By Pastor Don Schatz

Or Is There More?

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Desolation is left in the city, the gates are battered into ruins.”
Isaiah 24:12 The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version

My wife’s birthday was yesterday.  It was the sixth one since she went to heaven with the Lord.  Do you ever have times when you feel like the city of which Isaiah spoke?  Desolate.  Battered.  A pile of rubble.I promise, this will not be a maudlin piece.  But occasional sadness is a fact of life in this “in-between-time” after Genesis 3 and before Revelation 21 and 22.  We are human.  Like everyone else.  Within the haven of the church we can feel a bit guilty for feeling sad.  Or worse.  I’d like to share that sadness with you today.  I’d like to see the light dawn anew in your eyes as you ask, “Or is there more?”

There is more.  Much more.  Memories, observances, the heartache of missing loved ones, and so much more are part of our reality.  The evil one might even seek to use them to lead us to believe that God is an illusion, a macabre attempt to make sense of the pain in our lives.   When those moments, or seasons, arrive we can feel as though our feet are hovering somewhere above the rock.  Our house seems to have been moved to the sand, with the ocean’s power intent on sinking it.  But the Rock that is Christ is underneath us all the time.  The foundation that is our faith in Christ cannot be shaken.  Faith straps us to that foundation like a house built to withstand earthquakes.

Our life in Jesus finds us inside the house, not outside.  Our life in Jesus is sustained by his promise to prepare a new place for us to live.  Don’t wait to join my wife, or your own loved ones, in glory.  God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has made a home in our hearts.  Jesus cleared the rubble of sin and spiritual devastation.  He set our feet upon a firm foundation.

Yes, there is more in Jesus!

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado