Two Reasons I Am Glad I Ditched Facebook

28 May

 

Two Reasons Facebook

I decided to take a break from Facebook the beginning of this year. It was a decision that I had grappled with for some time. I excused my forbearing with Facebook because it was and is a great way to gain readers for This Temporary Home. I held onto that social media outlet for the sheer reason that it promoted traffic to the blog and perhaps provided a glimmer of light and substance on the Facebook market.

Fast forward several months and I am more convinced than ever that I made the right choice when I listened to the still small voice of the Father asking me to trust Him and let the stat counter for the blog fall where it may.

That being said,  my goal is to provide encouragement for those of you who may be sensing it is time to take a hiatus or a permanent departure from Facebook or other social media that you currently use. Some people, like my husband for example, are not driven to check the latest status updates or page patrol. But others, like myself, waste time and emotions on digital portrayals of people I know but would otherwise not keep up with in real life. Or, if I do communicate with them in real life, then I can send a text message, email, share a cup of coffee, or make a good old-fashioned phone call to catch up.

Here are two reasons why I am glad I ditched Facebook:

1. Reduced use of one form of social media seemed to contribute to overall decline in time spent on other social media outlets.

I continue to use some forms of social media. However, I found that by eliminating Facebook I dramatically decreased my time spent mindlessly surfing the other social media outlets that I continue to use. I do not find myself checking the remaining social media with the fervency as before.

2. The twin monsters of envy and  jealousy have drastically quietened themselves.

Envy and jealousy are two of the sins that Jerry Bridges refers to as subtle sins. I’ve written about them on numerous occasions because they pose a problem for me as a Christian woman and for most women in general. Since quitting Facebook, I have no idea what other families did this weekend and therefore less temptation to be jealous or envious that while others were out snorkeling in the Florida Keys, I was at home scrubbing toilets and cleaning dishes. I know about my friends adventures via real life conversations and chances are extremely high that I will celebrate with and for them.

I found it too frequently the case that I would hear about an amazing day at the beach or some such tale and then become jealous that I was stuck in the mundane that day while reading that post.  Facebook ran interference with my contentment.

Join me on Friday for three more benefits of quitting Facebook. 

signature

 

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Contemplation, Discipline, Family, Life, My Story Tagged With: ,

Riding the Waves

20 May

At times he would glance at me with those beautiful blue eyes and flash his charming grin as if to check and assure himself that mommy watched his feats of strength. Other moments, he would forget he wasn’t the only boy splashing in the ocean and though he was feet from the next child, would dive bravely into the next wave with the gusto of Alexander the Great. Then there were those moments that the wave came with greater strength than he anticipated and he would stand coughing and looking about as if, “What just happened here?”

Riding the Wave

Often we adults resemble the above description in reference to the challenges and opportunities that waves of life bring in peak, trough succession. Some opportunities in life we look at and think I got this. Other, more humbling opportunities, we stare in disbelief and wonder why we were chosen to ride this wave into shore. Sometimes we give it our best go and end up gasping for breath.

Where are you in the ocean of life right now? Are you relishing a good time and looking about to see who will join you in rejoicing? Are you facing a daunting wave that could either provide the ride of a lifetime or the fear of failure? Or, are you so far offshore, perhaps as a result of your own choices or unexpected events, that you haven’t considered catching a wave in months or even years.

Despite the prevailing circumstances, and your choices to date, the truth remains:

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25-26, ESV)

The truth is, we need to pray and seek to make God our chief desire in a ocean full of cruise ship distractions and temptations. When we do, we may fear being overcome by our calling, but we will catch the waves intended for us. Or, if failure prevails, we will learn from the maneuvers that result in a mightier challenge than supposed and subsequently leave us sputtering up salt water with thoughts of, “What just happened here?”

