Losing Hope That Jesus is Coming Back & Going Outside the Camp

Losing Hope that Jesus is Coming Back

Isaiah 62:1 says, "Because I love Zion, I will not keep still. Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn, and her salvation blazes like a burning torch"
and verses 62:6b and 62:7 exhort, "Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. give the Lord no rest until he completes his work, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth"

I wrote once about my lack of confidence in Jesus coming back, in Jesus making all things right again: "It was late afternoon in the big conference room (342) at Bethel College. We were on the edge of the end of an all-day Youth Ministry Saturday Seminar class worth one credit. The teacher looked at us with a grin on his face and said, “How would your ministry change if you KNEW without a doubt, that Jesus was coming back this year?” And I remember thinking about it … and being utterly depressed. Cause I couldn’t even imagine it. I’d lost such hope in Jesus coming back, especially in my lifetime. I thought of the letters of Paul and Peter that had started with such expectation that the Kingdom would be fully established in their lifetime, that Christ would come back the same way He left when their mortal eyes could still gaze at the clouds above (1 Thess 4:17; 1 Pet 4:7). And then, how that sort of writing changed as they grew older … and they realized that perhaps Christ might not come back for a while (2 Pet 3:8-9).

But I read verses like these, and I am reminded of the confidence and faith that God exhorts and commands me to have. Jesus himself is praying for me! (Isaiah 62:1), praying that I would keep going, that I would not lose faith, that I would take no rest until God completes His work (Isaiah 62:7). God Himself is praying for me, the Holy Spirit Himself does this (Rom 8:26). How could I think of not going on? If God is with me, who can be against me? (Rom 8:31). My losing faith in God is so stupid of me. My getting down on myself, its a waste of time. I need to remember that God is calling me to be faithful. If I give up on myself, I give up on God being able to use me. If I give up on myself, I give up on God.



Going Outside the Camp

Hebrews 13:12-13 says, "Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore"

I forget sometimes that Jesus does not simply reside in "church." He is not an etherial presence only available at the tabernacle as in the days of old. He has made His dwelling among us but it isn't in stone, brick and morter, its in human hearts. I forget the Jesus resides outside the church building. He resides in people. He lives and moves greatly and does great things outside of Sunday mornings from 9am-12pm.

I am a terrible minister if the only ministering I do is inside these church walls (ouch!). Scripture calls me to go out to Jesus, and where is He? He is outside the camp (Heb 13:13). outside the "holy city" and with the people, showing them compassion and suffering with the liars and thieves. my Jesus is there.

my Jesus is not simply in the downstairs youth room, He is in the downstairs locker room of RTHS with the stinky, smelly 17-year old who is in so many sports, she doesn't have any time to think about God or faith or forgiveness.
My Jesus is not simply at youth retreats, He's on the way there in the bus next to the unpopular kid, in the front row by the adults, because they don't fit with everyone else
my Jesus is not simply in the comfortable christian places, He's out there at my next door neighbor's who lost their son in a fire, He's at the sidewalk on 9th st, where 3 teenagers are on their way to get high, He's at the park watching a baseball game, He's at Hand-in-Hand, loving on families that don't have enough money to buy their own food.

My Jesus is outside the camp ... am I? Do I represent Christ actively, outside the camp?