A man may I ask, “What awaits us in heaven?”
Let it be that the Lord’s people are far more concerned about what awaits us now. Let our desire not be for the promise that cannot be spoken. But let us desire Desire for the things that please the Most High God in Christ Jesus His Holy Son.
“Now, you’re really beginning to get on my nerves! All you talk about is “god stuff”. What possible use is that to me? And how do you have the guts to poke it in my face 24/7?
Does it supply the paycheck? NO! I do that, and with all my might and will. Does it fix the car? Does this “god stuff” of yours help me compete against a ruthless horde? NO! I do that!
I’m sick of hearing about all this “heavenly, wonderful, useless crap”! Get away from me! I’ve had it with your filthy garbage.”
I paraphrase. But isn’t that the essence of your wordless thoughts? You have all the answers. Or you’re just jabbing at the air, in hopes that something will stick.
Look at your pathetic life. How many more “things” does it take to satisfy you? The answer is “endless stuff”. You live by the rule of selfish greed. Why, you won’t even give God His rightful place.
You take and take. For what purpose? There is no purposeful end in sight. If you got more money and more time to enjoy it, you’d fill up your filthy heart with more longing. There is no satisfaction to the life you claim is more important that the things of God. None!
Sit down and listen, while the day is still finding you clothed in skin.
You say, “I will do god things when I get to where God is.” You foolish man. In God, you live and move and have the being you praise so highly.
I wrote this to jar you up. I wrote this to shame your proclamation that you “Know” where God should remain. You post signs all over your soul: “God stay away!” “Keep out! Life in progress.”
He will stay out. But so will you! Now you bar Him from His rightful place as first among all your things. You will be barred from entry into the things of His Kingdom.
You will not do “god things” when you get to where God is! You will certainly be rejected and die alone, poverty-stricken, hopeless, abandoned and forever rejected from eternal life. A man gets what he wants in this life. What he wants dictates what he does. Those who desire God will do His Holy will HERE.
“The early bird gets the worm.”
Perhaps you have heard this saying. If you have, it is likely your mother who has told you this. She was trying to get you to take responsibility.
But as I watched the Robins this morning, I took note that they began to sing long before there was full light. Just how early do they need to be to get the worm?
Is it that the Robins are the ones to search for worms while the other birds search for bugs or seeds? In this case the saying is another name for Robins and their kind. So much for a process of productivity.
My mother could just as easily have told me to become a Robin. Though I do not give praise to myself in that I might have understood.
What strikes me more about the saying is that we use the vagaries to inspire one another. By the nature of man’s limit we reach for things that are untrue to teach what is true. It is not this way in heaven.
Here we must teach a child or an immature adult by using stories and half truths. They are not capable of consuming the fullness of truth. And even those who teach in the ways of the world are not fit to teach the fullness of truth.
I am simply struck by the vast chasm of difference between the ways of Man and the ways of God.
The Love of God radiates out.
He does not need anything.
All creation, in heaven and earth, receives. We who have nothing to offer back. Even what we do is expected service.
Shall we return love? It is already diluted, for He gave freely from His generous heart. But we return only that which is left over.
God sustains all. Even the grave’s foundation rests on a place He built and knows. Hell is sustained by His Holy consuming Flame. All life belongs to Him. What belongs to man?
Sin? Does rebellion belong to man? Isn’t rebellion simply a physical admition that love does not belong to us? What belongs to man?
Does God need our praise to be God? Does He die if we are not thankful? But we are born needy. The first breath is of air He sustains. The last breath releases to go to another place He sustains. Is God ever lessened by man?
But our thankfulness makes Him more. His Holy Kingdom expands as another returns in faith. Love from man may be of duress, but something is made better by He who is everything.
Why do Christians preach to man? What right do we have to firmly believe that we have the answers? Men will say to us, “You are just like us. We see your sins. We perceive your faults. There are plenty of religions among us. What need do we have for yours? By some reason, you think what you believe belongs in the belly of everyone. You are no different from any other cultish behavior of any other obnoxious religion.”
