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Archive for the ‘Me & The World’ Category

SINS, MISTAKES & SHORTCOMINGS

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2015| 5 Comments »

SinIt’s easy to make this call about a word that’s so loaded, isn’t it? In our culture “sin” has come to be associated of judgementalism, arrogance, hard-heartedness and “religious” people.

Some of those people, who lack full awareness of their own failures, think they’re doing good when they shame others for the wrong things those people might have done.

But does that mean the word “sin” should be tossed in garbage? The person who created the meme that inspired this blog might shout YES.

I suppose it’s easier to think everything is relative and there is no real “good” or “bad” that would necessitate a word like “sin”. Do you really think that’s so? Isn’t murder a sin? What about setting someone’s house on fire — can you think of a reason that would condone arson? Is there an excuse to justify printing and distributing counterfeit money?

Just like you, I haven’t done any of these things. But I examine my own life and see plenty of behaviours that qualify as sin:

  • I’m tired of the slow truck ahead of me, so I dangerously cut off another car in the passing lane to get around it.
  • I find pathetic excuses to stay on the computer when I should be helping my wife clean the house.
  • I allow ancient, petty squabbles with my relatives to stop me from connecting with them.

Maybe these aren’t “sins” to you. Our culture might come up with softer descriptions like “shortcomings” or “mistakes”. To me, a shortcoming is not being able to resist sugary snacks (I’m absolutely guilty). A mistake is misspelling a word in a Frank’s Cottage essay (often guilty). A sin is different and I hope the bullet-point examples above make that clear.

So what can I do about these sins and many others? Lord knows, I’ve tried and tried to change my ways. I’ll bet you’ve tried to fix your sins, too. And I’ll bet you’ve had as much success as me. Kinda sad, eh?

But there IS something real and substantial and meaningful that we can do. I’ve done it and it IS making a difference. Not as quickly as I (or my wife) would like, but the change is happening.

Prepare yourself for what this is, because it’s radical and controversial: believing there is a creator. A creator who knows YOU. A creator who cares about YOU. A creator who is involved in this world and wants to be involved in YOUR life.

Furthermore, this creator has a son, whom He offers to everyone (including YOU) as an extraordinary, life-changing gift. He is Jesus of Nazareth and God invites YOU to accept the gift of Him. When you do that, you’ll come to know that He died on a cross to make up for ALL the sins of EVERYONE who believes in Him and follows Him.

When this life is done and you come before God, He no longer sees your sins. He sees the sacrifice and the perfection of His son. Sound interesting? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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BRINGING THE WORLD INTO FOCUS

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 21, 2015| 8 Comments »

Fog of faith I bet some folks see the graphic that inspired this essay and vigorously nod in agreement.

So why is it that me, and so many others, found the world to be in a fog until we decided to follow Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God)?

For years, I accepted the worldview pushed by my family, friends, co-workers, the entertainment industry and the media.

But it all lacked…focus. People, including me, weren’t satisfied. Struggling to climb the ladder of career success. Struggling to afford monster flat-screen TVs, bigger houses and cruise ship vacations. Struggling to obey our culture’s directive to ignore a world that seemed bent on slow destruction. Struggling to constantly turn our thoughts away from the nagging question “What’s it all for?”.

When I decided to follow Jesus, the fog cleared and the truth of this world came into focus.

Struggling to get more money, more toys, more power and more sex is not the way to satisfaction. As a follower of Jesus, I’ve come to know that satisfaction comes through following His example and His teachings.

Check out these teachings from one of the four original-source biographies of Jesus’ physical life on earth:

  • You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who treat you badly.
  • When you do something good, don’t do it in front of others so that they will see you. If you do that, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
  • You cannot serve God and money at the same time.
  • Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars.
  • Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
  • Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment.
  • Do for others what you would want them to do for you.

Yes, some of these teachings are hard. And trust me, you are going to fail at some of them, just like me. And that’s OK. Serious followers of Jesus know that His sacrificial death on a cross wipes away the failures of His followers, so that all God sees is the perfection of His son.