The Apostle Paul was a man acquainted with daunting waves…literally. Three times he was shipwrecked and spent one night and a day adrift at sea. (2 Corinthians 11:25) In any or all of these circumstances was Paul outside of the will of the Father? I cannot find reason in the Scriptures to support such a claim. Therefore, could we not attempt to catch a wave in obedience to God’s calling on us and find ourselves gasping for air? Indeed that may be the case, but we will never know the outcome if we do not first attempt the feat.

As I stood on the shoreline watching my son with pride as he fearlessly jumped into the waves and swam with big boy breast strokes I was watching him with joy. I watched rejoicing in his efforts and cheering his successes. I checked to see if he was okay and encouraged him to rest and try again when the waves crashed and left him coughing up salty water. (I also yelled several times that he was going too far!)

Don’t you think our Father watches our efforts and acts of obedience in a similar and even more perfect way?

I do.

So go ahead. Go all in. Jump into the crashing waves and swim with all your might.If you hear your Father on the shore cheering you on and encouraging obedience you can proceed with this knowledge:

Only one life,’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last. ~C.T. Studd

signature

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Contemplation, Discipline, Faith, Life, Walking in the Spirit Tagged With: , , , ,

Yesterday’s Tomorrow

21 Apr

Today is

Kids are often told, you can have that tomorrow, we will go there tomorrow, we will read that or watch that or eat that tomorrow. My son will excitedly run to us in the morning and ask, “Is it tomorrow?!” He believes that tomorrow holds the fulfillment of yesterday’s promise.

We as adults are very adept at promising ourselves, as well as those we love, wishes fulfilled tomorrow. Are we not?

We grow to doubt that tomorrow will deliver.

My personal favorite is that I will do the laundry tomorrow. Another one, I will make that call tomorrow.  Yet another tomorrow I often promise myself is a break from blogging. This thought is quickly dismissed as I consider my devoted readers. (Thank you!) 

Whether we like it or not tomorrow comes. Promises and good intentions are either prioritized and met, or they continue to be pushed off for another day.

When my son excitedly asks me if it is tomorrow I smile and tell him, “Yes it is tomorrow.” Then I try my best to explain that today is yesterday’s tomorrow. How’s that for confusing?

It is imperative that we understand that there is ultimately One who promises an indefinite tomorrow because of a greater good. That of saved lives for all of eternity:

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. (2 Peter 3:9, NLT)

Jesus’ tomorrow tarries so that we will turn. His promise for your next step seems to delay and the uncertainty seems daunting, yet…

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, NLT)

Tomorrow will come. Eternity will commence. The next step will manifest itself.

I hope that all the tomorrow’s of this week will draw you closer to the person that God has created you to become.

signature

 

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Contemplation, Discipline, Faith, Heaven Our Home Tagged With: , , ,

Suffering Servant, Resurrected Lamb

15 Apr

Jesus Messiah

The Redeemer came to reunify the created to the Creator. Like the Good Shepherd that goes after the one lost lamb, He came so that all the lost have freedom to choose life. Life not given at first breath, but by means of faith in the One who died in our place.

But is there proof for our belief that Jesus is the Messiah and that he was resurrected from the dead?

Today, I hope to strengthen the minds of those of you who answered yes, and guide those who would answer no to the question above. We will look at one aspect of the proof of Jesus being the Messiah via the Old Testament prophecies and another for the proof of His resurrection from an eyewitness account.

First, in Isaiah 53, the prophet, Isaiah, prophesied about Jesus, the Messiah, 700 years before His birth and 733 years before His cruel death on the cross.

