The title of this post is the remarkable quote from J.P Lipscomb as he spoke about his wife, Linda, who died on Valentine’s Day after a bus accident while serving in Asia with the IMB. As I read this article on Baptist Press today I was forced to be still for a moment and think through his words. The whole quote was actually: “Linda knew she was dying, we never had any respect for death. Death is given too much respect. … The only way you can get to heaven is to die.” I wonder how many of us have that kind of attitude when it comes to living for Christ? Throwing caution to the wind, racing towards the Kingdom, aggressively promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ regardless of the cost.

I’ll be honest with you,  I often struggle with having this kind of attitude.  Scripture is so clear to us in 1 Corinthians 15 when it says, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Too many of us struggle with living in fear of death. We live in terror of pain. We walk around worried that someone won’t like us or that something might bother us when reality tells us that all that anyone can do, at most, is kill us and what kind of punishment is that? It’s the gateway to eternity! Why do we fear the greatest hope that we have? 

I would encourage you to read the story of Linda Lipscomb and her death. I hope it challenges you like it has me.  

This week’s Weekend Worship features Charlie Hall. Although I’m a big fan of Charlie Hall for a long time now the reason I’m posting this today is because my daughter is sitting beside me and specifically requested Mr. Hall. This song, though, speaks so wonderfully to the need for relience upon God alone. I hope you enjoy this.  

This weekend on Weekend Worship I wanted to feature two distinctly different, yet both beautiful, Christmas songs. The first is sung by one of my favorite vocalists, Josh Groban, and features his incredible rendition of “Silent Night” which he just performed, last week, on Swedish tv. The second song is performed by the Worship Team at Bayside Church led by Worship Arts Pastor, Lincoln Brewster. It is their cover of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra favorite, Christmas Eve Sarajevo and was performed at one of their Christmas Eve services last year. I hope both of them encourage you as you prepare to celebrate Christmas this year!

Proverbs 3:5, Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding

I am often tempted to simply rely on myself to make it. Let’s be honest, in American culture we idolize those who can make it on their own. Whether it’s John Wayne shooting up the town by himself, McGyver getting out of a jam with lipstick and a sock or Frank Sinatra singing “I did it my way” we value self-dependence above almost all else.

This week, for Weekend Worship, we feature Charlie Hall leading worship in 2006 at the Passion event in Atlanta. He is leading in the song “All we need is You”.

I hope that you trust in Him today.

Well, this weekend I want to share a video that I just found of a song that I had never heard before until the other day. It’s a song called “Promises” and it’s led by the worship team at NewLife Church in Colorado Springs, CO. It’s a song that is fairly basic in it’s words but it’s a good reminder of the promises of God that He is walking with and for us and that we walk in obedience to Him because of His greatness. It’s also a fun, incredibly upbeat song and every once in a while it’s exciting to worship together in a high energy setting and enjoy the greatness of God together. This is one of those songs.

As I was doing some devotional reading this morning I read the following from Charles Spurgeon and got so excited about it that I wanted to share it with you.

“Faultless before the presence of His glory.”
Jude 24

Revolve in your mind that wondrous word, faultless!” We are far off from it now; but as our Lord never stops short of perfection in His work of love, we shall reach it one day. The Saviour who will keep His people to the end, will also present them at last to Himself, as “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish.” All the jewels in the Saviour’s crown are of the first water and without a single flaw. All the maids of honour who attend the Lamb’s wife are pure virgins without spot or stain. But how will Jesus make us faultless? He will wash us from our sins in His own blood until we are white and fair as God’s purest angel; and we shall be clothed in His righteousness, that righteousness which makes the saint who wears it positively faultless; yea, perfect in the sight of God. We shall be unblameable and unreproveable even in His eyes. His law will not only have no charge against us, but it will be magnified in us. Moreover, the work of the Holy Spirit within us will be altogether complete. He will make us so perfectly holy, that we shall have no lingering tendency to sin. Judgment, memory, will–every power and passion shall be emancipated from the thraldom of evil. We shall be holy even as God is holy, and in His presence we shall dwell for ever. Saints will not be out of place in heaven, their beauty will be as great as that of the place prepared for them. Oh the rapture of that hour when the everlasting doors shall be lifted up, and we, being made meet for the inheritance, shall dwell with the saints in light. Sin gone, Satan shut out, temptation past for ever, and ourselves “faultless” before God, this will be heaven indeed! Let us be joyful now as we rehearse the song of eternal praise so soon to roll forth in full chorus from all the blood-washed host; let us copy David’s exultings before the ark as a prelude to our ecstasies before the throne. (emphasis mine)

What a day it will be when “He will make us so perfectly holy, that we shall have no lingering tendency to sin.” Isn’t that tremendously exciting! I often think about how much we struggle against the thoughts, desires, attitudes, etc. that constantly remind us of our humanity and I long for the day that they are gone. The good news for believers of Jesus Christ is that while we struggle now, our struggle is worth it. We will be holy in the end.

Those of you who hear me speak often will know this phrase, because I constantly repeat it. I firmly believe it to be true, however. The phrase is “The reward is worth the sacrifice.” Is life tough? Yes! Is the struggle against ungodliness almost unbearable at time? Yes! Is it true that we will not rest from that fight until Christ returns? Yes! In spite of all this, though, we press on knowing that “The reward is worth the sacrifice.”