Heaven on Earth?
Wouldn’t it be great if we could create our own little personal version of heaven on earth? Imagine everything falling into place just as we want it to be! Our relationships with spouse and family members magically become fulfilling and joyful at all times and without a lot of effort. Everything just clicks. Suddenly there’s enough money to do everything we need to do and want to do with it. Imagine a dream house, dream car, dream vacation destinations, dream job that is extremely satisfying. We don’t struggle any more with vices, body image issues, anger, doubt, insecurity, pain, loss and a million other nagging problems and instead we are happy, content, satisfied, with an on-top-of-the-world feeling. What would your personal heaven on earth look like and feel like? So often isn’t that what drives us? If I work hard enough, if I yell loud enough, if I plan it all out perfectly, if I pray properly, if I do everything right…if I overcome this, if I achieve that goal….I should at least get a step closer to my own personal heaven on earth. Or…if that doesn’t work, at least I can do everything to appear perfect. Then I’ll look like I’ve got it all together. I have no weaknesses, nothing anyone can say against me and maybe that will help me feel closer to how I want to feel all the time. Isn’t it sad how we lose perspective? Isn’t it sad how we repeat the first sin over and over again–how life becomes all about how I can serve myself, improve my life at the expense of truly serving God and following his word? What if God just gave us our own little heaven on earth? It would be the most unloving thing he could possibly do! Every problem, stress, pain and set-back is a loving reminder that this earth is not how God intended it to be. This is not where we belong forever. This is not all there is. If God gave us a perfect life here…we would not need him anymore, we would not see how desperately we need him, we would imagine ourselves invincible, we would ultimately die in our sins and end up in hell. Those who know and trust in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and the one who sacrificed himself for the sins of the world and donated his perfect record in the place of each and every ruined, sin-wrecked human life, (including mine and yours) already have heaven on earth! No. It doesn’t look like it. It doesn’t feel like it. In fact, it often feels exactly the opposite. We have struggles and problems, feel insecure and ruined. We see how we fail and we continue to struggle with selfishness, pride, anger, doubt and so many other sins. That’s okay! That’s how it must be. This world is not our true home and all our efforts to build some kind of lasting, beautiful, satisfying “good life” here are bound to fail and often distract us from what really matters: God’s love for us and the future he’s prepared for us and thanking him with a life spent in his service and to his glory. We look forward to experiencing that heaven when God calls us home from this sin-ruined existence. And so now, the perspective is so different! If my goal is serving God, I no longer expect my life to be some kind of perfect existence, I no longer need to complain, get frustrated, yell, wallow in self pity or freeze in doubt when something doesn’t go my way or...
Read MoreWriting Free: What’s That All About
I have two huge passions in my life: Writing and God’s Word. I’ve always loved to write. Growing up I filled notebooks with poetry and reflections on life, faith, people and God. I also loved to read what others wrote. A picture may be worth a thousand words…but when people read a thousand well-written words they may see a million pictures, smell a million smells, taste a million tastes, feel a million feelings, and most importantly they will think a million thoughts. I love to create with words and I love to make people think. I am currently working on publishing a book, a work of Christian fiction. I’m taking a real person mentioned breifly in the Bible and imagining what his life’s journey may have been like. I want to explore what it must have been to live in the days of Saul and David and experience that world and see amazing things that God did in those days. I want to write a story that illustrates what God’s Word has always done in the lives of people on earth and glorify God by communicating his love and his truth in this work of fiction. I pray that God will use it to bring more people into contact with his saving truth–his Word. God’s Word is my chief passion. It is because of God’s truth that I am free–free from the most desperate situation a person can ever imagine. I was born dead-spiritually dead. We all are. God’s truth is clear about that. (Ephesians 2:1-3) Dead in sin, born a sworn enemy of the true God, separated from him and his love, spiritually blind, tragically alone, eternally condemned. It is by God’s grace that I am free from all of that. He worked a miracle! He used his truth to save me. The truth that my Savior has truly come and fulfilled God’s age-old promises. I cannot stand before God as I am, but my Savior lived my life in my place–perfectly! He donated that perfect life on my behalf. He died the death I deserved in my place. He experienced my eternal condemnation. He died on a cross. He was buried in a tomb. He came to life again and shattered death’s grip on me. God has rescued me by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to save a world full of people born dead to God–including me! He has communicated that amazing truth to the world by giving us his Word–the Bible. (Ephesians 2:4-10 and Romans 1:16) I am nothing apart from Christ. He has set me free to serve him and other people with everything that I am and have and do. (Galatians 5:13) And so, I am writing free! May the posts I write here and all I do give glory to the God whose grace alone has set me...
Read MoreBuy the Book!
