Exceedingly Glad

"Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven..."
-Matthew 5:12a

Things Above

Last night I finished reading Ted Dekker's book The Slumber of Christianity. It has to be my favourite of his works.
The subtitle is: Awakening a Passion for Heaven on Earth. That's what is did for me. Now my mind is screaming, "AGH! I want to go there!"
Heaven is our home
Where we'll live together
Shining like the sun
With our King forever
Heaven is our home
Heaven is our home
I can hardly wait to get there. Home. With Jesus. Forever.
That's one of the things I can't get my mind around. Eternity. The last couple of nights I've lain awake in bed pondering it. Everything I know has an end. All the good books I've ever read ended. All the times I've enjoyed with friends ended. Someday, my life will have ended. But heaven doesn't end. Never. Never. Never. It makes me want to laugh. With Him forever.
Oh, just imagine it.
"I say with Paul, fix your mind on heaven. Fascinate your mind with Christ, and fan into flames a vision of the afterlife.
Obsess after the bliss that awaits you as a joint heir with Christ in heaven." (The Slumber of Christianity)
Come quickly, Lord!

On Job

As I was reading Job the beginning of Job the other day, three verses stood out to me.
In Job 1:21, just after learning that all his valuable possessions- from camels, to sheep, to children- are destroyed Job says, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Then, while covered head to foot with boils his wife says that Job is still "hold[ing] fast to [his] integrity" (Job 2:9).
In verse 10, Job responds to his wife's suggestion to "Curse God and die" with "Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?"
When I look at Job's troubles mine seem comparatively insignificant. Yet do I hold fast to my integrity, blessing the Lord and submitting to His will when those trials come?

You give and take away,
You give and take away,
My heart will choose to say,
Lord, blessed be Your name

Troughs and Peaks

"...in His effort to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more that on the peaks; some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else.
...He leaves the creature to stand up on its legs--to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be...He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never in more danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every taste of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."

-The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis