No much left to say after the song.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Interesting Concept
This video is a very interesting and a great concept. Something to think about anyway.
[AC] Advent Conspiracy from Jon Collins on Vimeo.
[AC] Advent Conspiracy from Jon Collins on Vimeo.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Personal Psalm
During a recent Men's Luncheon the speaker, Ron Marshall, gave the men a challenge to write their own Psalm. After thinking about this for a while I decided to write my own. Below is a Psalm I wrote during some time I spent with God. It is refreshing and a great exercise I would recommend to anyone, as it makes you think upon the God of our Creation.
And yes, I do rhyme in my poem, as some of you like to point out at times. I think rhyming makes sense and used in a poem is a great exercise, as it causes you to think about words that will work in a rhythmic context.
And yes, I do rhyme in my poem, as some of you like to point out at times. I think rhyming makes sense and used in a poem is a great exercise, as it causes you to think about words that will work in a rhythmic context.
HAVE MERCY ON ME!
Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me!
You search the depths of my soul.
Making me wonder what You see.
Is it full of love or just an empty bowl?
All I desire is to be filled with Your Spirit
Even as I say it sin fights the very thought
O’ guide me Lord that I Ignore those thoughts
and not hear it.
Because I know through Your blood I have been bought.
My soul rejoices at the sound of Your name.
Sin may no longer blame.
It no longer has power to put me to shame.
All because there is power in that Name.
As I move through these last days
I pray that my life will reflect Your glory.
You are the potter and I am Your clay
mold me and shape me to tell Your story.
Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me!
Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me!
You search the depths of my soul.
Making me wonder what You see.
Is it full of love or just an empty bowl?
All I desire is to be filled with Your Spirit
Even as I say it sin fights the very thought
O’ guide me Lord that I Ignore those thoughts
and not hear it.
Because I know through Your blood I have been bought.
My soul rejoices at the sound of Your name.
Sin may no longer blame.
It no longer has power to put me to shame.
All because there is power in that Name.
As I move through these last days
I pray that my life will reflect Your glory.
You are the potter and I am Your clay
mold me and shape me to tell Your story.
Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Politics of Education
I found the article very interesting in regards to our education system and a potential President.
Posted: 06/23/2008 By: Phyliss Schafly
http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/3679/By_Phyllis_Schlafly
Unapologetic Former Terrorist Teaches Teachers; Is Vice President for Curriculum
As a founding member of the Weather Underground, William Ayers bombed the New York City police headquarters, the U.S. Capitol Building, and the Pentagon in the early 1970s. Because of a procedural error in his trial, he was never punished for his crimes. "Guilty as hell, free as a bird — America is a great country," he later quipped.
Now, Ayers teaches teachers, as a tenured professor of education at the University of Illinois, Chicago. His wife and former Weather Underground associate, Bernadine Dohrn, teaches law at Northwestern University. The couple's friendship with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has brought them under scrutiny in recent months. Obama reminded critics that he was only eight years old at the time of Ayers's and Dohrn's terrorist activities with the Weather Underground. But as Ed Lasky pointed out in American Thinker, Obama "elided the fact that they have no remorse for their actions and Ayers publicly wished there had been more of them."
In a strange twist of fate, Ayers's memoirs appeared in the New York Times on September 11, 2001. "I don't regret setting bombs," he wrote. "I feel we didn't do enough."
Although he no longer sets bombs, Ayers's political views are as radical now as they were in the 1970s. "Viva Presidente Chavez!" he cried in a speech in Venezuela in 2006, in which he also declared, "education is the motor-force of revolution." Ayers speaks openly of his desire to use the classrooms of America's public schools to train up a generation of revolutionaries who will overturn the supposedly imperialist regime of capitalist America.
In a 2006 interview with Revolution, the magazine of the devotedly "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist" Revolutionary Communist Party, Ayers decried American conservatives as "the most reactionary cabal of ideologues I've ever seen." According to Ayers, these ideologues control "all three branches of the federal government, control many state governments, control the media — the kind of bought priesthood of the media that does nothing but bow down to them and kowtow to them."
