I Go to Prepare a Place for You

Have you ever had someone prepare something special just for you?  It could be a gift they made by hand or a party designed especially for you.  Even if you didn’t like every aspect of the gift (it might even have been pretty hideous), it is hard not to be touched by the care and thought that went into preparing it for you.  I have received gifts from my kids that would not exactly qualify to be displayed in any art museum but I loved the gift and was touched by them all the same.

Have you thought about how the following passage from John 14 applies to you personally?

² In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (NIV)

Part of what Jesus is doing in Heaven right now is preparing a place for each of us.  I believe He is preparing a place specifically for each one of us who are to join Him in Heaven.  The phrasing here seems to indicate something personal and not a general statement that means a single place to be shared by everyone.  Why else would He mention the many rooms?  You will probably have your own room specifically created and prepared by Jesus Himself.

Think about that for a minute.  Your eternal home will be prepared and created for you by the One through whom the universe was made.  It will be crafted by the one who knows what you truly desire better than even you do.  You may love the home you live in now or you may not think so fondly of it.  However you view your current earthly home, it was made by men using man’s poor understanding of the materials used and the building principles involved.  People differ in opinion as to whether the eternal heaven will be purely spiritual or have some physical aspect to it.  But the point is that Jesus is creating something for you that will be so much better than anything man can make, it may take you half of eternity to fully appreciate it.  (You may need to think about what ‘half of eternity’ would be for a second).

You may be wondering if your eternal home will be a spiritual dwelling or a physical dwelling.  Revelation 22 tells us “¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”   Since we are told there will be a new heaven AND a new earth, it seems there will be some physical aspect to Heaven when this time comes.  This may be VERY different than the physical things we can now see and touch.  It seems John would have left off the new earth bit if the eternal heaven were to be totally spiritual.  I personally feel it will be a combination of the spiritual and the physical.

I am not writing this to merely give you a warm fuzzy feeling that will pass as soon as you start thinking about what to eat for your next meal.  I want to help give you an eternal perspective that will affect the way you see everything here in this life.  Hope of this future home can help when dealing with problems with your current home.  It can help encourage you through trials you face during this life.  Setting your sights on the eternal, instead of on this earthly existence, helps you put things in the proper perspective.  So, look forward to the best hand-made Christmas gift ever, which will be from Jesus Himself, on that great and glorious day that is described in Revelation 21.

There is a lot more about our eternal home in my latest book Heaven: Harps Optional.

Everyone Lives by Faith

Everyone acts based on what they truly believe; what they have faith in.  Christians, Hindus, Jews, and yes, even atheists all have faith.  The standard Biblical definition is, “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 NIV).  However, I’d like to use a slightly broader working definition of faith for this discussion so that I will not be accused of applying a Christian definition to non-Christians.  That definition of faith is:

Trusting something you cannot completely prove.

I am not taking liberty to redefine a word to suit my arguments.  Most dictionaries have similar a definition.  This definition is just a fairly short common one.

Absolute Certainty

Let me explain what I meant when I said everyone acts based on their faith.  It is easily seen in everyday events.  Are you sitting down as you read this?  Did you have a structural engineer come and examine the chair before you sat down to verify it would hold your weight?  Did you run tests with weighted dummies?  Surely you did not.  You did not absolutely prove the chair would hold your weight, yet you sat down anyway.   You acted on your faith in the chair’s ability to hold you up; although you know in the back of your mind that in the past chairs have broken when others have sat on them.

Historical Evidence

You may be thinking, “Wait a minute, I have historical evidence that the chair would hold my weight.  I was not acting out of any kind of faith.”  You may have sat down in that chair 1,000 times before.  That does not preclude the possibility of it falling apart on the 1,001st time you sit on it.  You have to admit the chair will fall apart at some point.  Generally, that takes a very long time, but manufacturing flaws happen which reduce how long chairs last.  You are assuming you do not have one of those chairs.  Even with historical evidence, you are still acting from faith.

Probability

Now you may be thinking that you were not acting out of faith when you sat in your chair, but merely playing the odds as it were.  You knew there was a possibli.ity of the chair collapsing.  But, the chances of the chair falling to pieces when you sat on it were so small it was not worth the effort to confirm it would not.  That is a very reasonable thing to do.  In fact, we could not function as productive individuals if we did not act in such a way.  Those who have no trust at all in these types of things are either heavily medicated or locked away to prevent them from harming others.

