Wednesday, January 13, 2016

What there won't be...in Heaven

In Heaven.

There are a tremendous number of books out there about Heaven. Some authors
suggest that they have been given the chance to visit in a near-death experience or
just as a gift from God. Scripture does include some bits of information, some from
Jesus, that lifts the veil ever so slightly but leaves us with just a sliver of information
about a place we long to see and inhabit.

I CAN tell you, without a doubt and without a visit, what will not be there! SIN.
If you take just a moment and try to wrap your brain around that fact it can leave
you with a headache. No sin? Not any? 

One reason it is so very difficult to envision such a situation is the fact that we are
mired in a broken world where sin abounds. It is pervasive in our own lives, even if we
have been justified into Christ and remains an on-going battle, even with the help
and guidance of the Spirit of God. Many people who are not regenerated don't even
acknowledge that they have a sin problem, may not be aware of the danger
there-in or just do not really care.

The problem is that GOD does care! He is completely opposed to any sin, one
sin is enough to bring His holy wrath. Try living the next hour without one sinful
thought or action. Good luck with that!

In Heaven, there will simply be none of the sin we encounter and battle against
here on earth. Your first thought might just be that there will be no enjoyment
there. Wrong. Any enjoyment we derive from sin in this time-space is false,
fleeting and spoiled. There will be total enjoyment in a place where we are
loved and love the very God who created us.

That's how it was supposed to be in the garden. Man living with God,  
His companion and loved creation. That same relationship that the Son had
before time with the Father shared with mankind formed in the image of
God. It is going to be amazing, phenomenal, wonderful and those words
don't even come close to giving it justice.

Praise our God!

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

What if there was no God...

Psalm 139: 16

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written every one of
them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Purpose. How and why did we become who we are? One could, as many do,
just assume that all is random chance, that we were somehow related to something
that crawled out of the slime and muck eons ago by mistake; then mutated or
evolved into cogent human beings. It certainly is a stretch, isn't it? Some
see that as much more plausible than a creator God who formed us, each one,
by Himself with perfect and complete knowledge of who we were and what
our lives would look like from day one to the final breath. We are surely
here for a purpose, either of our own direction or in God's plan for us as a part
of the whole. 

What, then , do we do with suffering? Pain? Sadness? Death? Just results
of random chance, forks in the road that we have chosen at random? Karma?
What do we do with the observation that some lives seem so different from
others? If we cannot lean into a God who loves us and cares about us when
things turn for the worse, we are left alone. If we cannot trust that there is
a reason for what occurs, a plan for us both here and after we die, then
all seems pointless and rather bleak. Nihilistic would be the word to
describe anyone who sees no plan, no purpose, no ending but lack of
existence. 

The old saying is that we come into the world naked and alone and leave
in a similar way. I choose to believe that before even time began we were
foreknown by a God who has a purpose for our lives. He is not ambivalent,
not unaware, not uncaring, not withdrawn; He is there in your heart, He
has called you and you are His. It is a wonderful place to be even in the worst
of times. He knows you because He formed you from the beginning to
be His child.

Praise our God!