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6)

Today, the response to Isaiah 53 for the Jewish and rabbinical theologians is that the Suffering Servant described in Isaiah 53 was not referring to the coming Messiah, but to the nation of Israel.  The first Jew to propose that Isaiah 53 is referring to the nation of Israel was Shlomo Yitzchaki, more familiarly known as Rashi (c. 1040-1105). According to Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek in their book, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (2004),  there are at least three reasons why Isaiah 53 cannot be referring to the nation of Israel:

  • First, unlike Israel, the Servant is sinless. (53:9) If Israel is sinless, then why did God give the Jews a sacrificial system? Why did they have a Day of Atonement? Why did they constantly need prophets to warn them to stop sinning and to come back to God?
  • Second, unlike Israel, the Suffering Servant is a lamb who submits without any resistance whatsoever (53:7) History show us that Israel certainly is not a lamb–she lies down for no one.
  • Third, unlike Israel, the Suffering Servant dies as a substitutionary atonement for the sins of others (53:4-6, 8, 10-12) But Israel has not died, nor is she paying for the sins of others. No one is redeemed on account of what the nation of Israel does. Nations, and the individuals that comprise them, are punished for their own sins.

(Geisler and Turek, 2004, pp. 333-334)

Who alone in all of human history can match the description of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53? None but Christ alone.

Secondly, as we consider the claims of the disciples and apostles that Christ indeed rose from the dead, let us look at Paul. Paul is one of the primary proofs of the resurrection of Jesus. Let’s consider Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. Acts 9.

 Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4)

It is imperative that we distinguish this is Jesus addressing Paul for two reasons (verse 5). 

First, this is pertinent in the revelation that when a Christ-follower is suffering, Christ Himself suffers too. What is done to the Body of Christ, the church, is done unto Jesus Himself. The Bible clearly tells us that persecution of Christ-followers is to be expected and that we should rejoice in our suffering. Saul of Tarsus, later called Paul, was a persecutor of the early church “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” (Acts 9:1)

Secondly, it is imperative that we note this is in fact Jesus talking with Paul because he is another eyewitness of the risen Savior. More specifically, an eyewitness by a professing enemy of the gospel following the ascension of Jesus into heaven. (See Acts 26) Paul’s conversion is significant in this fact as he was a primary witness of Jesus. Paul did not come to be a Christ-follower from a secondary retelling of the gospel; rather, he encountered the risen Savior himself.

The Old Testament prepares the way, and the New Testament documents the prophecies fulfilled. Now we who remain are looking to the clouds and eagerly awaiting His second coming.

signature

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Apologetics, Contemplation, Faith, Holiday, Worldview Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Prayers for Ukraine

25 Mar

 Prayers for Ukraine

Between my husband and I, we have traveled to Ukraine eleven times. Even now, six years since my last visit, places, sights, and smells will take me back to the beautiful countryside or the bustling brick streets in my mind within seconds.

The people of Ukraine have many lessons to teach: how to share, the enjoyment of creation, laughter, creativity, and simplicity. This was at least my experience in the more rural areas and with the children and younger generation of Christ-followers that we interacted with. On the opposite end of the spectrum were the hardened, worn faces we encountered of people who had lived under the iron curtain for longer than they had been free of it. They bore the marks of distrust and fear.

Communism leaves a mark long after its iron grip is loosened.

It pains me, as it does the souls of many, to see the powers that be straining to make the country of Ukraine once more wear the yolk of communistic slavery. As Putin seeks to take back all that the countries freed in the eighties, for I am convinced that is one of his highest aims,  he, akin to others in Ukraine’s past, will want to strip this beautiful country and her people of their language, freedoms, and identity. He wants to squelch the liberty in their lives for the end goals of his own dreams for Mother Russia.

I am no expert in foreign policy nor current affairs. I am simply a Christian-praying-thinking-woman who desires to see liberty and justice for the people and the orphans of Ukraine, Russia, and all the former Soviet countries.

Today, I ask you to join me in praying for this country that has made an everlasting impression on my life. For this region of Europe full of people who love the Lord Jesus as well as people needing to hear and receive the message of the gospel. I am asking you to make a difference in the history of the world. Will you join me? I know my God answers prayers and He is concerned with every facet of life. With God there is no split in the secular and the sacred; it is all a matter of sacred to Him.