Let’s drive down the road of acting based on probability and see where it leads.  If you live in this way, how do you determine what is a reasonable risk and what is not?  We have already proven that sitting in a chair with merely a visual inspection is a reasonable risk.  However, running across a busy road without looking certainly is not a reasonable risk.  Our life experiences, lessons taught by our parents and others, and knowledge of the fate of others who tried similar things help us to determine what is reasonable and what is not.  Clearly what one person thinks is reasonable may not be to another person; as you hear about people doing things that are clearly stupid and unreasonable all the time.  So, if each person is coming up with what they think is reasonable, what is the underlying foundation of that reasonableness?  You must believe in your ability to correctly determine the odds of something being dangerous or you would be in that group of nonfunctional, heavily medicated folks mentioned earlier.  Are all people given extensive training in probabilities and statistics?  Do people do extensive research into chair failures to come up with a probability of when their chair may fail?  Of course not; well not 99.99999% of people anyway.  So, in the end we act out of faith in our ability to determine if something is dangerous or not.

Heavier Matters

Yes, sitting down is a pretty trivial example, but it shows how pervasive faith is in our lives.  Let’s leave trivialities and move on to matters of substance.  You will notice the discussion of faith above had absolutely nothing to do with religion.  Those who embrace a religion freely admit that faith is very important to them.  But, those who deny God tend to say they live without any kind of faith.  I think we have already proven how weak that statement truly is.  No one can be ABSOLUTELY sure of anything on this earth!  We can be VERY sure of things, but we are too limited to be able to know the full truth about anything.

I know some of you are thinking, “I know that God exists.”  Do you?  Can you PROVE that to any person and leave no room for doubt?  If you could, you would not have a faith in God but a proof of God.  One day our faith will become sight (Rom 14:11), but for now we live by faith (2 Cor 5:7).

To the scientifically minded, this talk of faith may seem like nonsense.  They only believe what they can prove through science.  Do they?  Scientist base MOST of what they believe on the authority of others.  If every scientist had to prove every fact on which they would base further work, we would have very few scientific or technological advances.  In fact, we would have no advances, since we cannot absolutely prove anything.  C.S. Lewis talks about how we accept authority in Mere Christianity:

Do not be scared by the word authority.  Believing things on authority only means believing them because you have been told them by someone you think trustworthy.  Ninety—nine percent of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is such a place as New York. I have not seen it myself.  I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place.  I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary man believes in the Solar System, atoms, evolution, and the circulation of the blood on authority – because the scientists say so. Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority.  None one us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Armada. None of us could prove them by pure logic as you prove a thing in mathematics.  We believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them: in fact, on authority.  A man who jibbed at authority in other things as some people do in religion would have to be content to know nothing all his life.

Scientists have faith in the findings of those who have gone before them.

Weigh the Evidence

If we cannot absolutely prove anything and we must accept things on the authority of others, do we just give up trying to know if anything is true?  Absolutely not!  We merely accept our humble position of not being the definers of truth.  We must accept our role as seekers of truth; knowing that we cannot know with absolute certainty what that truth is.  We look to see which things seem to be the truest.  My next blog will delve into some of those things, but there is too much to even skim the surface now.

To leave no doubt as to where I stand, I believe the most enduring and reasonable truth to be Jesus.  Yes I said Jesus, not the Bible.  Jesus is the truth, not the Bible.  The Bible is a reflection of the truth and our best resource to know the truth, but it is not the truth itself.
Living by Faith

So, we all live based on our faith.  We have different ways of determining our faith in different areas of our lives.  Obviously, some areas are more important than others: chairs versus God.  It is important to know your faith in any area is based on a reasonable and trustworthy foundation!

It Is Not Good For Man To Be Alone

Imagine what life was like for Adam prior to God creating Eve.  He lived in a sinless world.  Food came easily to him.   He had all kinds of animals with which to play and spend time.  He had no fear of these animals or they of him.  But best of all, he was in the presence of God!  Adam could talk to God whenever he wanted.  How awesome would that be?