Ayers accuses these ideologues of waging "a whole frontal attack on the very idea of public education . . . an attack on the idea that there should be free common public education for all." He attributes to them the "zero tolerance" policies that have cropped up in schools across the nation. According to Ayers, we owe these irrational policies to conservatives who are relentlessly subverting democracy and working to create an authoritarian society.
One might assume these notions would place Ayers on the outer fringe of the political left and of the education school establishment. Although he certainly is more radical than most of his peers, those peers recently elected him to an important position in the American Education Research Association (AERA), the largest organization of education school professors and researchers. Ayers will serve as vice-president for curriculum. This post increases his already extensive influence; his books are already among the most widely used in America's 1,500 schools of education.
Sol Stern of the Manhattan Institute has written several articles exposing Ayers's radical ideas and plans for K-12 public education (City Journal, Summer 2006 and 4-23-08). "With Bill Ayers now part of [AERA]'s national leadership," predicts Stern, "you can be sure that it will encourage even more funding and support for research on how teachers can promote left-wing ideology in the nation's classrooms — and correspondingly less support for research on such mundane subjects as the best methods for teaching underprivileged children to read."
Ayers has pioneered the expansion of "social justice education." "Social justice" sounds like something everyone could agree on, but almost always become a highly politicized exercise in teaching children that our nation is oppressive and unjust, and that only socialism can solve these problems.
In Ayers's own classes, students seem to learn more about how resources should be redistributed than about "urban education" or "improving learning environments" (two of Ayers's course titles). "The readings that Ayers assigns are as intellectually stimulating and diverse as a political commissar's indoctrination session in one of his favorite communist tyrannies," writes Stern.
It is relatively rare for a professor of education to openly favor instruction that transforms students' political views rather than informing students on subjects such as history, science, or math. Ayers, however, seems to strongly prefer the former to the latter.
Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com
Posted: 06/23/2008 By: Phyliss Schafly
http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/3679/By_Phyllis_Schlafly
Unapologetic Former Terrorist Teaches Teachers; Is Vice President for Curriculum
As a founding member of the Weather Underground, William Ayers bombed the New York City police headquarters, the U.S. Capitol Building, and the Pentagon in the early 1970s. Because of a procedural error in his trial, he was never punished for his crimes. "Guilty as hell, free as a bird — America is a great country," he later quipped.
Now, Ayers teaches teachers, as a tenured professor of education at the University of Illinois, Chicago. His wife and former Weather Underground associate, Bernadine Dohrn, teaches law at Northwestern University. The couple's friendship with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has brought them under scrutiny in recent months. Obama reminded critics that he was only eight years old at the time of Ayers's and Dohrn's terrorist activities with the Weather Underground. But as Ed Lasky pointed out in American Thinker, Obama "elided the fact that they have no remorse for their actions and Ayers publicly wished there had been more of them."
In a strange twist of fate, Ayers's memoirs appeared in the New York Times on September 11, 2001. "I don't regret setting bombs," he wrote. "I feel we didn't do enough."
Although he no longer sets bombs, Ayers's political views are as radical now as they were in the 1970s. "Viva Presidente Chavez!" he cried in a speech in Venezuela in 2006, in which he also declared, "education is the motor-force of revolution." Ayers speaks openly of his desire to use the classrooms of America's public schools to train up a generation of revolutionaries who will overturn the supposedly imperialist regime of capitalist America.
In a 2006 interview with Revolution, the magazine of the devotedly "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist" Revolutionary Communist Party, Ayers decried American conservatives as "the most reactionary cabal of ideologues I've ever seen." According to Ayers, these ideologues control "all three branches of the federal government, control many state governments, control the media — the kind of bought priesthood of the media that does nothing but bow down to them and kowtow to them."
