The Heavens: God’s Universe Where We Live

The Heavens: God’s Universe Where We Live       8-16-15       by Kelly Durant

Daniel 12:3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

2. How many of you have ever spent a long time admiring and gazing at the stars or the moon? The heavens are fascinating, don’t’ you agree? On a clear night you could stare for hours and be marveled at all of what you see! We perceive that these mysterious luminous bodies seem to communicate something. It’s mystifying! They remind us we are little nobodies on a tiny planet. God has a purpose for them and that purpose serves within physical and spiritual attributes.

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. 4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

From this Psalm the obvious is stated, God made the universe and all things in it to declare His glory! The stars, the sun, and all the paths (line in vs 4) of the celestial bodies speak to all people of all generations in a celestial language. It communicates that there is exists a Creator far more superior than you or I that put it all in motion. Our earth spins over 1,000 miles per hour! Mega-stars mega billions of light years away are beyond our comprehension! God is amazing! We only see the stars in our immediate Milky Way galaxy yet the vastness of space contains billions of galaxies!

3. First let’s explore the correlation of the stars and outer space as it relates to the events that will occur within our Biblical faith. We studied about God’s heaven recently, and that unseen dimension is always on our minds when a loved one passes on to glory. Heaven, the spirit world where God’s Kingdom exists, has always been imagined to be somewhere out there in space. Why? Because there is the fact that Jesus ascended up into heaven’s space, and because his angels said He would return from Heaven to earth, angels in heaven praised His birth; so logically we conclude the heavens contain a mysterious connection to God through which He uses to communicate and announce events of our future. 

Revelation 1:7 “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him:”, we relate this to mean that the heavens or space are intertwined with God’s Heavenly Kingdom as portal or gate through which one passes.

Another verse referring to ourselves going up into space is: I Thessalonians 4: 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

4. And then we have the mysterious verse of today in Daniel that compares our spiritual faithfulness to the brightness of the stars. “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”

What is the God inspired interpretation of this? That the people who are the most faithful to God will shine bright! The obvious is some will be dim and others will be bright depending upon how much faith they had in God. Is this only symbolic or does it have another possible application? Reviewing Revelation chapter 1 Jesus is described as being extremely bright 1:16b “and his countenance was as the sun shining in his strength” In other words, he is blindingly powerful!

If we relate the brightness of light to heavenly glory and power, this verse implies we will be granted by God an immense amount of energy to affirm our heavenly glory. I speculate that possibly every person or celestial being whoever was or will be, has a correlated star somewhere in space. Jesus is identified with the “morning star”! Revelation 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. This postulation creates a curiosity and sparks the desire for an in depth study at a future time.

5. Another correlation to the stars, God told Abraham Genesis 22:17 “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;” When you look at the sky with the naked human eye can see only about 5,000 stars, which is very deceiving to the reality of God’s universe. What is amazing is to realize that Abraham’s descendants will be mega trillions upon trillions more than our little cluster of stars. There are trillions of stars present in each of the estimated 125 billion existing galaxies that Hubble and other space probes calculate! And the grains of sand? These numbers imply trillions multiplied by mega quadrillions, which might as well be infinity! That is a mind boggling amount of created beings that will blessed and honor God!  

The heavens, which refers to the universe, or universes, is a space dimension that we have barely begun to explore and mostly only theories explain its mechanics. From the beginning of man’s creation, people have felt mysterious things affecting them from the signs and events in the heavens. Genesis begins answering the question where it all came from, that God brought light and the heavens and the earth into existence.

6. A curious recent explanation of the mechanics of the universe, of space & time, is the string theory. It is the most recent and accepted idea that it is the existence of vibrations that maintains the forces of the energies of matter running in a diversity of motion. This contains a truth in a certain way when you consider that God’s spoken Word is in effect a sound and light vibration expression. John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God 2 The same was in the beginning with God 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Referring to how it all came into existence, the very first culture we know about that kept recorded cuneiform records were the Sumerians who studied the stars intensely. It is curious how the earth’s ancient cultures seemed to have an advanced knowledge of the stars as if they observed them from space. One might conclude that God taught Adam about the celestial bodies and this information was passed down, but later, as a broken telephone, it suffered distortions and perversions due to sin and cultures drifting away from the worship of God.

