Heaven (and some shameless self promotion through a lot of hyperlinks)

I’ve previously written about heaven here and here.  I find myself thinking about heaven a lot lately.  There certainly are a number of reasons for it.  For one, it appears as though short of a miracle, my mother-in-law (who I wrote about here) will be in heaven shortly.  I just wanted share a few thoughts that are rattling around inside my head about heaven:

From twitter (@MichelleSCox): If you read in the paper that I’m dead… don’t believe it.  I’ll be more alive than ever.

Revelation 21:4: He will wipe 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.

There are only 2 things you can take to heaven with you, and your problems are not one of them.

We’ll be reunited with loved ones who went before us in heaven.

Heaven is our home, not earth. (Hebrews 11:13)

Heaven is open to everyone, in fact God eagerly desires to see you there (2 Peter 3:9)

We are all going to die and go to either heaven or hell.  It is a harsh reality, but I believe it to be true.  God sent Jesus to this earth to pay the price for all the wrong that people have ever done or ever will do.  Jesus took the punishment for our sin upon Himself, so we don’t have to.  As a result, we can dwell in heaven with Him forever and ever.  All we have to do is 1) Acknowledge your sin 2) Ask for forgiveness 3) Confess Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.  Then live life as best as you can in obedience to Him.  He doesn’t ask for perfection, he looks at the heart.

Oh, yeah, the 2 things you can take to heaven with you, your friends and family (3 if you count yourself).

Fearless

I was praying the other day over for our country, its leaders and for the people of America in general, and felt the Lord speak something to me.  What I felt him say that we are a country that is totally ruled by a spirit of fear.  The more I think about it, the more I believe it to be true.  Think about it, we are motived by fear in so many things.  Take air-travel for example.  we go to extreme measures to “guarantee” safety and make sure that no one disrupts the flight.  We have metal detectors, pat downs, screenings, people searching luggage, and we even have to take off our shoes for screening.

Or take the economy for example, people are terrified of not having enough money for retirement.  But, we are also scared of investing in the stock market.  We are too scared to save, but too scared to spend as well.  Housing prices are up and down, so people are too scared to buy a house, yet renting is a scary proposition as well.

Or take medical care for example, you can hardly watch 10 minutes of TV without seeing a commercial for some prescription for an ailment that less than 1% of America struggles with.  That’s not even getting into the financial side of health care and insurance.

Or take playgrounds as an example.  The other day I was reading an article about “new playgrounds.”  They’re the same old playgrounds, but made super safe, so no one gets hurt, because no one wants to get sued.  The unfortunate side effect of such playgrounds is that we, as people, are meant to make mistakes and get hurt physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, or otherwise.  That is how we learn.

All these things are legitimate fears.  I’m not suggesting that we do away with any of these things (except these playgrounds), but what I am suggesting is that we look at ourselves and take a look at what we are really afraid of, and why.  Then, compare that with what God’s word says about fear:

“For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 ASV”

God did not create us to be afraid of everything we can imagine.  In fact, He advises us to do something radically different:

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7”

Often times, I will pray in December for the year to come and sometimes God gives me a word or theme for the year to come.  Nearly every time this has happened, I’ve seen it come true.  Perhaps it is self-fulfilling prophecy, or God is challenging me in how I view the year to come, I don’t know.  In any case, I was praying about 2013, and to be honest the reason I was praying is because I felt a lot of anxiety about it.  There are some things in my financial picture that are unknowns for this year.  We have a baby due this year.  No one has any idea what the economy will do this year, and how that may or may not affect anyone’s job.

The word for this year came to me: FEARLESS. Not stupid fearless, like risk my life everyday doing stupid thing because I’m fearless.  Not fearless, like I need to be bold or brash.  Rather, to not fear these things, because God is with me.  The God who spoke the world into existence, who sustains the universe and everything in it, who formed the mountains; rivers and flatlands with his hands,  who lives in your heart, He loves you and looking out for you.  He may not always give what you want, but He always provides what you need.  He may not always make you comfortable, but He is always with you through the discomfort.  He may not always give you all the answers, but He tells you what you need to hear.

I choose to be FEARLESS this year, and trust in God.  He is my everything.

What would Jesus Do?

When I was in high school the phrase, “What would Jesus do (WWJD)?” became really popular.  As I understand it, it started in the middle of the 20th century as a Bible study group got together and decided that they wanted to start living like Jesus.  In order to carry out this enormous feat they came up with the catchphrase “what would Jesus do?”  If they ever came across a situation in which they were unsure of how to respond, this question would be their guideline.  Though I am sure that someone could explain how this became popular in the mid 90’s, it escapes me.

