Tag: social

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 9

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 9

    The born again crowds all seem to have a plan for our salvation and confident assurance of a place in Heaven… I just don’t see it in most of their lives.

    I see people who talk about Jesus and Heaven differently in different places. I don’t even think that they understand the salvation they preach.

    Some are always happy to be alive and can’t wait for Heaven. Some are sorry to be alive and can’t wait for Heaven.

    Some celebrate as if Heaven can be claimed on earth.

    (I doubt that they are really looking forward to failing health and open caskets as part of our Heaven on earth.)

    And I have met just a few who talk about Heaven as if they live there, instead of here. They seem to be here though, as if it had something to do with Jesus.

    Somehow all of these pictures of Jesus didn’t paint a clear picture for me. But yesterday, a little girl seemed to have a simple answer. in a clear picture, of some things of Heaven I had been ignoring for a long time.

    Our serial story on Grief, salvation, and being born again from death to eternal life in heaven will resume NEXT Monday.

    In case you missed an earlier episode, here is a link to the beginning of our story.

  • Liar, liar, pants on fire

    Liar, liar, pants on fire

    Do you recall that kid’s expression?

    I heard it from my friends when caught in a lie.

    Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

    It’s not a biblical quote, however the Bible continually teaches us the value of truth and the consequence of lies.  God takes truth very seriously.

    “The Liar.” a poem by William Blake from about 200 years ago is probably the source of the expression. Jesus had to deal with liars even in the Temple 2000 years ago. (We’ll get to that shortly.) And about 3000 years ago the Proverbs of the Bible addressed lies as wickedness in relationships.

    Proverbs 17:4 An evildoer listens to wicked lips,

    and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

    Wickedness, mischief, speaking evil – all connected.

    We owe our souls to the master of lies when we are unwilling to face the truth of God.  We tell lies first to our SELF – lies from Satan. Then we lie to others to cover our evil tracks.

    Lies poison our relationships with others.  Liars willingly listen to other liars, accepting lies as truth.

    Why would a ‘friend,’ a family member or a loved one lie for you?   What truth visible to God would they hide?

    Consider the evil motives of a liar:

    “If someone is willing to lie for you, they are also willing to lie to you.

    Men with miserable lives will even die for a lie they willingly believe — (reward of evil: virgins for them in heaven). These same religious leaders who cover women from head to toe on earth will lead their fellow sinners to death for the lie of a false prophet.

    Religious leaders lead followers toward worship of a virgin while claiming chastity to God and hiding unrighteousness with a lie for a friend. Church Bishops have even built homes for mistresses and lovers even in medieval times.

    Wickedness, built on lies – even to the highest levels of religious leadership at times and in all faiths over the millenia.

    Jesus had to confront this in the Pharisees of the Temple – evil and wicked men with motives to hold onto their power and evil even in face of opposing God. They brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus to test him.  They did not bring the man to stone. (Perhaps he was a religious leader.)

    Then the Pharisees accused Jesus of being born out of a relationship of unrighteousness, in essence saying: “Your mother was no virgin.”

    Of course the lie in this is not the issue. The point is Who they confront with all of their lies to hold onto their power:

    Jesus IS Son of Man, Son of God – Jesus IS truth.

    Part of the Talmud is a lie. The Book of Mormon is a lie. The Bible of the Jehovah Witness is a lie (full of incomplete and deliberately mistranslated Scripture). And of course the writings of the false prophet of Arabia are a lie.

    The atheist is both a liar and a contradiction. How can you be ‘against’ a God you do not believe in? Yet justification of SELF and the evil without accountability require much effort and energy of the atheist, the agnostic, and worshipers of creation in place of the Creator. NO God = NO hell (the same false lie and false hope of the idolatrous religions: Hinduism, Buddhism and others).

    Again from Proverbs – the caution from the Bible:

    Proverbs 30:5-6 Every word of God proves true;
    he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

    Do not add to his words,
    lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

    To be clear (for those who refuse to listen to God’s truth), definition  for ‘rebuke’ from the Hebrew word:

    yakach  [“He will reprove” KJV] – to prove, decide, judge, rebuke, reprove, correct, be right

    God will judge your lie.  Consider the description of Hell, liar.

    John 8:

    23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

    25 So they said to him, “Who are you?”

    Jesus said to them,“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning…

    The Truth Will Set You Free

    31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

    You Are of Your Father the Devil

    44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me…

    Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

    Are you so bold as to stand up to the liars of this world for the Truth?

    Proverbs 8:

    6 Hear, for I will speak noble things,
    and from my lips will come what is right,
    7 for my mouth will utter truth;
    wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
    8 All the words of my mouth are righteous;
    there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
    9 They are all straight to him who understands,
    and right to those who find knowledge.

    Jeremiah 5:3

    O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth?
    You have struck them down,
    but they felt no anguish;
    you have consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
    They have made their faces harder than rock;
    they have refused to repent.

    John 14;

    I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life

    14 “Let not your hearts be troubled.

    Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”

    … “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

    6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 8

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 8

    My eyes drew back from their distant stare to gaze away from the picture. I gazed back from yesterday and looked intently toward the cross at the front of the church.

    I wondered: How does Jesus fit into all of this?

    I had never quite seen the connection between Jesus and all of the pictures of Heaven.

    Yea, I knew what the cross meant; but it just didn’t connect the pictures of Heaven I had ever since my earliest visits to one church or another.  Not only was it not connected, but what I did know didn’t seem to make any sense.

    I guess my biggest pictures of heaven had come more from Christmas than Easter.

    My picture of Heaven was like the Christmas Eve broadcasts of Papal majesty with smoke and robes… and singing of the Hallelujah Chorus to God by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

    Then, of course, there was the seasonal hope of an angel who just wasn’t quite good enough to earn his wings until he could save George Bailey.

    And Catholics worship Mary, too… and Saints (with a capital “S”): Christopher, Valentine, Patrick (Irish Saint of parties), Francis and lots of statues.

    The angels in paintings and windows of their churches and Cathedrals all seemed to paint a picture of Heaven with a rather mythological glow.

    And the Mormon’s… (Aren’t they called: The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints?), with Joseph Smith and multiple wives.

    How are they any different than the followers of the Prophet Mohammed who had multiple wives?

    (Is that OK with God?)

    They celebrate Christmas and Heaven big time; just like the Catholics, with their old established church worship.

    (I think Catholics call it ‘liturgy’ and I know it used to be in Latin.)

    Mormons seem  like a modern christian church with a new “Book of Mormon” instead of the Bible to explain all this.

    Seems kind of like the two young men working out their own salvation at your door, with their magazine to explain the Bible.