The beauty of the uncontaminated earth must have been awe inspiring.  Adam surely praised God for the beauty that was around him.  The conversations between Adam and God were most likely casual.  I find it very hard to imagine Adam talking to God in a formal way all the time.  He may have also addressed him in a serious or formal manner from time to time.  A typical conversation could have gone something like this:

Adam: Wow God, great sunrise this morning!
God: Thanks, I put in a little iridescent purple for you.  Did you like it?
Adam: Yes!  That was pretty cool.

Adam obviously knew God was far superior to himself.  Yet that would not prevent them from having a friendship.  God and Adam surely walked together in the garden with Adam asking about various plants or animals and God explaining various aspects of His creation.  Adam could also have asked for gardening tips.  He was put there to work the garden after all.

Since Adam had work to do, did he seek to improve his ability to perform his work?  I would imagine he did, as the need to improve is a God given human characteristic.  He could have worked to improve his gardening skills.  Adam had many other things in which he could improve.  He could train the animals.  He could try to run faster or walk farther.  He could work to increase his mental abilities or knowledge.  He could even improve his relationship with God by getting to know more about Him and His creation.

Adam had great companionship and things to work on.  This sounds pretty wonderful.  What more could a man ask for?  He was the ultimate bachelor; just without a remote control.  However, something was not right with this situation.

The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. Genesis 2:18 (NIV)

Think about that.  Even though Adam was in a perfect relationship with God (no sin) and lived in a sin free world, it was not enough!  Something was missing; it was not good for him to be alone.  Of course he was not technically alone, since he had God and the animals.  But they were not like him.  He was alone in the sense that he lacked a companion who was very much like him.

God parades every type of animal in front of Adam to help drive home the point that none of them will fill the need of companionship.  After Adam realizes none of these are what he needs, God makes Eve to be a helper and companion for him.  Ephesians 1:4 tells us: For he chose us in him [Jesus] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  God knew before He created anything that He would need to send Jesus to save us from our sins.  So, He also knew Adam would need Eve as a companion before He created him.  Why didn’t God create them both at the same time?  One reason was to help Adam appreciate the gift he had been given so he would cherish the relationship all the more.

With Eve in his life, Adam had many new areas in which he could improve.  For one, he never had to agree on anything with an equal before.  If he had a misunderstanding or disagreement with God, there was no question of who was right.  But with Eve, he now had to deal with someone who could just as easily be wrong about something as he could.  Or, they may simply have different desires at the same time.  He may have wanted to collect apples and she wanted to get watermelons.

There were of course many new things he had to deal with now.  One was how to communicate with another person.  He also now had to think about what it would take to please Eve.  God created Adam as the spiritual leader, so now he had leadership responsibilities.

Since he was a spiritual leader, he needed to model spiritual growth.  Which of items for improvement prior to having Eve were related to spiritual growth?  Most of those items such as gardening, physical improvement, animal control, and mental improvement do not directly cause spiritual growth.  It was only improving his relationship with God that was directly related to spiritual growth.

It seems that all the things listed as things to improve after Eve arrived were spiritually related.  Agreeing with someone requires compassion, understanding, and patience.  Improving your communication skills with another person also involves improving your understanding and compassion.  Being a better leader requires you to be more aware of the needs of those following.  There are of course things you can get involved in with another person that are not spiritual, but doing the right things in a relationship does involve a lot of spiritual growth.

What seems clear is that we have much more potential to grow spiritually when we are involved in the lives of others.  Not only are we forced to deal with things we would not encounter on our own, but we also benefit from their encouragement.

Taking time to be with God by yourself is beneficial.  It allows you to remove distractions and really focus on Him.  However, that cannot be the only way you seek to grow spiritually.  If you try that, you are stunting your spiritual growth.  It is not good for man to be alone.  You need relationships in your life which force you to deal with situations from which you can grow.  You can of course choose to avoid relationships because of the issues that arise from them.  But know that each time you do that, you are depriving yourself of a chance at spiritual growth.

Even if a relationship is causing you to struggle with something, you can be thankful for that growth opportunity.  It will not make you happy about the situation, but it can help you get through it easier.  So, thank God for the people He has placed in your life through which you can grow into more of what He envisions you can be.