How does one explain that the Babylonians knew so much about the stars? In Daniel the Babylonians are considered to be a great superior culture, as the head of gold on the image in chapter 2. In Daniel 1, however, Daniel and his friends proved brighter that the Babylonian astrologers; 20 And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.

7. All ancient cultures show evidence of having been obsessed with their connectedness to the heavens. It is that they marveled at God’s precision which we can experience through celestial bodies? The Babylonians (which created the zodiac), left knowledge for the Greeks and Romans, yet these fell into celestial worship. Astrology and worship of the stars still persists today and it is obviously sinful to be idolizing the created as more important than the worship of the Creator. It is an abomination to worship anything but God. (see Romans 1)

The influences of the stars on the earth today serve mostly as markers for navigation but they have other influences as well. Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? This verse implies that the ancients (Job lived in 2,200 BC) had names for each of the stars and they knew of their power of influence being good or bad by their name and brightness. (The 3 great pyramids of Egypt were originally lined up to Orion’s belt)

Psalm 147:4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. This verse confirms that God is not just involved in each of our individual lives (which is a micro universe of trillions of cells in itself!) knowing each of us by our names even counting how many hairs we have, but God also controls heavenly bodies as well (a macro universe). Because of astrology and the zodiac modern day Christians have shied away from learning much about the stars and learning them by name, but we need a balance; we actually should appreciate the images of the heavens and be awestruck at the wonders of the vast, mysterious power of God’s celestial creation. Imagine; a name exists for each of the stars and for each person, which when fully manifested, is trillions multiplied by trillions!

8. The wicked are condemned by God to be compared to wandering stars. Jude 1:13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Could this be a reference to black hole suns that are illusive and erratic? A star that instead of providing precious energy and light is instead a massive heavenly anomaly consuming light and its own self due to its own exaggerated mass weight! It does the opposite of a light bearing star as it is consuming all the other stars and bodies in its path.  

I have even imaged that a soul condemned to hell might be like one that is captured in the mass of a black hole. This would be a spirit trapped in an eternal black dense gravity shredder never escaping its own weight, energy destruction, and darkness. These wandering bodies are the most extreme black, dense and hot, altered matter terrors in the universe.

9. Currently in our degraded bodies we are comparable to ordinary worms, but one day, if we have been faithful to Jesus, we will transform into glow worms! Our human capabilities have been limited by God on purpose due to sin and the fall of man since Adam. The amazing thing is Jesus reconciled our sin with God and promised us a heavenly body to be resurrected. It will be a heavenly body that shines with light as Jesus shines.

Jesus became glowing after time with God on the mount close to heaven, so we must conclude that light, energy, and supernatural qualities will be a part of what we will share with Jesus as well. Matthew 17 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

10. Also, in the Old Testament, recall how Moses glowed after he came down the Mount of Sinai with a brightness so intense they had to cover his head! Our bodies when charged up by God will transform with a brightness that we cannot experience as of yet. Only the most holy experienced it, but we will too if faithful.  

And finally, recall that Jesus birth was announced by a bright star! There are many mysteries about stars and the universe that we may never understand because we can only observe them through the human eye and through the limited lenses of telescopes. Only His spirit reveals the parable parallels of His truth! 

The ultimate question is this…How bright do you want to shine after you are resurrected with Jesus? How pure are you right now so that the light of God beams out of you as it does with a diamond? If you are dirty, the light gets cancelled out by the darkness. If you are not living in holiness with God’s Holy Spirit making your face to shine now, how do you expect to shine when in heaven? Come pray, ask God to put your life on a path that will bring you more brightness in heaven, doing His work in the here and now! Shine for Jesus by letting Jesus shine through you! 

