Heaven

Eternity in our hearts

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

Jesus first, humbled Himself. He descended to our earthly estate. In this “lower” life, we are all tempted constantly to live according to the flesh, tempted to base our thinking and actions only on what we can see and hear and feel and know with human senses. This is the lower estate into which Jesus came. By His obedience to the Father and His own suffering He entered into our “valley of tears.” Only when we take the same position–obedience to God, patience in all the He leads us through–do we begin to “ascend” in Him. In lowliness we find our heights. Those who want to ascend to spiritual heights without passing through the valley of humility find themselves turned back. Augustine, Homilies on the Psalms:1 
 
Last night I sat outside and watched the moon come up. I was talking to my Mom on the phone. She had  been going through drawers, sorting out memories. She found many things…….read the words of my sister in law, now in Heaven, found the recording of my husband’s funeral. In the remembering she went through all the emotion…..heard their voices again, felt their presence, held them close. As we talked, we felt the curtain between this life and the next lift. It didn’t seem so far away…….We talked of Heaven, and I said, “Do you think that when we are all together once again there in that place, enraptured in the joy of knowing that it will never end, that we will remember this night?”
 
She said, “I don’t know.”
 
I think that when we are there in that place looking around at the faces, feeling the expansion of joy and love that we never dreamed possible, that maybe our minds will brush lightly against the memory of it as something we once held dear. Then we will rejoice all the more, for the absence of the sorrow we left behind.
 
“Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be filled with joy and gladness.” Isaiah 35:10
Picture from public domain pictures by Barb Ver Sluis

Pets in Heaven?

“God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he’ll be there” Billy Graham

I have heard people get really sideways about this topic. If you tell some people you think your cat or dog will be in heaven they start getting all puffed up and theological on you. My friend will never forget the time she mentioned how she missed her cat of 18 years and expressed the hope that he would be in heaven. She was sitting next to a Pastor and family friend. Instead of acting in love and sensitivity, he bristled and looked at her sideways with a cold look and said something to the effect of: “Pets do not go to heaven….” She will never forget it.
As a result an opportunity to act in love and reconciliation with a fellow believer was lost in that moment. A kind and otherwise compassionate person  lost sight of what God wanted him to do right then, just like we all do at times.
In every topic of theological debate there is one thing that must be perfectly clear. We must always act in love. The book of Titus says we are: “to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.” 3:2 In every exchange love must be the backdrop surrounding our conversation, especially between fellow believers…..

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  

Of course we know that animals don’t have the ability to choose right from wrong, and they can’t respond to the Gospel message of salvation either accepting or rejecting Christ….Duhhh! But God loves animals and thought they were an important part of creation as well as wonderful companions to the first man and woman, just as they are to us today.

The truth is, we really don’t know all the details about heaven and what it will be like. We do know that it will be perfect, and there will be everything there that we could ever hope for. God has given us as much information as we need to know, and there are some things He has left purposefully out.

I realize in this era of goofy theology that we must stand our ground about what the Bible says and be responsible about it, and I don’t think we should ever take liberties with Scripture and add something that isn’t there. We must however, be careful about what the Bible doesn’t say. If God wants to add my cats into the new created heaven, then He has that right. If it turns out they are not there, I think I will be so overwhelmed with everything I see that it won’t matter!

“That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9

That’s my story and I’m stickin to it!

Heavenly Thoughts

However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”–1 Corinthians 2:9

I think there will be snow in Heaven but no cold…….I am looking forward to that.

I also think that everything will be brought back as it was at first….every animal that is now extinct, and that our eyes will be open to a whole new range of light including colors we could never imagine….

Walking through walls will be way cool, just like Jesus could after He was resurrected, and being to just appear somewhere instead of walking for miles….

Never having to say goodbye again….

No death, no sadness, no bad days, no traffic, no sickness…….I could go on and on.

Like the best gathering you could ever imagine, kind of like when you plan a dinner and everyone just clicks, everyone gets along, everybody laughs and nobody wants to leave and God is there too!

Being able to walk around with lions and tigers the way I do my cats now…….

It will be like the perfect job with the perfect boss and the best co-workers with the most satisfying and productive day’s work you can imagine, only it won’t feel like work.

No time constraints, no schedules, no aging……everything will be effortless.

No one will have to worry about someone not doing their share.

Experiencing the absolute best of myself, my friends and my family…..we will finally be the people God wanted us to be all along.

Everyone will have a home and nothing will have to die for us to eat it. Sorry, no ribs in Heaven, that was after the fall…….

No exercise, no treadmill, no weight gain.