Ayers accuses these ideologues of waging "a whole frontal attack on the very idea of public education . . . an attack on the idea that there should be free common public education for all." He attributes to them the "zero tolerance" policies that have cropped up in schools across the nation. According to Ayers, we owe these irrational policies to conservatives who are relentlessly subverting democracy and working to create an authoritarian society.
One might assume these notions would place Ayers on the outer fringe of the political left and of the education school establishment. Although he certainly is more radical than most of his peers, those peers recently elected him to an important position in the American Education Research Association (AERA), the largest organization of education school professors and researchers. Ayers will serve as vice-president for curriculum. This post increases his already extensive influence; his books are already among the most widely used in America's 1,500 schools of education.
Sol Stern of the Manhattan Institute has written several articles exposing Ayers's radical ideas and plans for K-12 public education (City Journal, Summer 2006 and 4-23-08). "With Bill Ayers now part of [AERA]'s national leadership," predicts Stern, "you can be sure that it will encourage even more funding and support for research on how teachers can promote left-wing ideology in the nation's classrooms — and correspondingly less support for research on such mundane subjects as the best methods for teaching underprivileged children to read."
Ayers has pioneered the expansion of "social justice education." "Social justice" sounds like something everyone could agree on, but almost always become a highly politicized exercise in teaching children that our nation is oppressive and unjust, and that only socialism can solve these problems.
In Ayers's own classes, students seem to learn more about how resources should be redistributed than about "urban education" or "improving learning environments" (two of Ayers's course titles). "The readings that Ayers assigns are as intellectually stimulating and diverse as a political commissar's indoctrination session in one of his favorite communist tyrannies," writes Stern.
It is relatively rare for a professor of education to openly favor instruction that transforms students' political views rather than informing students on subjects such as history, science, or math. Ayers, however, seems to strongly prefer the former to the latter.
Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Talk is Cheap--HMMMM!
"Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person" (Col. 4:5-6).
You are sitting on a plane trying not to make eye-contact with the person next to you because you are tired, grumpy and just want to close your eyes and ignore the world for a bit. Unfortunately the person next to you does not seem to have the same idea and they start small talk almost immediately after sitting down with you. You put on your happy face and engage as little as possible in the conversation, only answering questions when you have to. Two long hours later you land and quickly depart the plane without even saying goodbye to your new acquaintance. You just want off the plane.
Two days later you are sitting with your friends after church and you start to talk about witnessing. You mention that you just never seem to have any people around you to witness to, that there just does not ever seem to be a chance for you to witness. No one seems interested in spiritual things. Maybe because you are not looking and just thinking of self and not truly looking to be a witness for Christ?
Maybe you think that you just witness with your actions and that says a lot more then words. If this is the case why does the Bible spend so much time talking to us about our tongues and what comes out of our mouths? It does because words are powerful, and saying it places you in a position of truly believing it. It is a cop-out to always say: “I wait for someone to ask me why I am the way I am.” Why do your good actions make you any better then the atheist who does good? What if the atheist does better things then you? It is not just about actions?
What would you say to someone if they asked you what you believe and why? What would you say if I asked you what it means to be saved and what do I have to believe? Are you sure you are saved? What do you believe about Christ? Remember what Matthew 7:21-23 says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” If you do not know what it means to be saved then read this before moving forward, http://aleris.blogspot.com/2007/09/secure-in-your-salvation.html.
We are called to witness and tell others about our salvation, and there are many reasons why we should. The first one is that we are commanded by Christ in Matthew 28:19-20, and if He tells us to do something we should do it, no questions asked. Jesus saved us from eternal Hell, the least we can do is show loyalty by doing it out of command by our Commander and Savior.
More then that we should witness because you love those who do not know Christ and want to share with them the relationship you have, which will also keep them from spending eternity in Hell. Christ came for the unsaved, you and me, so we should have the same love for them that He has for us (John 3:16; Eph. 5:22).