Death: Mourning to Morning

Death: Mourning to Morning                                                            by Kelly Durant

Text: Genesis 23:1-4.

2. It is Biblical to take a time to mourn the loss of a loved one. How many of you have lost someone you loved? Did you take a few days or weeks to allow the pain of the loss to pass? Let’s consider these examples in the Old and New Testaments.

Abraham mourned when Sarah died. Genesis 23:2

2 She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.

Mary mourned for Lazarus.   John 11:31 The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there.

Jesus pronounced a blessing on those who mourn.

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

The followers of Jesus are asked to share their feelings with those who mourn.

 Rom 12:15-16 5Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

3. So what is the meaning of mourning?  It means to grieve, to endure a painful feeling for a time for a loss or for someone passed on. When do people usually mourn?

Most of us mourn right after a loved one is taken away from us!  Matthew 9:15

15 Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

God grants us permission to cry and to be sad when a loved one is taken away. Naturally, we are sad when we realize we can no longer visit or talk to that person, or to hear their voice. It sparks many memories of all the special things you did with that person.

4. We believe in the Word of God, and the Scriptures emphasize that a believer who has given his or her life to Jesus, is not dead but alive!  The loved one that has passed on from this life on earth has gone to live in the Kingdom of God in the presence of Jesus.

To be with Jesus is better than being here!  2 Cor 5: 8 “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”  This verse reveals that Paul knew it would be much better to go home, but none of us go until the Lord wills it.

All of our loved ones who loved God are in the presence of Jesus in heaven. They live with the Lord in eternity! If we were to ask a departed loved one if they would like to come back into their old, weak, and sick body, I’m sure they would not want to! Who would not be happy when you are with the Lord Jesus and with all the saints who have finished their race here on earth?

5. Mourning is an understandable lamenting for one who has left us, but our comfort is that it is only temporarily!  It is not a mourning of sadness as if we will never see him or her again. Those who put their trust in the Lord Jesus will be together with Him and with their loved ones for eternity!

None of us can stop the sadness of a loss. Saying goodbye is always a sad thing. But remember, this is not a goodbye as if we will never see our loved one again, we will meet them again.

How do we know that our loved one is with the Lord Jesus? It is by faith as we place our trust in the infallible Word of God. The God followers rest in Heaven. Do you recall Samuel was bothered when he had his peace disturbed to return to communicate a message of doom to Saul? Jesus did the miracle of raising up Lazarus, and He will raise up all of us in His time! Jesus himself did not remain dead but He was resurrected on the third day proving that God accepted His bodily sacrificial death as an offering for the sins of whosoever will accept him. He gives to us eternal life and we shall never perish!

6. When Jesus died on the cross, he said these words, “It is finished.” This means that the debt for our sins was settled and death no longer would reign over the spirit of anyone.  The benefits of death include the certainty of a future resurrection as Jesus proved is possible. It is available to all who will repent of their sins, and turn to Christ for forgiveness and accept Him as Savior and Lord of their lives.

When we are sure a loved one has repented of his or her sins, and has asked Jesus Christ for forgiveness receiving Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, according to the Holy Scriptures we have the certainty that that loved one has passed from death to life right now through Jesus.

John 5:24 " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”

7. After we have had time to mourn, it is time for a new morn; we must rise up and keep on going with life. It is a transition from passing from a mourning time, to a sunrise time, to the acceptance of a new morning with new horizons.

After Abraham completed his mourning, he rose up.

Genesis 23:3  Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, 4 "I am an alien and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead."

After a time, and we will feel when that is, we need to move on and rise up. To mourn for months and months wearing black everyday as done in South America and many parts of the world I contend is not healthy. We must mourn for a short season, but then we must stop the mourning.