Furthermore, when you become a serious follower of Jesus, you welcome Him into your heart and your mind, where His strength, His perfection and His love for YOU start to transform your life. Right here, right now.

What do you think? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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WHERE’S THE PLAN?

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 7, 2015| 13 Comments »

Where's the plan? 2.15When I saw this graphic, posted on an atheist website, my immediate reaction was: I bet that’s how the world looks to a lot of people.

It’s hardly a stretch to write that planet Earth appears to be in permanent chaos. Wars, viruses, terrorism, rampant corruption, female and child slavery, broken marriages, child sexual abuse. I’m sure you can easily add to the list.

So where’s the plan? Is all this playing out according to some orderly arrangement? Really?

In a word, YES. Now stay with me while I explain.

People of faith like me believe God’s plan is not so much about events. It’s about people. It’s about a relationship with Him through Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is God’s divine Son.

That relationship has three key parts:

1. It can, and has, changed the world for the better. Consider these facts:

  • Jesus followers have started hospitals and universities (this blog sheds light on that topic: http://wp.me/p2wzRb-9O).
  • A Jesus follower, William Wilberforce, tirelessly led the decades-long fight to end slavery in Great Britain.
  • Jesus-following scientist Francis S. Collins played a leading role in mapping the human genome.
  • Members of a Jesus-following organization, the International Justice Mission, risk their lives to free female and child slaves in the developing world.

2. It can, and has, brought life-changing peace to lives torn apart by pain and misery. Two examples:

  • Second World War hero Louis Zamperini (subject of the Hollywood movie Unbroken) was an angry alcoholic tortured by regular nightmares of his time in a Japanese prison camp. Then he became a serious Jesus follower. The nightmares ended. The drinking stopped. And his troubled marriage was restored.
  • Beaten up and betrayed by his criminal friends, Michael “Bull” Roberts was at the end of his rope when he reached out to Jesus. Since then, he’s left behind a life of crime and sought to help others in his situation. (You can read a bit more of his story here: http://wp.me/p2wzRb-5g).

3. It’s based on free will. This might seem difficult for you to accept because free will includes our ability to do all the nasty stuff I mentioned in the second paragraph. You might protest that a loving God would not allow all those things to happen. But centuries of evidence shows that free will is an all-or-nothing proposition.

If the nasty things I mentioned were stopped, then so would your ability to ignore God and reject the gift He offers you: a changed life, now and for all eternity, through faith in Jesus.

It’s up to YOU to respond to the gift. It’s up to YOU to figure out whether you want to be part of God’s work to make this broken world a better place. It’s up to YOU to take hold of the life-changing peace He offers through Jesus.

So what do you think? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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THE COMFORTING LACK OF PROOF

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2015| 3 Comments »

ComfortingLackOfProof 1.15Are there people in this world who think the Bible proves God’s existence? The answer is almost certainly YES. I would beg to differ with them, and so would many thoughtful, wise people.

A majority of those who follow Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God) believe the Bible is strong evidence for God’s existence and for the life and work of Jesus. But proof? Well, here’s how Matt Slick on the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry website puts it:

Proof is for mathematics and logic. How do you “prove” there is a Great Being outside of our universe? Do we look for footprints in a riverbed? Do we examine evidence under a microscope and say, “Aha! There’s God!”? That would be the wrong approach. If God exists, He would be beyond our universe, non-material, and transcendent.

Now look around you at this planet, then consider the solar system in which it exists. And the Milky Way galaxy in which our solar system exists. And the universe that includes the Milky Way. Did all that simply pop out of nowhere for no particular reason? I don’t think so. Indeed, an ancient writer says “The heavens are telling the glory of God; they are a marvelous display of his craftsmanship.”

That’s still not proof for God’s existence, of course. And I firmly believe there NEVER will be definitive proof. And I’m fine with that. God has never provided proof; following Jesus is about a mixture of reason, evidence and faith.

