FEBRUARY 2008

Dear Mt. Olive Family and Friends,

He wanted me to go over the message he had prepared for Sunday morning, warning me that it was just a “rough draft.” I knew that meant that I could expect a few spelling and grammatical errors.

Sure enough, on page three of my son’s sermon, there it was: “And all those who believe in Him shall not perish, but have eternal lice.” With the “c” being so close to the “f” on a computer keyboard, it was an honest mistake!

Eternal lice! Not a very pleasant thought! Rather revolting actually! Makes me want to scratch my head just thinking of it!

Eternal life! Now there’s a beautiful picture! Life forever in God’s perfect home! As the songwriter puts it:

"I can only imagine what it will be like,
When I walk by Your side...
I can only imagine, what my eyes will see,
When Your Face is before me!
I can only imagine. I can only imagine.

Surrounded by Your Glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for You, Jesus? Or in awe of You, be still?
Will I stand in Your presence, or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing 'Hallelujah!'? Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine! I can only imagine!”

When we ponder the sad state of Christianity in America, one has to wonder... is it possible that we have become so complacent about the free gift of eternal life, that we treat both the Gift and the Giver as though we’ve been plagued instead with eternal lice?

Does the promise of eternal life in heaven move us to cheerfully and joyfully gather for weekly worship? Does it move us to willingly share our faith with others? Does it entice us to want to study God’s Word more and more and to grow in our faith and love? Does it compel us to reach out to the hurting, the lonely, the destitute, the lost with the life and love of Jesus?

Or, do we instead approach worship with a ho-hum attitude? Do we find one excuse after another for why we can’t share our Christian hope with others? Do we avoid Bible classes because we already know all that stuff? Do we rationalize away our unwillingness to get personally involved in other people’s pain?

In other words, has our joy of eternal life become, for us, the drudgery of eternal lice?

Has it come to this: “Oh, yeah, Jesus died on the cross so some day when I die I get eternal life. Big deal!”? Yawn...

The Psalmist prayed: “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation...” Do we need to repent and pray the same? Indeed we do! We American Christians are treating this terrific treasure with condescension and contempt. We’re acting as though God were somehow cursing us with eternal lice rather than blessing us with eternal life.

Fellow believers, we have been so richly, richly blessed. Yet, I dare say, if we behaved toward our earthly friends the way we often behave toward Jesus, they’d wonder what they ever saw in us. If we treated their gifts and expressions of kindness the same way we frequently treat Jesus’ gifts of forgiveness and salvation, they’d soon walk away from us, never to return.

Jesus speaks some alarming words to a group of Christians in Laodicea: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-- neither hot nor cold-- I am about to spit you out of My mouth,” (Rev 3:15-16). These are not words to be taken lightly. Being spit in Jesus’ mouth is not where any of us want to be.

Having been called to a living faith, our purpose on earth is to honor our heavenly Father “for whom we live,” and glorify His Son, Jesus, “through whom we live.” (I Corinthians 8:6) The promise of eternal life in heaven – by grace, through faith – is the promise upon which we live each day and upon which we rest each night.

Eternal Life! Wow!

Imagine! Think! Ponder!

Rejoice!

The God who loves us with an everlasting love has gifted us with everlasting life. He sent His Son to rid us of something far worse than eternal lice. Jesus’ sinless life, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection has earned for us eternal life in heaven. Were it not for the doing and the dying of Jesus, we would all be hurled into the eternal fires of hell.

Please don’t sneeze at that!

Throughout St. Paul’s inspired epistles, after sharing what Jesus has so graciously done for us – reminding us again and again that our salvation is totally and completely by grace, he goes on to urge us to live a life that reflects our appreciation for the marvelous, matchless, miraculous mercies of God. He emphasizes that when Jesus lives in us, we are, in fact, “a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17). He also stresses, however, that our lying, lazy, and lethargic old nature is still in constant need of discipline, restraint, and self-control. Don’t we all know that to be true?!

Lice or Life? With which have you been eternally gifted? For which are you eternally grateful? In which are you compelled to rejoice?

“I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received,” Eph 4:1. “Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us,” Eph 5:2. “We pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,” Col 1:10.

Please, dear people redeemed by Jesus’ holy blood, don’t go through life as though infested with eternal lice. Live each day in the thrill and delight of eternal life! Live it in heavenly joy!

Live it for Jesus!

Pastor Carl Henkel