spirit need not yield our daily upward glance. We cannot predict the day or the hour, but we can expect His appearing at any moment (Acts 1:11, cf. Matthew 24:44).
HEARTS IN ANOTHER WORLD
Several reminders this week kept my eye cocked upward.
The first came through a devotional Pastor Terry did for our staff at our weekly 829 (i.e., 8:29 AM Tuesday staff meeting) from Ephesians 1:15-23. Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. He prayed (setting the pace for our praying) that these young Ephesian believers might be given, from God himself, a fresh spirit of wisdom and understanding, so that that their hearts and minds would be dominated by other worldly ideas. The HOPE of God's calling of them. The greatness of God's POWER toward those who believe. The RICHES of God's inheritance, which are the saints (or "holy ones") of God.
I was struck by how "other worldly" our hearts are to be oriented.
The second came through a visit to the critical care rehab floor at Mary Greeley Hospital. One of my all time favorite ladies, Evelyn Mickle, is battling back from a series of mini-strokes that have sidelined her body, but not her spirit. Having traversed life's pathways some four-score and ten years plus, she knows where she longs to be, and it isn't here. She can "hear a distant singing" (Sara Groves, Conversations).
A third from my daily Bible reading. "Give me, O Lord, an eagerness for Your Laws, rather than a love for money" (Psalm 119:36). Over my left shoulder, on one of the multiple flat screens where I'm eating lunch, the poker network streams the latest game, with tens of thousands of dollars at stake. A love for money...or an eagerness for God's Word. You can't have both, Jesus said (Matthew 6:24). None of the 12 screens within eye-shot have any Scripture scrolling on them.
THE HEAVENS ARE OURS...
Fellow sojourner in Jesus, keep your heart soaked in the realities of your redemption. Keep the eyes of your heart up. The sky is the Savior's next stage. He will come for us, and then He will come with us. It could begin any moment...
No joking.
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