Never to fade 1 Peter

To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through FAITH for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:4-5

It has been a particularly hard week on this old body. It is weeks like this that I look forward to "imperishable" and "undefiled." I thank God for the time to reflect on His Word, to slow me down in mind as well as body. I fold down the corners of my Bible when I want to flag a verse for this blog. And the corner of this page was folded down. Hmmm...not a reference to be found. But then there was the word FADE.

I don't know about you, but fading has caused me to trash more than one piece of fabric or clothing. Long, long ago I bought a BUNCH of solid fat quarters, supposedly to make something Amish-looking,  I really am a tone-on-tone kind of girl. Those are fabrics that read a color, but consist of mottled or printed shades of the same color. They make the project look richer and make color matching a bit easier as well. So buying those solids was a leap of faith. I don't know how long those things sat out unused, but when the box of them surfaced at some point in a cleaning binge, I was glad that I never did use much of them. EVERY fold was faded. When the fabric was unfolded, the fading became more obvious. Well, cut around it, you might say. Nope...not this girl. Now you are reading the blog of the world's biggest cheapskate, but this cheapskate did not keep that fabric because I knew what would happen if that stuff was put into anything. Those dyes in that fabric were not stable, and the fading would continue, ruining the project that they were put into. If it faded that badly once, it would stay true to its nature and fade more when exposed to light. I was sad to toss it, but glad I hadn't gone ahead and invested time and effort into projects made with it. I now knew its nature and its future. I suppose there might have been ways to set the dye in the remaining hunks of fabric, but the risk was not worth it.

Other fabrics have faded due to direct sunlight. The lap quilt that I drape over the back of the sofa is another example. That thing is showing the effects of the sun to a lesser degree, even with UV resistant windows, but the light is still causing it to deteriorate, just more as a whole as opposed to the more obvious fading of a fold. Light just does that to fabrics. The more the light shines, the more the glory of earthly things fade.

It is like that with the Lord, too. He is light and He shines on us, and our glory, the things we have done or thought we had done that were “impressive” in any way fall apart. When compared with the Lord of Glory, our works are as filthy rags. We are called in Peter to be HOLY, and that Holiness can only come from God. We are instructed to conduct ourselves in fear during our stay on the earth, redeemed by the imperishable blood of Christ. The grass withers and the flowers fade. All of this earth and its glories are temporary, but the Word of the Lord and His love for us endures forever! We will be transformed, first in the renewal of our minds, then in our actions, and eventually, in our bodies. The worship we will bring to God will be whole and wholely acceptable. The glory of His light shining on us in THAT day will not fade us. The inheritance we receive will not wear out like money and the things it can buy. What does one pay to inherit something? Nothing. It is bestowed on a person by declaration of the giver. We have 3 times inherited little bits of things...once from parents, once from an uncle, and once from a long-lost relative somehow. The things that were paid off or purchased with that money...cars, sofas, house repairs...all have been either deteriorating or have been disposed of in some way. The car died, the sofa cushions are slightly torn from use, and the house is in continual need of repair. But the inheritance from the Lord will be the joy of His presence, the absence of the desire to sin and the consequences of the sins of our own or those of others, and the eternal crowns that we can present at His feet. The feasting will provide joy, not fill a hunger in our bodies and souls. The houses we will have will be used not to sleep and provide shelter, but to refresh our souls and provide private places for fellowship with the One who loves us. All these things will not fade, will not go out of fashion and be discarded like old clothes and rags. Everything will have eternal purpose, eternal beauty, and eternal praise for the Creator.

And our joy will not fade. It amazes me how I can celebrate the presence of His goodness one minute, and have it fade to doubt and worry the next. Oh, for the day when that joy does not fade, the trust does not fade, the peace and love do not fade. I am so thankful that God knows we are dust and that we are grass. We DO fade. We wither and shrivel and die inside and out, but reread that verse. We are protected by FAITH from even ourselves. We have a reservation...we have a glimpse of the inheritance, as we watch Jesus raised from the dead, He who was once not only faded in popularity, but snuffled out of life. But now He stands glowing brightly next to the Father. His light will never fade again, and neither will ours in that coming day. We will not be tossed out like faded cloth, but restored to the glory of His perfect creation. This is something only He can do...and we are blessed to be a part of it. AMEN!

Glowing garments

And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. Matthew 17:2

If you ever wondered where the whole angels wearing white thing came from, and pictures of a glowing Jesus were painted of, this would be one of the passages. The disciples had walked with Jesus for almost 3 years, and until this point, He looked like just an average guy. If we take the Bible as a whole, Isaiah says there was nothing about him that was attractive. He was common as dirt. I really think the movies overdo what he was really like. He was not necessarily talk, dark, or handsome. His robes were not white with a sash while everyone else work tunics. The pictures always seem to make him out as someone different in appearance, and I think that leads us to wonder how the rulers of the day couldn't tell by looking at him that He was different. Their complaint was that he was just an ordinary guy, with brothers and sisters, who hadn't gone to seminary and just wandered among the people telling stories and healing commoners.

