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Showing posts from July, 2012

Heaven and Eternity

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People often ask the question, "What will heaven be like." Although the Bible discusses heaven, it is not possible to understand the full nature of heaven from a human perspective. Since heaven is where God lives, it must contain more physical and temporal dimensions than those found in this physical universe that God created. We cannot imagine, nor can we experience in our current bodies, what these extra dimensions might be like. Even so, we are given enough information in the Bible to understand many of the things that will be different in heaven compared to our lives today. There is always hope, and the hope is in God. If you have put your faith in Christ, then you have the ultimate hope of heaven. One day, you will be with the Lord. And that should put everything in perspective. Our culture is very interested in life after death, but the New Testament is much more interested in what I've called the life after life after death — in the ultimate resurrectio

Soviet Union, Lenin, Stalin, Russia and free at last…..

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Here's one which  I read in some very small edition book of Soviet Anecdotes. An old woman is riding a crowded bus and has to stand with her heavy packages. Finally, someone in front of her gives up a seat and so she grabs it. "Thank God," she says. A man in the seat behind her says, "Excuse me comrade, but this is an atheist society. You should say 'Thank Stalin,' not 'Thank God.'" "Of course you are right," the old woman says. "Thank Stalin." She is silent for a moment, then says: "Comrade, I have just had a terrible thought: What shall we say when Stalin dies?" The man behind her replies, "In that case I think we can say 'Thank God.'" Now here is another interesting one. I knew of a man of God  who went to see Lenin’s tomb when he was in Moscow. He is sealed in a crystal case. You can see his waxen face and his trimmed beard, and on that tomb these words are wri

“Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?

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A young preacher was called out of a life of sin to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. While in the pulpit one day, he received a note in which someone had written all his past sins. In addition it read, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? And you’re up there telling people to get right with God!” Do you know what the young preacher did? He read that note, bowed his head in prayer, stood up and said, “Ladies and gentleman I have received a note, and here is what it says.” Then, in front of that whole crowd, he read every one of those sins. Then he said this: “Yes, I am ashamed of myself, but I am not ashamed of my Savior!” What are some past sins in your life that are holding you back from fully proclaiming God’s power to others? Confess them and bury them in His sea of forgetfulness. Let us look at another situation. We all have our best days. Days when it all goes great. When the sun shines brighter. When our kids behave. When we’re on time. When we break through. W

God is the same in the Old and New Testaments.

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  First things First Jesus is the only way of salvation because He is the only One who can pay our sin penalty (Romans 6:23). No other religion teaches the depth or seriousness of sin and its consequences. No other religion offers the infinite payment of sin that only Jesus Christ could provide. No other “religious founder” was God become man (John 1:1; 14) – the only way an infinite debt could be paid. Jesus had to be God so that He could pay our debt. Jesus had to be man so He could die. Salvation is available only through faith in Jesus Christ! “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). There has never been a man like the Lord Jesus. I was deeply stirred by these words, written by John Phillips about Jesus: “He never uttered a hasty, unkind, untrue, or frivolous word. He never entertained an impure thought. His talents never debased for selfish ends. His influence, never bad. Hi

He came to show us who God is!

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I remember reading an article: way back in the 60s when those Russian cosmonauts went up into outer space for a few hundred miles, came back, and said, “We have searched the heavens and there is no God.” Well, I’ll tell you one thing: if they had stepped out of that space capsule, they would have met Him face to face! When you look at so many of the world’s philosophies today, it becomes clear that many people are living without God. And before Jesus, you and I were without God as well. That’s why, in today’s passage, Jesus clearly equates knowing Him with knowing His Father. You can’t have one without the other! Our generation doesn’t like the word authority. We don’t like to be under anybody. We stick out our chests and talk about being free-born Americans. If you’re a baby boomer, you’re of a generation of anti-authority figures. In your lifetime you’ve gone through the hula hoop, the Barbie doll, pop psychology, Dr. Spock, Donahue, and the Beatles. It was all a

Strange gods come and go.

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  “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8 DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: A man named Solomon Peas died. His tombstone in London reads: “Beneath these clouds and beneath these trees Lies the body of Solomon Peas. But this ain’t Peas - it’s just the pod. Peas shelled out and went to God.” I like that. That’s what your body is. It’s just a pod. What happens to a child of God who has trusted Christ as his personal Savior? When he closes his eyes in this life, he opens them in the next. Jesus did not say, “After two or three thousand years, you’ll be with Me in paradise.” Jesus said, “Today, truly, you’ll be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). This reminds me of my close friend Brother Brian Dayhuff  who always says if we are not able to meet then we shall meet in heaven. Wow! Just think about it . His words have mighty anointing power. He assures us to look at the bigger picture. Once