Why stop? Because life must go on and we need to look to the future!  All life, our selves included, will go the way of all living beings with a sunrise and a sunset. One day you and I will travel down that road through the “valley of the shadow of death” but we will not fear. Until our time is come, we have work to do.

8. How long should any one of us mourn? I can’t give an answer to that. It all depends on the individual. Some people will need a few days, some a few weeks, others maybe a few months. It is important that we mourn properly as it is comparable to allowing a wound to heal. But notice that after a time all wounds heal and we must be thankful for that renewed moment.

Some people experience problems getting past hurt feelings. They are tempted to dwell on the past which they can never get back again. Some people even remain angry at others even years after they are out of their life; the pain lingers as if it happened yesterday. Others may also get angry at God and blame Him for untimely events that disrupted their world but dwelling in the past will destroy one’s present and one’s future.

How do we live with a new morning? We get involved with people and we do things to get our mind off the subject. We must not mourn years and years, as human beings we have a need to have fun in life because we have a God who wants us to be happy. We don’t have a sad God, we have a happy God! Forget the past, forgive what you must, and seek a bright future.

9.  After a new morning, a new dawn, and a moving on we discover God’s new purpose for our lives. In the end we see God fulfill His purposes as we make new friends and do new things. Let’s take a look at Abraham’s actions after the death of Sarah.

Genesis 23:3-4

3 Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, 4 "I am an alien and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead. Abraham left the city of Ur with his father when he was a young man. God had planned for Abraham to inherit the land of Canaan and to be a father to many nations.  

Genesis 12:1-3

1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

2 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

Although Abraham settled in Canaan for about 50 years, he did not own any land of his own in Canaan. He had his sheep and cattle grazed on rented land. He was a still a foreigner in the land inhabited by the Canaanites. However, now with the death of Sarah, he takes the opportunity to buy his first piece of property – a field with a burial cave for his departed wife.

10. After Sarah’s death, Abraham would now own his first piece of property in the land that would later be called Israel. He and his descendants would eventually own the entirety of the Promised Land that today includes Israel, Palestine and the surrounding nations. Sarah’s work on earth had been completed. Abraham’s work was not. But through the life and death of Sarah, God fulfilled his purposes for Abraham and his descendants.

Years earlier God used the death of Terah, Abraham’s father to make him move on from the city of Haran. It was God’s plan for Abraham and his family including his father Terah to settle down in the land of Canaan to and be a separate nation. But Abraham for one reason or another had chosen to settle down in Haran which is half-way to Canaan. Abraham only began to move on to the Promised Land upon the death of his father Terah. Abraham at the age of 75 with all his family left Haran after the death of Terah (11:32). The lesson we learn is that after mourning, we must rise up and move on no matter how old we are.

Sarah passed away long ago but the purposes of God and the lessons of human history bringing new revelations of God to His people continues on. The hand of God on human history does not end with the death of Sarah, the death of a great man such as Abraham, or the death of one of our loved ones. They each fulfilled a God inspired destiny and each of us has our own to fulfill.

11. After the darkness a new morning will rise! Our Christian descendants will keep the faith alive! God works through one generation, then God works through the next generation after that. God is referred to as the God of “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” This implies that God will always be present doing a work in our children and our children’s children. This gives me hope!

You and I must pray to allow our mourning to pass into a morning! We must rise up and move on after God has helped us heal with His comforting Holy Spirit after a time, so we then fulfill the next mission and calling. We will pass on to the other side to heaven, but we will leave a legacy to our children and our grandchildren.  Leaving them faith in Jesus and eternal life is the best legacy one could ever give!

Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted” Each ending offers a new beginning!  May our resurrected Lord Jesus keep and bless you and I in the good times, sad times, and dying times! A promotion to glory is a priceless prize for us, the faithful, at the end of life’s race! Keep on until the finish line! 

HEAVEN! Can’t Wait To Be There!

