ALL SAINTS DAY, Tuesday, November
1, 2016
I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God,
the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and
insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your
hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope
he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious
inheritance. Ephesians 1:16-18(NLT)
People are at
all stages of development. Some mature
more quickly than others, but the process of growing up is always upon us,
always confronting us with the need to grow and change. This includes spiritual maturity as well as
physical.
The apostle
Paul wanted this for his children in the faith, the believers at Ephesus. He constantly prayed that the bud of faith
would blossom fully into the reality flower of a confident hope in Christ
Jesus. Most pastors I’ve known have expressed
something of this concerning the church they serve; there is a desire to see
spiritual growth in the people of Christ, the light of understanding
switched-on to a deeper knowledge of God and His ways which turns our attention
to focus wholeheartedly on serving the King.
Part of that
understanding is a deep appreciation for All Saints Day, a reminder that in
eternity’s calendar there is no division of days, nights and years, nor is
there any true separation of fellowship; all the saints are united in Christ
all the time. It is true that for now,
because of our human frailty, stuck as we are in time and space, there is a
gulf between the church here on earth and the church triumphant in glory.
But that is
merely due to our poor sight; our confident hope is in the promise of God we
cannot see, that, as Paul wrote to the believers at Rome:
…I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us
from God’s love. Neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries
about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No
power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation
will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39(NLT)
The reality
of our confident hope is that, since nothing can separate us from Jesus Christ,
we are always, at all times, whether gathered or scattered to the four corners
of the earth, whether in the flesh on planet earth or absent from this body and
present with the Lord…we are, all the saints, always, and everywhere, we are one; we are the body of
Christ, unseparated, fully joined.
All of my
grandparents, my Mom and Dad, and their siblings have passed from this
life. But because of the guarantee of the
certain hope of Jesus Christ, we are still together, and one day the saints
will all be gathered at our Lord’s command, never again to suffer the loss of
being separated; our sight will then be perfect!
As has been
often said, this is not a hope-so kind of faith – this is a
confident and sure hope; we have a promise from the Lord, grounded in the power
of Easter’s resurrection.
For You Today
In what or
whom do you place your trust, your hope?
NOTES
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