Category: Jesus

Enoch’s Extraordinary Life

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Enoch lived an extraordinary life and escaped physical death as a result. Though this grand blessing is obviously not the norm in God’s scheme of things, we certainly gain insight into the incredible things that can happen when we actually live a life pleasing to God.

The general description of eight of nine men in the genealogy of Genesis chapter five is that each one lived a certain number of years, fathered a certain son, lived a certain more number of years, had other children, and died. Enoch’s description stands out as markedly different: instead of dying, he simply “was not,” for God took him away. The exact details are not divulged, but this man did not have to die a physical death. Both Enoch’s body and spirit were taken directly by God!

Genesis tells us that Enoch walked with God, and Hebrews 11:5 reveals in greater detail that Enoch pleased God. Enoch’s walking with God was no doubt an intimate, passionate relationship. Certainly the man put God at the forefront and is now forever known for living above the ordinary and experiencing a miracle indeed.

The genealogy of Genesis chapter five makes clear that one man of many saw life as more than an accumulation of years and the building of a family. The span of each man’s years represents a myriad of endeavors, including his work, his care for his family, his eating, his relaxation, his ponderings, etc. But, of all those things in which Enoch was also no doubt involved, none compared to Enoch’s walk with God. His heart must have always been driven by a love for His Creator and Savior; his mind must have pushed all other activities to align with God’s view.

For Enoch, this love for God was real. I Chronicles 28:9 informs us that God actively searches our hearts and understnads every intention. Neither Enoch nor any one of us can get away with falsifying our passion. God knows our core. Enoch’s right living was motivated by a desire to please God.

Following the effective description of Enoch in Hebrews 11:5, verse six goes on to tell us there are two requirements for drawing near to God; believing in His existence and believing that He rewards those who seek Him. Enoch staked his life on the existence of the one, true God who requires that we live for Him with all our heart, soul, and mind. Enoch was not disappointed.

One thing for which we ought to pray is such an unbroken walk with Jesus that our death is simply a seamless transition to the glorious continuance of eternal life. Though we will die physically (if Jesus does not return before then), our spirit will not miss a beat because of how close we are to our Lord.

God upholds Enoch as a shining example of God’s power to do miraculous things for those who earnestly seek Him. If God translated a man to Heaven without death near the beginning of history, what is He trying to communicate to us in terms of our pursuits and expectations?

Jesus will completely destroy death, as outlined in I Corinthians 15:26. Death is the last enemy. Death is the result of man’s sin against God. Death makes men fear. But Enoch looked forward to Jesus. He loved and believed in Him so much that Jesus gave Enoch a taste of the end at the beginning. May we allow God to so redeem us and pervade our lives that we, too, can taste His glory even as we walk this earth.

God may not translate us to Heaven without death, but Jesus promises us in John 5:24 that we have already passed from death to life when we hear Jesus and genuinely believe in Him. He gives us life and victory over sin and over ordinary, mundane circumstances. He then reveals that one day, everyone whose body is in a tomb will hear His voice. Those who walked with Him in this life will have their body resurrected for eternal life, and those who walked without Him in this life will have their bodies resurrected for eternal judgment.

Pleasing God clearly means life eternal. For Enoch – and for us – it means amazing things are possible. The question is: how closely are we walking with God?

Integrity, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and Jesus

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Integrity is not a boring word. In fact, integrity encapsulates much of that for which we humans long. Integrity is not a fluffy concept; it is a very real and rich component of God’s world. Integrity and the second law of thermodynamics have an all-important, inverse relationship. The importance of integrity is observed in mathematics as well as science, in relationships as well as language. Integrity hints of Heaven, a very real place where all will be as it ought to be.

Consider the phrase, “My world is falling apart.” When spoken, we realize these words imply something ominous. A common response to the phrase might be, “Pull yourself together.” Note that “falling apart” is associated with something bad and “pulling together” is associated with something good. Why? Even our language reflects the inner desire for integrity – wholeness or the state of being unbroken.

Consider simple arithmetic. Would you rather add five whole numbers or five fractions? We like to deal with whole numbers or integers because we can easily wrap our minds around these. Fractions are messy and confusing; they take time to digest.

In much the same way, a human being without integrity is hard to figure. His life is confusing because he is broken. The essence of him is one way in one situation and another way in a different situation. Your mind cannot wrap itself around who the person truly is. This is precisely because we desire integrity; we desire to know people for who they truly are. A person without integrity becomes untrustworthy and easily shaken.

Lack of integrity – or disintegration – pops up not only in people and mathematics, it is embedded in the fallen universe. Scientific laws reflect disintegration’s reality and, therefore, reflect the very real necessity of integrity.

The first law of thermodynamics pronounces that our universe is a closed system; the amount of matter and energy in our world is constant. The second law of thermodynamics proclaims that, although the amount of energy in the universe is constant, the amount of useful energy is running down. As energy is converted, waste is produced. The world is – for all practical purposes – falling apart and disintegrating.

We note the effects of the second law of thermodynamics all around us. Our bodies are wearing out and winding down. Atrophy sets into the muscles unless we act upon them with force and energy. A room left to itself for very long will no doubt become disorganized unless energy is applied to its cleaning. Metal objects begin to rust. Erosion takes place. Everything is winding down and wearing out in its natural state.

The second law of thermodynamics was set into motion by the sin curse. When mankind gave into sin and rebelled against God’s way, God cursed man and woman, the serpent who deceived them, and the earth. To this very day, we suffer the effects of that curse in our hearts, our minds, our bodies, and in our universe.

Directly related to the physical effects of sin in this world is the very real effect of brokenness of heart. The curse of sin on us as people who have rebelled against God has produced a state of disintegration in our spiritual lives. For this reason, we tend not to keep our word, we tend to think one way and act another, we tend to portray ourselves one way to others and find ourselves quite another in the quietness of solitude. We are broken people in a broken world. Disintegration and the second law of thermodynamics are related – they both reflect a rebellious state of things. We have failed God. Only God maintains a standard which produces perfection.

Is there hope? Hope is found only in Jesus Christ, the God-Man. As fully God, Jesus is holy. As fully man, Jesus is able to pay the price for human sin. When a man or woman comes to Jesus and trusts Him as the sacrifice for his or her sinfulness, that man or woman is made right with holy God. At that moment, a person becomes a new creation, fully re-made in his spirit (II Corinthians 5:17). This person is now in right-standing with God because Jesus has settled the sin factor between man and God.

As relationship with Jesus Christ is maintained, a person continues to grow in righteousness. Righteousness is simply the state of “being as we ought to be” or being as God originally intended. While on this sin-cursed earth, perfection will never be complete. However, the spirit in the new man or woman desires righteousness and knows that Heaven holds the answer to disintegration of the mind, body, emotions, and universe.

Psalm 1:1-3a says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” The withering leaf is a part of the second law of thermodynamics. Death and destruction are built into a fallen, rebellious world. It is quite natural for leaves to wither. What God promises, however, is that the law of nature can be overridden in the human heart when we love His Word and apply it to our lives in the midst of this broken world! A person who makes the law of the Lord his focus in the everyday moments of life will defy the sin curse. The inner man – the essence of who we are – will stand strong. Although disintegration produces confusion and destruction, the person following the Lord will be a person of integrity. We will be clearly understood for who we are, we will bring life and healing as opposed to death and hurt, we will reflect the place to which we are ultimately called – Heaven.

Remember that Jesus will come back one day to this world in which we live, and after He has brought judgment to those who have rejected Him, He will re-make this world. He will forever destroy the second law of thermodynamics and every kind of disintegration. Wholeness and life will finally prevail.