1 John 1:3, “that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” It pleases God that we witness and share the great news of Christ with others, as He uses us for this purpose. We are allowed, and should consider it an honor, to be part of bringing people into relationship with God. If you have never been used by God to bring someone to salvation then you are missing out on a great blessing. There is just no greater feeling, except when you personally come to faith, then praying with someone to receive Christ. It is AWESOME (Luke 15:10)!
Witnessing, sharing who you are, should be as natural as saying your name. It should just be part of who we are. We have put witnessing into another box separated from every other aspect of our faith; when in reality it should be natural, because of your love for Christ.
We all fail and need to repent, because not to witness is sin, as Christ commands it in Scripture. Make it your commitment today to learn what you believe and develop your relationship with Christ that it just pours out of you know matter where you are and how you feel.
You are sitting on a plane trying not to make eye-contact with the person next to you because you are tired, grumpy and just want to close your eyes and ignore the world for a bit. Unfortunately the person next to you does not seem to have the same idea and they start small talk almost immediately after sitting down with you. You put on your happy face and engage as little as possible in the conversation, only answering questions when you have to. Two long hours later you land and quickly depart the plane without even saying goodbye to your new acquaintance. You just want off the plane.
Two days later you are sitting with your friends after church and you start to talk about witnessing. You mention that you just never seem to have any people around you to witness to, that there just does not ever seem to be a chance for you to witness. No one seems interested in spiritual things. Maybe because you are not looking and just thinking of self and not truly looking to be a witness for Christ?
Maybe you think that you just witness with your actions and that says a lot more then words. If this is the case why does the Bible spend so much time talking to us about our tongues and what comes out of our mouths? It does because words are powerful, and saying it places you in a position of truly believing it. It is a cop-out to always say: “I wait for someone to ask me why I am the way I am.” Why do your good actions make you any better then the atheist who does good? What if the atheist does better things then you? It is not just about actions?
What would you say to someone if they asked you what you believe and why? What would you say if I asked you what it means to be saved and what do I have to believe? Are you sure you are saved? What do you believe about Christ? Remember what Matthew 7:21-23 says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” If you do not know what it means to be saved then read this before moving forward, http://aleris.blogspot.com/2007/09/secure-in-your-salvation.html.
We are called to witness and tell others about our salvation, and there are many reasons why we should. The first one is that we are commanded by Christ in Matthew 28:19-20, and if He tells us to do something we should do it, no questions asked. Jesus saved us from eternal Hell, the least we can do is show loyalty by doing it out of command by our Commander and Savior.
More then that we should witness because you love those who do not know Christ and want to share with them the relationship you have, which will also keep them from spending eternity in Hell. Christ came for the unsaved, you and me, so we should have the same love for them that He has for us (John 3:16; Eph. 5:22).
1 John 1:3, “that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” It pleases God that we witness and share the great news of Christ with others, as He uses us for this purpose. We are allowed, and should consider it an honor, to be part of bringing people into relationship with God. If you have never been used by God to bring someone to salvation then you are missing out on a great blessing. There is just no greater feeling, except when you personally come to faith, then praying with someone to receive Christ. It is AWESOME (Luke 15:10)!
Witnessing, sharing who you are, should be as natural as saying your name. It should just be part of who we are. We have put witnessing into another box separated from every other aspect of our faith; when in reality it should be natural, because of your love for Christ.
We all fail and need to repent, because not to witness is sin, as Christ commands it in Scripture. Make it your commitment today to learn what you believe and develop your relationship with Christ that it just pours out of you know matter where you are and how you feel.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Death - The Best Day Ever!
As a Christian, the day I die will be the best day I ever lived. But it won’t be the best day I ever will live. Resurrection day will be far better. – Randy Alcorn
What first comes to your mind when you read this quote? Do you truly believe that the day you die will be the best day you ever lived? When I first read it, it hit me like a ton of bricks. This short sentence puts in light how we should perceive this world, as a coming attraction to the main event, Heaven.
