Highlights: A Happiness Prayer Episode 58 (Ps. 90)

Is there any hope for happiness that lasts?

Level One: Happiness in the Present Tense

What are realistic expectations for the present life? A counter-intuitive answer: Happiness is not something we find by looking for it. It’s a by-product of other pursuits. Ultimately, happiness is a by-product of our walk with God.

Level Two: Happiness in the Future Tense

The answer to this prayer (Ps. 90) cannot be in the world today as we know it. Gandalf replies: “End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path…one that we all must take. The gray rain-curtain of this world rolls back and all changes to silver glass… and then you see it.” “What, Gandalf, see what?” asks Pippin. “White shores…and beyond. The far green country under a swift sunrise.” (Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien)

The widespread belief and practice of the early Christians is only explicable if we assume that they all believed that Jesus was bodily raised, in an Easter event. The reason they believed…is because the tomb was empty and, over a short period thereafter, they encountered Jesus himself, giving every appearance of being bodily alive once more…I regard this conclusion as coming in the category of historical probability so high as to be virtually certain. (The Resurrection of the Son of God, N.T. Wright)

During World War 2, pioneer pain researcher Henry Beecher found that soldiers wounded during the bloody battle at Anzio needed far less morphine than did civilians with similar wounds. The reason, now known as the “Anzio effect,” was that for civilians the wounds were a source of anxiety: for soldiers they meant going home.

I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage…that in the world’s finale… something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened. (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

Highlights

Episode 57 | If You Were to Die Tonight...?

Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. (Psalm 90:13)

Thankfully, we are meant to stand before God not on the basis of our merit but on the basis of his mercy?

If you were to die tonight, and God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into my eternal kingdom?” What would your answer be? Our eternal destiny depends on getting this right.

The impulse to be better than others runs so deep in us that we are seldom even aware of it. ...the societal pressure to be superior, not to mention our innate longing for it, is powerful...We live in a particularly competitive culture...But this striving for superiority never leads to rest. There are always people who are below us - that feeds our pride. And then there are always people above us, and that feeds our dis-ease with who we ourselves are....We have to keep in mind that the Apostle Paul...pushes against this and develops his whole theology of grace. (Miroslav Volf - The Trinity Forum Conversations Podcast)

If I’m better than most other people, isn’t that good enough?

In our more honest moments, I think we all realize we’re like the moon. We have a dark side. We all have things for which we feel deeply ashamed...regrets...things we’ve done...things we’ve left undone.

The line between good and evil does not pass between states, nor between classes, nor between parties either - but right through every human heart. (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)

Is it fair for God to hold us to such high standards?

If the plan is to create an everlasting paradise that exceeds our wildest dreams - a finale to our sordid history that is so spectacular, so surpassingly wonderful that our words and imagination fall miserably short in any attempt to describe it. If this is the plan, then...all sin/imperfection needs to be abolished...then all that leads to sorrow and death needs to be banished...He will need to “get all the hell out of earth” and “get all the hell out of us. We are destined for more than what we’ve become. And God won’t settle for anything less. Neither should we!

Can’t my good works compensate for my bad ones?

Love is intrinsic to his nature, but so is righteousness and justice.

How can God forgive us and be just at the same time?

The essence of sin is we human beings substitute ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substitutes himself for us. We...put ourselves where only God deserves to be; God...puts himself where we deserve to be. (John Stott, quoted by Tim Keller, The Reason for God) We are freed to live out our glorious and eternal destiny, not by our doing, but by his dying. Not by our merit but by his mercy.

Highlights

A Moment that Changed Everything! (Episode 56)
How to Cope with a Life That’s Too Short - Part 2

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Only when we take into account the full measure of our mortality do we have any chance of taking timely and appropriate action. Denial is our enemy. That’s why the first prayer in the second half of this psalm is a necessary step toward making wiser choices about life.

What is a heart of wisdom? In the light of our inevitable expiration date, here are three choices a wise person makes.

First: Make peace with God.

“Begin with the end in mind.” (Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey)

The first step of wisdom is to prepare for eternity. Begin with the end on mind. Make your peace with God through Jesus Christ.

Second: Walk with God NOW in this life.

Do some reverse engineering. Start with the fact that we’re going to meet God some day. Wouldn’t it be best to get to know him now.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It points us to this truth, that wisdom is not a set of propositions, it’s a Person. Spending time with God is the fast track to wisdom.

When the Bible speaks of the “fear of God,” it’s not because God is a peevish, temperamental, unpredictable tyrant who may turn on us at any moment. It’s quite the opposite. It’s a fear grounded in the knowledge that God is consistently good and righteous. And we care enough about our relationship with God that we don’t want to disappoint or betray him. We’re afraid to let him down. That’s what the biblical fear of God is all about.

Third: Be coachable.

God is not passive. If we are walking with God, he’s going to begin teaching us some stuff. If we ask Him, who is the source of all wisdom, he will lead us in the way of wisdom. The only catch is whether or not we’re ready to listen. He will insist on being not just Savior, but Lord - Coach with a capital “C.”

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that really counts.” (John Wooden)

Good declarations to make: I will learn. I will grow. I will change. I will become more than what I am. I will get better. I will admit when I’m wrong. I will be humble and receptive to God’s wisdom. I will be coachable. I will ask more questions. I will learn to listen more than I talk. I will ask for advice. I will be receptive to the “kernel of truth” in every criticism. I will not only be a hearer, but a doer of God’s Word.