We are just like you. Therefore we know the extent of man’s rebellion against God. We too are sinners with plenty of faults among us. And what we preach presents itself faultlessly as the final answer to all man’s troubles. From without, you cannot understand what we say. But if you would enter Christianity the Lord would prove His words to you.
However, your problem is that once you enter you will find yourself compelled to stay. By your questions you prove you are not ready or willing. But neither were we. We do not preach fables. We do not believe as we do because a man has told us. We believe because the Heavenly Father has drawn us to His Holy Son.
Because of the rebellion of man against the Holy One, there are plenty of religions, indeed! But we have found that man’s need is not satisfied by opinion. We have found that Christ Jesus fulfills every need of every religion. He leaves no stone unturned. He is Holy Truth embodied. For this reason (That the Lord Jesus is the embodiment of truth) we are obnoxious to you even as the Lord Jesus was once obnoxious to us.
The pride of man will refuse to believe that he is nothing. The pride of man builds his own answers, as if a man can say he has seen the Holy Living God. But as we believe, the Lord strips that rebellious spirit from us. Humility comes to understand. Humility fears the Living God. Humility is the necessary first step in understanding what is Holy and Good.
Jesus proves to His people that He has every right to claim the singular title of “Son of God”. We are not tossed about, as are other religions, by every desire and fabrication of man’s mind. Yes there are many who claim to be Christians yet offer a seriously blemished testimony of God’s perfect commands. And the best of us will falter from time to time. But Christ Jesus remains the same in His Holy command to, “Be holy, even as your Father in Heaven is holy”. And He teaches His people to understand these things.
You may find fault with us. But you will also find absolute truth within us. Ask. Provoke the testimony within us. Keep asking questions. The Lord will testify from within His people. We willingly confess our lack before all who ask. But you will not find fault with the Son of God.
You will say, “How can you be sure that what you believe connects with Heaven?” We know it by the living words of the Bible. And it is confirmed within us by the Holy Spirit He gives; the Spirit which is sent from the Living Lord Jesus Himself. Though it is by faith, this faith is not like that faith a man holds in things unseen. The faith we have is given to us from the Heavenly Father. He confirms His Lovely Son’s position before Him. There is a leading from the Lord. There is a “proof”, which over time, confirms without doubt those things we preach to the world.
Flock of barncale geese on autumn migration. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I was waxing the car and my little dog was standing near me. I heard some geese approaching. I told her to look for the bird. She got busy lookin. Problem is, she kept looking straight ahead. She never did see the geese.
Later, as I was driving, the incident helped me in a rather startling way, to understand something from an entirely different perspective. She help me understand salvation from a dog’s perspective.
The sea is not teeming with animals. Neither is the sky. The teeming happens on the ground. I have heard there are plenty of times you could be underwater and never see a fish. And more times than not, I can look up at the sky and not see a bird. But the bugs and germs and animals and humans and birds and snakes…….. It just goes on and on, on the ground.
There are evil man who never touch the ground, in a manner of speaking. They do they’re evil deeds out of the sight of men. They are more of the demonic than human.
The majority of men however live their life in full sight of one another. These folks just strive to survive. They are neither overtly wicked nor coveting holiness. These are the type that if you told them to look for God they would not look up. They would look for a miracle.
But like the birds, there are a few who inhabit heaven. The majority of these men get their subsistence from the earth but they are not bound to it. Their natural habitat is the sky. They do not own the neck of a dog. To look up and to go up is more natural for them then to remain on the earth.
As for hope for the others: the Lord Himself has made these people who inhabit the sky. And he is quite able to transform any who ask. Finally, let us remember that there are such things as flying fish and flying squirrels ( not to mention bats and such.)
We: Live, Die, Face Judgment. Jesus or die twice.
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