RSS

Category Archives: heaven

Which path are you on?

A new report published yesterday (June 23rd) by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life indicates that people from all major religious categories believe that their religion is not the only path to eternal life, and that there’s not just one correct version of their faith. The report is based on a massive national poll commissioned by the organization last year. According to Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, “What most people are saying is, ‘Hey, we don’t have a hammerlock on God or salvation, and God’s bigger than us and we should respect other people.'” Rev. Reese is partly correct. God is definitely bigger than us. But we should respect Him and His word given to us.

This report is nothing new. Anyone who cares about the direction our culture and nation are going in relation to religion or more importantly the gospel of Jesus Christ has seen this coming for a long time. This direction is right out of the post-modern textbook. The church of today continues to water down the message Jesus Christ commissioned us to give to the nations. And as we cowardly buckle under the pressure to not just tolerate other religious views but accept them as well, we will continue to see this tolerance of an anti-gospel grow and grow. We will also see more intolerance for those of us who will not, by the grace of God, allow our spine to become like rubber and accept this notion. This accommodation that flies in the face of John 14:6, as Jesus emphatically states:

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

This is the essence of the gospel. Jesus came to this earth and lived a sinless life. He came to die for the sinners. He died on the cross and took on the wrath of God that was due to the sinner. He was raised again on the third day and before he ascended back to heaven He gave us a commission to take what we know about Him to all the nations. We cannot compromise that. So which path are you on? The narrow one that leads to truth and Christ or the supposed many other paths to heaven and eternal life?

1 Comment

Posted by barrydean on June 24, 2008 in eternal life, gospel, heaven, John 14:6, post-modernism, Preaching, tolerance

I dreamed of a city called Glory

02 Feb

Last night a precious person to me went to be with God in Glory. Her name was Ruth West. She was my grandmother, but everyone in our family called her Ninnie (by me) or Mimmie (by some of our kids). It was a name I gave her when I was just a toddler. My family had tried to get me to call her “Grannie”, but all I could muster was “Ninnie”. So the name stuck. Ninnie had some pretty twisted theology but there was no doubting that she loved the Lord. She served the Lord through her local church, and worked most of her life in one of the local textile mills. Her biggest theological error was that God punished people when they did wrong. It was a fear that she lived with all of her life. Early on her spiritual life someone told that her “God is gonna get you for that”, and she made it her own. Today she knows better and is no doubt sitting at the feet of Jesus, a spot that she dearly loved to talk about. Ninnie had some funny ways about her, but most everyone that knew her, loved her. I will miss her, but hope to see her again one day when I sit at the feet of Jesus as well. There is a favorite song of hers that spoke of where she is now and I would like to paste it in here:

I Bowed My Knees

I dreamed of a city called Glory,
So bright and so fair.
When I entered that gate I cried, “Holy”
The angels all met me there:
They carried me from mansion to mansion,
And oh what sights I saw.
But I said, “I want to see Jesus,
He’s the One who died for all.”

Chorus
Then I bowed on my knees and cried,
“Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Then I clapped my hands and sang, “Glory,
Glory to the Son of God.”
Then I bowed on my knees and cried,
“Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Then I clapped my hands and sang, “Glory,
Glory to the Son of God.”

I thought as I entered that city,
My friends all knew me well.
They showed me the streets of Heaven;
Such scenes too numerous to tell;
I saw Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
Mark, Luke and Timothy.
But I said, “I want to see Jesus,
He’s the One who died for me.”

Chorus
Then I bowed on my knees and cried,
“Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Then I clapped my hands and sang, “Glory,
Glory to the Son of God.”
Then I bowed on my knees and cried,
“Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Then I clapped my hands and sang, “Glory,
Glory to the Son of God.”

Amen

Soli Deo Gloria

Update: The following is a video of Charles Billingsley, who, in my humble opinion, performs this song the way it was written to be sung.

17 Comments

Posted by barrydean on February 2, 2008 in Charles Billingsley, heaven, I Bowed My Knees, Ninnie, Ruth West

Thinking about mortality

29 Mar

Sunday I was told that a fellow church member had lost their brother during the week. The brother was only 39. The same brothers had also lost their dad at an early age. I also lost my dad when he was a fairly young man. He was only 39 when he passed. The sad news of this brother passing triggered some thinking inside me. I hope that his brother was a believer in Jesus Christ. If he was, and if my fellow church member is a believer then they will see each other again in eternity. If either is not, it is my belief the relationship will remain as it is, separated. These kinds of life encounters probe our human thoughts. Where do we go after we die? What happens to our loved ones? Is there anything for us after death?The Holy Bible addresses this issue of death very clearly. I did a basic bible search for the word death, and how it relates to what’s after death. I found 402 verses in the bible that contain the word death, 449 verses that mention the word heaven, and only 14 verses that mention hell. I think this is because the bible also refers to hell as death, such as “For the wages of sin is death…”, in Romans 6:23.

First of all I think it is important to understand why there is death. In Romans 5:12 Paul the apostle writes “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world (that would be Adam) and death through sin , and so death is spread to all men, because all have sinned.” In John 5:24 Jesus is speaking and he says “Truly, truly, I say to you he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life“. So, according to Jesus there is eternal life for those who hear His words and believe in Him who sent Him, meaning God the Father. Also in Romans 6:23 Paul writes “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is a very powerful verse. It tells of man’s condition. We all sin right? The wages of that sin is death. We deserve death. It is our just consequences according to God’s justice.Through God’s son, Jesus Christ, He offers us the free gift of eternal life. You will notice that the above Romans passage says “free gift”, this eternal life is not something that is earned. It is given freely. This free gift is also evident in Ephesians 2:8,9 “For by grace (God’s unmerited gift) you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.” Jesus Christ paid the price for our judgment. This is evident in Romans 5:8,9 “But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, (the blood of Jesus) we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him (again, Jesus). It is the blood of Christ that saves us from the judgment of God.Once you been saved by God’s undeserved, unearned grace, you can have assurance that it cannot be taken away. Not even by you. Romans 8:38, 39 the apostle Paul writes, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height not depth, nor anything in all creation , will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Isn’t that reassuring? Totally!Is there life after death? According to God’s holy word, the bible, there is absolutely life after death, eternal life. Have you trusted in the saving gift of God, Jesus Christ, to save you from God’s coming judgment? It is only through Jesus that you can be saved from this judgment. John 3:36 says “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God will be on him.” So thinking about mortality leads me to think about eternity. Does it do that for you? I have trusted in the blood of Jesus to save me from the wrath of God. Have you? I pray so.