What is your picture of heaven?

Our Pictures of Love  

The crisis of hope that afflicts the church today is a crisis of imagination. Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft writes: Medieval imagery (which is almost totally biblical imagery) of light, jewels, stars, candles, trumpets, and angels no longer fits our ranch-style, supermarket world. Pathetic modern substitutes of fluffy clouds, sexless cherubs, harps and metal halos (not halos of light) presided over by a stuffy divine Chairman of the Bored are a joke, not a glory. Even more modern, more up-to-date substitutes—Heaven as a comfortable feeling of peace and kindness, sweetness and light, and God as a vague grandfatherly benevolence, a senile philanthropist—are even more insipid. Our pictures of Heaven simply do not move us; they are not moving pictures. It is this aesthetic failure rather than intellectual or moral failures in our pictures of Heaven and of God that threatens faith most potently today. Our pictures of Heaven are dull, platitudinous and syrupy; therefore, so is our faith, our hope, and our love of Heaven.
(Everything You Wanted to Know About Heaven)

If our pictures of heaven are to move us, they must be moving pictures. So go ahead—dream a little. Use your imagination. Picture the best possible ending to your story you can. If that isn't heaven, something better is. When Paul says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor. 2:9), he simply means we cannot out-dream God. What is at the end of our personal journeys? Something beyond our wildest imagination. But if we explore the secrets of our heart in the light of the promises of Scripture, we can discover clues. As we have said, there is in the heart of every man, woman, and child an inconsolable longing for intimacy, for beauty, and for adventure. What will heaven offer to our heart of hearts?

- Eldredge - Sacred Romance

Who does this kind of thing?

2 sheets of tin, a gift from God?

"Champak and Sadhri were working on their roof—again—when a visitor came by. That they were hard at work should have made it obvious they weren't in the mood for his "sales pitch." The booklets he presented did look interesting, but how could a couple patching the roof with tree leaves afford his wares? They had struggled to

The God who is at war

The Religious Spirit
I was reading the prophet Jeremiah a few weeks ago when I ran across a passage that referred to God as "the Lord Almighty." To be honest, it didn't resonate. There's something too religious about the phrase; it sounds churchy, sanctimonious. The Lawd Almiiiighty. It sounds like something your grandmother would say when you came into her kitchen covered in mud. I found myself curious about what the actual phrase means in Hebrew. Might we have lost something in the translation? So I turned to the front of the version I was using for an explanation. Here is what the editors said: Because for most readers today the phrases "the Lord of hosts" and "God of hosts" have little meaning, this version renders them "the Lord Almighty" and "God Almighty." These renderings convey the sense of the Hebrew, namely, "he who is sovereign over all the 'hosts' (powers) in heaven and on earth, especially over the 'hosts' (armies) of Israel." No, they don't. They don't even come close. The Hebrew means "the God of angel armies," "the God of the armies who fight for his people." The God who is at war. Does "Lord Almighty" convey "the God who is at war"? Not to me, it doesn't. Not to anyone I've asked. It sounds like "the God who is up there but still in charge." Powerful, in control. The God of angel armies sounds like the one who would roll up his sleeves, take up sword and shield to break down gates of bronze, and cut through bars of iron to rescue me. Eldredge - Waking the Dead

Say Cheese! (Dedicated to our good friend!)

• 12/9/2013 at 10:36 AM
 
• 77Comments

2013 Was a Big Year for Naming Your Baby ‘Cheese’

• By Dan Amira

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In a sign of the increasing Georgeification of American baby names, the number of newborns named Cheese soared 450 percent this year. Admittedly, the above graph, from BabyCenter.com, shows that only nine American babies were named "Cheese" in 2013. However:

(a) BabyCenter's data comes from a survey of about 500,000 parents. There are about 4 million babies born in the United States each year. That means 72 may be a more accurate figure for the number of babies named Cheese in 2013.

(b) The correct number of babies who should be named Cheese is zero. 

BabyCenter is unsure about the origin and meaning of the name Cheese:

The origin of Cheese is cheese. The meaning of Cheese is cheese

Proof that God exists!

[Guatemala bloggers] Proof that God exists
Posted on September 24, 2013 by Matthew Paul Turner in Child Sponsorship

The World Vision bloggers returned home from Guatemala a week ago, having witnessed firsthand how World Vision’s work helps transform the lives of children, families, and communities through child sponsorship. Matthew Paul Turner writes about his prayer during the trip to be able to feel and witness the experience.