Until that day when He took His three best friends and showed them who He really was. It was kind of like Undercover Boss, where He had played dress up and gone among the employees to find out what was really going on in the company. Then those few people that the boss got close to were taken into the office and got to see who they were REALLY interacting with for that period of time. In not one case of Undercover Boss did the people treat the boss the same after they knew who he really was. Their behavior changed when they knew who they were really dealing with. And this is probably why Peter and John wrote so prolifically on the life of Jesus afterward, though they must have really given Matthew an earful for him to recount this story. Jesus showed them who was boss that day for their benefit.

I get the fact that Jesus would glow in His heavenly glory, but so did His clothes. When Moses came off the mountain, his face glowed, but not his clothes. He reflected God's glory to the Israelites (and how they could then turn on him, knowing God met with him and had the inside track to be able to strike them dead, I'll never know), but it did not totally consume him with the glory. Jesus, well, everything about Him was glorious. Matthew doesn't recount John's reaction here, but in Revelation, John recalls his being dropped to his knees when he caught a vision of the shining Christ. In Matthew, it took the voice of God to drop him, and not just the shining Jesus. I guess the song “I Can Only Imagine” makes sense, since people would eventually bow down or turn away in fear, but the initial reactions can vary when we see Christ in His various roles and situations.

Everything Jesus touches is glorious, and all that look to Him will reflect His glory. It says in Revelation that God will illumine His people in the 22^nd chapter. There will be need of no sun. Some verses say that He will give them light, or indicate that He will be the sun of heaven. There will be no curse of darkness any more. It makes me wonder, since I am no Greek scholar, if we will be glowing, too. It says He will illumine us and we will reign forever and ever. That He will give us light. Will we have His light in us, or will His light just be around us. I guess we will have to wait and find out, but either way, it will be spectacular.

His glowing garments became a part of His glory, and I do believe that our own glow, the richness of our contemplative grins when we recount to one another what Christ has done for us, becomes a part of our communion with Him. We cannot help but to glow when we think of His touch on our lives, and if we feel as close as His clothes, clinging to Him as an adornment with adoration, we will reflect His contact in our lives.

And there is not a better place to be.

Shorter tassels, please

But they do their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. Matthew 23:5

Gotta love Google. A phylactery. I finally looked it up because the thought of wearing a box on your head seemed a little odd. And granted, it does look that way. Look it up. Sort of like a unicorn with a square box instead of a long horn. But I digress.

It is the day after Easter here. The day after a lot of people show up for church that never go any other time of the year. Those who attend regularly raise an eyebrow to this type of church attendance, but it is the people who Jesus describes in this verse that may make the idea of going regularly unappealing. Most people don't have as much of a problem with God as they do with His people. And these are the show-offs. They keep the law to the letter (all except the part about loving), they memorize verses and quote them with glee, not to edify the body, but to show off and brag of their “time in the Word.” They dress only in suits and ties, or in this case, in tassel-adorned robes. Yes, tassels were called for in scripture, as were the phylacteries. Well, sort of. They were told to write the law and bind it to their foreheads and tie it to their arms. I sort of think God meant to put it into their minds, and act them out in their actions, but they took it literally. They made boxes to store scripture in and tied them on. So now we have guys that think that size matters, and they make their boxes bigger than the norm, probably to indicate that they treasure the law more than the next guy. There may not be anything in them at all, but, by George, we have to look good. We have to make our religion show outwardly by building a better verse-holder. And the tassels...well, the longer, the better. See how we love the law!?! We are wearing the longest tassels we can make or afford. We are religious, dog gone it! How else are you going to figure that out when we walk the streets? How else are we going to have you respect us as we go about our daily business? How else will you grovel at our feet and think we have some great revelation from God?

Jesus was not fooled by their head/arm boxes (both if you were super religious)/ He knew their hearts. He knew that they did not keep the law. Oh, they may not have knelt to other gods, but they didn't kneel to their own God, either, in their hearts. They kept the law to prove their own goodness, not to honor God's. They were self-righteous, and nothing turns off God or others more than a good, self-righteous person. They are obnoxious. They are pompous. And they are far from the heart of God.

Here Jesus tells them to not look for the respect of men in church, but to serve. Not to have people call you Teacher or some other title, but to be brothers to one another. This is about not exalting yourself, but exalting God first, and others over yourself. Any pastor or teacher who is not willing to clean the toilets in the church (given the time and opportunity, which many do not have) should not be trusted. He is considering himself above the congregation he is serving.

