Category: encouragement

Posted in body, encouragement, eternity, glorified, victory

What will it be like to be glorified?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I’m 63 years old. When I was young I said I’d never prattle on about my ailments, like a great-aunt Tilly or a Grandpa Joe.

But now the doctor said I have bad arthritis in my knees, my feet swell, my eyes get so dry, my digestion is sensitive, and I get these headaches…

Ack. And my bodily griefs are piddling compared to some who endure disease, chronic pain, and trauma by fire or accident. Anyway, I think so often about seeing Jesus. My prayers usually end with asking, “Is this the day? Lord, soon come!”

After the promise and excitement and joy of seeing Jesus, the next part I’m looking forward to is the new body.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52)

OK, that’s a great start. We shall be changed. Hmmm. Changed how?

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:53).

Ok, we will be immortal. That’s a fact that a lot of unsaved people do not know and a lot of saved people do not ponder enough. All peoples who have ever lived will be immortal. The unsaved dead will be raised for eternal punishment and the saved dead will be raised for eternal joy and communion with the Savior. In new bodies!

Matthew Henry Commentary says,

He assigns the reason of this change (v. 53): For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. How otherwise could the man be a fit inhabitant of the incorruptible regions, or be fitted to possess the eternal inheritance? How can that which is corruptible and mortal enjoy what is incorruptible, permanent, and immortal? This corruptible body must be made incorruptible, this mortal body must be changed into immortal, that the man may be capable of enjoying the happiness designed for him.

Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 2276). Peabody: Hendrickson.

Further, the verse says we will be imperishable. This means we will not only be eternal but we will not even have to worry about our bodies. They cannot perish. Imagine living without worrying about the end of our lives?! Take death off the table and just imagine how much of a relief it will be.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

Our bodies and our hearts and our minds will no longer feel any kind of pain. Not even the memory of it.

In 2 Corinthians 5:8, Paul said, “We … would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” When we die, we’re home. Imagine a small boy who falls asleep in the back seat of the car. When the family gets home, his father picks him up and carries him into the house. When he wakes up, he’s home. That’s what will happen for God’s children.

Death is glory. It is paradise, as Jesus said. In Philippians 1:21, Paul wrote that “to die is gain.” When we die, we will gain imperishable, glorified, spiritual bodies (1 Cor 15:42–44) and be like Jesus in this way (1 Cor 15:49). We will know God and each other as we are known (1 Cor 13:12). And we will eat of the tree of life and live forever (Rev 22).

Barry, J. D., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

As for the rest, will we have ‘magical’ powers? Matter will be different. Jesus appeared to the huddled disciples behind a locked door in a secure room. How does THAT happen? Will we be able to appear in Canada then Chile then Japan in the blink of an eye, transporting ourselves from one place to another, like Philip who went from Samaria to Azotus in a lateral rapture? (Acts 8:39-40).

Time will tell what the mechanics of our glorified body will be like. For now, rejoice in the fact that if you are saved by the blood of the Lamb, your immortal body will be fitted for bliss, eternally.

Posted in encouragement, theology

Encouragement: Keeping our conscience tender

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I hope this fine late spring week has offered you beautiful glimpses of God’s creative intellect and His wonderful power. Once, I saw a rainbow extending from left to right directly in front of me, and for the first time I even saw the end of the rainbow pooling in colors right there on the ground. (No pot of gold, sorry 😉

I’m semi-not looking forward to the weather easing into summer. Summers in Georgia can be brutal like a hot box. But the upside is that school is out and I can stay home and read and write and blog and podcast and listen to sermons and nap!

We always enjoy the march of the seasons. “He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.” (Psalm 104:19, KJV).

Wherever we are in the world, reading this blog, we see and understand the times and seasons. In spring, we look for the robin, the crocus, the ladyslipper. In summer we look for puffy clouds, rain showers, cicadas. The orderliness and consistency of the seasons since His ordination of them is a comfort. Yet even in Jeremiah 8:7 it is said of the seasons, meaning HIS season,

“Yes, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.”

In the natural history of Israel, Barnes notes explains, “Jeremiah appeals to the obedience which migratory birds render to the law of their natures. The “stork” arrives about March 21, and after a six weeks’ halt departs for the north of Europe. It takes its flight by day, at a vast height in the air (“in the heaven”). The appearance of the “turtle-dove” is one of the pleasant signs of the approach of spring.”

As for the part of the Jeremiah verse which speaks to His judgments, Matthew Henry holds sway here:

“Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious inquiry as to what we have done, from conviction that we have done amiss. They would not attend to the ways of providence, nor understand the voice of God in them, ver. 7.

