Longing

How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.(Psalms 84:1-2)

This morning reading as Joshua establishing himself, Jesus healing the leapers and only one came back to thank him and he was a foreigner. Jesus also talked about the kingdom of God, and how we will long to see him again. But until then people will carry on in their lives, eating and drinking and being given to marriage. He said it would be like the days of Noah, no one knew what was going on until the doors closed. When the doors closed on the ark is was too late for everyone else outside. Jesus said it will happen quickly and suddenly, and no one knows when. But at the end of his talk Luke 17:31, Jesus said, "where there is a dead body, vultures gather." What is he saying? I started thinking again about Noah, here he is building a big boat in the desert, and it had to be a sight to see. People could watch and laugh at this crazy old man as he and his family built this monstrosity. I mean he claimed to hear and talk to God himself. The animals all gathered two by two, and walked into the ark and the people had to see that also and it didn't convince them. The signs where all there and the people didn't listen.

Here we are in a world that is rapidly changing; I mean I have an uneasy feeling about the future of our country and the world at large. Here I sit in my home on a lap top, warm and overweight, while a majority of the world is starving or fighting just to make it. How long will the suffering of the billions continue until God makes a move? He puts in our hearts a longing for his dwelling place; he longs to put an end to the suffering of the masses. How long will he watch and listen, before like a father hearing his child cry for help, jumps to assist.

Many in the world are crying out for God to intervene, and we long to be in the dwelling place of the Lord. But when God does intervene, when God does invade our world, it will be finished. There will be no more chances, as C.S. Lewis says, "you can't stand up when your legs have stopped working". Lewis also said "when God does invade you will either experience absolute joy or absolute horror depending whose side you're on." There will be no more choice, no more freedom to choose. Are we seeing the vultures gather? I don't know but things are looking different, times are changing and I truly fear for the future. I have three boys and I wonder about the life they will have to live.

My soul longs for the day to enter the courts of the Lord, for the day when God himself wipes away the tears from our eyes. But until then I have to tell others about Christ, we have to share him with a world that is truly suffering. We the church hold the key, he is more wonderful than anything of this world. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Bright Morning Star, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, he is Jesus. He is the key to all the issues we face; he is our only true hope.

My heart and flesh cry out for the living God!

-ps