Cherish Normal

I was recently on a college campus as a coach for my son’s robotic tournament.  While walking around outside, I saw some college boys doing something that was very interesting.  A couple of boys were setting up a pretty expensive video camera on a tripod and the third had a skateboard.  They were pointing the camera up a flight of stairs of about 10 concrete stairs which had a metal handrail about 3 feet high running down the middle.  After the boys got the camera set up, the third boy sped toward the stairs on his skateboard, slammed the back of the board down really hard, jumped his board up into the air onto the 3 feet high handrail, landed sideways on the rail, and slid down the rail while still standing on the skateboard.  Well, at least he slid most of the way down, I never saw him make it all the way.  Still, it was pretty amazing how he was able to jump his board up that high and land it on the rail sideways while still riding it.  I think that is called a boardslide but I am not sure.  With my knees, even thinking about that kind of stuff makes them hurt.

The ability of the boy on skateboard was pretty impressive (at least to me).  However, that was not what captured my attention.  The thing that struck me most was that he was not wearing any safety gear at all!  What he was doing was extremely dangerous.  I cringed every time he started to head for the railing, and not just because it hurt my knees just to watch.  One fall could have changed that young man’s life forever or even ended it.  Yet there he was, risking his entire future for a good film clip.  The risk versus reward was insanely out of balance.  When we are young we tend to think we are immune to serious injury or death.  Or we just try hard to ignore the possible consequences.  Maybe one reason watching these boys bothered me so much was that it forced me to remember the stupid things I have done in my life.

Once again, I think God is bringing things into my path for a purpose.  This time it is to help me contemplate life and death so I can better appreciate the life He has blessed me with.  It may also be to help me look forward to my eternal life with Him and not focus entirely on the life I have here on earth.

Another thing God put into my life recently is that I just learned a friend of mine has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.  He was the one to tell me.  He and his wife just found out a few days ago.  It is amazing how quickly life can go from wonderful to tragic.  What is amazing about this is not that he asked for my prayers, but for what he asked me to pray about.  He said, “I am not afraid of dying and my fervent wish remains for my faith to be kept as strong as where it stands (on the promises of God) right now and not falter under the strain of anything ‘new’ that may have to be negotiated ‘down here’ in the interim, as well as not listening to the ‘master liar’ whispering in my ear.”  He also wants me to pray for healing, but that really is secondary to him.  It reminded me of my father’s faith during his fight with stomach cancer.  Right up to the end he was walking around telling other patients about God.

I can only hope my faith is that strong in the face of something like cancer, an injury, or even the loss of one of my children.  Of course I can sit here with my family and myself in perfect health and believe my faith will be strong if something like that happens.  But you never really know until you are actually tested.  However, you can prepare for those storms by drawing closer and closer to God during the calm times.  If your relationship with God is strong, it will survive some rough waters.  What you cannot do very well is grope for a God you do not know with the waves crashing over your head.  It is possible, but much more difficult.

I really do not want this to be a depressing blog entry.  So, let me get to the point of all this.  We need to appreciate the normal times of life and be thankful for them.  Sure, I love the high points in life.  Like the week I just had off around Christmas to spend with my family or the trip to Disney we are planning.  The problem is that we tend to take the routine normal days for granted.  I am starting to be more and more thankful for normal days at work.  It certainly is no fun when you are scrambling around to put out fires at work all day long.  However, those times have made me appreciate the days at work when there are not any fires and the day is just plain normal.  For some of you reading this you may only be able to dream of days without any fires to put out.  For you, I would say appreciate the days when you only have a 1 alarm fire instead of a 5 alarm fire.

Maybe it is just because I have probably crested the top of the hill of life and am starting to head back down the other side that I am starting to appreciate the normal times more than I have in the past.  I really enjoy sitting around the dinner table as a family and talking about what happened during the day, playing games with my kids, or just watching television as a family.  Those simple times are giving me real joy.  Part of that appreciation is because I will not have these times with my kids for many more years before they are off on their own.  I am starting to appreciate what a blessing it is to give thanks in all circumstances.

I encourage you (and myself) to cherish normal.  Don’t just look forward (or back) to the big events or occasions in life to find joy, but experience joy in the normal times as well.

¹⁶ Be joyful always;
¹⁷ pray continually;
¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Selflessness is Just Heavenly

Imagine living without anyone having any selfish motives.  Not just acting unselfishly from time to time but never having a selfish thought…ever!  Think about the implications of that for a minute.

