**CROSS POST** A Sense of Wonder

  This is one of those Does Anyone Else? posts. So... Does anyone else sometimes just sit and wonder what Heaven is like?

This is a frequent pastime of mine. Reading certain passages of the Bible can set off one of these musings, or thinking about a loved one who has died. Thinking about my own mortality is another fuse that lights my wonderings.

My best friend is currently not just "not doing well" but at the "may not make it" stage of her being ill. One morning last week, when I got the news from the family of her recent trip to the emergency room, I was sad for the rest of the day. I couldn't do anything but think of my own potential loss. I've already lost my only biological sister and now I was losing the person I call my "sister of the heart". 

I will miss her so much when she is gone. I will have no one like her to call and tell things that I could only tell her or my later sister. I will not get the phone calls and messages and support of this amazing woman who has been my friend for almost 30 years. I will be so much sadder and lonelier in this world for the loss of her.

Yeah. I spent almost an entire day in the I-zone of misery.

Then, because my Bible reading plan has me in parts of the books of Corinthians, I remembered the verses we inserted into my mother's obituary:

For we know that if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed, in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, since in fact after putting it on, we will not be found naked. For indeed, we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a pledge. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5 NASB)

Yes. That part, as the kids now say.

Once I re-read the passage, I stopped the tears. I began to think of how happy my sister-friend is going to be when she steps out of the pain of her earthly tent and into the joy and peace of her heavenly existence.  And then, I went on to muse about her being there in Heaven.

Will she meet my mother and sister again? Will they recognize each other? And will it matter to them in Heaven who they once were on this earth?

I like to try to imagine an existence without the sins and temptations of mortal life. What must it be like to have no social, mental, emotional, or physical ailments to deal with?

If this is what we mortals can imagine, 
just think what God has prepared.

The other side of thinking about Heaven and what it will be like, always makes me appreciate salvation. I think that the greatest joy of Heaven will be being with the Father, meeting Jesus face to face. And the worst of Hell is being forever not in the presence of our Lord.

So, I can never lose this wonder I have about Heaven. I know that my human mind cannot come close to imagining what it is going to be like but it's a comfort to me when I think of my sister leaving here for there.

Peace

--Free

Secular Certainty

 The past couple of days, I was stuck in bed not feeling well. When I wasn't knocked out from some weird fatigue, I watched documentaries.

First Peoples, The Story of Egypt, Rome: Empire Without Limit, etc. Interesting stuff. Stuff that, like always, makes older me wish that younger and more energetic me had been as interested.

As I listened to the archeologists, classicists, and other history specialists and experts discuss dates and cultures, something nagged at me. I think it was after the first couple of videos that I realized what was bothering me. These experts toss out dates and knowledge about forgone civilizations with such certainty. They have an air of "no doubt" and, for the most part, I want to trust their information. On the other hand, when Christians discuss the Bible, most people scoff at our belief in "fairytales".

So many people - some of them considered to be very intelligent and logical - will try to tear down the Judeo-Christian recounting of history. We also tell of "first peoples" and their history. We detail historic, scientific, mathematical, information from the Bible and we get laughed at.

In one of the videos, an expert talked in detail about a skeleton they found in the water somewhere. The skeleton, according to various sources, is that of a woman from around thirteen thousand plus years ago who they say is "the first American". The expert recounted - again, in detail - what that woman's diet consisted of, how she was ceremonially buried, and what her life had been like. 

I personally know people who take this kind of information as a solid fact. If you ask why, they point out the evidence of archeology, scientific dating, etc.

Now, as Christians, we tell of kings and rulers and tribes of people. We tell about specific events that occurred. I know of people who call me delusional for believing any of this. They don't trust that I am looking at a lot more evidence than they are about their beliefs. I don't know very many people who study what they believe the way serious Christians study the Bible.

The Bible talks of circumcision being performed on a child at 8 days old. These days, because of secular science and biology, we know that this is the perfect time for such an operation. Now, as you can tell, I'm no genius, but that right there seems pretty amazing to me. Before scientists knew about the 8th day and coagulation, God knew.

There are many such examples of man in all his brilliance, having to catch up with the biology, science, math, astronomy, etc of the Bible.

I sometimes think that some men will go out of their way to disbelieve anything that the Bible says. They won't believe in the Holy Ghost, but they will believe in great-grandma Lucy speaking to them from "beyond" or haunting their attics. They have trouble believing in demonic possession and Satan but they will totally accept the idea of aliens.

Probably the weirdest secular flex is scientists trying to explain away what happens at death. "The brain is releasing a chemical"; "It's a state of...", etc. It's this or it's that. How do they know for certain?

NASB version

What I really think is that most mankind knows that God is. That frightens them though maybe because if they believe in the God of the Bible, they have to believe the rest of the Bible. They have to believe in eternal consequences and judgment. To believe in God, they would have to accept that they are not gods.

Another reason I think that men believe in the God of the Bible - the Creator, the I AM - is because they are always trying to replicate His work. Man has been trying to create life and re-create what they call the "Big Bang". Why is that?

So, yeah, I have a problem with people willing to be so certain about some things while they scoff at what Christians are certain of.

For anyone interested, here is a site that covers a lot of information to validate Bible evidence. Go to the various links across the top of the page for categories.

Peace

--Free

Bible Study Musings (Acts 1- 3)

For anyone else doing a Bible study, I thought I would share some of the sidelights from my own reading today.

In reading chapters 1 through 3 in Acts, I was paying closer-than-usual attention to the commentaries and other study aids. That is because I am much less familiar with everything in the Bible after the Gospels. 

One of the things mentioned when looking at the authorship of Acts was something called the "Muratorian Canon" (or fragment). I had never, ever heard of this so I checked it out. It's interesting and the Wikipedia article led me to a couple of other things. I am familiar with the Book of Wisdom, but I had not heard of Peter's Apocalypse.

What now?

Yeah. 

So, I look at both of those extra-biblical sources the same as I do things like the Book of Enoch and Bel and the Dragon - with interest but not for serious study. Peter's Apocalypse troubled me for some reason.

Another thing that was pointed out in one of the commentaries is that Acts 2:14 begins the first Christian sermon. It is given by Peter in response to people's reaction to the pouring out of the Spirit.

Speaking of that pouring out of the Spirit, from which people spoke in various tongues, an interesting mention was made. That day of Pentecost -when the people were speaking in various tongues (not their native language) and being understood - reminds us of the opposite happening at the Tower of Babel. I had never thought about that before. This is what the note says:

"Theologically it is possible that Pentecost is the direct opposite of the tower of Babel (cf. Genesis 10-11). As prideful, rebellious humans asserted their independence (i.e., refusal to disperse and fill the earth), God implemented His will by the insertion of multiple languages. Now, in the new age of the Spirit, the nationalism which impedes humans from uniting (i.e., one world government of the eschaton) has for believers been reversed. Christian fellowship across every human boundary (i.e., age, sex, class, geography, language) is the reversal of the consequences of Genesis 3."

Anyway, today's reading was quite exciting. I have made so many notes of things to look further into later. So, don't tell me that Bible study is boring!

Peace

-- Free

P.S.: The specific study aids I used are included with (or added from additional modules) the eSword app on my computer.