Most people believe:
A.) Heaven is a place souls float up to, after their body dies, where they will see God, play golf, and live a life there, where the gates are pearly and the streets are golden.
B.) Heaven does not exist, except for it being the sky.
But, today, I would like to give a third option that the Bible offers us:
C.) Heaven is a place where our invisible God dwells, with His Son Jesus who sits at the right hand of God until the time of restoration is complete. Jesus will come down to the earth to resurrect the dead, restore things, put all authorities and government under his feet, judge the world, so that the age of the Kingdom can begin, and then God will finally be able to come down and dwell with mankind on the new earth.
It’s no secret. I love clothes. I love to shop for them. I love to buy them. I love to wear new things. There are certain items in my closet, that I love so much and wear so often, that people probably think that’s all I own. Generally speaking, this clothes thing is a ‘girl thing’ and not of interest to most men. If you are like my husband, he will put on about anything, wear things that need ironed, and remark as he walks out the door, “the humidity will help the wrinkles fall out.” Tony would think it absolutely torturous to have to actually shop for the clothes that he wears. That is not his idea of a good time. So, it may come as a surprise to you, but the Bible talks about this subject of clothes, and with my female radar, I was quick to pick up on this subject and I have been fascinated ever since! I’m specifically talking about what many of us have hanging on a hook on the back of our bathroom door: a robe.
Death. It’s not a pleasant thing, nor is it something which to look forward to with anticipation. It is something to be hated, despised, abhorred. Yet, most people, when asked the question, “What happens to you when you die?” they would quickly answer, without even pausing to consider, “I will go to heaven when I die.” Even people who marginally believe that there is a God, believe that heaven is where they will go upon their death.
Matthew 14:23 “And after he had sent the multitudes away, he went up to the mountain by himself to pray; and when it was evening, he was there alone.”
Jesus had had a pretty rough day. An extraordinary day filled with horrible news and the demands of a large ministry. First he finds out that his cousin, John the Baptist, has just been beheaded. Can you imagine the shock and the sadness that must have hit him to hear this news? He attempted to get away by himself then, when he first heard about John, but the multitudes followed him, and instead, he spent the entire day healing and ministering to the crowds, and even miraculously feeding them all by the end of the day.
I always find a person’s testimony of how they became a follower of Jesus, the Christ, interesting, don’t you? I love to hear people’s stories, and how God has worked in their lives, perhaps even pursued them, when they were not the least bit interested. Maybe their testimony includes how God used another person to speak to them or befriend them, and modeled Jesus to them, or showed them what their life was missing.
“Suppose you need to solve a crime mystery. You survey the crime scene, gather the facts, and write them down in your memo pad. To solve the crime, you take the known facts and, step by step, show who committed the crime. You conscientiously provide supporting evidence for each statement you make.” These are the primary steps of writing a geometry proof to prove a hypothesis. Now, wait a minute before you go cringing and saying how you hated math in high school! This could be a very fun way for you to approach understanding your Bible, as if gathering clues and evidence to solve the greatest mystery ever told.
(Giving up the Supersized Deception for the Truth that Satisfies)
In the past decade, we’ve seen everything super sized: From the French Fries we order at the local fast food restaurant and the mega drinks of 44 oz at the local gas station, to the 60 inch flat screen TV’s; to the houses we live in, and the SUV’s that we drive. The marketing blitz combined with society’s message which screams to us that we need this or that to find happiness, is misleading and downright deceptive! When we finally obtain whatever earthly prize that has struck our fancy at the moment, we realize that the reality falls surprisingly flat. The joy is only temporary.
Midwest Family Camp. As I write this, I am sitting in our room, with the evening service about to begin on our last night here. This has been my third year to attend it, and each year, I have grown to appreciate it more and more. For those of you who have never experienced it before, and wonder why families give up precious vacation time, to spend it at a campground, for the most part without air-conditioning, sharing bathrooms, eating food that isn’t the greatest, and sharing their vacation with other people….this blog article is for you!
Recently, I had a woman tell me the following: “To be a Christian is to be a Trinitarian. To deny the Trinity is to deny Christianity.” I question the validity of this statement when no where in my Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, does it state this.
This is an age old debate – whether God is one God (the Heavenly Father) which is called “Unitarianism” or He is a triple God in one (triune) - a three-person “who” in one “what” Godhead (called the Trinity).
Many men seem to think women are a ‘mystery’ and haven’t a clue what women want. It makes me think of an old Mel Gibson movie, “What a Woman Wants,” about a man who can suddenly read women’s minds and it changes how he treats them, when he begins to understand them. However, I don’t think we, women, are that complicated. It’s rather simple, really, and for those of you who are of the male variety, I will clue you in today on the secret to a woman’s happiness and what a woman wants. To the women readers (although you comment far less than the men on this blog site, I know you are out there, reading!), I encourage you to comment about whether you agree or disagree with my thoughts, because, we are all individuals and have different and vast opinions (thus perhaps creating the ‘mystery’ for men, because one size does NOT fit all when it comes to understanding women. . Perhaps I will make the mistake of over simplifying our wants, and err completely!