That last noun is a dirty word to some people, like the atheist who posted the meme that inspired this blog. But ancient writers acknowledge the need for faith. One of them wrote, “Whoever comes to God must believe that He is real and that He rewards those who sincerely try to find Him.”

Why am I good with a lack of definitive proof? Because if such proof existed, the freedom to be an atheist — to believe there is no God and the future of this planet is all up to us horribly greedy, immature, violent and disloyal people — would be destroyed. (Though some folks don’t let facts alter their worldview – see flat-earthers.) And if the state of this broken world tells me anything, it’s that God prizes the gift of freewill. No matter how often we spit on it.

  • I’m given a choice of whether to believe that Jesus, and all the accomplishments that original-source biographies declare He did while physically on earth, is for real.
  • I’m given a choice on whether to accept that Jesus’ death on a Roman cross makes up for all the wrong things done by His followers and all the right things His followers fail to do.
  • I’m given a choice on whether to trust that by declaring Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, I’ll spend eternity with Him in the presence of the Creator of the universe.

One thing I already know: my life is better because I believe in God and follow His Son. Because of that belief, I’ve forgiven people that others have been unwilling to forgive. That belief has also had a profound, positive and life-changing influence on my career, who I married and how I think about this world and everyone in it.

Are there times when maybe you need a new and positive influence in your life? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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THE BIBLE’S ‘FAILURES’

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 17, 2015| 8 Comments »

Bible diversity intelligent happy tolerantAccording to this meme, found on an atheist website, I’m probably not “saved”.

Here I am, a follower of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the son of God) and yet:

  • I’m reasonably happy, however one would define that word and apply to our culture.
  • I’m intelligent enough to have graduated high school and earned a college journalism diploma & a university management development certificate.
  • I have yet to write a single word on this website, or during my 26 years in journalism, condemning diversity.
  • Mentally stable? There have been times when I was taking a mild anti-depressant, just like millions and millions of other people (it’s safe to write that some of them are atheists).

I guess following Jesus has failed to save other people like me, too. Churches all over the world are attended by black men and women, Asian men and women, African men and women, native North American men and women. And some of those people are gay and/or divorced and/or alcoholics and/or convicted criminals and/or mentally challenged.

Intelligence? Ooooo, lots of failures there, too. Among them are university professor and committed Catholic Brian Kobilka, an American Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry. There’s also Christian paleontologist Mary Higby Schweitzer and 2007 Nobel Prize Winner (for chemistry) Gerhard Ertl.

That’s just the beginning; Wikipedia lists more than 60 Jesus followers active in biomedical sciences, physics & astronomy, chemistry and engineering. Gee, I’d call that an EPIC failure on the part of Jesus. (Chances are, most of these folks are mentally stable, too.)

Beyond all this sarcasm, I hope it’s obvious to you that deciding to follow Jesus — His life and teachings, His sacrificial death (to make up for all the wrong things his followers have done and all the right things we’ve failed to do) and His resurrection — often helps people become happy, intelligent, tolerant of diversity and mentally stable.

Following Jesus helps us understand that God loves us, and everyone else on this planet, equally and beyond measure. That love comes not from what we’ve done or not done. It comes because that’s who God is.

Serious Jesus followers also understand that just as we have been forgiven much, we should turn around and forgive much in others.

There’s more: serious Jesus followers appreciate science because it helps us understand how God does stuff. Serious Jesus followers believe something that famed evangelist Billy Graham said: “It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict (people of their moral crimes), God’s job to judge and my job to love”.

Do we fall short of this? Absolutely. But most serious Jesus followers have it in our sights and strive after it daily. And doing that makes us better people.

Interested in striving with us? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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A GOD IN THE MIDST OF EVIL

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 10, 2015| 7 Comments »

God Auschwitz evilTake your pick: the Auschwitz concentration camp, 9-11 terrorist attacks, massacres in Las Vegas (2017), Connecticut (2012) and Norway (2011), barbaric ISIS warmongers.

