At our wedding, Angie and I chose to have Louie Armstrong’s song played… What a Wonderful World. In light of yesterday’s shootings, and so many other monumental tragedies in recent years, is it really a wonderful world? We were driving to Fort Smith yesterday for the annual meeting of the BMA of America and were reflecting on some of the tragedies that have taken place at this same time of the year such as the Oklahoma City bombing (April, 1995), the Waco compound burning (April, 1993), and Columbine (April, 1999). Each of these tragedies evoked emotions of fear and trepidation about living in this present world.

Our daughter begins kindergarten this fall. She’s nearly five years old and we’re already speculating about the nature of the world in which she will grow up and go through school. The news media tackles subjects like campus security and the psychological reasons behind such an awful rampage. But the secular media can never fully comprehend the nature of human depravity. Evil men will do evil things, no matter our level of security. If not on a campus, then in a restaurant, an airport, or a World Trade Center. Is this really a wonderful world?

There are natural and supernatural factors that can only be seen through a God-centered world view. The depravity of man runs deep in the heart. Evil abounds in humankind and murder, war, and bloodshed will continue as long as lost mankind has some dominion over this present realm. Further, Satan is labeled in Scripture as the “prince of the power of the air… the god of this world.” We who live on earth, live in a time and place where darkness has dominion. Is it really a wonderful world?

My answer, surprisingly, is yes. Why? Because it is in this present realm that God is actively working to extend His saving and healing grace to a lost and depraved people. It is here that God moves. It was into this humanity that Jesus, the light, came into the world. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God’s glory was put on display through the life of Jesus Christ, through His atoning death, and through His miraculous resurrection. Do we live in a wonderful world? Only insomuch as Jesus makes the difference.

Last night, we were ministered to by a wonderful gospel singer who performed the old song Beulah Land. I love the lines… “Beulah land, I’m longing for thee, and someday on thee I’ll stand…” Our world, inundated with pain and loss and suffering, is merely a waiting room, a practice run, an incubation chamber for eternity. For those who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior, heaven is our real home. Hell awaits those who reject His free offer of grace.

Amazingly, we cannot forget that it is this world which will someday be renovated by fire. This world will be redeemed. It currently groans with birth pains, waiting to be delivered from its depraved lostness. It’s a wonderful world, plagued by the inherent sinfulness of humankind. It’s wracked with pain and evil. Yet everything on God’s time line is moving toward a great and triumphant finality. Jesus will rule and reign.

Our hearts are gripped, in times like this, with uncertainty and fear. Then Scripture speaks on behalf of its divine author… “For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) “Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

Is this world your home, or do you seek a city to come, a home not made with human hands preserved in the eternities for you? Jesus Christ came to be the light and hope of a lost and dark world. He came to offer you peace, pardon, and eternal life if you’ll only trust fully in Him, even in the world’s darkest moments. More is to come. Scripture foretells that times will wax worse and worse. Yet Jesus’ hand is always extended toward you. Embrace Him who is ready to embrace you, and enjoy the unspeakable peace and confidence of God.

Moments ago, I was spending some time in prayer and I was confessing known sin in my life. As I prayed, I said, “God, I’m sorry for this sin, I ought to hate this sin.” Almost instantly God spoke to my heart and I blurted out what I heard Him say, “Brandon, you’ll either learn to hate your sin, or you’ll wind up hating yourself.”

As we confess sin and seek the Holy Spirit’s power to overcome it, we ought to remember that we have a new identity in Christ. We are not to be subject to a very popular but perhaps erroneous “miserable sinnerism” (coined by J. Sidlow Baxter) but rather we are to see ourselves as forgiven and freed. Sin no longer defines us, Christ does, if we’ve been washed once for all in His blood.

In order to preserve a close intimacy with God and forward spiritual progress, I desperately need to see myself as “in Christ,” to see sin as something to be loathed, and to see cleansing as a continuous need. If we loathe ourselves, we’ll give up. If we exalt ourselves, we’ll blow it because of pride. But if we hate sin and exalt the indwelling Christ in us, we’ll see the victory!

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” -2 Corinthians 5:17

There is much to be said for the power of our identity. The way you live your life, make decisions, and carry yourself all depend on how you define and identify yourself. We all have certain labels we apply to ourselves such as conservative or liberal, old-fashioned or cutting edge, outgoing or shy. We use these terms to further define who we are in the world. Here’s a new term for every believer to remember… “new creature.”

Have you realized yet that if you’ve trusted Christ as Savior, you are now a new creature? In fact, you are “in Christ.” Your life is hidden with Him. He’s now your new identity. You can wear Jesus’ namebadge knowing that He died to cover you with His identity and to forgive you of all of your sins by the blood He shed for you. If you’ve committed your life to Him, then you are now blood-bought, sanctified, set apart for God’s usage. You’re a child of the King. You’re the heir of the Lord of the universe, a joint heir of Jesus. You’re bound for glory.

