heaven and hell

I stumbled upon this illustration of heaven and hell.

A man visited both heaven and hell. In hell, everybody was strapped to seats at a table and everybody only had one arm, and at the end of this long straight arm is a spoon like appendage. In front of the people was laid out a huge feast of food, but everybody was angry and going hungry because they could not feed themselves with that arm.
The man was then brought to heaven. He was shocked that everybody had the same spoon like appendage but everybody was happy and cheerful, feeding each other.

So if you want to experience heaven, you got to first be a person willing to be part of the group and share. There is no guarantee that people will reciprocate but you have to be the first to make the move, feed your neighbour, not only physical food, but soul food: a listening ear, a reassuring hug, a word of encouragement. And spritual food: prayer. In this world we want guarantees. For the stuff we buy, and even our own lives are guaranteed in the form of insurance. But no one can assure you of a wonderful heaven-on-earth future or for that matter, present. Its up to you to work it out.

Give and it will come back to you. Thats the kingdom of God.

Signboard

I have friends and family whom I respect and look up to. But people are not infallible. They will fail and sometimes when they do, I question and ask why they are not more like Christ, growing from glory to glory and being more perfect everyday. Why must they fail when its for ME. How dare they call themselves Christians, ‘little Christ’, when they are not as kind as him or as generous, or faithful or understanding. Its then when I realize I’m not perfect myself, and why the church exists. Because none of us are perfect but together in the bond of love, love will cover a multitude of sin, and when we are gathered in one accord, it is the strengths that become obvious and not the weaknesses. Each one is to be like a signboard that you often see leading to a resort, each ad displays a beautiful picture of the beach, or dining room, or smiling waiters, or sunset. We all have a beautiful side but none have all. And a forlorn brother, travelling along life’s potholed lane, will look up and see these signboards all pointing towards paradise. The signboards are not paradise itself, but just a reflection of it. If you think the signboard is heaven, you are a fool and cheating yourself. The weary traveller is not interested in the ugly side of those signboards, but the hope it brings through its cheery picture and clear direction to get there. 1 km away!

Let me focus more on my own strengths and use it for God’s glory, and let me see the beauty of others pointing towards the source of all things. I will not put my hope and goals in men for like signboards, they are just outposts pointing towards paradise and are not infallible.

givers and hoarders

A person with not-enough mentality thinks:
- there is not enough food for everyone, I better pig out at the buffet table.
- there is not enough knowledge around, I better not share my ideas or tell my friends what I know
- there is not enough wealth in the world, I need to steal, kill, or in any other way accumulate for myself.

but who owns all the cattle in the field, or the gold and sliver?
Ikea got rich selling tables and chairs, but Ikea didnt make the tree grow although they may have planted the tree and fertilized the ground, God made the plant grow.
Tiffany's carved and molded that beautiful diamond ring but they surely didnt make the diamond or gold, in fact, science has found a way to make quick and cheap diamonds, but purist scoff it as fakes.

So man wants and uses materials that come from nature, from the earth, but yet fail to see who placed it there in the first place. God.

Don't people realize that in Gen 1:1 it says, in the begining, God...
yup, whatever it is, if you trace it back far enough, you end up conforming to the singularity of God.
And...
No, you don't trace back to monkeys. Scientist try to reason out and say it was evolution but Charles Darwin is simply wrong (someone must have paid him peanuts, imho).

And because God has placed life in this earth, whatever that you withold from it, but clench in your fist will die and dissapear, but whatever that you bury, invest, or plant in the earth will grow.

Give and it will come back to you....

The story of the boy with 5 loaves and 2 fishes. He gave.

I gave.
I gave to my church, to environmental causes, to mission work in disaster areas.
I gave time, knowledge, training, money.

...good measure, pressed down, and running over...

and I reaped.
my dictionary defines 'reaped' : to gather, as of natural products.
Yes, when you sow, its only a natural action for you to expect produce naturally returning.

I reaped a financially independant life from my parents since graduation 4 years ago.
I reaped friendships from different cities around the world.
I reaped scholarships, grants, publications; I have been a 'professional' student for the past 3 years and will be for the next 4 years - people actually pay me to study; how cool is that?
I reaped knowlegde with the countries I visited and the very diverse group of people I work with.
I reaped security, my parents are doing great, with my dad getting promotions when he should be retiring and mum really making a difference in people's lives through her ministry.
I reaped a loving and wise girlfriend to whom its about time I propose.

My 5 loaves and 2 fishes has multipled over.

stuck at God

I was trying to be studious and started reading a Bible commentary. Got stuck at 'God', at the first verse.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

A general definition of this great First Cause, as far as human words dare attempt one, may be thus given: The eternal, independent, and self-existent Being: the Being whose purposes and actions spring from himself, without foreign motive or influence: he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, and most spiritual of all essences; infinitely benevolent, beneficent, true, and holy: the cause of all being, the upholder of all things; infinitely happy, because infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made: illimitable in his immensity, inconceivable in his mode of existence, and indescribable in his essence; known fully only to himself, because an infinite mind can be fully apprehended only by itself. In a word, a Being who, from his infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived, and who, from his infinite goodness can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind.
(from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1996, 2003, 2005, 2006 All rights reserved.)

I had to read that passage 3 times over to fully understand what the guy was writing. But here he is trying to describe what God is when he says 'indescribable in his essence'. Sounds like a futile exercise. A created being can never fully understand the creator, simply because you got to be on a higher level to create something, and whatever you create can never be above your intelligence level. Yet we sing songs like 'make me more like you', 'all of me for all of you'. Dude, you don't even know what the other side is like.
To me, it doesn't matter if God is very much or just a tiny bit more clever than me, the point is, He's above. Hey, an inch is as good as a mile right? What matters to me is that when I'm in trouble, he solves it. When I pray for forgiveness, He's ever ready to help me out.

Way truth life

John 14:6

6 Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me.

AMP



But sometimes I feel like Jesus is in the way, and it’s all a lie. Sometimes I don’t get that breakthrough I want or feeling stuck in a rut, felling down and out. Its amazing what a little hormonal imbalance or lack of sun can do to your view of the world today. Then I have to sit down and ask, is God the God of all, or is he God at all? In this post-modernist society that we live in, its so yesterday to just be materialistic, people are saying that they are gods in their own right. To them its not God of all, but God et al. i.e. God and others. Yeah, there’s this God, but theres that other god, and another and another and even I am a god in my own right, being master of my own life.

And that’s why sometimes its good that God is in the way, because I stray from the truth and end up living a lie. He’s kind enough to come to my level to redirect me back to God. In actual fact, the only reason why I get to the Father is BY him, led one step at a time along the Way.

Wrapping things up

A friend made this interesting tid-bit known to me and I felt it is really interesting. How the book wraps up loose ends nicely.

In the beginning of Matthew:

Matt 1:23

23 "Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means 'God is with us.'"

Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

And at the end of that book:

Matt 28:20

20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

Just looking at those two verses in retrospect of reading the whole book, it gives us a different dimension to what Matthew was trying to achieve when writing that book. He starts by Israel longing for a messiah, then tells of Jesus’ walk on this earth mingling with men, and when He rose to heaven, it isn’t the end. His spirit lives on in every believer. It starts with a longing, then the fulfillment of that longing, but ends off best with a security that you will never lose it. Matt is a great writer.