Closer To Heaven
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Volunteers from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency also distributed backpacks and school supplies to children in need.
Read more at the source: In the Dominican Republic, Adventists continue sharing hope during national outreach campaign
Article posted on en.intercer.net from Adventist.org News Feed.
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| Photo by Pixabay |
I remember the first time I saw her. It was 49 years ago, and we were in the college cafeteria just after semester break. She was a new face on campus and being not “socially attached” to anyone at the time, I immediately began to plot how best to impress her and get a date.
I determined this venture was worth spending some of my hard-earned cash on; so, throwing caution to the wind, I purchased two tickets to a Victor Borge concert at Constitution Hall. Since the concert was sold out, I was offered provisional seats on the stage itself just inches from the maestro. The cost was exorbitant, but this only served to convince me that this would surely make the hoped-for-impression.
It must have done the trick. That young lady and I are still dating each other. We’ve also been married for 47 years.
Dating is exhilarating. Everyday is new and exciting; feet walk on clouds, hearts skip beats, life looks beautiful through those rose-tinted glasses. Is that normal? Absolutely! Is it wrong? I hope not. Dating is, in fact, part of our Great Physician’s plan. He fully intended that His children grow up, mature, and seek companionship. “It is not good that the man should be alone,” He told Adam in Genesis 2:18, KJV.
We’re attracted to other people by many things. It could be as whimsical as a smile, or as basic as a feeling of security. But the final selection process—the process that ends with a nervous “I do” uttered before witnesses—must be carried out using issues far deeper than looks and feelings.
Dating is a time for discovering which is the right person for you. It’s a time to get to know what makes us tick; what we like and don’t like; how we spend money; what we believe in; what our habits are.
Dating is a grand experiment, and that may be as far as some couples want to go. But the man and woman who desire to deepen their relationship must make a commitment. They become more and more exclusive until, finally, they pledge to love, honor, and cherish “until death do us part.”
There is Someone who loves you very much. This person has had His eye on you ever since you were born, and He wants to be first in your life. I wonder if we are as fair with Him as we are with one another. In short, are you committed to God, or are you just “dating” Him?
Are you window shopping—looking here and there for someone who will bring you the most benefits? If God promised to make you rich, beautiful, or famous, would you attend church more often?
Is God your blind date—the stranger you hardly know yet who you expect to meet all your specifications? Is He on your heart’s short list only when you can’t find anyone else?
Are you trying to double-date with God? Instead of making Him first in your life, do you expect Him to share time with your career or many social engagements?
Maybe you think you can “go Dutch” with your Creator—He takes care of His obligations, you take care of yours. That way, you won’t be “beholding” to Him for anything.
Perhaps you consider yourself “going steady” with God, but not willing to move up to the next level—being totally committed to Him “until death do us part.”
The ultimate cad in the dating scene is the two-timer—one who pretends to be committed to you while maintaining developing friendships on the side. Have you ever said Yes to God, then returned to your old way of life?
The Bible says that our Great Physician is a “jealous” God (Exodus 34:14). That means He has chosen you, and He doesn’t want anything or anybody to take you away. Like any serious suitor, He longs to spend time with you because He has invested everything He owns in your relationship. He has paid every bill, including your ticket to heaven. No, He’s not trying to impress you or make Himself look good. He’s simply saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love;I have drawn you with loving-kindness (Jeremiah 31:3).
How could anyone resist a love like that?
Read more at the source: Window Shopping
Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Spiritual applications.
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| Photo by Pixabay |
Several weeks ago during my morning quiet time, I prayed for God to show up somewhere and make Himself evident. I talk to Him most days, and I believe in Him, but sometimes, I need a little handholding and reassurance. And I was going to the ophthalmologist that day for what I believed would be a diagnosis that I did not want. So I was feeling a little insecure.
I went through my morning, met a friend for a business lunch appointment, and then went to my eye appointment. I had been there two weeks earlier and was asked to return. Another round of pupil dilation, a couple of tests, and then the doctor came in to review things. He looked over papers twice, looked in my eyes, and then declared that everything was good. He blamed the mistaken condition on a machine that gave an inaccurate reading last time. “Your optic nerve looks fine today. Come back in six months–good-bye.“
Hours later at home after my pupils had come back to their normal setting, the significance of my day suddenly dawned on me. God had literally “shown up” today. He was there in my eye appointment. Now I know that He doesn’t or can’t go about healing every medical condition (I still have some of those), however, I had asked to SEE Him today. I had to laugh at the way it transpired. He is the creator of symbolism.
As I have been reading Luke 11, I realize that asking is important, whether God acts or my eyesight just gets better. Verse 9: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you ”(NIV). I believe that He delights in surprising us and reminding us of His love. So I am emboldened to ask for more.
Thankfully, my perspective on life has very little to do with my optic nerve. Yet I filter everything that I view through the lens of God’s love and my faith in Him. “If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life well-lighted as your best-lighted room” (Luke 11:34-36, MG).
Read more at the source: The Seeing-Eye God
Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Spiritual applications.
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| Photo by Nrico, Flickr Creative Commons |
Sometimes we’re tempted to think that the glory days of pioneers exploring new frontiers is a thing of the past. After all, when was the last time you saw a true pioneer?
