Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
I am sitting by a window surveying a scene of wintry destruction. A freezing rain storm struck this area two nights ago, and all day long yesterday, through the night, and even still this morning, the sound of trees limbs and whole trees snapping under the strain of heavy ice can be heard echoing through the surrounding woods. My wife woke me before daylight yesterday, saying that there were hunters outside our home. But it was still dark outside, and it wasn't the sound of high-powered guns we were hearing. It was the sound of large tree limbs breaking and whole trees snapping in half under the weight of ice. Many trees that have not been uprooted or broken are so bent with ice that they will have to be cut down. I estimate that we have lost, just in the neighborhood around my home, several hundred trees.
Over one million people are now without electrical power because of this ice storm. Here in my neighborhood, power lines are lying on the ground in several places. A small tree fell on my new car, crushing the roof and smashing out the back window. The stout railing along the large boardwalk from my back yard to my neighbor's yard was crushed in a couple of places by falling trees. Fortunately, my house has been hit only once, with little apparent damage. It could have been much worse.
Every time we went outside yesterday to check on the situation, we saw new damage caused by fallen trees. Anytime we stood outside, thundering echoes of crashing limbs and trees somewhere in the woods around us punctuated the stillness. As I returned from one short walk outside, I saw a tall, bent pine tree in the woods in front of my house crack in half, then hit another, causing that tree to snap in half, and then those two hit a third tall pine that also cracked in half, and they all crashed to earth together with a frightening noise. Last night late, as we sat in the dark by the comforting fireplace, we heard a now familiar crackling sound of a huge tree falling. We could tell that it was very close. We immediately went out with flashlights and were relieved to see that the monster had come short of hitting the house by a few feet.
The dense, cold fog before dawn this morning presented me with an eerie view. There were large tree tops dangling upside down, held to the trunk by a thin thread of sap wood and bark; there were whole trees, tall and badly weighted down with ice, while others remained standing only by leaning on the icy trees next to it. There was a tangled heap of trees in one direction, and in another direction stood tall, thin, limbless trunks, sticking up out of the ground like pencils, their tops lying below them in mangled heaps on the snow-and-ice-covered ground. The thick fog is being dissipated quickly now by a sunshine that we have not seen for several days. But the clear morning air is revealing scenes of devastation that I can only compare to that caused by strong hurricanes that have passed through here before.
Talking with Brother Bob yesterday as we stood outside marveling at the wreckage of our property, the Scripture came to me that says, "Love not the world". Our "world" here in this neighborhood is pretty. It has rocks that spring up on the side of small hills that shadow a winding little creek. It has tall pines and large hardwoods in abundance. A few years back, one agricultural extension agent, having walked over this land with Bob, told him that this was some of the prettiest property that he had seen anywhere in the state. It is easy to love such a beautiful place. Looking at it all yesterday, though, it seemed to me that it is foolhardy to love anything in a world that can change so much, so quickly. My, what changes can take place in just a day! What is there to love in a world that changes, and that will, at some point, be altogether gone? Why invest our dreams in a world that cannot long remain as it is? Jesus counseled us to invest our love and hope in heavenly, eternal things, "for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Mt. 6:19-21).
In 1985, when my mother died, I was grieving alone as I lay on my living room couch late into the night. It was April, and with the spring in this part of the world comes the honeysuckle vine, with a sweet fragrance that heavily floods the surrounding air. As I lay there beneath an open window, the rich aroma of honeysuckle from somewhere outside wafted into my room on the warm, gentle breeze. Always before, I had loved to smell that sweetness, but not now. I was surprised by my almost violent reaction. The sweet smell angered and disgusted me because I knew that it would not last. I knew that no matter how pleasing the fragrance was, and no matter how much I liked it, it would soon be gone, and there was nothing that I could do to change that fact.
I rose up and stiffly closed the window, despising the alluring aroma of the honeysuckle vines-hating it, actually. If I had possessed the power, I think I would have cursed that honeysuckle vine as Jesus once cursed a fig tree. As it was, I just shut the window down with a loud thud. I was in no mood to love the world, "neither the things that are in the world". Then, I lay down again to be alone with my thoughts. My mother had been sweet, too, but she was gone. The sweetness of the honeysuckle was nothing to me but a painful reminder.
And how many times have we all held a loved one or experience a pleasure that also has passed away and can never be regained! There is nothing any of us can do about it! Absolutely nothing. It is the fearful work of God.
I felt very deeply at that time that my mother, and others who had died, were blessed to be out of this life, and that I was cursed to still be alive in this worthless world, a world damned by God to constant change and, in the end, to be burned up completely. Peter told us, "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (2 Pet. 3:10). Every pleasant thing in this world is temporary. The world dangles good things in front of us, and when our hearts give in and reach out to hold them, they are soon taken away. What wise man has ever loved this dying world? What is here to love? It is all passing away!
Fifty-one years ago today, my mother bore me into this vain world, and in all that time, I have found nothing in this world that lasts. I have only seen fifty-one years of change. This is why Solomon called this world "vain", saying, "Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. All is vanity." The pleasures of this world are vain; they are not eternal. Peace in this world is an illusion that men grasp after, think they have, then go to war again. Happiness over earthly events is always short-lived. It is for that reason that Solomon, too, came to hate this life.
This world is a wretched, frustrating place because there is nothing eternal in it. Solomon sought near and far for something-anything-in this world that would last, something that would not forsake him after he had come to love it, but he found nothing. This world irritated him beyond description, and he came to believe that the dead were blessed more than the living. The day of one's death, he wrote, is better than the day of one's birth (Eccl. 7:1). After all, everything in the world of the dead is eternal, and that was what all wise men long for; they long for something good that is eternal, something that will not break the heart by going away.
"Love not the world", said John, "neither the things in the world." Those who are so foolish as to love this dying world do not have the love of God in them (1Jn. 2:15). How can one love both the eternal God and a world cursed with death?
Those who love God cannot be satisfied by anything in this world. They are looking for a city built by God and not man; they are looking for a kingdom that cannot be shaken, much less removed; they are longing for a world in which righteousness dwells and nothing changes; they are yearning for a land in which no one dies, where there is neither sorrow nor pain. This is not a vain hope; it is the promise of God in Jesus Christ (Rev. 7:16-17; 21:4).
I hate this life. I hate a life in which mothers, and their children, can die, a life in which people hunger and thirst, where diseases cripple, where accidents maim people and wars destroy works of art. This is an evil planet, where corrupt governments run by sinners hold dominion over the saints of the Most High.
All who love God and embrace His promise of a better world "confess that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Heb. 11:13). If you truly love life, then you do not belong on this earth. If you love life, then you, too, hate the kind of life this world offers you. It offers you a life that is fleeting, and even then it comes at a high price. Jesus offers life eternal, and he offers it freely to all who will ask him for it. He is still saying to man what John heard him say at the close of his Revelation: "Let him that is athirst come. And whoever will, let him take of the waters of life freely."