So smile today. Know who you are! Have you received Christ personally? If so, He’s received You as His very own and He would claim you as His child in front of all of humanity. Walk in the confidence of His forgiveness today. Old things are passed away, all things are new. Meet the new you today!

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:” -1 Peter 1:18-19

Do you realize that we’ve each sold ourselves under slavery to sin? We owe a spiritual debt for our rebellion that we cannot pay. Further, we cannot pay the debt of those we love either. For us to be redeemed, purchased back from the grip of hell, One far wealthier than we must pay our price. God, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, who created all that exists, paid our price. He did not pay for us in terms to which we could assign a dollar amount. Even the most precious things on earth could not ransom our soul from the cold grip of death. But the blood of an innocent Savior… that alone would suffice.

So Jesus stepped from the portal of heaven and stood in our place. The nails were driven through His ministering hands and His calloused feet. The crown of thorns was thrust through to His skull. The whip tore the flesh from His back and the blood ran down. Immanuel’s blood covered the cross of shame and flowed to the dust beneath His altar. Once spilled, our souls were purchased. Now all who will receive His sacrifice alone for salvation may have heaven, free of any charge.

Is His blood precious to you? To the world, the idea of the blood of Jesus is a scandal, a spurious thing. But to us who are saved, it is the precious blood of a spotless Lamb. In the words of William Cowper…

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

Have you been plunged into that fountain today? Trust Jesus and live eternally!

“The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” -Matthew 13:41-43

Jesus is the gentle, compassionate Lamb of God. Angels are those cute little winged cherubs we have displayed on water fountains. But the picture Jesus gives of Himself and His angels is all together different than that to which we are accustomed. We suddenly see a sovereign Jesus, commanding his angels to gather people to judgment and to cast them into the fire for all eternity.

We need to see Jesus in this light, for we need to understand that His ultimate concern is that the holiness and righteousness of God is vindicated for all time. All that offends will be destroyed, all sin will be judged. All iniquity will be eradicated at the throne of God. Thankfully, for believers, their sins have already been judged on the cross, but for most of the world, sin will be punished in an eternal flame. Why? So that the righteous (those made righteous by the blood of Jesus) may shine forth, unhindered by darkness forever.

We must learn to love the righteousness and holiness of God as much as Jesus does. We must hunger for God’s nature and name to be vindicated. At this moment, He is being blasphemed, forgotten, pushed under the rug while men do their evil biddings. But someday He will have the last laugh (literally, read Psalm 2). At last every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. All of mankind will acknowledge Him as Lord in that day. In fact, we should get started now!

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” -1 John 1:7

God rescues us from the slime and slop and mire of our sin and washes us with the blood of His very own Son, Jesus. But that’s not all. Our continued fellowship with the Father means for us that Jesus’ blood keeps on cleansing us over a lifetime. “If we walk in the light… the blood of Jesus continually cleanses us…” It’s a word that indicates an action repeated again and again.

We don’t have to worry that an unnoticed sin will strike our names from the Lamb’s Book of Life, we simply give ourselves to Him in daily fellowship and He handles the filth of our fallenness. He cleanses, washes, and purifies us through His continued fellowship in our lives. The grit and grime of the world is removed in the flow of His precious blood.

This wonderful truth is no excuse for continuing disobedience, but rather is the greatest motivation for a pure and holy life. If He has made us clean, and if He continually makes us clean through His blood, then we are free from filth. We can be clean forevermore! There’s no reason to return to the pig stye after finding ourselves wrapped in the Father’s forgiving arms. Now we can dwell in the ultimate cleanliness of our Father’s house for all eternity!

“And the Lord shall scatter you… And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands… But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if you seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” -Deut. 4:27-29

Imagine saying on your wedding day, “Honey, I know in advance you’re going to cheat on me, but if you come home and love me again with all your heart, I’ll take you back.” Or imagine saying on the day of your child’s birth, “Little darling, I know in advance that you’re going to rebel against all of my values, reject me and run away. You’ll dissapoint me and embarass me, but if you come home again and love me with all your heart, I’ll take you back in.”

Obviously, none of us have the knowledge of the future that God has. We can know that things won’t always be perfect. We can guess that people will let us down. But imagine knowing every single dissapointment everyone in your life would ever bring you. Would you go ahead and befriend them, marry them, or bring them into the world? God’s knowledge includes our every act of idolatry, our every thought of impurity, and our every wrong motive. Yet just as He promised to the nation of Israel, He promises to us, “If you’ll seek me with all of your heart, you’ll find me.”