It became so popular that WWJD began to appear everywhere: bracelets, t-shirts, earrings, on Christian kids, those who preferred to party, jocks, nerds, rednecks, it did not matter, everyone was wearing WWJD.  Few people knew what it meant.  It most likely began with a few kids wearing it as identification to other kids that they were a Christian, but it spread far and fast.

In any event, I woke up this morning, wondering what Jesus would do.  The answer I came up with is pretty simple: if we look at Jesus as our model, we see that He chose love.  He was accepting to everyone around Him, the Samaritan (by the way, Samaritans and Jews hated one another) woman at the well (who had 5 divorces and was shacking up with another man), the prostitute who anointed Him, Judas the disciple who betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver, Nicodemus who had big questions, the thief on the cross, the soldier who executed him, plus you and me. Jesus loved and accepted everyone around him.

His love looked different depending on the situation.  With the Pharisees and the money changers in the temple, His love was confrontational.  He told them the truth in a way they needed to hear it.  His confrontation was meant to bring change in their lives, but their hearts were hard.  With many others, his love was shown with quality time spent with those who needed it.  For the thief and Roman soldier, his love came in the form of forgiveness. That demonstrated f his forgiveness and acceptance of you and me as well.

“What would Jesus do” is a dangerous question.  It’ll lead you to people who you no one wants to be around.  It’ll take you to places that no one wants to go.  It’ll take you to the most sinful of sinners, the most hardened criminals, society’s outcasts and marginalized, and to the most Godforsaken places.  Asking this question will put your life in danger, and cause you to be hated.  After all, who is Jesus?  Yes Jesus is the Son of God, but He was homeless.  Jesus made friends with “tax collectors and sinners.”  He did not despise prostitutes, or criminals.  He loved everyone, and accepted them for who they were.  He spoke the truth when it was unpopular, and in the end He proved that He was right all along.

Go ahead, ask yourself “What would Jesus do?”  I dare you…

Where I don’t want YOU to go…

It seems fitting in with my last post and current events that I should write a post about hell.  Apparently, a majority of Americans believe that Osama bin Ladin is in hell (despite not believing in God, Jesus, heaven or a definitive way to get to heaven).  I reserve judgement for God refuse to make definitive statements about a person being in hell.  But I thought it would be interesting to bring up the subject of hell, by listing what little knowledge I have on the matter.

1) There are no friends in hell.  Hell is eternal separation from God.  Since God is love (1 John 4:8), an absence of God means an absence of love.  Thus, there are no friends in hell.  I’ve heard people say such things like, “Hell is going to be one big party.”  The last time I checked, parties involve friends.

2) Hell is eternal.  Jesus made several statements about hell, while He walked on the earth.  In fact, he talked more about hell than heaven, or many other things.  Many of the times that He mentions hell, he puts it together with eternal suffering.  For example, Matthew 18:8, “If you hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled, than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.”  Some might argue because of the hyperbole in the first part of the statement, Jesus was also using hyperbole in the last two words.  Check out Matthew 25:41 and 46, Jesus clearly states the eternal nature of hell in the parable of the sheep and goats.  Jude 1:7 also makes mention of the eternal nature of hell.  God did not mince His words about hell, it is eternal.  There is no escape, no end to the punishment.

3) Hell is unpleasant (understatement of the year).  Here are some of the words I’ve found in the Bible used to describe hell: “eternal fire” (Matthew 21:41) “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46), “Fiery lake of burning sulfur…the second death” (Revelation 21:8), “fiery furnace… where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:42) “…darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13), “lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).  When I think of things that are pleasant, these are not words that come to my mind.

4) Hell can be avoided.  God laid a pretty clear plan of salvation: we have all done things that deserve punishment.  Jesus took that punishment upon Himself, on the cross.  All we have to do is accept these facts, believe it to be true, confess our sins and decide to follow Jesus, and we do not have to suffer the consequences of our sin.

5) I don’t want anyone to go there (neither does God).  Hell was not originally designed for people.  God created it for satan and his minions.  When sin entered the world and man’s hearts hell became the consequence for sin. Ezekiel 18:23 offers and interesting perspective on God’s views of wickedness and death: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? . . .  For I do not pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.” 2 Peter 3:9 also clearly states God’s desire for everyone to turn from their sins and be forgiven: “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promises as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you not wanting anyone to suffer, but everyone to come to repentance.”

When you begin to imagine what eternity is like, and the pain, anguish and torture that will take place for all eternity, it is really hard for anyone to really wish that upon anyone, no matter what they have done do you.

I would like to close this blog by posting this video by Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller.  I may have shared it before, bit it is worth watching because I find it to be really powerful.  Thanks for reading, and please do check out the video:

Current thoughts on Current Events

This is certainly one of those “I’m not speaking for my church, denomination, or any other church I’ve ever served in” type of blogs.  Disclaimer written and served.