The post below originally appeared on Matthew’s blog.

*     *     *

Today I woke up in Guatemala.

As I walked out of my hotel room toward the bus that would drive us to our first stop, I prayed …

G

Can a piece of paper really make a difference?

As a sponsor, the special relationship you build with your sponsored child through your letters and prayers is crucial in helping to meet that child’s needs. A relationship is a two-way street. The letters you receive from your sponsored child can open your eyes to life in different parts of the world, inspire you and broaden your understanding of what it means to be part of the kingdom of God.

But the impact on sponsored children can be even more profound. Your letters can inspire them to study

Food for thought ....

(Sorry, can't remember where I found this, so credit goes to:  The Author)

It is also a motivating factor for us as believers while we are still here living on earth. We are to look for any opportunity, whether it is an open door to share or initiate a conversation to begin to open a door.
If all of us discipled 1 person a year the whole world would have the potential of being saved within 20 years (those who are called by God).

Consider the statistics of there being one a billion Christians now. If only a 100 million Christians (10%) would disciple 1 person each year this turns to 200 million in the first year- then it multiplies to 4 hundred million the second year- 8 hundred million in a three years. Then on the 4th year to one and half billion- to three billion on the fifth year, to 6 billion in the 6th year. And that is if we disciple only 1 person a year.

Of course not everyone will believe and even less will witness. It’s obvious we have a problem with timidity and confidence that the message will do what Jesus said it would. We are told that the Lord has not given us a spirit of fear but power (a sign of being filled with the spirit), courage, love, (a living care for those unsaved) and a sound mind (one who is able to think through the arguments to refute them biblically). The church would be far more successful in God’s eyes if we did the works He called us to.

My lawn mower has a better place to live.

Recently, a couple on staff had the opportunity to travel to the mission field and visit one of the largest slums in Asia. Through their time spent in this slum, they saw just how real the importance of basic health and hygiene is to those living in poor conditions. This is

Are we becoming the righteousness of God?

Yup, here's Os again . . . . (I probably should stop posting him, and you could just read every day at

utmost.org, it's awesome, simple, truth)

Substitution

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him —2 Corinthians 5:21

The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us. Yet

Mas Fotos

More Pictures from last week's Honduran influenced Pabama run.


Trying to figure out exactly what should be done. Funny, once we prayed about it, things just seemed to fall into place.  Funny.

What is it like for God?

For some reason I often wonder what God thinks.  He can see everything at once, he can see what I am doing, while he also sees what is happening around the world . . . 

I got a small picture again today (11-12-13) of what this must be like, in the headlines .... 

A Dios Sea La Gloria! (To God be the Glory!)

This past week was a special Pabama run for many reasons.  One reason, of course, was the fact that 4 of our new friends from Honduras joined us.  While the rest of the Hondurans were practicing for their AWESOME concert Friday night, Manuel, Maria, Mimi, and Rolando ("Lolo") joined us for a great time helping out a brother and sister from church that are hurting.

As always, this was a completely serious event, right Sabatino!  (Chia Willie?)

Blast that metronome!!!!

Why?  Why Etienne Loulié in 1696 did you create a mechanical metronome?  And then, Johann Maelzel, why did you have to go ahead and polish up and first produce the device that now, today, haunts me so?

Without them, what might have happened, who could I have been?

Instead their dastardly device still roams at the edge of my thoughts, always ready to hop in with it's haunting <tick----tick----tick----tick>.  Never ending, never changing .....  always there to remind you: 'You don't belong here.  You can't keep time.'

So, what has drawn this beast back from the edge of my thoughts into the forefront?  

The needs right here at home . . . .

Unemployment chief cause of homelessness

By Annette.Manwell

@hollandsentinel.com
(616) 546-4270 
Posted Nov. 12, 2013 @ 7:00 am 

Holland, Mich.

The Holland area might enjoy an unemployment rate lower than the state and national averages, but unemployment and, more specifically, underemployment, are the principal causes of homelessness.

The Holland Rescue Mission houses a number of people who work steady jobs, said Holly Bekius, the men’s ministry assistant at the mission. But people earning minimum wage up to $10 per hour struggle to find affordable housing.

One woman, who will be called Jenny for the purpose of anonymity, was working and “doing

You are a child of God, you are not a mere mortal

What if we treated ourselves and others as God sees us?

As C. S. Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory:
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. . . . There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Or Marianne Williamson in A Return to Love:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”