HEAVEN!  Can’t Wait To Be There!                                                By Kelly Durant 8-9-15

Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

2. How many of you have ever had a dream about heaven? Have you been flying like an angel? You are not alone! Thousands upon thousands of books and testimonies exist of people who have dreamed about heaven! And there are those who temporarily died, and come back to life, and witnessed heaven! Well, frighteningly, some others have reported they witnessed hell!

Heaven is what we all look forward to, and because Jesus spoke about it, it gives us hope of a much better existence than the one we have to endure. The Old Testament was not very clear about what the spirit world held for us in the future, or how heaven would be. But here it’s made clear by Jesus, John 14:2 “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you”. I’ve always thought, why do I need a mansion on earth? I prefer the one in heaven! What gain is there to invest so much in this decaying material world and then one day you will leave it all behind? You and I are just pilgrims just passing through this temporary place. Wise people invest in heaven!

1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”  In other words, some of the people that have had a little glimpse of heaven in a dream or vision, have really not seen anything yet! It is going to be even better than all your dreams combined!

3. Why am I bringing up the subject of heaven? Because everyone wants to know about it! I have never met anyone yet who does not like to talk about heaven! (Well, some atheists deny heaven’s existence even though they accept science’s rendition of a multidimensional universe and how sad for them as they are missing out!)Try to bring up the subject of hell, and see if people like to talk about it! It’s not very popular as some people know it is a real place for the wicked and they are afraid to seek God to know if they are one of them! Everyone wants to go to heaven, do you not agree? But if they would go there or not, that’s between Jesus and them and what they are doing with their life. We can have a role in offering salvation and heaven to them, by offering them Jesus love, but each person decides for their self. We all need to be reminded of heaven as often as possible so we live happier in the present because it is our hope and future reality! It is where our Christian loved ones are!

What is the heaven of your dreams? How do you want heaven to be anyway? The verse of today describes something beautiful… “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible! I can’t wait, can you? That’s the way the world should be! Free from pain and suffering!

Imagine a perfect world where all creatures live in harmony and love and live in happiness forever! Imagine getting a new resurrected heavenly body that never will hurt, get sick, or die. And all the suffering we see today will all stop! Rev 7:16 “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.”  This is the way I want the world to be, the heaven I want to live in! Imagine, nothing hurts or bothers you, there is only the love, beauty, and the light of God’s presence! Now that is a utopian paradise!

4. Another favorite verse of mine is in Isaiah 65:25 “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord”.  I thank God for the book of Revelation as it describes heaven in a way that most of us as clueless thinkers have never thought of. It is described it as a physical place with beautiful elements which we value here on earth.  Heaven will exist in a time and space continuum but in Revelation 10:6b it states, ”That there should be time no longer.” We interpret that to mean measuring time would be meaningless as all things are maintained in an eternal state in a heavenly dimension we are not familiar with yet. String theory says 11 dimensions exist, maybe there are 12, who knows but let’s explore the number 12 in heaven.

”Rev 21:19-20 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

I wanted to start a rock collection of all 12 of these stones but I soon realized that it is not in my budget!  One time I wanted to calculate how far man could get if all nations gathered up all the precious stones on earth to build a wall such as this one described in Revelation which is 1,500 miles long, or 6,000 miles in it’s total length & it has a width (?), and the height is 216 feet high! I am sure that on earth we cannot even construct 10 feet of it given earth’s limited resources! And don’t forget the streets of gold!

5. Heaven is the eternal City of God that we all are anxiously looking forward to get to! Hebrews 11:16 “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” Man starts out in a garden then ends up in a City. I really do not fully understand why God needs heaven to have streets of gold and with precious stone walls, but what it appears like is heaven will be electrified! Energy will radiate and vibrate throughout the whole structure. Why is this a legitimate assumption?

Revelation 11:19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. Lightning is electric and all the other shakings provoked by it!

