Apply Within: Sending My Resume to Heaven

The title for this came to me early this morning and for once I did what a writer should do and wrote it down. I let the idea of putting a resume together for entrance into heaven run through my mind awhile wondering how I could make an application for entrance into the Kingdom of God. It was like a stream slowly meandering its way through a meadow. By all rights I should have been allowed to drift back to sleep on a lazy Saturday morning.

 

I think my mind is a bit fertile for this because I have found myself introducing Jan to Jesus while praying for my mother-in-law saying things like “Jesus, bring healing to our sister Jan, your servant, a Deaconess in the church, a woman of faith who serves the poor in spirit, the poor in the world, and serves the church. Remember her and bring restoration.” I have been building her resume to Jesus who knows all of that and more about her. I suppose I should just simplify things and stop the bargaining; “Jesus bring healing and restoration by your power and grace, let the act of your perfect sacrifice have its full effect.”

 

When I’m at work I often turn to those who have experience with the particular issue that I am wrestling with so why not with this issue? I sought out the wisdom and words of a couple of old-timers, Paul and James

Paul put together a very nice resume in Philippians 3, versus 4b-6; he has an impressive pedigree. Yet in versus 7&8 he sets that notion aside, “⁷Yet whatever gain I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. ⁸More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him,”

So my anemic resume; son of pillars of LCPC, longtime youth worker, struggling Christian writer…really mean nothing when it is measured against the perfect sacrifice and doesn’t, in itself, get me any nearer to Jesus.

James sets the stage for his discourse on faith and works in chapter 1 verse 22 of the book of James, “²²But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” In chapter 2: verses 14-26 James juggles faith and works with the keynote in verse 17 “¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” And he follows this with “^18band by my works I will show you my faith.”

 

I have found myself checking off items on my Heavenly To-Do List thinking that this is the pathway to heaven. It is just no so; it is not as simple as that at all. While thinking over Paul’s and James’ words I picture an old-fashioned balance scale and for me to pile good works on one side so that works outweighs faith and sits firmly on the table is no good; I’ve simply made myself look good to others. And conversely, if I pile faith up on the other pan and it comes to rest on the table, I have deceived myself. This begs the question of how does one pile up faith without works; what does that look like? Do I sit around reading scripture and then walk around reciting the “I believe ins” of the Apostle’s Creed and count that as faith. No, I must achieve the great balance, first by believing and building up my faith and then by doing the things God sets in front of me because of my faith.

 

When all is said and done and I find myself at the Gates of Heaven standing in front of Saint Peter perhaps I will just make it simple and read him this while he checks for my name in the Book of Life, “Dear Peter, I am a sinner, a man with a weak heart and checkered past. I am here to throw myself on the boundless grace of Jesus and claim the power of His resurrection. Only Jesus’ forgiveness can get me in; nothing that I’ve done or not done, good or bad, can get me in.”

Stop. It's Time to Pray

Romans 8: 26 “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” NASB

A couple of Sundays ago Ashley, our Director of Children’s Ministries, spoke to the children that had gathered on the chancel stairs. I had a pretty good view from stage left of the chancel as I prepared to follow the children’s time with the prayer of confession. It is Operation Christmas Child time so the church family is busily gathering supplies and gifts to pack what we hope will be well over three hundred boxes for needy children throughout the world. Ashley shared how at the Samaritan’s Purse packing stations while the workers are preparing all of the collected boxes to be shipped to over a hundred countries a voice comes over the loud speaker system saying “Stop. It’s time to pray.” Everyone stops whatever they are doing and prays over the boxes, blessing them with the Spirit, and praying for the recipient to know Christ through the gift and the givers.

That phrase has stuck with me and is my nugget from the service. It has become a touchstone over the last couple of weeks. With my mother-in-law suffering a debilitating stroke and a few days later my sister-in-law was in a freak accident in which suffered a broken pelvis I have much to be in prayer and intercession for with these two who are so near to my heart in such deep need. At work, during my walks, working at home, and even while vegetating in front of the TV the phrase resonates in my mind and I have to quiet myself in some way and pray. Even while gathered with the family in the hospital room with my mother-in-law, one not fully aware while we carry on conversations of every kind, the reverb comes to me, “Stop. It’s time to pray”. And so I do stop and touch each one with a feather of prayer to aid in our vigil; we pray and hope, wait and see.

I found it interesting that in a place with people gathered in an activity inherently good and with a Christly objective that we are also in need of reminders to stop and pray. I think it is another instance of Martha versus Mary, Mary stopped, prayed, and paid attention to the best thing while Martha needed to be reminded to stop her good work and heed to the groaning of the Spirit. We need to be reminded from time to time to give voice to the groanings within us; pause a bit in our labors, in our joys, and in our sorrows, to acknowledge the Spirit within us that intercedes on our behalf.

Of all of the things I have to be thankful for, a list that I cannot do justice to or am deserving of, I am at this moment extremely thankful for the nugget that I picked up, the echo of hope that invades my conscious thought to give me an opportunity to thank God for that list and pray for those that the Spirit has placed on my heart.

Yes, one would be you.

In His grip, jerry