They know not how to improve the seasons of grace, which God affords. They would not attend to the written word. Many enjoy abundance of the means of grace, have Bibles and ministers, but they have them in vain. They will soon be ashamed of their devices. The pretenders to wisdom were the priests and the false prophets. They flattered people in sin, and so flattered them into destruction, silencing their fears and complaints with, All is well. Selfish teachers may promise peace when there is no peace; and thus men encourage each other in committing evil; but in the day of visitation they will have no refuge to flee unto.”

How perfect and prescient His Word is! Let us enjoy the seasons of grace that Jesus offers His children.

In Numbers, where God is dispensing instruction to the Priesthood, God said, “I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift.” (Numbers 18:7b). It is a gift to serve Him. It is a gift to dedicate one’s life to Him. It is a gift to be close to Him. It was a gift to the people who needed priests. He also gave the Prophets as a gift and in the New Testament, the gift of prophecy/preaching is also a gift. (1 Corinthians 12:10; Romans 12:6).

I feel deeply for Jeremiah the Prophet, who was known as The Weeping Prophet. Jeremiah lived in a time when the People’s pride was dragging them backward into sin and away from the LORD. (Jeremiah 13:15-27; “Pride precedes captivity”.) He lived when the people’s sins had piled up. Jeremiah was the last prophet sent to preach to the Southern Kingdom. The searing effects of their sins had hardened them so much that no one ever listened to Jeremiah. He never had one convert. “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.” (Jeremiah 7:24). Seasons of sin means seasons of bondage.

We speak of His love these days and His joy, peace in knowing Him. All these things are good to have and feel and be. But where is the grief? Where are our weeping prophets (Christians) today? Do we repent in grief for our sins?

Our conscience is a gift too. Let us keep it in good order in every season.

Meanwhile, keep up the good fight, persevere. Repent of the big things and the little things. Keep a tender conscience. Enjoy the gift of His Spirit and His people, and His church, and His word. Soon enough, our faith will be made sight, and we shall see Him as He is. What a day that will be!

hope 7
EPrata photo

Further resources:

John MacArthur, book, The Vanishing Conscience

RC Sproul 4-min devotional, Don’t Waste Your Conscience

Monergism, selections on the conscience by Puritans, essay by JI Packer: The Puritan Conscience

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

An encouragement on fixing our eyes on Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

If you want to look like Jesus, look at Jesus.

I focused on the phrase “fix your eyes upon Jesus” from Hebrews 12:2. I looked up the word “fix” and the Strong’s says

872 aphoráō (from 575 /apó, “away from” and 3708 /horáō, “see”) – properly, “looking away from all else, to fix one’s gaze upon” (Abbott-Smith).

How helpful. I should not glance, not peek, not glimpse, but FIX my GAZE upon him, looking away from all else and steadily drinking in all that He is.

Looking away from all else…what does that mean? It means not being attached to the things of this world. Your country, your job, your family, your spouse, your car, your ‘stuff’, your health, is not more important than Jesus. He is the source and the giver of those things. Fix your eyes on Him.

We need to spend more time with Jesus to look more like Him. Moses only got to see God’s ‘back’ and His face after being with God was so bright it had to be veiled. We have the privilege of looking at Jesus’ “face” as it were, through His word. I want my face to be shining, to have my being conformed to Him, to have my mind transformed. But it won’t happen unless I read the Bible. I must look away from all other distractions and FIX my GAZE on Jesus. A Bible skim won’t even do.

We become like what we behold.

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

Kay Cude poetry: Our Fortress Prevails

Posted on by elizabethprata

Poetry by Kay Cude. Used with permission.  Right click on image to open larger in new tab. Artist’s statement below.

I keep returning to our (me!!) needing to “remember” God’s promises and provision. GOD THE I AM is the only fortress in Whom we find a righteous protector, defender and provider. He is the only place of eternal refuge from the world’s continuing tragedies and chaos. He is the stronghold Who is and Who will provide peace, wisdom, understanding, instruction and endurance.

OUR FORTRESS PREVAILS

Posted in creation, encouragement, fall, God, seasons

God’s glory in creation: awe-inspiring and beautiful

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The spring months are among my favorites of the year. The hot-hot-hot summer is not here yet. The skies display clarity, before summer haze sets in. The stars are bright at night. There is a new vigor and freshness of the days and a crispness to the evening where it feels just so good to draw up your blanket and cuddle.

The Lord ordained the seasons in their progressions since the very beginnings. The cycle is one that is both useful and beautiful. He could have made everything gray and rectangular. But He didn’t. The diversity of foods, lands, stars, trees, and seasonal changes is gloriously gorgeous. The display of leaves during fall, the harvest bounty, the stars glittering above in the clear night sky…all useful, yes, for signs and growing and timing … but beautiful too.

Our God is creative and His works are to be praised.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, (Genesis 1:14)

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While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22)

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2).