This is not to say that we are not to honor those God does put in leadership over us. Quite the contrary. But it is pretty obvious on tv or in some churches you visit to see pastors who are just that – caretakers of the flock, and then there are those out for their own fame and fortune. The first are to be honored for their tender mercy and hard work among the sheep, those who wander and those who need guidance. The second should be avoided and ignored. They may get their recognition in this life, but the life to come may be a little more interesting. Jesus puts this in the context of us vs. them. Jesus, the greatest religious teacher ever, walked with the people, talked to the people, touched the everyday personal lives of those around him. He was as common as dirt. And the Pharisees dressed up, put on airs, and made sure everyone knew they were temple people that just happened to come out and check on this rebel speaker once in a while to catch Him saying something wrong. They had studied the Torah, but He lived it. They had training in spiritual matters, but He communicated the Spirit of God to everyone around Him. They made up little laws to expand on God's laws so that only they could keep up with the standards, burdening the people with so many details and never demonstrating in truth how they could be attained. Jesus said to do what they said, but not as they did. Obey the law in humble heart, submissive to God, and not man, but don't make a show of it. It is not for man that we obey God. It is not for approval and self-aggrandizement that the law was given, but to turn men's hearts to repentance and refocus on Who and what matters.

So if you don't wear the law on your body, it's ok, as long as you wear it in your heart. And that is the place where everyone WILL see it. When you wear the Word, it will be beautiful and men will see your godliness, with no tassels necessary.

What did you expect? Soft clothing?

Matthew 11:8 What did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who wear soft clothing are in kings' palaces.

Here Jesus speaks of John the Baptist. We have pondered in an earlier post how he was dressed, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Camel's hair, a belt, and some sandals. Not much glory was shown in how he dressed, but Jesus said no other man born to that point was greater than John. Now THAT is saying something. Jesus said he was Elijah that was to come. So here are 2 men that were not what the world expected.

And thus the topic.

JUST WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?

We all have preconceived notions of how life or people are going to be. We will graduate, get a job, get married and have kids, retire, and live a good life. We expect presidents to be great men of high intelligence and character. We expect pastors and preachers to be perfect, or as close as humans can get to it. We expect to be honored for getting good grades with scholarships, to get a raise for being a good employee, and to have our spouse's undying affection because they picked us out of the crowd. We live in a world full of expectations, and when reality clashes with our expectations, we fall apart. We question God, our systems of government, our establishments like schools, and our churches and family members.

And God's retort is,”Well, what did you expect?”

No prophet up to the time of John was loved by the country they warned. They were all a little weird to the world's eyes. John filled that bill. But when God says He is going to do something, His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways not our ways. Isaiah 55. Jesus fulfilled every scripture about himself, but even the men who walked with him questioned until his resurrection that He was really what God had predicted. In the aftermath, they understood, but in the midst of it all, their pre-conceived notions blinded them to the reality of what they were experiencing. It happens to all of us. We all live in a dream-world made of our own expectations. When life doesn't come through according to Plan A, we question everything. Did we take the right job, marry the right person, or join the right church? Doesn't God understand that this is NOT how life is supposed to play out. I do the right thing and I am supposed to be rewarded, not ridiculed or fired. My kids are supposed to obey, my spouse is supposed to love and treat me like a princess. And my God is supposed to rule on a throne and not let bad things happen. And the last thing that is supposed to happen is that His people scatter when the whip falls on the back of the most perfect man in the universe. This God doesn't make sense. We cower in the corner, question everything, and wonder what is going on. Just like the people of Jesus' day, just like the disciples, and just like the Pharisees. We miss the One because we thought we knew what He was going to be like. They had visions of David's throne, not a cross; overthrowing Rome, not being killed by it; being an educated seminarian, not common working class carpenter's son. It WAS all there. Every key to unlock the mystery was there like a good who-done-it, but because they expected it to look one way, they missed all the clues that pointed the other direction.

We want the soft clothes...the comforts of the ruling elite. We want our Savior and King to really be something that other people can admire so we don't look like fools following and supporting Him while He runs around Israel. Even at the point where most abandoned Him, the disciples stuck it out only because they knew He was Him, though they were confused about how this Savior thing was going to play out.

Yes, my friend, life will throw us curve balls and not turn out the way we expect, but does that mean that God doesn't know what He is doing? FAR FROM IT. THE worst situation, THE greatest injustice, THE rejection of the perfect ONE, did the greatest good for you and me, and the whole world.

