Going Back

Scripture

Therefore Jesus said, “For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me.

~John 7:33, NASB

Quote

When it comes to time, we humans can think back or look back, but we cannot go back.

~ Ya’akov

I doubt if you’ve ever read anything like what you are about to read. Sometimes thoughts come to mind that I have never read, heard or thought before and yesterday was one of those days. As you know, time has been on my mind lately. We have experienced several departures connected to our family and Jennifer’s {Lori’s mom} COLS got me to thinking about a lot of things. First of all, I like the song, WHEN I GET WHERE I’M GOING, by Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton. Most of us get a little excited about going somewhere; with some folks, it is anywhere just as long as they are going. But there is one place we cannot go; we cannot go back. I love to look at the stars on my way to the office. The nearest star to earth is the sun but I am talking about the nearest star outside our solar system and it is Proxima Centauri. This star is 4.24 light-years away, the light reaching your eyes today left the star about 4.24 years ago. In other words, you’re seeing Proxima Centauri as it was a little over four years in the past. When you look at the sun, you are looking at light that is 8 minutes and 20 seconds old. So we humans can look back but we can’t go back. I cannot go back to being a boy, or running track in college. I can’t go back to CHRISTMAS at the Bailey’s, over 40 people spending the night in one house. Where did they all sleep? Some never slept; other were in chairs.

Jesus was different in so many ways. Jesus could go back and did. He talked about going back a lot and it is all recorded in the gospel of John {6:62, 7:33-34, 8:21, 13:1, 14:1-4,12,28, 16:5, 17:4-5}. With you and I living in time, which is a part of creation, we have a past, present and future. God is eternal and lives in the eternal present. He does not go back or forward. Yahweh IS! He is the past, present and future. He is just IS! That does include “was” and “will be,” but the best way to think of it is IS! As the old preacher once said, “He has always been IS and He will always be IS.”

But my point or thought is this. Was Jesus excited about going back to the Father. Going home so to speak. I know the disciples were not excited about His going back, but I believe that Jesus was ready and who could blame Him. In John 17 He said to the Father...I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. Jesus, who bore out shame, was going back to glory. Doesn’t that thought excite you? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could go from shame to glory? Well folks, the gospel turth is that we will if we are in Christ. In HIM, His experience is ours. We will or have in fact {not in time} gone back from shame to glory. Me and my three sisters born after the war were in our father. He carried our seed. We almost drown in the Rhine river. We were in him like we are in Adam but when we are born again, we move from Adam to Christ. Now we are in Christ. Jesus is in heaven so we are in heaven. If we are in Him, wherever He goes, we go. This is our position but of course we are still living in time and so it will be a little while before this reality is fully apparent.

Extra

What a beautiful day the LORD blessed us with yesterday. Hopefully I will get in our run-a-way garden today. A lot of mud dried up yesterday.

Sunday is COMMUNION.

I hope you have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.

Extra/Extra

By the way, Carol Bennich aced the George Beverly Shea test. There is more to the Shea story. George’s father was a pastor of a church in Canada and he had a couple in his church, actually the wife Kittie Suffield who wrote hymns. Her most famous was LITTLE IS MUCH WHEN GOD IS IN IT. George Beverly sang this song a lot and for a reason. He was having dinner with Fred and Kittie {George Beverly was a teenager}. Kittie wanted to hear him sing so she went to the piano but George couldn’t sing the song properly, the notes were too high and his voice cracked. He was so embarrassed that he vowed then and there not to sing again. Kittie took the opt to do some coaching. She told him that he had a baritone voice and he needed to sing in a lower key. He did, it sounded great and the rest is history. Thank God for Kittie and those like her. We all need encouragement from time to time.