The Applause of Heaven

I've run out of grief books to read, so I picked up a book we had at home by Max Lucado called "The Applause of Heaven." There wasn't a lot of it that necessarily applied to your situation except for Chapters 16 and 17. Here are notes from them:

Chapter 16   The Dungeon of Doubt
John the Baptist-thrown in prison for no good reason and then murdered

"Is this how God rewards his anointed? Is this how he honors the faithful? Is this how God crowns his chosen? With a dark dungeon and a shiny blade?"

John was asking questions-sent a message to Jesus: When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

problem of unmet expectations

Are you the one? Or have I been following the wrong Lord?

God knew that every disciple from then on would spend time in the dungeon of doubt

"They are asked anytime the faithful suffer the consequences of the faithless."

"Does God sometimes sit on his hands? Does God sometimes choose to do nothing? Does God sometimes opt for silence even when I'm screaming my loudest?"

"Disappointment demands a change in command."

"John couldn't believe that anything less than his release would be for the best interest of all involved."

"Rule of thumb: Clouds of doubt are created when the warm, moist air of our expectation meets the cold air of God's silence."

the problem is not as much in God's silence as it is in your ability to hear

Chapter 17  The Kingdom Worth Dying For

Jesus didn't get angry at John-God has never turned away the questions of a sincere searcher

But Jesus didn't save John

"Tell John that everything is going as planned. The kingdom is being inaugurated."

Kingdom with three traits
-kingdom where rejected are received
Jesus told John that a new kingdom was coming-where people have value because of whose they are
-"the dead have life"
the grave has no power
example of death of D.L. Moody
"Earth recedes, heaven opens before me!"
"No, this is no dream,..." Moody said. "It is beautiful. It is like a trance. If this is death, it is sweet. God is calling me, and I must go. Don't call me back."
"Someday you will read in the papers that Moody is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. At that moment, I shall be more alive than I am now..."
"Report to John...the dead are raised."
was dealing with a greater dungeon than Herod's, the dungeon of death
-"The good news is preached to the poor"
kingdom where membership granted, not purchased
subjects don't work in order to go to heaven, work because going to heaven

"It wasn't that Jesus was silent; it was that John had been listening for the wrong answer. John had been listening for an answer to his earthly problems, while Jesus was busy resolving his heavenly ones."

"He is answering requests you are not even making."

"He was asking the Father to resolve the temporary, while Jesus was busy resolving the eternal. John was asking for immediate favor, while Jesus was orchestrating the eternal solution."

"For while Jesus was on the cross, God did sit on his hands. He did turn his back. He did ignore the screams of the innocent."

"In a world of injustice, God once and for all tipped the scales in the favor of hope. And he did it by sitting on his hands so that we could know the kingdom of God."

Chapter 18   The Applause of Heaven

Revelation 21: There I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"

"Before you know it, your appointed arrival time will come; you'll descend the ramp and enter the City. You'll see faces that are waiting for you. You'll hear your name spoken by those who love you. And maybe, just maybe--in the back, behind the crowds--the One who would rather die than live without you will remove his pierced hands from his heavenly robe and...applaud."