Our culture has become so inundated with how to live longer here that death has become something to be avoided at all costs, even in the Christian circles; when in reality it should not be feared, but accepted with excitement. You are about to see Jesus face to face and live the way you were meant to live. Plus, you will be with God, eternally without limitation to Him.
How would this change your view in working with the Terminally Ill, or any other person who had questions about death? I recently read a story of a little girl who had a terminal disease and her family explained it like this: Their young daughter was going to die of a terminal condition and she was afraid and upset. The parents had her go into another room by herself and then one by one they came through the door to meet her. They told her Heaven was going to be like this, that they would be coming up to meet her right after her and she would be there waiting for them.
For Christians, Heaven is not the end, but the beginning. When one of us goes there first, it is just that, and we will be able see each other again as the rest of our brothers and sisters in Christ come through the door. This for me, puts death into a whole new perspective, and even adds optimism to dying. We should not chase after death, but we also should not be afraid of it either. We should be more afraid of what this world will do to us, then what death can do, as death is only once and then eternity (except for poor Lazarus). Disease, sickness, broken families, heartache, earthquakes, tornadoes and many other calamities happen all the time in this world that will not be part of the next. Staying here in some ways is more depressing then dying and going home to be with the Father. Actually, in just about every way.
What Can Death Really do to Us? Death can be a painful thing physically and emotionally and is painful to those around them, even Jesus wept (John 11:35). Death though is the final pain, the last of the enemies to be defeated by Christ. 1 Cor. 15:25-26 says, “For Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
Richard Baxter said, “If there be so certain and glorious a rest for the saints, why is there no more industrious seeking after it? One would think, if a man did but once hear of such unspeakable glory to be obtained, and believed what he heard to be true, he should be transported with the vehemency of his desire after it, and should almost forget to eat and drink, and should care for nothing else, but how to get his treasure. And yet people who hear of it daily, and profess to believe it as a fundamental article of their faith, do as little to mind it, or labor for it, as if they had never heard of any such thing, or did not believe one word they hear.”
How do we have an attitude of Heaven focused that leads to having no fear in death and believing that this is not our home and Heaven is, which in turns effects the way we live now?
1. We should be thinking about Heaven and learning what we can about it from Scripture and other solid authors, like Randy Alcorn and Peter Kreeft. This will keep us from getting sucked into the attacks of Satan and our sinful nature. “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:11-14).
2. If you are not looking forward to Heaven then what are you looking forward to, because as a Christian you should be. Anticipating Heaven will cause us to strive to live in light of where we plan on making our home.
3. Heaven should affect every area of our lives: activities, our ambitions, our pastime, our hobbies and our friends, what church we go to and how we spend our money. 1 John 3:3 says, “that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
4. Focusing on Heaven is not missing out on pleasure, but waiting instead for the real deal. It is finding joy in Christ and not the World. “bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Philippians 3:13-14).
5. “Remembering when you say here, ‘that it cannot get any better than this.’ It will.”—Randy Alcorn
Rev. 21:1-5, “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
QUESTIONS TO ASK OURSELVES
1. Do I daily reflect on my own mortality?
2. Do I daily realize there are only two destinations—Heaven or Hell—and that I and every person I know will go to one or the other?
3. Do I daily remind myself that this world is not my home and that everything in it will burn, leaving behind only what’s eternal?
4. Do I daily recognize that my choices and actions have a direct influence on the world to come?
5. Do I daily realize that my life is being examined by God, the Audience of One, and that the only appraisal of my life that will ultimately matter is his?
6. Do I daily reflect on the fact that my ultimate home will be the New Earth, where I will see God and serve him as a resurrected being in a resurrected human society, where I will overflow with joy and delight in drawing nearer to God by studying him and his creation, and where I will exercise, to God’s glory, dominion his creation? Taken from Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven, 470
What first comes to your mind when you read this quote? Do you truly believe that the day you die will be the best day you ever lived? When I first read it, it hit me like a ton of bricks. This short sentence puts in light how we should perceive this world, as a coming attraction to the main event, Heaven.
