Category Archives: Christian Life

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New Skills We Learn When Side-lined

When it hits the fan.

Most of us have been there, side-lined from the action and hating it. We take a hit when we had planned for success.

I can group the things I have learned and continue to learn from side-liners in my life into two groups. I learn about myself and I learn in my spiritual walk, I believe both are essential to health and well-being.

It is helpful and enlightening.

It may have been an emotional undoing not visible to others, or it may have been an outward doing that is openly (and miserably) visible to others. Regardless, it was a hit that caught our breath, stopped our progress, and silenced us in some way.

I call it a “quiet space” because it forces a person to slow down and take personal inventory. Fighting the circumstance is not helpful or productive, it makes a person angry and bitter. Accepting the circumstance, learning what we can learn and then making positive choices will initiate and bring about some positives during a “quiet place” in our lives.

Truths we learn about ourselves.

  1. I am resilient: I am stronger than I think I am. I can manage the hard things that life throws out at me even when I think I can’t do it. I will get through this.
  2. I am gifted: I have untapped inner strength. I can let go of what holds me back and my inner self-doubt. I can find my potential and develop it until it becomes useful in my life.
  3. People care about me: Friends and family will help me. They want to see me beat this thing and become confident. Because they love me, they won’t allow me to slide away.
  4. I discover who I am: Throughout the crisis and its aftermath, I discover that I have abilities and talents that are/were unknown or buried. It is a joy to find these qualities that I bring to the table, and to implement new positive ways of doing and living life.
  5. I develop breadth as a person: Soul-searching brings a personal awareness that grows me as a person. Embracing change is a positive for implementing and producing healthy growth in several areas: physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectually, resourcefully, social interacting, self-initiative and personal-development.

Spiritual skills we learn and apply.

  1. I learn to trust in God: I trust in Him for the unknown,  for my physical, emotional, spiritual welfare, and to provide everything I need.
  2. I learn to listen to God: Though listening to God, I become finely attune to His desires for me, open to His touch and ministrations, closer in relationship with Him, and experience an on-going cleansing and renewing in my inner person.
  3. I learn to depend on God: I quit being in-charge of my life and destiny. I acknowledge His care. I learn to trust and believe when there’s no other way. This expands me to greater faith in God’s love, mercy, and care.
  4. I learn to follow God’s lead and His will: I begin to go in new directions with my life. When a door opens, I go for it without hesitation. I grasp God’s loving intention for me, redirecting my energy in the right places and letting go of self’s protective walls and self’s limited projections. I release me to follow Him.
  5. I wait with expectation: I learn and develop patient anticipation with a belief in God’s divine purpose for me. This teaches me to rest in God’s best, to stop impulsivity in my life and to wait until the door is opened unto me.

Those quiet times have purpose.

Those times when we sit on the sidelines due to illness, employment struggles, financial crisis, familial disruptions, emotional depletion or depression, are those times when we ask, seek and knock in newer areas. Often, these are life-changing interruptions of divine intent. Our projection for the future will be gently turned in a new direction, one that often brings greater purpose and meaning to our life. Just ask any of us who’ve been there.

We will say it was worth it in the long haul.

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The Life Ever After: The Truth of Heaven

0605002048Our view of heaven is too limited. There isn’t all that much information, I know.  Yet I believe heavenly life with the Savior is going to be amazing beyond prediction. That’s because He is amazing.

My thoughts are on heaven today. I am preparing a lesson about heaven for children. I don’t believe heaven is on the radar with most people. Can’t even say it’s on my radar all that much. It’s too out there, in another life. The present life seems a bit too frantic to even contemplate heaven during the daily busyness of living. But is it?

We’ve all heard the arguments. Why would anyone want to go to heaven ? Why would anyone not want to go to heaven?

What do you think heaven is really like? It’s a good question is it not? We have a scattering of ideas that come from passages sprinkled throughout the scriptures. People have written big books on heaven. I’m wading through Randy’s Alcorn’s study on heaven. A good read and convincing. Yet there isn’t all that much concrete information. There’s some conjecture. But, what is heaven really like?

What can we expect? Why would someone look forward to being there? In my lesson, I will talk about what is not in heaven: suffering, pain, sickness, evil, and so forth.  I will talk about what is in heaven: tree of life, book of life, celestial beings, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, homes, gold and jewels, people who have gone on before us, and so forth. Yet, it still can sound sort of tedious or boring. Is heaven boring?

The more I come to love my Savior and Father God, and to experience the Spirit’s life in me, the more I know that it is impossible to be bored in heaven. Life starts to get interesting once God is in control. Imagine the music. Wondrous harmonies. I think there will even be humor in heaven. Not boring in the least, contrary to what others may think who’ve not experienced God. Heaven could not be boring with Christ living there.

One reason heaven is so wonderful is that we will see with our eyes what we have by faith believed in our hearts.

There is another reason that Heaven will be the most amazing place ever. It has all to do with Son-ship. In heaven we will be family connected to the Source of all things living. This relatedness to the Triune God will put into our lives full acceptance and love. I have this feeling that everything will be brighter, more intense than in this shadowland we call earth. Once we are no longer mortal but have become immortal, we will rejuvenate and become ALL that we have ever wanted to be. There won’t be the endless striving and disappointments of the earthly journey. I am certain we will be more incredibly ALIVE, more radically FULL, more fully COMPLETE than we can even imagine.

Can you imagine that? What it will be like when our faith becomes sight, when we see our blessed Lord, the scars in His hands, the wounds in His feet, and we know Him in His heavenly presence. Wow!

I have long felt that the earth, in its groaning and suffering with its struggle under sin’s curse, is like something bound in a closed system. At times there are glimpses into the heavenly realm. For the past few years I have been seeking God with an intense fervor. I want to know God. At times I experience a joy and fullness that is overwhelmingly beautiful.

One time it happened while I was singing in church with the worship team. There was such spontaneous joy inside of me that I could barely contain myself. I felt like shouting and jumping up and down. It felt as if beams of light were radiating out from me. My smile was so big that I probably looked foolish. This happened to me during a time of personal crisis in my life, when I was drawing deep from God’s well.  I wonder if that will be the way of rejoicing and worshiping in heaven? I sure hope so.

Heaven will be a “safe house,” a home that is welcoming, serene, loving and radiant. I love it that Jesus says, “In my father’s house are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you.” We are “family” in Jesus’ “Father’s house.”

Another time, I was writing at the computer after spending a long while in prayer and meditation. It was in the morning. I was looking out the kitchen window. The clouds were glorious and I was watching them change shapes. For a moment, just a moment, I saw varied colors transfusing the sky in indescribable colors, rich and bright. Then they were gone. I wondered at it. Was it a glimpse into the heavenlies of God? It was as if I saw through a veil into a place of grandeur.

There are many reasons to anticipate heaven Just to walk with Jesus will be a miracle of peace and joy. The difficulties of the earthly realm will fade away into oblivion. Past hurts will lose their hold on us. People who have wronged us will be fully forgiven and enjoyed in renewed relationship.

Jesus says, ” I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.”  Jesus is the way, the Gatekeeper, we must pass to get there.

The Bible is the road map that tells us the directions to heaven.
Jesus Christ is the Way to get to heaven. He is the Truth and the Life.
There is no other way. No shortcuts or bribes or good deeds are enough.
A person cannot pay their way into heaven. …Not to worry. It is a free gift called salvation.
We are saved by Christ’s redeeming love through His shed blood on the cross.

Heaven is a by-product of a life hidden in Christ.