  • Pray for the government leaders of Ukraine to act with wisdom and justice for all her people.
  • Pray for the leaders of NATO and the USA as they attend to the needs of Ukraine and the surrounding countries of the former Soviet Union. Pray that the powers that be will cut the rhetoric and act with reason and a sound mind.
  • Pray for the gospel to go forth in the land of Ukraine and for the people’s hearts to be receptive to the message of salvation and a Christian worldview.
  • Pray for the Ukrainian believers for wisdom to understand the signs of the times and to act in accordance with God’s will. Pray they will know how to respond to this face of adversity on a daily basis and for the long term.
  • Pray for daily needs to be met for the poor and the orphaned.
  • Pray that steps will be taken towards energy independence and/or other options for energy apart from Russia.

 You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.

~John Bunyan

signature

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Contemplation, Discipline, Faith, Life, Missions, Serving the Persecuted, Worldview Tagged With: , , , , ,

Gun Safety and Worldviews

14 Mar

gun safety and worldview training

On Monday we discussed the necessity that we, as parents, youth workers, and educators, do not mark certain literature containing conflicting worldview narratives as taboo. If we do, we risk heightening such texts to forbidden fruit. Conversely, openly discussing worldviews and other religious beliefs as they arise equips our children to seek the truth. Further enabling them to discern truth from lies and the underling message behind the texts they encounter.

Akin to this open discussion of worldviews is gun safety. Let me explain. Ron and I want our children to handle guns–that is unloaded guns in our presence. You may ask, Wait a minute, won’t that increase their curiosity about guns because you planted the ideas in their heads? I would like to propose the contrary.

By allowing our children to handle and inspect unloaded guns under our supervision, we provide a safe environment for their curiosity to be satiated. Showing them the workings of specific guns and discussing the use and the dangers of such tools gives them a safe, controlled environment to have their questions answered . We do not want to simply tell them, “Never touch a gun.” Kids are curious, they will be drawn to the unknown and forbidden. Additionally, guns are not bad in and of themselves. If we take the mystery out of the equation, we leave our kids knowledgeable about guns, their use, and handling rules by which to keep them safe.

This doesn’t mean we leave loaded or unloaded guns within our children’s reach or access, but it means that they know guns exist and we have set parameters by which they can learn more in a safe environment. As they grow, so will their independence level in learning how to load a gun and use it properly for hunting and self-defense. The same with our teaching of a Christian worldview; we teach them as they grow in the hopes they will apply this knowledge throughout their life to distinguish good from evil, truth from lies, and to know God and make Him known.

I propose that knowledge of conflicting worldviews, and thus religions, should be handled in the same manner we employ with gun safety. Educating our children on the whys and whats of the world gives them more knowledge to ascertain that the world around them is best, and only, explained by a Creator who has come, and will come again, to redeem His fallen creation from sin and death and restore it to its original perfect state.

Satan is using our children and youth as more than target practice. He wants to kill and destroy them. Equipping the generations to recognize the enemy, and solid knowledge to combat his lies, will assist in winning the battle for truth. Supplying children with the knowledge to speak into and about worldviews is a tool to spread the gospel to all nations.

signature

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Contemplation, Worldview Tagged With: , , , , ,

Why Question Evolution?

7 Mar

 Why Question Evolution

On Monday, I outlined a set of questions to critically consider the naturalistic worldview. Today, we will consider the importance of highlighting worldviews for ourselves and our spheres of influence, in addition to the implications if we neglect to do so.

My mom was my first grade public school teacher. Interestingly, only my closest friends in her classroom knew that she was my mom until after Christmas break when I said, “Mom, please come here.” My classmates looked at me and said, “You called her mom!” Laughably, my mom didn’t ask me to keep our relationship a secret, it was simply the practice that I utilized myself.

In my mom’s first grade classroom, we had themed bins of items to play with. One such bin was a large Tupperware container of rice. Mixed inside the rice were plastic toys, some of which were dinosaurs when we were studying about prehistoric life. 

