ONE DAY

I was feeling kind of wiped out this morning as I sat in my study, reading my Bible and holding on tightly to the morning elixir in my insulated coffee mug.  Last night had been a long night.  I knew that a night of spring storms was supposed to be keeping us company and wasn’t that surprised when I heard the awaking call of the clap of thunder around 1:30 AM.  The lightening and accompanying thunder booms were on the loud side and seemed to be coming on the scene with an unusual amount of regularity.  So, I got up and wandered into my study where I knew that the dog would be hiding… under my desk!

And sure enough, he greeted me with a very questionable look on his face and seemed to be attempting to move his bulk even deeper into the cavern between the chair and the wall.  There had been a severe thunderstorm warning issued earlier in the evening, but none of my weather apps said anything about the potential of tornadoes.   But just in case, I went back into my bedroom and grabbed my portable emergency broadcast radio and returned to the study where I sat on the floor next to the dog, to render comfort when necessary.

He wasn’t shaking so I knew that he was handling the noise pretty well!  After a while I returned to my bed and tried to sleep… but alas… sleep seemed to evade me!  So, I spent the next couple of hours reading, checking on the dog, praying and then reading some more.  Sometime in the midst of that activity, the thunderstorms quieted and I must have finally fallen asleep. 

The next thing I knew, I was hearing the dog moving around on the floor next to my bed and I was almost 20 minutes past my normal wakeup time… and I am sure that Fiver wanted me to stick to our normal morning schedule so that he could have his breakfast on time!

And so there I was a little while later, chugging my coffee and desperately trying to see and think through the fog that still seemed be enveloping me.  It didn’t help that it was still raining and unusually dark outside, but the coffee did help along with my absorption of the energy-packed Word of God!

So then, as I was reading through Paul’s definitive chapter on the God-kind of love, in I Corinthians 13, I found myself drawn to a particular phrase that he kept repeating in verses 11 and 12 where he wrote,

“When I was a child, I spoke about childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned like a child. But the day came when I matured, and I set aside my childish ways.  For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood.” (TPT)

Most Biblical scholars that I’ve read, Pastors and Bible School instructors and the writers of the majority of the Bible commentaries that I own, agree that the “One Day” that Paul is writing about, is when Jesus arrives at the time of His second coming.  The Message Bible, in talking about this day when things will be completed for us, seems to confirm this by directly referring to the one coming as “The Complete” with a capitalized “C” saying,

“But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.” 

In my sleep-deprived induced state of energy deficiency this morning, I suddenly had a “Come to Jesus” moment when I sat at my desk in awe-struck wonder and realized that my sweet, departed wife is NOW living in her “ONE DAY” that the Apostle Paul wrote about!  WHOA! 

Think about that for a few moments!  Piper and every other loved one that has gone on to their heavenly reward before us, is NOW present in that “ONE DAY” standing and seeing and understanding the TRUTH, “face to face” with Jesus where they “understand everything, just as everything about them has been fully understood.”  

As I searched for personal comprehension of those thoughts, I found myself imagining what it will be like when I get there and enter into that “ONE DAY,” standing “face to face” with the COMPLETER Jesus!  What would you do, think and say in the midst of your personal “ONE DAY” promotion in life?  WOW!

One of my first thoughts reverted back to something that I had read in the previous wee hours of our thunderstorm experience today, where the evangelist Smith Wigglesworth quoted Paul’s words in Galatians 2:20 when he enthusiastically wrote about his own need to be free of himself and full of God saying,

“I live in a relationship with God (where) I have been crucified with Christ.  I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live I live by believing in God's Son, who loved me and took the punishment for my sins.” (God’s Word ©) 

Those words cut deep down into my heart and make me want to be free from me and my self-driven desires and be instead, as full as I can of “CHRIST (who) lives in me” …when I come “face to face” with Jesus in my “ONE DAY” time of life…

How about you?

“ONE DAY” …I wonder what will it be like?  Don’t you?  I can only imagine and have read enough books about heaven since Piper’s homegoing, that I have a little bit of an idea of how AMAZING and WONDERFUL it will be.  So, I aim to strive to live my life demonstrating less of me and more of JESUS in my daily walk.  Wouldn’t you think that’s a good idea for all of us?

Have a good day… and as soon as I fully wake-up… I EXPECT to do the same!