At last everyone will be in unity, worshiping God in Spirit and truth………exactly the way He deserves……

No war…..no fear….no sin….forever

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” Philippians 3:20.21 

Jehovah Rapha Our Healer

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

I have had the flu for a couple days. You know the feeling, like life is going on all around you and you have stopped moving. But I knew that I would be better, at least I thought I would be better. But what about if I knew that chances were slim to none, barring a miracle, that I would get better at all….that changes things. Everytime I get sick I think of my sister in law who fought so courageously for so long…..so many days waking, working, feeling sick, and then when she could no longer work, endless rounds of chemo. She was always hopeful, always thinking of others, even to the end. She lost her battle with ovarian cancer about 12 years ago now.

Well, she lost the battle but she won the war, for she died at peace with a smile on her face. Everyone who was in the room can attest to that. She died in the arms of our Jehovah Rapha, our healer. Shortly before she passed from this life to the next, she was asking my brother about our Grandfather, who died of cancer when he was in his sixties. She had heard about him, how he loved roses, and being close to the earth, making things grow, and camping.

She asked my brother what color his roses were and he listed them all……she listened thoughfully and then  said, “He told me he liked white roses.” Well, I have no Scriptural basis for this belief, but I happen to believe that there will be someone to greet us when we get to Heaven, and I think that he was probably one of the first to welcome her…..with one of Heaven’s own white roses.

by the wounds of Our Great Healer, we are healed………

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.” Revelation 21:4

Photo by Kathy Roncarati

Recommended reading: (90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper)

Heaven at the water park

Weber Point Park, Stockton, California

My brother took my little niece to a park last weekend where they had an interactive water feature. My Mom and Dad went along too, although my Mom was not going to go at first. Sitting at a park is not really her idea of fun at 81 years of age, with two knee replacements behind her. She says they never have enough benches. But she ended up going anyway and had a great time.

Lauryn is slightly Autistic, so they weren’t really sure how she would handle it, since there were so many kids of all different ages. Usually, if Lauryn sees water anywhere there is no way to keep her out of it, but there was this multitude of kids factor, so they decided to just wait and let her watch for awhile.

For a time, she crept around the outskirts. She watched all the activity and battling within herself, she started to circle closer and closer. Slowly the lure of the water overcame her trepidation of all the other kids and she plunged in. Oh what joy! She played for two hours nonstop. My Mom, always with her Spiritual eyes and ears open, sensed that she was witnessing something that held an important lesson for all of us.

Here they were, all different kids, all different races, all different ages, and all of them so caught up in the joy, the glee of playing, that the thought never occurred to them not to get along. Kids have no clue, no awareness of their differences until we make them aware of it. That is, they see the differences, but it doesn’t really matter to them.

At one point, Lauryn and another kid, a bigger kid, were running to the same rock to sit down on when the water stopped. My Mom wasn’t sure what would happen, but the kid happily gave up the rock for Lauryn. Yes, a bit of Heaven right there.

It was, she said, “a bit like Heaven will be.” That was Jesus prayer when He said, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Are we there yet? Is it possible? Absolutely it is. We see it happen everyday, in worship centers, at sports events, at movies, restaurants. Different people getting along. We see it in catastrophes too, (think 9/11).

So I think our next team builder at work should be at a water park, and everybody has to go in and get wet!

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Revelation 7:9,10

Facing Death with Christ


Had a post in mind today but something I read superceded everything else I was feeling and my perspective has changed, for the moment anyway. Perspectives have a way of changing on a dime, sometimes. It’s God’s way of reminding us what is really important. I could almost hear God saying, “Take that!” He threw the windows of my soul open and I could feel the stale air being replaced by the fresh air of His Spirit.

The story was called “Facing Death with Christ”, (On my way to Heaven) by Reverend Mark Ashton vicar of Saint Andrew the Great in Cambridge, England. As Author and friend Tal Brooke writes, “Mark was from the generation of Oxford men following that of John Stott and Dick Lucas, who were determined to bring back the gospel to the Church of England. Over 700 strong from Cambridge University swelled the pews of this church that occupied so critical a crossroads. It was packed everytime I went.”

In December 2008 Mark had a routine gallbladder surgery and cancer was found. It was past the point of surgical removal or any kind of treatment. He remembers telling the surgeon after he had been told the news that, “what he had just told me was, for a Christian believer, not bad news but good; it was not the end of the story, but the beginning.”

Following are some of the quotes from the article, which is very long and unfortunately I couldn’t get an online version. However, you can order the booklet here at Amazon UK.