I was raised in a southern baptist church where creation was taught but dinosaurs hardly, if ever,  mentioned in conjunction with creation. As a first grader I played with plastic dinosaurs taught to have lived millions of years before man in every textbook and science-based factual account yet simultaneously I learned in Sunday School that God created the heavens, earth, animals, and man, in six days and rested on the seventh.

There was a divide between the rice bin filled with dinosaurs in my elementary classrooms and the pictured creation accounts of Sunday School. I recognized the conflicting information provided in the two settings. One explanation provided to me was that a day was like a thousand days to God and vice versa. I didn’t question further. I simply accepted what I was being taught as facts.  I trusted my teachers, my parents, and God’s Word. Further, I trusted that the information aligned in some manner unbeknownst to me. I didn’t question the divide between Genesis and Science as taught by secular society to a great extent. I am in the minority for my generation and those after mine because my questions (or lack thereof) didn’t drive me away from my faith.

It doesn’t take much more than a quick Google search, a walk down the isle at a Christian book store, or simply a look at church demographics to know that young people are leaving the church in droves. Simple explanations or expectations for “faith” to sustain their questions will not suffice. 

What are a few reasons for the exodus of teens and young adults from the church? One of them is the faith/ intellect split which a secular-based culture has created. Faith and reason parted ways in the public arena around the 16th and 17th centuries with the  scientific revolution followed by the Enlightenment. Man declared himself as the ultimate intellectual authority that can determine, by reason and intellect, what to believe and how to act. It was a giant shift away from a biblical worldview and the recognized authority of God.

The faith/intellect split will go unquestioned, unnoticed perhaps, apart from intentional teachings against it. We must recognize the worldview behind the music we listen to, the shows and movies we watch, and the literature we read in order to determine truth from lies. We must enable children and students to  recognize and question the thought processes behind the information they are obtaining in order for them to wrestle with the teachings of the world, the truth of the Bible, and the doubts that internally arise while in middle and high school and prior to entering the college classroom. We must reclaim and pass on the biblical truths and scientific discoveries which make the connection between loving God with all of our mind not simply our souls, strength, and hearts. The consequences of neglecting this call to action are everlasting.

…one of the most important steps in recovering a Christian worldview is simply to recognize it, reclaim it, and reconnect it to its biblical roots. (Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leaonardo)

You may be asking, “So where do I begin?” Listed on my library page (click here) are a few apologetic resources which I have found helpful. A call to live cognizant of  worldviews is important to grasp for our faith and for the people God has placed within our spheres of influence. We are to pass on the knowledge of God to those who believe and to witness to those who have yet to believe. (2 Corinthians 2:14) God and science are not at odds; worldviews and interpretations of scientific data are.

signature

 

 

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Contemplation, Creation, Faith, Family, Worldview Tagged With: , , , ,

Questioning Evolution

3 Mar

Complexity Speaks to a Creator

They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. (Romans 1:25)

You may or may not be familiar with the term, worldview. Your worldview is the lens through which you view life. Your worldview constitutes all that you believe about the origin of the cosmos and man, moral right and wrong, the purpose and end aim of life, and what happens to man after he dies.

I have studied worldviews for the past three years. There are debatable divisions of worldview, but I have come to believe that we can narrow these divisions down to two umbrella groupings: Christian and naturalism.

A Christian worldview postulates that the world is created by God to be ruled by man. Further, that man should live within the boundaries of God’s laws and moral standards in order to bring God glory and live in freedom from sin. Finally, that man will die and face the judgment of God. Those who trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord will live eternally in Heaven and those who rejected Him will live in eternal separation from God in Hell.

Naturalism proposes that the earth and all life within happened by chance. It is a molecules-to-man mystery. In essence, everything evolved from simple amino acids that appeared out of nowhere and were created by no one. Further, that they became more complex organisms over time. Finally, after death man is no more. We live, we die and then we are gone—there is no eternity or none which we know of with any certainty.