The term “seekers” has been abused by the modern church. We’ve gotten the impression that a “seeker” is simply one who has lost his way a little or one who is struggling to understand God. For many, a “seeker” is simply one who’s self-esteem is impaired and needs to have it restored in order to find God. But a “seeker” according to Deuteronomy is one who has walked in spiritual adultery. A seeker is one who has fled the presence of the all-consuming God in rebellion and reprobation. A seeker is one who has committed acts which insult the holiness and character of God. Yet God says, “Seek me!”

God is ultimately seeker-sensitive, but He doesn’t lessen His holiness to become more like sinners. He doesn’t market His truth like the latest fiction novel. He pleads instead for poor, lost, hell-bound sinners to “turn ye,” to “look ye,” to “seek ye the Lord…” His invitation is open. Anybody that seeks Him finds Him. Think of Cornelius, think of Apollos, think of the Ethiopian eunuch. Each was an example of one who sought God and found Him.

But then, consider the other half of Scripture. Hosea lost his wife to unfaithfulness and sought her out. When he found her, he purchased her off the prostitution auction block, took her home, and committed to forgive and love her again. Consider Zacchaues who was found up in the tree, the woman at the well, and the earliest apostles on the banks of the Jordan. God Himself is the greater Seeker!

He’s been in hot pursuit of you from the time you were conceived, not in your mother’s womb, but in His imagination from eternity past! He’s chased you through your sin, through your wandering, as you’ve sought Him and as you’ve sought to lose Him. The Bible begins with one sinner named Adam, hiding from God. From that moment flows a history of God’s seeking for the redemption of all of humankind back to Himself. And the story of redemption continues with you today. He’s purchased you with the blood of His very own Son, that you could turn to Him, seek forgiveness, and come into His family.

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification… For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3, 7)

It’s very easy to get caught up in the pursuit of something secondary to God’s great purpose for us as believers. We constantly face the temptation to be driven toward success or popularity, possessions or prestige. But God has caught us and called us to a higher purpose, a better life, a heavenly goal. We’ve been called to cleanness.

While many believers will suffer spiritually as they struggle to gain the freedom to rule their own lives (and thus resorting back to the old, unredeemed life), we must pursue the purpose for which we have been apprehended by Jesus – holiness, cleanness, and sanctification. What other pursuit could be more important in our personal journey of faith?

If you’re a believer, you’ve been caught! Jesus, the fisher of men, has apprehended you. He has purchased you in such a way that you are no longer your own. Contrary to popular opinion and American individualism, you are not your own any longer. God has placed certain spiritual authorities in your life. He’s placed you in the family of God and your church has a mutual stake in the outcome of your faith. While you may scream for the freedom to rule your own domain, God’s Word will remind you that the greatest freedom of all is to be enjoyed within the boundaries of God’s will.

His will is in one respect, an individual issue. In another respect, His will is universal to all believers. We cannot resort to a Christian brand of moral relativism. Instead we must realize that certain rules are applicable for all Christians, regardless of individual circumstances. This is not legalism, which is seeking to please or “pay off” God through rule-keeping. Rather it is merely reverencing God’s moral authority as our Father, Lord, and King.

If Jesus is your Savior, then pursue that for which you’ve been saved – holiness! It’s a worthy pursuit. Holiness brings the confidence of spiritual assurance, it earns a crown in heaven, it pleases the Lord who purchased us with His precious blood, and it supports our verbal witness to a lost world. Give yourself wholly to this goal – total perfection, total spiritual completeness, and total Christlikeness!

“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.” -1 Timothy 6:20-21

Have you noticed how often the world throws curveballs at conservative Christianity? In the “search for the historical Jesus,” the late Peter Jennings sought to dig up evidence that Jesus’ personal claims were misunderstood and the beliefs of the disciples were sorely mistaken. More recently, Dan Brown’s bestselling book The Da Vinci Code has ruffled feathers among Christian leaders. Within the last week, The National Geographic Society has released news of its research on a recently discovered ancient text known as “The Gospel of Judas.” But none of these things move me. Why? Because there have been challenges to the Christian faith for nearly two millennia now and not one has toppled the church.

Let me warn you, there will be many more challenges. Though we must be on guard, we must not allow the enemy to stage the battle. Our ultimate battle is not with flesh and blood, be they reporters, authors, or professors. Our grand war is with Satan and the resurrection of Jesus has secured our victory. The church will triumph as Jesus promised! Just as Jesus has risen, so our faith will stand.

”Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” –Titus 2:14

When I was young, I received an allowance which I quickly wasted on “stuff.” The money I received became mine and I exchanged it for toys or baseball cards. Jesus took His life and exchanged it for ours. He purchased our salvation with His own blood that He might enlarge the family of God.

The Bible says He redeemed us (purchased us) from all of our sin and is purifying for Himself a people who will belong exclusively to Him. Our response to His purchase is to live our lives with a zeal for good works. I am now exclusively His and the rest of my life is to be given over to serving His cause.

Has it occurred to you yet that God desires for you to be exclusively His?