Everything has a purpose, and apart from heaven being eternal in its physical composition, it will contain elements of what we are familiar with here along with things we are to learn about. I have had dreams of being in heaven and what I recall is less about the beautiful surrealistic surrounding nature, and more about the indescribably feeling of peace and joy. John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

6. God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and He can transcend the laws of physics which he established, and with Him the eternal can be maintained over any material. I know that God has precision and reason behind His architectural design in that unknown world. Only Christians are blessed with the Word of God revealing to them the beauty of heaven. Other religion’s versions pale comparatively, and their renditions of heaven often are disappointingly false concoctions of carnal man’s desire of pride!

Recall how the High Priests in the Old Testament had 12 precious gems on their breastplates representing the 12 tribes of Israel. God esteems us, his people, to be compared to these beautiful colorful, light emitting stones. Quartz and similar stones capture sound and radio waves, and the mysteries of God are still not yet understood by our tiny 3 pounds of grey matter! 

In our resurrected bodies we will still perceive light as we do now and all of the colors will be for our enjoyment! The most important thing is that in heaven we will be in God’s house, a house that He is the architect of. And if Jesus is there, I want to be near Him! And you?

7.  Just by being in the presence of God we will have eternal light, life, and indescribable joy! The Biblical definition of hell is an eternal existence separated from the presence of God in a burning darkness! God owns all the beauty of all things created and he created and administrates the unique ‘tree of life’ that will sustain all who are allowed to partake of it forever. Why would anyone want to mess up their chance for this? John gave us the Revelation of heaven because God wanted him to see it and to write down how amazing it is!

Rev. 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. So to answer the question of many of you, yes, you will we get to eat in heaven! Fruit, in particular!

Heaven is where your memory of this past hellish earth will be over written with new beautiful experiences and you will be surround by a new group of pure loving people who are authentically holy and loving being angels many who are transformed former humans. Many of the people there you will know and recognize. Matthew 8:11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. How wonderful is that! I want to talk to them! 

8. Heaven will be all of what we could never afford here on earth, and there we will not have to make payments on it either! Jesus paid a high price to pay for it for us in order for us to enjoy it forever! John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Few people have grasped how valuable this is!

Let’s obey God and Jesus in everything, in every way, loving, serving, trusting, and worshipping! Reread Revelation 21 and 22 and be heavenly in your thoughts, dreams, and behavior! If you are not practicing heavenly manners in the present, don’t think that God will assume you will be any better in the future. Revelation 22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

How can you and I be heavenly minded and be holy as God is? Phil 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

So keep dreaming of heaven, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace! Remember Heaven, is the place of our destiny. It is important to dream about, envision it, and look forward to as it will be our future home where God will wipe away all our tears! And remember these words I love from this old gospel song that says:

When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!

When we all see Jesus, We’ll sing and shout the victory!

Troubles & Worries, But No Despair

Troubles & Worries, But No Despair                             Kelly Durant    August 1, 2015

2 Corinthians 4:7-9

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

2. Have you every screamed out loud, really cried out, to the Lord for help in distress?  One time my wife and I were traveling between Bogota & Cucuta in our 1984 Ford Fairmont. (In our 14 years abroad we only owned a car for 2 years) There are many steep mountainous cliffs on the way there and no ledges to pull off onto and many crashes occur when one semi-truck passes another between the mountain and the cliffs. The problem is coming around the curving mountains you are blinded to never know when you will face 2 trucks head on head on with one passing another!

This very scenario happened to me and my wife and by a miracle a small edge appeared by the cliff side and we pulled over on it to break to a frightening stop as 2 trucks passed us on that pitch dark single lane road. My wife and I both cried out, “Jesus, Jesus save us!” Instead of going off the edge of a mountain we were saved! How could God time it so precise with that ledge to save us! God has saved us from death many times, actually! Thanks be to God we did not die of heart failure either!