Many scientists and Ph.D.’s with far greater knowledge of the workings of microbiology, zoology, biology, botany, and genetics than I possess, lean toward the naturalistic or evolutionary worldview. However, it seems that the naturalistic worldview goes against the observable laws that science holds to today. Even someone with an elementary grasp of science knows that something cannot be created from nothing and that the world tends toward chaos and away from order. Therefore, it seems that not only Christians profess belief requiring an amount of faith, but naturalists require a great deal of faith to explain the origin of life as well.

Naturalists and Christians/Creationists possess the same scientific and observational data; yet we interpret the data differently due to our worldview and presuppositions. However, modern science testifies that the complexity of observable life speaks to a Creator. Further, the microbiological workings of man, which can now be observed by modern technology, resound with the news: Chance and time cannot explain the specificity and complexity which abound within the workings of the cells of man.

So, without reading a scientific publication, or skipping over to Amazon to buy an expensive coffee table accessory, I invite you today to consider a few complex functions of everyday life that I propose point to a Creator rather than a natural notion to worship the created. Those who reject God in the name of science are really rejecting God in the name of worshiping the Universe which demands no account to a higher moral law. Naturalism is more palatable to sinful man.

No one is neutral. People know instinctively that if Christianity is true they will lose control and not be able to live any way they wish. (Timothy Keller via Twitter: @timkellernyc 3/3/2014)

Let’s consider the implications of evolution on the following everyday tasks:

  • Language: If today’s complex and diverse languages evolved over time–rather than were given to us by God at the Tower of Babel– why did man not retain one language to the next as the languages evolved over time?  Why is language study necessary? Why is there no one language? Does this mean that we can distinguish one language as better as or more viable than the next?
  • Pollination: If evolution explains the vast creatures that we see today then how do we account for plant-life reproduction prior to the evolution of bees? Plants would not be able to reproduce without pollination and most animals require vegetation to survive–if not vegetation then meat from animals that are plant eaters. How does evolution account for this?
  • Reproduction: If evolution explains the origins of animals and man, then how would reproduction change from animals over time (e.g. animals that lay eggs as opposed to live-birthing mammals)? How can evolution support this change in kind in an observable manner? Where is the evidence to support such claims in the fossil record or within the animal kingdom we observe today?

Creation, as outlined in the book of Genesis (creation and a worldwide flood), explains the world we see today. The creation account provides the Who, where, when, why, and how to the questions of the origins of man, the created world, and the topography we observe post-flood. Likewise, creationism functions within the findings and observations of modern day science in a manner that does not require going against the laws of science. Conversely, naturalism is a worldview which does not offer an answer to who, where, why, how, and when man came to be. The claims of evolution and naturalism cannot be tested and verified but must be accepted on faith.

Those who worship God and hold a biblical worldview have the responsibility to question the claims—taunted as fact–of naturalists rampant in the academic and social circles of our day. Further, we must be ready with a logical defense to the questions of skeptics.

What questions do you have to ask of evolution? In what ways are you prepared to give an account for the worldview that you adhere to?

signature

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Contemplation, Creation, Worldview Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Seeking Heaven

14 Jan

Seeking Heaven

Heaven, an eternal destination described in the scriptures yet a seeming mystery to man. Even so, the bible teaches that we are to set our minds on it:

Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1)

The Greek word translated “set your hearts on” is zeteo, which “denotes man’s general philosophical search or quest.” It is a diligent, active, single-minded investigation. So we can understand Paul’s admonition in Colossians 3:1 as follows: “Diligently, actively, single-mindedly pursue the things above”–in a word, Heaven. (Randy Alcorn, Heaven, pp. 20-21)

If we are to seek Heaven, why does the Bible seem so vague on what it will look like? Let’s consider the following:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

I agree, the scriptures seem a bit vague on what Heaven will look like, but perhaps that is because I have not searched them, studied them. Perhaps I haven’t sought Heaven. Additionally, heaven is a place for which the only reference point we have is our present earth.