Our culture has become so inundated with how to live longer here that death has become something to be avoided at all costs, even in the Christian circles; when in reality it should not be feared, but accepted with excitement. You are about to see Jesus face to face and live the way you were meant to live. Plus, you will be with God, eternally without limitation to Him.
How would this change your view in working with the Terminally Ill, or any other person who had questions about death? I recently read a story of a little girl who had a terminal disease and her family explained it like this: Their young daughter was going to die of a terminal condition and she was afraid and upset. The parents had her go into another room by herself and then one by one they came through the door to meet her. They told her Heaven was going to be like this, that they would be coming up to meet her right after her and she would be there waiting for them.
For Christians, Heaven is not the end, but the beginning. When one of us goes there first, it is just that, and we will be able see each other again as the rest of our brothers and sisters in Christ come through the door. This for me, puts death into a whole new perspective, and even adds optimism to dying. We should not chase after death, but we also should not be afraid of it either. We should be more afraid of what this world will do to us, then what death can do, as death is only once and then eternity (except for poor Lazarus). Disease, sickness, broken families, heartache, earthquakes, tornadoes and many other calamities happen all the time in this world that will not be part of the next. Staying here in some ways is more depressing then dying and going home to be with the Father. Actually, in just about every way.
What Can Death Really do to Us? Death can be a painful thing physically and emotionally and is painful to those around them, even Jesus wept (John 11:35). Death though is the final pain, the last of the enemies to be defeated by Christ. 1 Cor. 15:25-26 says, “For Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
Richard Baxter said, “If there be so certain and glorious a rest for the saints, why is there no more industrious seeking after it? One would think, if a man did but once hear of such unspeakable glory to be obtained, and believed what he heard to be true, he should be transported with the vehemency of his desire after it, and should almost forget to eat and drink, and should care for nothing else, but how to get his treasure. And yet people who hear of it daily, and profess to believe it as a fundamental article of their faith, do as little to mind it, or labor for it, as if they had never heard of any such thing, or did not believe one word they hear.”
How do we have an attitude of Heaven focused that leads to having no fear in death and believing that this is not our home and Heaven is, which in turns effects the way we live now?
1. We should be thinking about Heaven and learning what we can about it from Scripture and other solid authors, like Randy Alcorn and Peter Kreeft. This will keep us from getting sucked into the attacks of Satan and our sinful nature. “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:11-14).
2. If you are not looking forward to Heaven then what are you looking forward to, because as a Christian you should be. Anticipating Heaven will cause us to strive to live in light of where we plan on making our home.
3. Heaven should affect every area of our lives: activities, our ambitions, our pastime, our hobbies and our friends, what church we go to and how we spend our money. 1 John 3:3 says, “that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
4. Focusing on Heaven is not missing out on pleasure, but waiting instead for the real deal. It is finding joy in Christ and not the World. “bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Philippians 3:13-14).
5. “Remembering when you say here, ‘that it cannot get any better than this.’ It will.”—Randy Alcorn
Rev. 21:1-5, “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
QUESTIONS TO ASK OURSELVES
1. Do I daily reflect on my own mortality?
2. Do I daily realize there are only two destinations—Heaven or Hell—and that I and every person I know will go to one or the other?
3. Do I daily remind myself that this world is not my home and that everything in it will burn, leaving behind only what’s eternal?
4. Do I daily recognize that my choices and actions have a direct influence on the world to come?
5. Do I daily realize that my life is being examined by God, the Audience of One, and that the only appraisal of my life that will ultimately matter is his?
6. Do I daily reflect on the fact that my ultimate home will be the New Earth, where I will see God and serve him as a resurrected being in a resurrected human society, where I will overflow with joy and delight in drawing nearer to God by studying him and his creation, and where I will exercise, to God’s glory, dominion his creation? Taken from Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven, 470
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