We look at the world falling apart around us at an alarming speed, but it was foretold. We as Christians (and Jews, too) are berated by the world and media, governments and courts, and we act surprised. Didn't Jesus say that if He suffered rejection that we would too if we were His? Yes, He did. And yet we don't expect it to play out this way because it isn't fair in our mind. The health and wealth gospel has conveniently left the actual words of Christ out of their playbooks and we have bitten on the hook at some point because we really don't want to believe Jesus on this point. Family members will turn against each other, employers will fire us over our definition of family, and health care professionals will have to quit because they refuse to kill in one form or another. It was foretold. And we don't like it. Not one little bit.

So when life doesn't make sense there is comfort in the words that I ask myself often of God, “What did you expect?,” and then sit back and let Him be Him, because in all of history, He is never what we expected. And then I wait in true expectation for Him to do the Good that He has planned. The real, “Not my will but Thine be done,” expectation not of current comfort and resolution of problems, but the anticipation of God's eternal purposes that I cannot even fathom. If the cross was good, how can I question anything less catastrophic being anything less than good as well? It may not be comfortable, but it will be GOOD, because God is GOOD. Peace this Easter season.

Clothed with the imperishable

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 1 Corinthians 15: 53 NIV

I am no fashionista. I have a limited wardrobe and have a heck of a time trying to figure out what I should wear on any given day. Warm or cold, casual or more dressy, I have a skirt for about every occasion. But the thought of having to pick something out and wear it for all eternity is more than this brain can take. I am 55 and at that age where I don't know what I should dress like anymore. Some things look like I am trying to hang on to my youth, and some things would make me look like a little old lady. The leg veins keep skirts modest...no one wants to see the webs at my knees! Will my eternal wardrobe be white, and will I be ok with that since the only white in my house is the sewing room to keep colors from distorting due to the surroundings. I wear a white shirt to work for dress code, but it is not my choice of color (or lack thereof, technically).

Where does one find an eternal, imperishable wardrobe, anyway? It doesn't say I SHOULD clothe myself with imperishable, but that I MUST. Where do I find cloth that will not disintegrate over time? What outfit will last forever and not get holes, stains, and wrinkles?

We will all die. And there is life after death. There is no doubt in my mind about that! And this is where the eternal clothing comes in. We will be stripped, so to speak. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:13 There we will all be, buck naked, before God. Not a pretty site for most of us. But God is the one, who, after the accounting, will clothe us. He covers us with the blood of His Son, and with the white robes of glory. Revelation 19 speaks of the white robes being the righteousness acts of the saints, and Christ Himself is dressed in a blood-soaked robe, leading the saint in white in battle against the enemy of their souls. They are the bride of Christ, the church, that are given these immortal clothing by Christ Himself. He picks out the wardrobe in His favorite color, and since He will be adoring us for all eternity as His bride, it is only fitting (get it?) that we dress to please Him.

And if we are NOT covered by the robes, the wedding gowns, of Christ. We remain stripped. We are naked, ashamed, and unclothed before a Holy God. Every sin, every shame, every blemish, every bit of cellulite, scarring, and defect are there for Him to see. And that cannot remain in God's presence. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God, Hebrews 10 tells us. We are cast away from His presence forever.

So how do we get the robe? How do we become the Bride of Christ? Well, for starters, it's not by becoming a nun. In the earthly realm, the Catholic church tries to make people into something they are not by a choice they make. I choose to become a nun, a bride of Christ, by doing what the church says I must. I leave what I know and live in a convent, I do penance and make myself worthy somehow. That is not what scriptures say we must do. In Jewish history only a few women asked to be married...Ruth, for one. But it is usually the man who does the selection. Even Boaz had to initiate the actual marriage contract. Christ reaches down to us, calls us, according to Ephesians, to be His beloved. And the woman needs to respond. Sometimes this process is by wooing, and sometimes, like Paul, it is a blinding experience. Paul still had to submit, believe that God was talking to him, and answer the question,”Why are you fighting Me?” You don't get,”Resistance is futile!” You get the humbled Paul asking God who He really is. And God revealed Himself to Paul over the next few months and opened his eyes, physically and spiritually. And Paul then LOVED God. He accepted the proposal, married into the Family, and dressed in white for all eternity.

Has God tried to ask you out? Has His proposal gone unheard, been scoffed at, or have you turned Him down? The day will come when we will be naked before Him, either to consummate the marriage or to wilt in shame and despair. Nakedness between lovers in intimate and beautiful, and between enemies, it is humiliating and terrifying. The covering to follow can be reserved by coming to Christ, admitting that we cannot stand before Him, and need His immortality, His imperishable clothing in order to dwell with Him for all eternity. Forgiveness and intimacy through Jesus is the only way to order the wedding dress that we will look beautiful in forever. We say that a bride never looks more beautiful than the day she gets married...and in heaven we can keep that radiant beauty of loving our groom forever! Amen!