Heaven Is Getting What You Have Always Wanted.

I believe that there is a heaven and a hell. But, I do not think of hell as others do nor do I think of heaven as others do either.

There are those who go through their lives and seek out only that which brings themselves joy and happiness. Their sacrifices are only designed to better themselves or feather their own nests. They care for only that which betters their own circumstances and if doing something for someone else encroaches on any of this then, it simply will not be allowed to happen. They have long stretches of aloneness, isolation and selfishness broken up by short bursts of connection with other people. These occasional connections with other people are important because God made us all with an inherent need for connection and community. Without it, we loose our grip on sanity. Our world becomes lifeless and meaningless. Therefore, even the person ate up by selfish concerns know intuitively that some temporary self serving connection is needed to “stay in the game” to enjoy the kingdom they have built for themselves. Once the fix is in it is back to life as normal.

Then again there are those who go through there lives and seek to know and be known. They seek to live their lives with others. They pour themselves into the lives of others and seek to knit their souls to the souls of other people and live life together in community. They desire the richness, color and texture that others bring to life. They desire for everyone to share in this vision of peace, love and oneness. They desire to share the joy, the pain and the pleasures of life with others. They want to work together, live together, eat together and rest together. They want to talk together and sometimes they just want to sit together without a word spoken and just watch the clouds roll by. In short they want to walk down life’s road in a group. A group of friends whose desire it is to feel and experience life together. But, like the selfish person you will find that this life does not work this way. You find that even though you want this, there are times when it seems out of reach and it hurts. It is probably the kind of pain that Christ felt when God turned his face from His son and allowed Him to die … alone. It is a profound sense of separation. It is an ungodly evil aloneness that cannot be described. And it does not matter if it is a short separation or a long one, it hurts just the same.

When this life is over God will evaluate our lives and the choices we have made. We will be in one of these two camps. We will either be the one who sought to make our lives comfortable no matter the cost or the one who sought to live in community (you will be either one or the other never both). When this determination is made, God will give you what you have always wanted. Some will be separated forever to live in their own little world never to be bothered by the concerns of others for all of eternity. For others they will get to live in unbroken nonstop community where they can live their lives with others uninterrupted for all of eternity. Both will receive what they have always wanted. Sounds like heaven for both. In a manor of speaking it is. However, our souls were built for community. After a while the one who is given the life of separation they always desired will begin to notice that there soul is beginning to dim and die out. You see our souls are eternal and they can never die, but a soul without community, a soul without the rich color and texture, smell and sounds of life will slowly become meaningless, dry and dead while at the same time very alive. You see your soul was never designed to live alone. It was designed to be connected to others. Once separated it will not die, but will be lifeless. So you see heaven is getting what you have always wanted. And so is hell.

Gazing At The Cross

Today, our pastor taught on the glory of God. At one point, he said that “we must go to the cross”. He said that we must think about all that Jesus did on the cross on our behalf and in that we will see the Glory of God as the Son is lifted up. I do not disagree with any of that. But, I feel, that it stops short of the whole message of the cross. To see and experience the glory of God, we must not only recognize the cross and what Jesus did there for what it did for us, but we must see that in the cross Jesus was meeting a need in our lives that no other person could meet. During Jesus entire ministry He tried to get us to see the needs of others and endeavor to meet those needs to the extent that it meant that we forgo the meeting of our own needs. Jesus called us to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him. Where did He go? To the cross. So, as we gaze at the wonder of the cross, we also should see the other sub text. In dying on the cross, Jesus was denying himself to meet our needs and we are to do the same. For us, this will not be a death on the cross. It may be spending your money to feed and cloth the poor. It may mean taking time to visit with a hurting friend. It may mean enduring the hurt and pain of broken people in order to show them love that they seem to reject. Going to the cross of Jesus means taking the walk that He took to get there. It is a walk of self sacrifice. It is a walk of love. It is a walk of pain. In the end you come to the base of the cross a changed person. You see the savior from the eyes of one who too has given their lives for others and you can then, and only then, truly see and experience the fullness of the glory of God. The cross is not just a spectacle that we should marvel at, but an example of how we are to live and die. It is true that Christ died for us, but in His death we should be compelled to follow his path to the cross and join Him there. Being a Christian has to mean more than gazing at the cross, it must be marked by living as Jesus did which ultimately means that I give sacrificially to better the lives of others. This is a more eternally significant response to the cross than simply gazing at it.

Soul Winning vs. Disciple Making

Why is it that we are so afraid to share our faith with people? Or, why do we get so discouraged when we share our faith but the person rejects the message? Could it be that the message we have to share is really not the message Jesus shared with the people of his time. Could it be that deep down in our hearts we know the truth and that is why we shy away from sharing our faith. It is kind of like a salesman who is selling a product they don’t believe in or doesn’t even use. We may react to that statement with “of course I use the product; I’m a Christian after all”. The problem with that statement is that it is entirely possible that it is not true. When Jesus told his disciples to go out and make disciples, He was not telling them to go just go out and tell their stories to everyone they find. He was telling them to go out and do what he had taught them. He taught them to deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow him. No Romans road, no cleaver analogies about a car and a garage, no deep penetrating questions about your understanding about your disposition following death. Jesus taught to cloth the naked, feed the hungry and care for the sick. Jesus taught his disciples to fight injustice and heal the sick. Jesus challenged His disciples to rely on the father by stepping up to feed 5000 people with a boys lunch. Jesus challenged his disciples to do the impossible. Jesus lived with 12 men. Day in and day out. He made disciples. We are challenged by Jesus to do what He did. But, to make a disciple you first must be a disciple. You cannot skip this very important step. You cannot take people where you have never been.

People are not going to turn their lives around because you have strung a few scriptures together into a path to righteousness that you yourself are not following. You may say, “well I do follow Jesus and I do walk the path He has laid down before me.” The simple truth is that unless you are doing what Jesus did and said, you are not His disciple. If you are not a disciple of Jesus, then what are you inviting those you share your faith with into? Maybe this is why you have not been successful in making disciples. Maybe your walk is not attractive enough for people to drop their nets and follow you. Maybe you are afraid to share because deep down in your soul you know that you are not on the path yourself.

What are you calling those you share with to? If your hope is to lead someone in a prayer of commitment, then this to maybe your down fall. Jesus called His disciples to make other disciples. Again, Jesus was the model. He lived with his disciples day and night. He shared His life with them. He taught them intimately for three years. He broke bread with them. He ministered with them. He celebrated with them. They were His disciples and when it came time for them to go out, they went out and did the same. Are you truly a disciple? If so, then make others like you. If the idea of putting others on your path makes you whence, then I would challenge you that you are not a disciple. I am not suggesting that one be prefect to lead others. One must only have experienced a little more of the life of God than the one he is disciplining. You must be on the journey. If you find the journey spiritually rewarding then you won’t mind bringing someone else along. Making disciples is not about saying a prayer and making a notch on your evangelical gun. It is about living life together, sharing and doing the works of Christ on your journey to Christ likeness. This is what disciples do. They feed the hungry, nurture the sick, cloth the naked and love and care of people in general. This is the journey. Along the way people will see your good works and know that you are a disciple. They will be very open to your point of view and you will not be afraid to share your journey with them and you may pick up a disciple or two in the process.