I have lots of thoughts on world events from the past weekend, and the response across America.  My thoughts are far-reaching, so lets just see how far I can get in the time I have allowed myself to write today.  I should also mention that I waited until now specifically to write these thoughts, because I wanted to give time for my emotions to settle down before posting.

First of all, I love America and particularly those who volunteer for the military and the various other agencies that exist to protect our country and keep people like you and me safe.  I appreciate that our soldiers and other service men and women have not given up, but kept the fight for 10 years to track down Osama bin Ladin and bring him to justice.  I am so very glad that he is not a threat to America, or anyone else any more.

However, we must understand that al Qaeda is a very sophisticated and deadly organization.  Because its founder/leader is dead does not mean that al Qaeda is done.  In I am a bit more scared of al Qaeda today than I was a few days ago.  We have no idea who is the new head, and how bad they are.  Remember Saddam Hussein?  His son Uday was a lot more brutal and dangerous than Saddam was.  If he had not died before his father and was able to take leadership in Iraq, it was be far worse today that it ever was in Saddam’s day.  I fear the same may happen with al Qaeda.

Next, al Qaeda’s mode of operation is in independent cell groups.  Think franchises and not corporations.  If the CEO of a major company were to become suddenly incapacitated that would mean bad news for the company.  However, the cell groups in al Qaeda work independently of one another, and its leadership.  The cells are given their task and then left to do their work.  Osama bin Ladin is not checking in on each cell and measuring their progress.  Therefore the death of Osama bin Ladin is not as divesting to them as a cell group.  They can still function and carry out their mission.

That’s enough about that.  Something else that stuck out to me as I read tweets from church popular (and not so popular) church leaders and Christ followers I was truly saddened by the response.  Many rejoiced at the prospect that Osama bin Ladin is dead and in hell.  Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that he is no longer a threat to anyone on earth ever again.  I am glad that we were able to find him and bring him to justice.  However we must remember the words of 2 Peter 3:9 “…He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  God does not delight in people being in hell.  He wants for everyone to experience heaven forever, and ever and ever.  I think that if we truly understood what hell was like, we would do everything we could to keep anyone from going there (another story for another day).

I hope that my disappointment with some of my tweeps is nothing more than my lack of understanding a person’s true thoughts because of the limited nature of twitter’s 140 character capacity.  I recognize that 140 characters is not enough to share a complete thought and can often result in miscommunication.  I’ll close with a powerful thought that I could not have said better myself from a twitter friend of mine: “Bin Laden’s death doesn’t avenge the lives he took. he’s still a human life & a soul that didn’t know Jesus. and that should be mourned.”  She wrote a great blog that also attracted a jihadist to comment, you can give it a read here: http://www.jenniclayville.com/bin-ladens-death/

Heaven

Have you heard about the boy who went to heaven?  His parents wrote a book based on his experience called “Heaven is For Real.”  I found myself think about heaven a lot lately.  Maybe, because of some of the hardships people in our church are facing (lots of people who’ve lost ones), or because of our newborn baby who also reminds me of the three we lost.  Heaven is a mystery to me, and I suspect to you also.  I don’t think that our minds were made to comprehend heaven in all it’s glory and majesty.  We are certainly not wired to understand eternity.

What I do know is that Heaven is the hope for anyone who calls themselves a Christian.  Sometimes, we live our lives and put so much stock into this life that we forget that heaven is really our home.  Think about some of the things that we do know about heaven: We get to be with Jesus.  I want to stop right here and say that this should be enough.  Getting to be with our savior for eternity is amazing.  Continuing the list: There is no pain, sickness or death, we get to be reunited with those who have gone on before us, there is no sin or temptation, and that is not to mention the physical beauty of heaven that we read about as well.

All this, and yet sometimes we think the experiences of this life are better than heaven.  It is not an outright, forefront thought.  In fact, it is so subtle, that you may not even have really thought about it.  It creeps up in weird ways like hoping that Jesus does not return until ________  (fill in your own blank).  I’ve been there too.  For me it was, “I don’t want Jesus to come back until I get married.”

Truth: There is no experience here on earth that is even remotely close being in Heaven.

When you get to Heaven, what kind of things to do you want to ask God about?

The Ultimate Physician

My beautiful wife, Roberta took our son with her to Tacoma this weekend to spend some time with our family.  After my responsibilities have been taken care of, I’ll join her and spend some time with our family as well.

We feel it is really important that she spend this time with our family.  About 4 years ago, her mom was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.  They don’t for sure how long the cancer had been there, but they think it’s been there for at least 4 years prior to the diagnosis.  At the time, she was given 10 months to live. 4 years later, she is still alive.  The last four years have been an emotional roller coaster.