“We all die as great sinners saved by the great grace of a far greater God. Funeral eulogies rarely present an honest picture of a person’s life. The good is magnified, the bad excluded. But when Christians are remembered as they really were: including their failures and follies, their bad moods and intolerance, their moments of harshness and unkindness, then Christ is made more glorious. For He is the one who has saved us despite our sin; who has loved us even more in their weakness.”

“While physical things spoil and go dim, spiritual things grow brighter and clearer.”

“I can now see that much of what I have striven for and much of what I have allowed to fill my life these 40 years have been of dubious value, I am not now going to gain any further reputation of achieve anything more of significance, and I realize how little that matters.”

“I need to keep short accounts now, because I may never have time to make amends or apology in this life. The Bible speaks to me about this with every great authority and relevance. Each day as I open it, God speaks straight into my heart by his Word. And it tells me what lies beyond this life, I can see the end of life. It looms over the horizon…..I know that it is God’s work and not mine that will get me there.”

It’s unfortunate that it takes something of this magnitude to make our perspective so clear, but most of the time it does.

Mark Ashton went to be with the Lord on Easter Saturday, April 3, surrounded by his family. His last words were, “I am nearly home.”

“For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” 1 Corinthians 15:16-19

Keeping count in my heart today……
holy experience

The waiting game….


“In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:2,3 Jesus

To me Heaven will be like one enormous family reunion, the best one we could ever imagine, and it won’t have an end. No endings, no partings, no good-byes.
We won’t have to leave, go back to dismal jobs, go back to the old routines and rhythms of life that we have to fit ourselves back into.

Everyone will be glad to see each other and no one goes home, because we will all already be home!

A giant church supper where everyone is welcome and nobody is a stranger.

All of life is some form of waiting, forward looking.
It is the momentum of life that keeps us going….
Here in Arizona, in the heat of summer, we know about waiting.
We wait for cool breezes, relief from the merciless heat.
The time for open windows and dining al fresco instead of al fry-o!
Or we wait for the weekend,
Retirement,
Vacation,
Kids to move out.
Kids to come back….

It is good though, to pause in the waiting, to savor what is happening right now this very moment. Enjoy the process of waiting because there is beauty in that too!

But someday our wait for everything will be over and we will hear Him say, “Welcome Home……”

Is there a major life event you are waiting for right now? Maybe more than one? What is it that makes the waiting easier?

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” Philippians 3:20-21

It is well…..

Bing Images, New River UK

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

These are the verses I learned, but there are two more that are worth looking up….

Horatio Spafford

“It Is Well with My Soul” is a very influential hymn penned by hymnist Horatio Spafford and composed by Philip Bliss.

This hymn was written after several traumatic events in Spafford’s life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871, shortly followed by the great Chicago Fire which ruined him financially (he had been a successful lawyer). Then in 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the SS Ville du Havre, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sailing ship, the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford’s daughters died. His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, “Saved alone.” Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died.

This old hymn popped into my mind on the way to work today and I just couldn’t help singing it….what is it about those Hymns that can make you feel all wiggly inside when you hear them?

Do you have a favorite?

Eternity in our hearts

Stairway at Butchart Gardens

Living with eternity always in mind changes our perspective on everything else that happens in this life. This is the great challenge, to keep this fixed always in the backdrop of our hearts and minds. In this way, nothing can totally devastate us as it would if we didn’t have this hope.

Everything around us, however difficult or bleak the circumstance may be, continues to be colored with this one idea, this one thought. This is not all there is….. Sometimes we feel as if we have one foot in this world and one in the next and we feel the weight of it when life gets to be too much. Some would say that living like that would taint this life, as someone who goes around with one ear closed, half paying attention to everything around them, but really it turns the volume up. Everything somehow seems more brilliant, more vibrant and alive, like a deaf or blind person who has just got their senses for the first time.

Paul felt the weight of eternity too……

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; Philippians 1:21-23

There is no going around it. We will constantly seek more in this life, because we know instinctively that there is more….He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

What do you think? Does knowing we have eternity make you sometimes want to give up on this life? Or does it make it easier to go on?

One Thing…..


This was on the Daily Devotional yesterday and I had to share it. In very few words he puts everything in perspective. Nothing to add here…..
Making the Right Choice
By Max Lucado

“Everyone must die once and be judged.” Hebrews 9:27

Eternity is to be taken seriously. A judgement is coming.

Our task on earth is singular—to choose our eternal home. You can afford many wrong choices in life. You can choose the wrong career and survive, the wrong city and survive, the wrong house and survive. You can even choose the wrong mate and survive. But there is one choice that must be made correctly and that is your eternal destiny.