Substance

I have been thinking a lot lately about substance. The image I keep coming up with is ‘knock on wood’. I know it’s a catch-phrase for a superstition, but that’s not what my image includes. I’m not looking for luck. I’m looking for substance.

If I rap my knuckles on a piece of wood, I’m going to hurt my knuckles, because wood is harder than flesh and bone. Wood is denser. Wood is tougher. Wood lasts longer than flesh and bone. If you leave a stick of wood on the ground out in the weather, it will eventually rot, but not for a long time. It’s durable. Wood… has substance.

Flesh and bone, not so much. Leave flesh out on the ground and in just a few days, it’s… well, it’s not durable. Flesh has very little substance.

And steel? Pffft! Gold? Diamonds? Some of THAT stuff that for millennia. Or even eons. REAL substance, especially if we ‘measure’ according to how long something might last.


Mk 13:31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
Mk 13:32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Mk 13:33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.

So let me get this straight. Everything that I can perceive with my five senses… will someday ‘pass away’?

Yup.

Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

And what’s left?

"but my words shall not pass away."

Now when I consider that Jesus … IS … the Word…

Jn 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

That pretty much means that Jesus is ‘the substance’ of the Universe. The Kingdom of God.

Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

So. When I rap my knuckles on a piece of wood, I’m really just hitting… nothing of substance. When I wrap my thoughts around the substance of Jesus… I’m touching… eternity.

So what is the substance of Jesus? What’s He made of that I can touch?

Mercy, first of all. A merciful act or even a charitable thought, has more substance in eternity than an anvil. Each act of forgiveness a Christian commits is recorded for all time.

Generosity. The opposite of self interest. Waking up each morning wondering how I can give my life to others that day in Jesus’ name.

Joy. Paul wrote to us that we should be filled with joy… while he was confined to the dungeons of Rome. His joy rested in the substance of Jesus’ faithfulness. Paul knew Jesus was coming back for him and those dungeons… had no substance.

The Holy Ghost. Cannot be physically touched. Has no odor or taste. And can be counted on every second of every day. I believe in His substance more than this keyboard.

I believe.

Because the substances I value are spiritual and eternal. And my faith is just one small substance in that Kingdom.

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.