Renovation In Progress

My husband and I are in the process of a much needed renovation of our beach house rental unit. A couple of years ago we had the upstairs bathroom remodeled, and now we are in the midst of a do-it-yourself kitchen makeover.

After a long day in which he prepped and painted the cabinets, while I made our meals on top of the washer/dryer and cleaned dishes in the bathroom sink, we settled in for a well-deserved sleep.

That night I dreamed that I was resuming medical training to become a psychiatrist. As a condition of becoming licensed in that specialty, I have to undergo psychotherapy myself. I show up for my first session and am surprised to discover that my therapist is TV- and film-star Simon Baker.

Instead of having me sit down and discuss my issues, he shows me around his office, which is a posh condo located on a beautiful California beach.

“I’ve changed a lot of things since I first moved in, but there is so much more I plan to do,” he said, gesturing at an aquarium that fills up an entire wall of the waiting area. “It’s a work in progress.”

I gaze mesmerized by the colorful tropical fish that lazily swim by, while silvery pointed fish dart about like flying arrows. Then he motions to a spiral stairway, once a broom closet, which now leads up to a rooftop patio with a breathtaking aerial view of the Big Sur coast.

“You could take on a similar project,” he explained, “if you’re sure it’s worth the time, money and investment, and if you’re willing to change things.”

I awoke from the dream with a sense of revelation, peace, and anticipation of good things to come despite presently trying circumstances.

In thinking about the symbolism of the dream, the name “Simon Baker” reminded me of Simon Peter, the brash disciple of Jesus who often got his foot stuck in his mouth (Luke 9:33). He tried to stop Jesus from going through with His crucifixion (Matthew 16:21-23), and he bragged that he would follow Jesus to the death (Matthew 26:33-35), only to weep bitterly after he betrayed Jesus three times, as Christ had predicted he would (Matthew 26:75).

Jesus not only forgave Peter’s betrayal and reconciled with him (John 21:15-17), but He also used him to spread the Gospel to the Jews (Acts 2) and to write two books of the New Testament (1 and 2 Peter). No doubt the same qualities of boldness and zeal that sometimes got Peter in trouble were turned around by the Master and put to good use in his new ministry as church leader and evangelist.

Once we are saved, we are Christ’s workmanship, for He enables us to do good works, which He has planned for us since before the beginning of time (Ephesians 2:10).

Yet Peter’s transformation was not without cost. Peter left behind his fishing boats, wife, and life to follow the Master (Matthew 19:27), Who paid the price for all by dying for our sins and rising again on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), proving that He is God, to give all who trust Him eternal life (John 3:16). As Simon Baker said in the dream, we can renovate our lives, but only if we are willing to change, or repent, and pay the cost, by dying daily to sin and to self (1 Corinthians 15:31) through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22).

In a way, Peter’s change from serving himself to serving Christ was like the kitchen renovation – we used the old cabinet structure, but totally transformed it with paint and hardware. But often remodeling requires tearing down the new structure and building something better in its place. In the dream, Simon Baker had built a spiral staircase from a broom closet, which elevated anyone who climbed it to a celestial view, just as Christ can lift us from our humble service to heavenly places in Him (Ephesians 1:3).

Simon Baker had taken a blank wall and used it as a living space for God’s creations, reflecting the Designer’s handiwork. In the early church, fish were a symbol used by Christians to identify one another, and schools of fish that travel in formation remind us of the coordinated purpose of the body of Christ (Romans 12:5), in which all should act together in one accord (Acts 2:1).

The name “Simon Baker” also set me to thinking about the meaning of “baker” in the Bible. The first mention is in Genesis 40 and 41, when Joseph is unfairly imprisoned with two of Pharaoh’s servants, his butler and his baker. They both have dreams which Joseph correctly interprets as meaning that Pharaoh would free the butler and execute the baker, again reminding me that old things must die for all to become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

“Baker” also brings to mind bread, with which God sustains His children daily, not only physically but spiritually (Matthew 6:11). Jesus referred to Himself as the Bread of Life (John 6:33-35), and His body was broken for us, as we re-enact through the broken bread we share in the sacrament of communion (1 Corinthians 10:16; 11:24).

When contemplating the meaning of the dream, I also remembered that I used to enjoy two TV drama series in which Simon Baker played the lead. In The Guardian, he portrayed a lawyer and ex-cocaine addict who was sentenced to 1600 hours of community service as a child advocate for the legal aid services center in Pittsburgh.

In The Mentalist, Simon Baker also played the title role – a fake psychic and con artist who publicly taunted a serial killer, leading tragically to the murder of his wife and children. In his despair he devoted his life to finding the serial killer and fighting crime, using his keen powers of observation as a consultant to the Californian Bureau of Investigation.

Both series were stunning parables of how God can work all things together for good (Romans 8:28), using a man’s sin and tragedy to place him where he can be a powerful force of positive change in the lives of others, transforming his natural talents and abilities to work for good and no longer for evil (Ephesians 4:28).

As we study the lives of men and women in Scripture, or as we look back on our own lives, we can often see a similar pattern. Sin has consequences, but God in His mercy uses those consequences to bring us to Himself (Romans 6:23). If we want to change from His enemy to His child (Romans 5:8; 1 John 3:1), the Holy Spirit enters us and He can shape us, as the Potter molds clay (Isaiah 64:8; Jeremiah 18:4), into a vessel fit for His use (2 Timothy 2:21). 

He can use our unique frame, which He designed in His ownimage (Genesis 1:27) and equipped with specific features (Psalm 139:15-16), and renovate it according to His purpose, to fulfill the plan He had for us (Jeremiah 29:11) since before the beginning of time!

