Thoughts from Years Ago

Studying for my small group this coming Monday, I opened an old Word file and found this:

"Cell Group

I’m learning that when leading a small group, you never know what’s going to happen…what questions will be asked…what opinions will be stated…it’s scary…it’s what it’s all about…it’s what makes it fun.

I’m learning to a new degree that life and love are a sacrifice. I don’t always get my way. I commit to things that are hard and sometimes make me sad…things I’m not good at…things I have to work hard at…and sometimes they still don’t work. I am a part of something that is beyond my control…something that’s scary…something that’s exciting…something that fills life with purpose so that when it’s hard I keep on going, and trying, and working.

God never promised that life would be easy…that Jesus was a fix-all solution…that He would make all our troubles go away. Look at Paul, Peter, Phillip, John, Matthew…look back further to Daniel, Joseph, Abraham, Moses, Esther. We call these men and women the forefathers of our faith whose lives are used as examples and yet there were persecuted, attacked, beaten, thrown in jail. Some risked their lives and some actually gave their lives. Why? They learned peace. How so? They understood that God’s ultimate promise of eternal life in His presence was already theirs by faith. Based on their understanding of the eternal promise, they lived.

This is what it means now, as I wrote earlier, to love God enough to be contented, to love him enough in the present world to say thank you in all the ebb and flow of life. When I am dead both to good and bad, I have my face turned towards God. And this is the place in which, by faith at the present moment in history, I am to be. When I am there, what am I? I am then the creature in the presence of the Creator, acknowledging that he is my Creator, and I am only a creature, nothing more. It is as though I am already in the grave and already before the face of God.

But one thing more needs to be sounded. We must not stop here! When through faith I am dead to all, and am face-to-face with God, then I am ready by faith to come back into this present world, as thought I have already been raised from the dead. It is as though I anticipate that day when I will come back. I will be in that number, as will all who have accepted Jesus as Savior, when the heavens open and we come back, following Jesus Christ in our resurrected, glorified bodies. And so now I am ready to come back as though back from the grave, as though the resurrection had already taken place, and step back into this present historic, space-time world. “Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:11)

(Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality)

Troubles are a guarantee, especially if we’re living right before God and men. We cannot let that deter us. We must learn peace. There is something that gets me out of bed in the morning instead of curling up sick for home. There is something that urges me to build another small group lesson instead of giving up in frustration. There is something that keeps my feet and my mind and my heart planted in Texas instead of running back to Ruston. I am learning peace. I’m not saying that I’ve learned it all. I’m learning peace. Peace comes when we understand who God is, who we are, and the assurance of God’s promise of eternal life. We think that a lack of strife in our lives will bring peace; history has proven us wrong. Dissatisfaction is more prominent in prosperous nations than any other. Like Schaeffer said, "We do not live for this life." This life is over. When we became Christians, this life ended for us. Now we live for eternity. Our work on this earth has nothing to do with buying cars, building houses, making money, getting famous. It has only to do with one thing. Pleasing God. In pleasing God, we will preach to men. Not because men deserve it; but that the message deserves to be preached."