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He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. (Psalm 104:19)

Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. (Exodus 34:21)

EPrata photo

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

EPrata photo
Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

A reminder about hope

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (1 Peter 1:3)

Well that says a lot! Each phrase is an encouragement. I’m focusing on living hope today. Our living hope is not a dead hope. It is not surmise, speculation, or empty ‘what if’. It is a living hope because we are IN Christ and He is living and He is our Hope.

Gill’s Commentary says

Saints are both begotten again to the grace of hope, and to the glory which that grace is waiting for”. Our hope is because of Christ, it is in Christ and it is Christ. It is a living hope

hope
Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

Just a closer walk with Thee

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I like the Appalachian fiddle instrumental version of the old song Just a Closer Walk With Thee. Here are the lyrics, written by an anonymous or unknown author

I am weak, but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I’ll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.

Refrain:
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

Through this world of toil and snares,
If I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.

When my feeble life is o’er,
Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o’er
To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.

The only mention of anything sovereign is the word ‘kingdom’ in the last line.

I watched the TV series of Queen Elizabeth II, called The Crown. It’s an excellent series, well written, well acted, with sumptuous production values. It is Netflix’s most expensive series to date. They spent a lot of money replicating the surroundings of the kings and queens depicted, and nearly exactly replicated the events they lived through.

One thing that the first season’s series has firmly shown, is that while the crown is a successive institution, the people inhabiting it alternate. Yet the people inhabiting it are still distinct from the commoners. The Queen, her mother, her sister, her father, any of the sovereigns, are isolated. They live behind fences and high walls. When they appear in public they are again shielded. If they are walking, there is always a large distance between the rows of people and the Queen (or the King as it is now). They might walk past the people, but they do not walk with the people.

Jesus is our King. He is King of KINGS and Lord of LORDS! He is the highest of the high. Has any King ever invited the commoners to walk with Him? No! Did King Ahasuerus (Esther’s husband) invite people to walk with Him? No! He decreed that anyone entering his throne room without him having called them there would be put to death! Did King Herod go out and stroll around with Lydia and Timothy and James? No!

Jesus invites us to be His friend, He is our Father, our Brother, our Intercessor, our Priest, our Redeemer, and our Savior. Yet…walking with the King is unheard of!

We sing that song in a lively fashion when we hear it on the radio, because it’s familiar to us and it’s sweet. But think about the words, really think about them. We ask Jesus to walk closer to us And He will!

None of this is news to any of you. But it does us good to think about Him once in a while as the amazing Person He is, King, who does not isolate Himself behind fences and walls. In what other kingdom at any time or anywhere, does the King invite His people to walk with Him? The King who does not dismiss the commoners, but invites them to participate with Him in his sovereignty is to be praised in wonder and awe.

Walking the long road with the King!
Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

The truth about grace

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Grace is a concept. But it’s not just a concept. Grace is a gift, but it’s not just a gift. Grace is a force. Think about how powerful grace is. Think about its power as it exists in Jesus, as it is delivered to the saints, its common state as it covers the world, and its special state as it enlivens the saints to do our work.

Here is an excerpt about grace from a sermon from John MacArthur called, Strength Perfected in Weakness, looking at this verse: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

In speaking of the linchpin part of the passage, ‘my grace is sufficient for you’, MacArthur said,

But grace is not just an inert sort of concept; it is a force, it is a power. It is a power that transforms us. It is a power that awakens us from sleep. It is a power that gives us life in the midst of death. It is a power that is dynamic enough to transform us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s dear Son. It is the power that saves us. It is the power that keeps us, the power that enables us, the power that sanctifies us, and the power that one day will glorify us. You have to look at grace as a force, a divine force that God pours out into the lives of His people at all points to grant them all that they need to be all that He desires.

Grace is a gift.
Grace is a state.
and…
Grace is a POWER.

Posted in encouragement, theology

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In Psalm 51, David famously wrote-

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will be converted to You.
(Psalm 51:10-13)

His is a magnificent statement of repentance. No wonder God called David a man after His own heart. (Acts 13:22).

You notice that David’s contrition and petition for restoration didn’t include restoring a kingdom to him, or his fortress or his armor or his lands. He did not ask for material things. He wanted the ‘joy of God’s salvation’ – spiritual things. David wanted the spiritual joy of a right relationship with His God.

I often ponder the joy of my salvation. I don’t want to lose that wonder and awe of the miracle of a purified mind and a clean heart. Maybe it’s because I came to the Lord in my 40s, and I remember so well the feeling of moral confusion, impurity, and guilt. One thing I enjoy about salvation is the release of my mind from having to work so hard to justify my sin. Or the efforts of my heart to hide it. Or the difficulty in having my conscience making valiant efforts to tamp down the morally questionable things I said and did.

A willing spirit that finds joy in knowing and obeying our Savior is a release that can only come from Jesus. It’s a gift to us, borne on His blood and His cross. In gratitude, David said he would teach others the ways of God so that sinners would be converted. He is passing along the gift he himself thirsts for and treasures.

by faith you have been saved verse