A near death experience, a sudden fear, or an accident will drive you seek God! It is just a natural response to either cry out to God, or to curse God, depending on your heart’s condition! Many times bad things happen to good people and in the end only God knows why. All we can do is accept that God has a plan and obviously His will is being done even though we may not like it, agree with it, or understand it.

It is painfully hard, but we have to accept that we are just frail people in frail bodies living in a broken sinful world where many tragedies happen daily! Our bodies, and our spirits housed within them, are not of iron but of clay and they can break easily. But if we seek Him, God can be our strength keeping us together. 7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” The power we have to endure all our fragilities living in these jars made of clay comes from God! To Him is the glory forever!

3. Each one of us here have had times of troubles and despair and most everyone relates to King David’s clamors to God in the Psalms. Psalms 3:4 I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. Have you ever yelled out to God for help? I have often!

The anguishes and pains we suffer in this life are very real and do hurt so much they often leave us with a scar. How many of you have scars on your bodies? What about a scar from a traumatic experience? Pain changes each of us! We either become close friends with God praying the whole time for hope and healing, or we may become embittered as those who have no faith, who curse God for allowing evil to happen to them or a loved one. I have met many bitter people in my life, and some of them have even been “so called” Christians. I hope you are not one of them here today!  How sad, right?  Here is a poem to reflect deeper …

       THE SCAR    by Kelly Durant

1-Writhen tissue

A deadened stain

Disfigured past

Evident pain

2-Nakedly exhibits

Itself indifferently

To the cringing, ill world

Indiscriminately

3-Exposed surface

Imbedded screams

Painted trauma

Recanting dreams

4-Cruelty left its mark

Let it be diminished

By the hope of God in

Surroundings unblemished

Cursing God gets no one anywhere! Job’s wife saw Job so miserable after losing his wealth, health, and family (who were killed by robbers) that she in Job 2:9 said this, “Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die!” If Job would have done that he would have died in despair, failure, and humiliated by Satan, but He answered her to the contrary. 10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

4. Sometimes our pain in life can come from empathy as we suffer when someone we love suffers. Some Christians have this compassionate quality of love, but not all. People that truly love others are capable of putting their selves in the shoes, mind, and body of another. This connectedness causes you or me to want to help, console, and show compassion in the very way Jesus intended for us to do it in our love for one another.  Matthew 14:14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.

In desperate times our prayers need more desperation! You may even need to scream and cry and let God know how hurt you feel! A little silent prayer will not do when you or I are under stress and afraid for an uncertain or difficult future. Let God know how you feel! God loves to feel us, hear us, and answer us! That is how David did it! His passionate prayers and songs are an encouragement to us even 3,000 years later!

To obtain comfort from God we must converse with Him in prayer! We must gain strength from Him by reading His Word! And we must support one another by doing what we can to make life easier in some way! 1 John 3:17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

5. The verses of today continue, 2 Cor.4:8 “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;” After you let it out and vocalize it in prayer, what should you do?  Should you stay awake and worry? Worry does nothing except bring you bad health! Over time it will bring you depression and insanity as well! 

God knows that everyone will have troubles in this life but through Him and the Holy Spirit, He desires that none of us suffer to the point of becoming psychotic, crazy mad, or falling into a manic despair. Despair should never be a condition of a Christ following child of God! God will comfort us with the Holy Spirit if we ask for it. (John 14:26)  It has been so hard for me to practice this next verse, but I have done my best in the past. Psalm 3: 5 “I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.”

This seems so contradictory, David is distressed for his life as He could be killed any day by his enemies or Saul, but yet he writes that he is able to go to sleep in peace because he is trusting in God! Now that is faith and trust in God for real!

6. So what do we need to learn when we are in terrible situations? To take an attitude that after you cry out, after you pray, that you will trust God for the answer to the point you let God stay awake and not you!

David gave all his burdens to the Lord and then he went to bed! Have you ever prayed and trusted that intensely? Have you felt that intensity of peace from God’s Holy Spirit after prayer and then gone to sleep like that? This is true confidence, when a calm trust comes over you!