© 2020 Laurie Collett

 

 

Afterlife – What Is It?

 

As far as I know, all religions include some sort of belief system about what happens after our life on earth. Some Eastern religions believe in reincarnation of the spirit into a new physical body – an animal if evil deeds outweighed the good in the previous life, or a human being with more or less privilege and status, again dependent on deeds and “enlightenment” achieved before death.

Islam and other works-based religions promote eternity in paradise for those who did enough good during their physical existence to earn it. This creates a conundrum: how good is good enough? The concept of salvation based on works, and not on God’s grace as Christians believe (Ephesians 2:8-9), portrays a giant celestial scale, with a person’s evil deeds stacked up on one side, and, hopefully, outweighed by good deeds on the other.

The person trusting in one of these religious belief systems can never know for sure that they are going to heaven, particularly if the god they trust is capricious or fickle, changing his or her mind about whether the dying person deserves eternal reward or eternal punishment.

Catholicism describes three alternatives after life on earth: heaven, hell, or purgatory. This last state is not described anywhere in the Bible and is based only on man’s traditions and philosophies rather than on Scripture as the sole authority (Mark 7:13; Colossians 2:8). Catholic doctrine describes purgatory as an intermediate state between heaven and hell where souls go who are neither “good” enough to merit heaven nor “bad” enough to deserve hell.

In the Catholic Church, living souls are encouraged to pray for their dead loved ones to transition from purgatory to heaven, aided by “indulgences,” or cash payments to the church. But the Bible tells us that once we step out into eternity, it is too late to change our destiny. Everyone will go immediately and permanently to heaven or hell, based solely on whether or not they trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Mark 9:47; 2 Corinthians 5:1-8; 1 John 5:12).

As he led the Protestant reformation, Martin Luther protested against the concept of purgatory and other traditions honored by the Catholic Church but absent from Scripture.  His faith was in God alone (2 Kings 19:15; Psalm 86:10; Isaiah 37:16; Luke 5:21) as revealed by His eternal Word alone (Deuteronomy 4:2; 2 Samuel 22:31; Psalm 56:4; Isaiah 40:8; Luke 4:4; John 1:1; 8:47; 1 Peter 1:23), and therefore Luther's concept of the afterlife was based on Scripture.

Bible-believing (Psalm 119:11-18), born-again (John 3:3-8) Christians trust in salvation by God’s grace through our faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) in the death, burial and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) of His Son Jesus Christ as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6). Although a recent poll of Americans revealed that two thirds acknowledged that they were sinners, the Bible says that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and that there is not a single good person on earth (Romans 3:10, 12).

How then can any be saved? A holy, righteous God (Leviticus 11:45; 1 Samuel 2:2) cannot tolerate the presence of sin (Ezra 9:15), which is why no matter how hard we try to work our way to Heaven, we cannot ourselves remove the penalty our sins deserve (Psalm 7:11; Isaiah 5:16). God is just, and He therefore demands that the penalty be paid for our sins before He can allow any of us into His presence (Daniel 9:14,18; Romans 2:5; 3:5).

From before the beginning of time, God knew that Adam and Eve would disobey Him and bring the curse of sin upon the world (Genesis 3). He had therefore already devised the plan of salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14). His Son Jesus Christ, equally God (Philippians 2:6), would come to earth in human form (John 1:14) and live a perfect, sinless life (John 1:29). He would die an agonizing, humiliating death by crucifixion (Matthew 27:35) to pay for all our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21), so that whosoever trusts in Him as Lord and Savior would not die, but would live forever with Him (John 3:16; 1 John 5:12).

When Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day (Matthew 28:6-7), He proved that He is God (Acts 1:3) and worthy to be our Savior. Whosoever trusts in Him is freed from the penalty of sin (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10), which is everlasting death and torment in hell (Luke 16:19-31). When God looks at the sinner who has trusted His Son, He no longer sees our sin, but the perfect righteousness of His Son, in which He robes us at the moment of our salvation (Isaiah 61:10).

By a mysterious spiritual transaction, the penalty for our sins is debited against Christ’s suffering on the cross, and His perfect righteousness is credited to our account. Instantly we are transformed (2 Corinthians 5:17) from His enemies to His children and heirs (Romans 5:10), and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), ready to enjoy our inheritance of eternal life with Him in Heaven (Ephesians 1:11-18; 1 Peter 1:4).

But if we reject His freely given gift of salvation by His grace, we remain His enemies and children of the devil (John 8:44), and our afterlife will be one of eternal torment in hell (Mark 9:43-48). Trusting in Christ is the only Way to eternity in Heaven (John 14:6). We have but one life on this earth, in which good works cannot outweigh or negate our sins or the consequences of those sins. Once we take our last breath, it is too late to change our destiny, and all the sincere prayers and contributions of our survivors cannot affect it.

May those who have not yet trusted Christ do so today, for today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2), and we are not promised tomorrow (James 4:14). May we who believe share His Gospel (Matthew 28:19-20) with those who are otherwise doomed to everlasting hell.

Praise God that we can know from God’s Word, beyond the shadow of a doubt, how to be sure our afterlife will be in Heaven! Praise the Lord that He paid our sin debt in full! Praise God that He is not capricious or fickle, but unchanging, and that we can depend on His constant, saving grace (James 1:17; Hebrews 13:8).

What is a Christian’s afterlife like? After our life is done, what remains of us for those we leave behind? May God give us the grace to leave a Godly legacy for those whose lives we have touched!

© 2017 Laurie Collett