If you cannot think of any, maybe it’s time to redefine what a pioneer is and does.
Note to self and anyone else reading these lines, pioneers are not required to drive covered wagons and travel the Oregon Trail.
What do pioneers look like today? Typically, they look like everyone else. They live in normal houses, drive to work in regular cars and wear everyday clothes. But this is usually where the similarities end.
Instead of thinking like average people, pioneers dare to dream and question why. They go places in their reasoning that most have never imagined. The word “no” has no place in their vocabulary. In fact, as far as they are concerned “no” means “yes.” Reality is a primer for future possibilities. Nothing is set in concrete.
It is the pioneers who create new technologies, discover disease cures, create new expressions of art, write new songs, forge positions of compromise to pass critical legislation, and risk their lives to extend help to those held hostage by the forces of poverty and ignorance. True pioneers are not distracted by praise, personal attacks or political pundits. With laser-like accuracy their focus is riveted on fulfilling their life mission.
Jesus is a Pioneer when it comes to our salvation. Paul says we should be, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). NIV
Who do you think of as a twenty-first century pioneer?
Read more at the source: Contemporary Pioneers
Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Spiritual applications.
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| Photo by Dreamstime |
I don’t think there’s anything within Christianity that has bugged me more than this incredible belief that people will burn forever. How on earth did we become comfortable with God acting in ways we ourselves would never? If Hitler had been spared the self-inflicted gun wound to the head, and been captured, would any court of law have sentenced him to thirty years of torture and deprivation? Are you kidding me?
And yet more than nine out of ten of us Christians tote this idea about God spanking us all forever without batting an eyeball. How on earth did we get to this point? No parent would retain custody of their kids if they spanked them for thirty minutes… but God is going to punish us physically for millennia? God who cares deeply for us? It’s enough to make me want to heave. What a crazy way to view the Being who calls Himself LOVE personified.
Not only does eternal burning hell not make any sense to the common human instinct, no matter how warped by evil. Us getting roasted forever does not jive with the basic teachings of the Bible. First and foremost, Jesus said he took the wages of our sin, which of course the Bible refers to as being eternal death by being crucified. Well then if Jesus took what I have coming and fully took my place, then why didn’t or I should probably say isn’t Jesus still burning in Hell right now?
If the cost of my sins is eternal hellfire, and Jesus took my place, well then you do the math… it’s not that complicated. Jesus has got to get what I had coming—all of it. Otherwise it’s like the guy who’s getting shot for betraying his country and his dad steps in to take his place and instead of shooting the dad, they just put him in prison for a few years. Make sense? No. Fair and just? No. Inconsistent? Yes.
If Jesus is going to take my place by dying one long afternoon, fine, but then don’t tell me that if I reject Jesus taking my place I get more than a slow painful death that takes a few hours. Anything more and Jesus hasn’t done what He says He did. He didn’t take all my sin and it’s consequences… not at all… and He can’t take credit for being my stand-in at all.
Then there’s that text I just quoted part of a few paragraphs back, you know, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Death is the wages of sin; life is the gift of God. This text parallels a hundred more in the Bible, and is very clear on two things on where death and life come from. God gives life as a gift. To burn forever, God is going to have to keep giving me the gift of life so He can hurt me over and over again. That is the human equivalent of you taking me to the ER so that I can be patched up before you return me to your basement to beat me up, again and again and again… forever.
I could go on all afternoon. We could talk about what death is… since that is what sin is said to cause—not eternal burning. Or how Jesus in Revelation says that those who reject life will be thrown into the same lake of fire that the Devil and his angels and then death itself are thrown into—so does God keep the Devil, his angels… and death itself alive forever? What?
Yes, and we could talk about how He calls himself love, and that He values our freedom so much He’s let this planet spin on, despite the misery and confusion we lavish on ourselves, and how this kind of “you’re free to choose your destiny and I’ll love you no matter what you choose” could possibly make anybody feel free if there’s that mammoth BUT I’LL PUNISH YOU FOREVER clause at the end. I’m sorry, it just doesn’t make any sense at all. Not even to me, a fallen, sinful, selfish person who rarely succeeds at pure love and has a load of personal issues. If I loved you and you decide to hate and reject me, what is the loving thing for me to do? Make you pay for your choice as long as you live? Hold a grudge and play out revenge for 80 years? Even I know the answer to that.
God didn’t create suffering, doesn’t like it and died in my place to release me from it. And this same Guy is going to keep people alive to punish them forever… and for no apparent reason—we all know that punishment as children was to get our behavior in line. So God is going to punish when it’s too late for us to choose any different or better?
If the billions of people on planet earth who want nothing to do with God are ever going to change their minds, and want to love Him, you can bet all the money in your bank account that it’s not going to be because they’re terrified of Him. Perfect love casts out fear is what the Bible teaches, and that it’s kindness that leads us all to turn to God.
I know that an eternal burning hell is not part of who God is, first it’s not kind, and second it’s not perfect love because is sure doesn’t cast out fear. Sounds a lot more to me like the Devil’s dream for all of us.
Read more at the source: Hell What?
Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Spiritual applications.
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