GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
We just celebrated the apex of Christian beliefs – the resurrection of Jesus (Easter Sunday). On Good Friday, Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished.” From his perspective, everything that he came to do was now finished. He came to be sacrificed for the sins of the world and after unbelievable torture and crucifixion, his journey was now complete. He had accomplished what he came to do.
For the disciples and those that followed Jesus, his death was not just a death of a friend but a death of their hopes, dreams and aspirations. They had believed in Jesus, that he was going to set up a new kingdom and bring freedom to Israel. But his death struck a huge blow to those plans. All of Friday evening, and all day Saturday the disciples most likely replayed his words in their minds. They rehashed the events of the last three years. Broken hearts, broken dreams and unfinished business.
I believe that we have all been in places that felt like everything was finished, but not in a good way. When Jesus cried out, “it is finished,” it was one of the best things for humanity. Sometimes life happens to tell us the same thing, only from a different perspective.
Sometimes a spouse says, “it is finished,” and a marriage ends.
Sometimes a boss says, “it is finished,” and someone loses a job.
Sometimes a child says, “It is finished,” and they walk away from their parents to live a wild lifestyle.
Sometimes a doctor says, “It is finished,” and you are given a cancer death sentence.
It can be anything that destroys hopes and dreams. It can be a person, circumstance or an attitude.
The issue is that when life declares to you, “it is finished,” hope dies. When hope dies, a person dies inside. People cannot live without hope.
People without hope believe that the last word has been spoken over their situation. The disciples must have felt like that. If I were one of them, I would have taken Jesus’ statement, “It is finished” as his last word and the last word to all that we had believed for the last three years.
I have been in and am currently going through, a season where it feels, at times, that all hope is gone. Sometimes it feels like the light at the end of the tunnel is only a train coming full speed at me.
Have you ever been there?
Have you ever seen that train coming for you?
One of the best definitions of hope that I have heard comes from Anthony Chapman, a pastor from York, England. His definition is this: hope is the confident expectation that the final word has not yet been spoken. This is a powerful declaration.
When our dreams, goals, plans and even our lives have been given a death sentence, we can take comfort in the fact that God has the final word. He had the last word in Jesus’ life. The death of Jesus looked like the final word had been spoken but Resurrection Day was coming.
It is the same in our lives. Many times we are given a death sentence. Our hopes, dreams, and aspirations are lying in a tomb and we, like the disciples, are licking our wounds wondering what has happened. It’s a tough pill to swallow.
I have been living through my own “It is finished” season for a while now. 
At times, it seems overwhelming but I keep hanging onto my friend’s definition that hope is the confident expectation that the final word has not been spoken. Now, that’s not to say that I don’t have my moments of doubt, struggle and wonderings. I am very much like the disciples in that I often times want to hide and lick my wounds. I often retreat inside my own personal, emotional cave where I shut down and keep everyone at arm’s length.
What about you? Have you ever experienced an “It is finished” moment in your life? Have you ever had a “death sentence” given to you in an area of your life? If so, I just want to encourage you that God knows! He sees and He understands! He hasn’t spoken the final word in your life because you are still alive. You are still breathing. You are still here!
Your final word has not been spoken!
DUDLEY HALL -- For hundreds of years children have been told the story of Chicken Little, or Henny Penny, as the chicken is sometimes called. An acorn falls on the unsuspecting chicken's head, and she interprets it as the sky falling. In her panic she relays the event to other animals in the yard and they buy into her interpretation. Fear reigns.
In one version, a fox invites them to his lair and finally eats them all. In other versions, they escape when the truth is revealed. "The sky is falling!" has become a favorite way to describe it when people over-react to negative events.
When the news seems mostly bad we tend to listen to Chicken Little. After all, there is a verifiable lump there: something painful did happen and the victim is an eyewitness. Her interpretation must be considered. But is it truth? Not necessarily.
We're entering a new year. We could look back at 2015 and say we took some lumps. Why then do we tend to jump to the conclusions that things are as bad as they can be? Why assume that secularism has won? Why assume that we've lost our religious freedom? Why assume that the current Supreme Court's decision is the final nail in the coffin of the family? Why conclude that the church is on the wane; that younger people are no longer interested in God? Why would some theologians be developing means to accommodate the seeming spread of evil, giving up hope of victory this side of escape? Why do people say they're going to move to Canada if the opposite political party wins the election?
I can think of at least one reason. (It isn't a good one.) Possibly, down deep we believe we deserve such punishment. We live, waiting for the other shoe (or the sky) to fall.
Some people hold up polls and surveys to authenticate their dire interpretations. No doubt if a poll had been taken in Chicken Little's barnyard, the results would have confirmed that the sky was indeed falling. Panic is like that: it makes the worst possible outcome seem like the only possible outcome, whether it's true or not.
We should make no mistake. Evil is real. Refusing to call it evil doesn't eliminate it. But it is not superior to God's truth and goodness, just as darkness is not superior to light.
We don't need Chicken Littles in today's world. We need true prophets to help us know the meaning of what's going on. Consider the first Pentecost. Even the believing disciples didn't know what was happening there, when unusual phenomena began to take place. (Acts 2:1-36) If Peter had not acted as God's prophet, they would have gone away thinking that the believers were drunk, or that magic had been introduced to this already dubious sect. Peter explained that God had acted, and that what they feared most, death, had been dealt a deathblow.
If there was ever a time for a "Chicken Little" to speak, that should have been it. The greatest evil of all time had just been done. Horrifically deceived religious leaders, along with power-hungry civil leaders, had led the crowd to unjustly crucify the "Author of life." (Acts 3:15) Hope had been dashed. Injustice had won.
But there was another interpretation. "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." (Acts 2:36) It was the best news ever. God was working (God is always at work!) through the atrocious events of that fateful weekend, to establish His kingdom above all powers and forces, even death. Justice had been done as Jesus had taken the place of guilty criminals and paid their debt. Goodness had won over evil. Light had penetrated the darkness. Death had been defeated. Love was enthroned.
The same one who created this world has redeemed it. It will be restored and forever display the wonder of his glory. We have God's assurance of that. We who follow Christ have been privileged to be his instruments of restoration. We refuse to flinch when darkness exposes itself. We have the light.
We're not here for personal comfort, but for the glory of our Lord who rules in love through us. We have challenges, but nothing compared to the tomb that Jesus conquered. We live by the same Spirit that raised him.
So as we look ahead to a new year I call for true prophets to stand and declare what God has done, and what it means. The media tells us about events. We need interpretation -- true interpretation, according to God's Word. Chicken Little's interpretation can't be trusted.
This is our Father's world. The sky is not falling. God is working through all events to display the glory of His own endless love, which transforms everything it captures. We are anything but victims. We represent the King who reigns forever. Presently, darkness covers too much of His purchased possession, but we have only just begun. It is time for those who have seen the light to carry it forward into the darkness.
We don’t know what 2016 will bring, but we know this: the sky is just fine. God is in control, and all the heavens are bright with the glory of the Lord.
Daily I am confronted with this heart cry for faith. The one in despondence seeks to find someone who can believe for him. He cannot believe for himself, and yet he has every privilege and every right in the family of God. He knows that he is a child of God and yet the sense… Read More
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