The Holy Spirit will show us God’s deep secrets to the degree our finite time and space bound minds can fathom. With that in mind, join me on a 6 part series seeking to understand Heaven as our eternal home.

First, we need to address the topic of the present heaven and the eternal heaven for these are two different points of reference.

When a Christ-follower dies he or she is immediately in the presence of God. We know this for certain as Paul tells us that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8) Additionally, as Christ spoke to the repentant thief on the cross, “And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

Paradise, or the present heaven, is where Christ-followers go when they die prior to the second coming of Christ.

The word paradise comes from the Persian word pairidaeza, meaning “a walled park” or “enclosed garden.” It was used to describe the great walled gardens of the Persian king Cyrus’s royal palaces. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Greek word for paradise is used to describe the Garden of Eden. Later, because the Jewish belief that God would restore Eden, paradise became the word to describe the eternal state of the righteous, and to a lesser extent, the present Heaven. (Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p. 55)

Could it be that paradise or the present Heaven is the Garden of Eden? Perhaps. But the scriptures simply do not say.

My first question to this idea is, did God rescue Eden from the destruction of the earth during the world-wide flood? Did God take Eden up into heaven to be paradise or the present Heaven? The scriptures do not say this. However the Bible does tell us that Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden so that they would not eat from the tree of life and live forever. (Genesis 3:22-23) In the eternal Heaven man will live forever and Revelation tells us that two trees of life will be used to heal the nations. (Revelation 22:1-5) Thus implying a restored Eden of sorts.

Our God is a master storyteller and only He knows the answer to the question of the Garden of Eden’s fate with certainty.

After the final judgment (see Revelation 20:11-15) of all men and their works, God will create a new Heaven and a new earth in which God will make His home among His people.(Revelation 21:3) The New Jerusalem , the holy city, will be God’s eternal home to share with His people forever.

In closing, here are some physical descriptions of the eternal Heaven:

  • There will be no sea. (Revelation 21:1)
  • There will be no sun or moon for God illuminates the city. (Revelation 21:23)
  • There will be no night. (Revelation 22:25)
  • The holy city will be surrounded by a great wall made of jasper (with 12 foundation stones made of exquisite gems) and twelve gated entrances made each of a single pearl and guarded by angels. Three gates will be on each side of the square city and each will bear one of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. (Revelation 21:12-13,18)
  • The wall of the city has twelve foundation stones, and on them are the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Revelation 21:14)
  • There will be streets of pure gold like glass. (Revelation 21:21)
  • There will be a river flowing through the city from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the main street. (Revelation 22:1-2)
  • No evil will be allowed to enter the city. (Revelation 21:27)
  • No temple will be in the eternal Heaven for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. (Revelation 21:22)

Seeking the things above with you,

signature

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Contemplation, Heaven Our Home Tagged With: , , , , ,

Evaluating What Remains

30 Dec

Unpacking Christmas Evaluating What Remains

We return our decorations to their storage boxes to conclude another Christmas past. Upon evaluation of what remains, alongside the pine needles and glitter specks, I find wonder.

The wonder for Christians post-Christmas continues; the decorations are laid to rest year after year but our Savior lives on.

We pack away temporal Christmas treasures symbolizing peace, love, joy, and eternal hope; yet, eternal life is the gift that remains. No one can put a lid on the true meaning of Christmas because inexpressible light and joy promises to live on in the hearts of believers until such a time for His second coming.

The wrapping paper and boxes are disposed, the gifts received, and a few presents returned and in it all is this: The gift was given just over two thousand years ago and His is the gift which gives eternal.

As we embark on a new year, it is with the knowledge that no present brings peace and no gift brings reconciliation except the Christ whose birth we celebrate each year.

We stand on the threshold of a new year remembering His promises: Jesus will return and until such time He rewards those who live with faith and earnestly seeking Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Happy New Year, dear ones. I look forward to seeking our Savior with you in the year to come.

signature

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Contemplation, Holiday Tagged With: , ,