We hope in God knowing that He is the one who will do the miracles. After all He is in control of everything and there is nothing we can do that is going to override His supreme will. Our prayers will often get positive results, but God does want to see if we will honor Him or not.

7. Pain also is often the results of man’s cruelty to man. I sometimes get very concerned and worried over the current and future persecutions of Christians. I know their pain is very real and I suffer with them! After all about 13 million Christians have recently been displaced in the Middle East and are living in tents hiding from religious persecution. We want to save and heal in the name of God, and others want to kill in the name of their false god. Psalm 3:6 “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about”.

Being afraid is something that grips you making your insides shake but it is something that God wants us as Christians to reject because we ultimately trust in Him for our lives and for our deaths! Multitudes of horribly evil people in society around the world are against you and me as Christians, but we do not tremble, despair, or lose our minds!

What is David referring to here? He was at war with the pagan nations around him! They all hated him and were hunting for him wanting him dead. Have you ever felt like, that thousands are hating you? We are at war against the world’s evils and it never is God fault that men chose evil instead of good. God and Jesus are there to save and heal us, but always recall suffering is Satan’s idea as a means of destroying us in this life and in the one to come.

8. If you are truly righteous, telling your friends about Jesus, you will be hated by Satan, his demons, and those who do evil! I want to tell you something shocking, if you really stand up for what is right, it is inevitable, you will have enemies and you will be afraid at times! Satan at some time or another will put you to the test as He did to Jesus.

And this takes us to the last part of the verse in 2 Cor.4: 9 “Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;”  As Christians we are persecuted by our adversary, the Devil, and he sometimes may cause us physical harm. We must also recognize that our enemies are often those who make us worry and stress, and invoke on us spiritual anguish!

Evil people may even attack us! Persecution often includes more than just offensive words, it may mean a loss of a job, an embarrassing defamation of character, or as in other countries, a loss of home and belongings with the possibility of death or the death of one’s loved ones.

9. The pain we suffer in life often is an attack from Satan, but even in the midst of the trial we can recall that we can defeat Him as Jesus did when He was tempted. You may be faint, you may be sick but in the end God will win the victory for you if you do not give up!   

Amongst Christians though, each of us must be united to stand against those who are evil! We must fight when Satan harms any one of us in any way! Remember the fight is not amongst our selves as Christians (unless someone is obviously violating God’s principles) but our fight is against the principalities of darkness and spiritual wickedness!

Apart from the evils of accidents and sicknesses in this fallen world, we witness right here in our community many people practicing destructive devices from Satan. There is amongst all races exploitations and abuse, sexual trafficking, immigrant trafficking, voodoo, gang activities, and more! Drugs, prostitution, and fraud are everywhere and these evils bring cruel suffering upon our neighbors. We are called to do our part to save the victims and alleviate the suffering!

10. The question is, if God hears the cries of you and me and of everyone who is a victim in distress, are you willing to also hear, see, and show compassion and do something? God has no hands but ours to do good! You and I are called to love as Jesus did, and to put bandages on the broken as the Good Samaritan did while on his way to Jericho. The reason the Salvation Army exists and came to be was for its compassionate members to bless others with love, compassion, and prayer in this horrible hell of a world! But when a Christian loses their salty flavor, when they have no compassion or love, then God’s heart and many people suffer!

What is our response when there is pain? 1) To cry out to God praying to Him when in troubles and distress!  2) To trust God totally claiming His Word to us calm down so we sleep   3) To trust that God will avenge those who persecute or do evil, and   4) In the end, accept that salvation and blessings will come from God over time for trusting in Him!

Psalm 3:8 “Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people”. It seems so simple, but it is true, God bestows to us who trust in Him healing, salvation, and blessings! How many of you feel like you are in a desperate situation right now and you need to cry out to Jesus? Trust in Him and accept His will and you will live in peace.