These, and many other horrific examples of human evil, can serve as evidence of why there is no God. I certainly understand how people can adopt this viewpoint.

But I also understand that this is the path of least resistance; the conclusion any of us could jump to in the heat of anger and despair.

So I’m going to advance a very different proposition: there are Nazi death camps, vicious terrorists and rampaging “lone wolf” killers, so there MUST be a God.

How can that make sense? Let me explain:

1. The beautiful and terrible gift of freewill. We’ve been given it. And we spit on it. Every day. That absolutely includes ME, when I act as if there is no God and put myself in charge of me.

When you and I claim we know what’s best for ourselves, we open the door to greed, unbridled lust, petty self-centredness, intolerance and so much more. Like it or not, this path can lead all the way to unspeakable evil.

2. Who gave us that gift of freewill? Who else but God, the creator of this universe and the air you are breathing right now? Does that mean He’s responsible for when we do wrong and fail to do right? Not even a little bit. God doesn’t want goose-stepping robots; he wants people with freedom. No matter how painful this freedom has often been.

3. Who can we turn to when despicable evil happens? Two choices: God, who gave you air to breathe and free will to believe in Him; or turn away and rely on yourself.

Serious followers of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the perfect Son of God) believe this statement in one of the original-source biographies of His physical life on Earth: “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him [Jesus], anyone can have a whole and lasting life.”

The news gets better. This same biography goes on to say: “God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.”

Notice how we haven’t been simply abandoned to free will and all its potential consequences?

In the midst of Auschwitz, Jesus was there, offering people hope of eternity in Heaven with Him, long after the suffering ended. And with that knowledge came His strength and a willingness for suffering people to forgive their Nazi torturers and escape the prison of rage and revenge.

In camps where refugees are still living with practically nothing, just so they could escape terrorists, Jesus is there, offering them more than blankets and food. Offering them His love and eternity with Him when this short life is done.

In the aftermath of massacres, Jesus is there, offering a community of believers who are, in their midst of their own imperfections, ready to provide physical and spiritual help. To be the hands of feet of their Lord and Saviour.

Getting in on all this is simple. Accept the gift of Jesus, whose sacrificial death makes up for all your moral crimes. Make Him your Lord and friend. Then watch as changes start to happen. Good changes. Changes that will take you into eternity.

Does this sound attractive? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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WHAT DOES GOD WANT?

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 3, 2015| 9 Comments »

WhatGodWantsAfter reading this graphic, posted in an atheist internet community, I started thinking about the hundreds and hundreds of church services I’ve attended in my years on this planet.

I tried to find recall one occasion where a pastor or church leader “demanded” money from me or anyone else. Just one.

I’m still looking.

Am I saying it’s never happened? Not at all. I’m sure there are despicable hucksters out there, using “religion” (a nasty term that I would never use to describe a person of real, serious faith) to guilt people into financing their cadillacs and acreage estates. Indeed, turn on the TV any Sunday and you can watch some of them in action.

But let’s be realistic: these shameless fraud artists exist everywhere in this broken world. And it’s safe to write that some of them are atheists.

There’s another point being made in this graphic that can’t go unaddressed: the notion that somehow, tossing cash at a “religious” leader will somehow dispose of the “threat of eternal damnation”.

This makes sense only if you believe God is a greedy, small-minded, narcissistic hypocrite. And if that’s the case, why are you reading this essay?

Followers of Jesus of Nazareth — whom many people believe is the son of God — know that God doesn’t need us for anything. He WANTS us. And He wants us to:

  • Have wisdom. James, one of Jesus’s brothers, wrote “Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom.”
  • Live right. Another ancient writer puts it this way: “This is what He wants from you: Be fair to other people. Love kindness and loyalty, and humbly obey your God.”
  • Help those in need. An early Jesus follower wrote, “If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.”
  • Come clean on all the wrong things we’ve done and all the right things we’ve failed to do. An ancient collection short sayings says “Whoever hides their sins will not be successful, but whoever confesses their sins and stops doing wrong will receive mercy.”
  • Prosper. An ancient prophet noted, “I [God] have good plans for you. I don’t plan to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future.”
  • Have a relationship with him. There are many, many ancient writers who addressed this. Here are just a few:
    “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
    “God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him would not be lost but have eternal life.”