Of course we were upset by the news, but we know one thing that many doctors do not know: God is still in the healing business.  We see God’s pattern of healing dating all the way back to the Old Testament, and it does not stop.  Elijah performed many miracles in his day, including a widow’s son who was dead, being brought back to life.  In the New Testament, Jesus healed all who were sick that were brought to Him many times.  The Bible seems to indicate that while Jesus was still on the earth, the disciples did do some miracles.  It goes on to say clearly that after Jesus ascension into heaven, the disciples did perform many miracles including healing.  Since the time of the disciples, God’s power has been poured out on his people, and many have experienced healing, some have even been brought back from the dead.  We believe in God’s healing!

As the news sank in, we began praying for God’s healing in Roberta’s mom’s life.  Sometimes, it seems as though God heard our prayers and answered.  The doctors have reported that the chemo is working, the cancer has stopped growing, and our faith increases.  Then they come back a couple of weeks later saying that the cancer is growing again, and we pray harder.

I remember one day, about two years ago, my dad called me to say that Roberta’s dad is very upset and we should probably try to get a hold of him.  Evidently, her mom said to her dad that she did not think she would live to the end of summer.  I don’t know what happened to her at that junction of her life, but not only did she survive that summer, but she seemed to have received new life.  She began doing things that she always wanted to do, like sing in the church choir, and perform in the 16 performances of the “Singing Christmas Tree” her church does.

Following that summer, Roberta and I found out that we were pregnant, and this time it work out.  We encouraged her to keep fighting so she could meet her grandson and she did.  She’s met him, held him and has loved him with all she has.  We continue to encourage her to fight so she can see him grow up and develop into the man God designed him to be.

Currently, her health is not holding up so well.  The last report said that the cancer is spreading, and there is nothing more the doctors can do.  It is a bleak report, but I believe that my God is bigger than cancer.  He’s held that cancer at bay for the last 4 years, and he can do so for 4 more, or 14 more if he chooses.  Just like God has healed millions of people from all kinds of things through the years, I believe He can heal her.

As child growing up, my family always prayed together before going to bed.  When praying for someone who was sick, my mom would always declare that God is the “Ultimate Physician.”  I believed it as a child, and saw God work miraculous things in our friends and family.  I still believe it today, and see it all around me.  Roberta’s mom’s healing is coming, in this life or the next.  In heaven there is no sickness, injury, or pain.  That means when she gets to heaven, she’ll be cancer free one way or another.

Would you consider joining Roberta and me as we pray for healing for her mom?

Heaven

Three guys die and go to heaven.  The first goes up to St. Peter who says, I
have only one question before you go into heaven: Were you faithful to your
wife?  The guy answers; “Yes, I never even looked at another women.”  St.Peter
says-“See that Rolls-Royce over there?  That’s your car to drive while your in
heaven”.  The second guy gets the same question, and answers:”Once I strayed,
but I confessed to my wife and she forgave me and we worked it out.”  St.
Peter says ” See that new Buick over there, that’s your car to use in heaven”.
The third guy answers the same question: “I have to admit, I chased every bit
of tail I could, and was with a lot of women.”  St. Peter says, ok, but you
were basically a good guy, so that old VW Bug over there is yours to use while
your in heaven.  The three guys go off on their seperate ways. 

A few weeks later #2 and #3 are driving along in the Buick when they see #1’s
Rolls Royce parked outside of a BAR.  They stop and GO INTO THE BAR and find
#1 with empty bottles all around him, face down with his face in his hands on
the bar.  They come up to him and #2 says;”Bud, what could possibly be so
bad-you’re in heaven, you drive a Rolls Royce, and everything is great!”  He
says: “I saw my wife today!”  The other 2 answer that’s great! What’s the
problem”  He answers: “She was riding a bicycle!”

Miscommunication

Saturday, February 26, 2005

Hey AllI joke for good times: A couple from Minneapolis decided to go to Florida for a long weekend to thaw out during one particularly icy winter .They planned to stay at the very same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years ago. Because both had jobs,they found it difficult coordinating their travel schedules. It was decided that the husband would fly to Florida on a Thursday, and his wife would follow him the next day. Upon arriving as planned, the husband checked into the hotel. In his room there was a computer, so he decided to send his wife an E-mail back in Minneapolis. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her address, and sent the e-mail without realizing his error. In Houston, a widow had just returned from her husband’s funeral. The dearly departed was a minister of many years who had been called home to glory following a heart attack. The widow checked her e-mail, expecting messages from relatives and friends. Upon reading the first message, she fainted. The widow’s son ran into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read: To: My Loving Wife Subject: I’ve Arrived. I know you are surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send e-mail to your loved ones. I’ve just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. P.S. Sure is hot down here.