Instantaneous Transformation?

Many Christians (mainly, Protestants) believe that when Jesus comes back, we will experience an instantaneous transformation that will make us immortal, incorruptible, morally perfect, and spiritually mature--qualities that make us fit to enter the Kingdom of Heaven into God's presence. I think that this idea is based upon the following three passages, primarily:

"51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52a, NIV)

A New Thought about Sin

As I was reading the first couple chapters of 1 John, I had a new thought about this very familiar passage. Before sharing my new thought, let me share the key verses that caught my attention:

God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
(1 John 1:5b-7, NIV)

Dream about Overcoming Darkness

A couple weeks ago, I had an interesting dream. I want to share this dream with you because I think the Lord revealed to me an interpretation that could be beneficial for my Christian brothers and sisters to hear. I will first tell you the dream, and then I will tell you the interpretation that I perceived the Lord gave me that same day. Here's the dream:

My husband and I were going to a friend's house for a party. When we stepped into the house, we saw that the lights seemed to be on, but it was very dark. In fact, it was so dark that my eyes hurt. We tried to walk around and look for things, but it was nearly impossible because of the thick blackness that surrounded us.

Trusting God

Read this, and ponder the extent of its application:

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD and shun evil.

⁸ This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.

--Proverbs 3:5-8 (NIV)

I had a moment of revelation the other day about what it means to trust God. I have usually thought of "trust" in "trusting God" as the same sort of "trust" that you have when you ask your friend to keep a secret, or when you expect your child not to lie. To "trust" means to have faith in someone's character. Since God is perfect, we should always "trust" Him, which I've always taken as a synonym for having faith in His character and in His promises.

However, I was reminded that my "trust" in someone is not solely measured by my faith in that person's character; it is also measured by the way I respond to that person.

Let me explain with a real life example. While I was a chemistry student at Notre Dame, I did experiments in the laboratory. There was a stage of time where all my experiments were going nowhere, and I was becoming disheartened. I talked with my advisor, and she gave me an outline of some precise things she wanted me to do. I didn't see the point of why she told me to do the things she did, so I responded by asking questions. My advisor interjected, "Just trust me."

You see, by questioning my advisor's instructions, I was conveying a certain amount of distrust. I recalled this experience with my advisor when reflecting on what it means to trust God, and I felt like my eyes were opened to new understanding. When the Scriptures repeatedly instruct us to "trust in the LORD," the context of our trust is not limited to having faith in God's character or to having faith that God will do what He says He will do. To fully trust the LORD, we need to do what He says. And not only should we do what He says, we should do it with joy and without hesitation. Otherwise, we display some degree of distrust.

God is the creator of the universe, and He knows how our psychologies operate. He knows what's best for us. He's also not obligated to tell us all His reasons for giving us the commands He does. By obeying God's commands, we probably avoid lots of troubles that we could never foresee or imagine. Neuroscience has discovered lots of previously unknown physical effects that our brain can impart on our bodies. Why would we wait for science to tell us that we can live longer and healthier lives if we have joyful hearts when God has been calling us to have joy all along? God desires our benefit, and He wouldn't tell us to do something that wouldn't be good for us. I think it's about time that we all started trusting God more by submitting ourselves to His Word. Maybe we'd all be a lot healthier if we would!

Unexpected Ripple Effect

After I heard that the woman with cancer that we had been praying for had to go into surgery, and that even more, the doctors removed the entire thyroid because it was cancerous, I was devastated. I cried out to God asking Him why she wasn't healed, as I thought He had a great opportunity to reveal His power and compassion not only to His children, but also to the doctors. In my frustration, I started to sulk. Later that day, my husband asked if I would pray for his neck, since he had pulled a muscle. I prayed for it, but nothing happened. I was discouraged. Nevertheless, I prayed again. This time, I adjusted my heart so that I was focusing on Josh's neck instead of my own defeatist attitude. Josh wiggled his head around to see if there was any difference, and he said that it felt a little better. A few minutes later, we went into the other room and Josh sat down on the couch. When he sat down, he noticed the pain in his neck and said, "I'm sorry, sweetheart, but your prayer didn't work." Almost immediately, though, he remembered that his neck had felt better just a few minutes before. He used his situation to encourage me about the prayers for the woman with cancer. "Perhaps the cancer was actually defeated, and either the doctors just detected the remains of the cancer... or it came back after we stopped praying."

I had spent pretty much the whole day either seeking God for answers or sulking in discouragement, and in so doing I neglected to pray for my friend with a hurt back. I told him I would pray for it to be healed, and I had done so in spurts faithfully since the previous Tuesday (about a week before). Well, surprisingly, I received an IM from him today saying that his back started hurting really bad yesterday, and he didn't know why. I said that it may have been because I stopped praying for him because I was mad and discouraged and that I would pray for him right then. That was at about 4:30PM. At about 5PM, he IMed me again (after having been away from the computer) saying, "Whoa... that's nutty. My back started feeling better about a half and hour ago."

Wow. I must say that my friend's report was both encouraging and convicting at the same time. Encouraging because it let me see that my prayers actually can have a noticeable effect. Convicting because my sulking yesterday probably caused my friend to suffer needless back pain. This experience helped me to learn that I need to remain faithful in my obedience to God even when I'm struggling, for my disobedience could have unexpected ripple effects. I want to see the ripple effects of faithful obedience instead!