That last statement makes it clear how to have a relationship with God. Believe in His Son, follow His Son, trust in what His Son did for YOU (dying on a cross to make up for all the wrong things you’ve done and all the right things you’ve failed to do). Do that, and all the other things that God wants will start to come easier. And you don’t have to give anyone a single dollar.

Agree? Disagree? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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DENIGRATED OR CELEBRATED?

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 13, 2014| 3 Comments »

Seth_AndrewsIf you haven’t thought it yourself, then I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard someone say it: women are second-class citizens in Christianity.

That’s certainly the opinion of Seth Andrews, who grew up in a Christian home and is now a leading atheist.

If Seth is right, then you certainly don’t want to give any serious thought to this faith.

So is he right? Rather than enduring the words of an old white guy like me, I’ll offer you the answers of three women who saw this graphic and are happy to explain why they are serious followers of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God).

CHANTELLE OSBORNE: What If I said I didn’t feel belittled by Christianity and the Bible, but empowered? Empowered to redefine femininity from how society and the media too often define women: as sex objects who need to maintain a certain physical appearance to be accepted.

As a Christian, I am empowered to embrace my uniqueness – that God has created me different from men with a unique perspective.

Jesus’ trust and confidence in women was evident during Bible times and still is as Christian women throughout history have sometimes had the courage and conviction to accomplish things that men have not.

DEBBIE FLETCHER: If you look at how Jesus treated women, you will see that far from denigrating them, Jesus defied the prevailing views of the day by noticing, listening to and respecting women.

In the presence of Jesus, women were valued and given a voice. (See two accounts of Jesus’ life, called “Luke” and “John”). Furthermore, through Jesus’ sacrificial death on a Roman cross, men and women were brought together as equals.

An early Christian missionary named Paul wrote a letter to a church and said that because of what Jesus had accomplished through His death and resurrection, the distinction between classes of people had been removed.

“There is now neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” Paul wrote.

In fact, Paul tells men who follow Jesus that they should “go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting”. This is the farthest thing from being denigrated; this is being given a value beyond anything we could ever comprehend.

DORIS FLECK: Early in the Bible, we see that God created man and woman in His image. They are set as equals. Women play prominent roles throughout the Bible and even feature in Jesus’ genealogy, which is unusual because the culture of that time did not look highly on females.

When Jesus was physically on earth, women could not receive an education and had no voice in their marriage. Jewish men were not supposed to talk to a woman in public. If they did, it was considered a shame. But Jesus of Nazareth created controversy by swimming against the stream (for evidence, check out “John”, one of the accounts of His life). He gave great honour to women.

Author Philip Yancey comments, “For women and other oppressed people, Jesus turned upside down the accepted wisdom … Jesus violated the customs of his time in every encounter with women recorded in the four [original-source accounts of His life].”

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So there you have it. Does this cause you to rethink your ideas about Christianity? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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‘LIFE THAT IS FULL AND GOOD’

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 6, 2014| 6 Comments »

tumblr_n9z91ls6xO1r7gbhio1_500When I saw this graphic — posted on an Internet atheism community — the first thing I did was look up the definition of cult. Here’s part of what Dictionary.com says:

1. A system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2. An instance of veneration of a person, ideal, or thing.
3. A group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
4. A religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.

Does Christianity fit all that? I’m sure some folks would shout YES! Let me beg to differ. As far as I’m concerned “religion” is a set of behavioral rules designed to fit people into little slots and let others pass judgement on them. I would not be a follower of Jesus Of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God) if that’s what Christianity is about.

It’s hardly a surprise to write that serious Jesus followers venerate Jesus. Nor is it a shock to write that serious Jesus followers are a group bound together by veneration of Jesus.

But by those definitions, “Beliebers” (fans of pop star Justin Bieber) and “Swifties” (Taylor Swift fans) could be labelled cults, complete with all the onerous attributes that most of us associate with that term.

So what happens when anyone leaves any group? Most of the time, it would be questioned, dissected and judged. Indeed, if it weren’t, then the members of the group clearly don’t care about the person leaving.

Serious believers understand that following Jesus means:

  • Having a lighthouse to guide us through life’s nastiest emotional, financial and physical storms.
  • Knowing that we are loved — loved so much that God offers all humanity the gift of His Son, whose sacrificial death makes up for all the wrong things we’ve done and all the right things we’ve failed to do.
  • Having the assurance we will spend all of eternity in the intimate presence of our Creator.
  • When someone leaves all that, should we do nothing but shrug? That’s not respectful; that’s telling them they don’t matter to us or to Jesus. And that would be very wrong.

Does that mean we would stage “interventions” or prevent them from leaving like the inmates of Jonestown, the horrific cult that Jim Jones established in South America in the 1970s? That cult ended in 1978 when, on Jones’ orders, more than 900 people drank cyanide-laced punch and died.

I think even the angriest opponents of Christianity would admit that’s not what following Jesus is all about.

What wise Jesus followers do when someone decides to leave is to remain friends with them, pray for them and welcome spiritual conversations.

Not all Jesus followers are that wise, of course. But I think it’s safe to write that following Jesus has nothing to do with any credible definition of “cult”. It has to do with Jesus’s explanation for why He came to this earth: “I came to give life—life that is full and good.”

Do you want this life? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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TO BE UTTERLY TRANSFORMED

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 29, 2014| 10 Comments »

repentedIs this offensive to you? The entire notion was certainly offensive to the person who posted the graphic on an atheist Internet community.

And I get it. We grow up learning concepts like “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”. As kids we often hotly tell our parents “that’s not fair!!”. And as parents, we endlessly, sometimes obsessively, strive to treat our children with fairness.

So when people hear about others who seem to get away with murder, they rightfully scream and holler in protest. Like I said, I get that.

But consider the approach of Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is the Son of God. In one of the four original-source accounts of His life on earth, He says this to anyone willing to listen:

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, don’t fight back against someone who wants to do harm to you. If they hit you on the right cheek, let them hit the other cheek, too.

This is radical. This is upside down to how our culture thinks. In fact, for some people (such as the person who posted the graphic above), this is downright ludicrous.

Is it really?

If you believe there is a Heaven, don’t you want it to be far, FAR better than this world? Don’t you want it to be free of anger, resentment, jealousy, rage, greed, violence and ignorance?

If you do, then what about forgiveness? Don’t you want Heaven to be saturated — heck, OVERFLOWING — with forgiveness?

If you’re still with me, then a Heaven that is free of our human weaknesses and welcoming to all will absolutely include killers and their victims. In both cases, these people will have repented of their sins (however big or small we might consider them to be) and been utterly, utterly transformed through faith in what Jesus did for them.

What did He do? For those who have sincerely accepted the gift of Jesus, He allowed Himself to be sacrificed on a cross to make up for all (and I mean ALL) the bad things we’ve done and the good things we’ve failed to do.

For those who seriously accepted the gift of Jesus, God looks at us and DOESN’T see murder or greed or theft or fraud or lying or betrayal or self-centredness. He sees only the perfection of His Son.

So when the murder victims depicted in the graphic above get to Heaven and are directed to the person who shot them, they will ABSOLUTELY go over and do more than say “Hi”. They’ll hug that person with overflowing love.

And that person, utterly transformed by following Jesus, will absolutely hug those people right back. It will be a time of joy, of tears, of praise for their creator who wiped away every moment of fear, anguish, pain and sadness and replaced them with praise and gratefulness.

That’s a place I want to go. That’s a place I want YOU to go, so we can hug, high-five each other and spend eternity with our creator. Are you in? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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