• Instead of people cutting you off while driving, they go out of their way to let you merge in or change lanes.
• Instead of worrying if the great deal the salesperson was pushing had some hidden price, you would know without a doubt, that it was exactly what he or she said it was.
• Instead of dreading when the phone rings at 6pm at night wondering which telemarketer was bugging you this time, you know you will enjoy talking to whoever is calling.

Does all that sound too good to be true?  Well, it is too good to be true. ..at least while we are living here on earth it is.  Here, we will all continue to struggle with our selfish desires.  We will continue to fall victim to sin and people will suffer because of it.  That is the bad news.  However, the wonderful news is it will be very much like the examples above in Heaven.  I do not know if we will have traffic, sales people, or phones in Heaven.  But, I do know that there will not be any selfish desires there.  I had to give earthly examples of people living unselfishly because that is all we can relate to.  However, these earthly examples give us some idea of what it will be like in Heaven.

How do I know people will be totally selfless in Heaven?  Is there a passage that says this?  If you stick with a bit of theology, I will try and make my point.  While it is not stated word for word that there is no selfishness in Heaven, the implication is very clear from Matthew 13:42:

⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers. ⁴² They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  (NET1)

I underlined the part I want us to pay particular attention to.  This is in the middle of an explanation of the end of the age when judgment is executed on mankind and Satan.  At this time, all things that cause sin will be cast away from us for all eternity.  Oh man, I cannot wait for that!  I will have more on that in a minute. For now I want to get back to selfishness.  I firmly believe the root of all evil (or sin) is selfishness.  While it is true that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (James 6:10), selfishness even drives the love of money.  See if you can think of any sin which does not, at its root, come from selfishness.  I have tried and failed to think of any.

So in Heaven people will just naturally carry out all those “one another” verses (John 13:34, Rom 12:10, 16; 14:13, and many more).  How do I know this?  The previous verse along with James 4:17 means this will have to be true:

¹⁷ So whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin. (NET1)

If you know something is good but you do not do it then you are sinning.  Now, this obviously does not mean that you have to do every good thing that you can possibly imagine.  Only God is powerful enough to accomplish all that.  But, it does mean we are sinning if we know of something we need to do and we have the means and opportunity to do it but choose not to.

Let us put all this together.  In Heaven there will be nothing that causes sin.  Knowing there is good to do and not doing it is sinful.  So, in Heaven everyone will automatically do any good thing they have the power to do.  Thus, there is no possibility for selfishness in Heaven.  (Google it and you will see I am not alone in this conclusion).

That was a lot of theology to get to what I really wanted to emphasize.  No matter what type of place Heaven may be, (purely spiritual or also physical) the atmosphere will be so full of love we cannot even imagine it here on earth.  People will be so giving, so sympathetic, and so sacrificial that we cannot begin to understand what that will be like.  My pathetic attempts at the start of this blog to help us realize what this could be like are not even going to be close to the reality of it.

I am greatly looking forward to having no sinful desires of my own.  I have been deceived by sin enough in my past to know the consequences of sin can tear my life apart.  I am horribly disappointed with myself and embarrassed with some of the times I have fallen to temptation.  What a glorious relief it will be to not have to worry about being tempted ever again.  Praise God!  Oh how I understand what Paul meant when he wrote:

²³  I feel torn between the two, because I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, ²⁴ but it is more vital for your sake that I remain in the body.  Phil 1:23-24 (NET1)

At the same time I am looking forward to this I am also feeling so unworthy of such a glorious prize.  I have fallen so often I deserve nothing like Heaven.  When you add in all the times I chose my selfish desires over the good I know I should have done, I am amazed that anything can get me into Heaven.  It is Jesus who makes me worthy.  Thank you Jesus!  I have a friend in the church who was also feeling unworthy.  He was talking about how the bad things he had done in his life made him feel that God could never fully accept him.  I could totally relate to that.  I was thankful I could share the book I recently wrote with him; it seemed to really help him feel more loved by God even with big mistakes in his past.

So while I am still here on earth I will use this understanding of Heaven to give me strength to deal with life's struggles.  I will also continue to try and help others escape sin’s clutches.  That way I will have even more people to love when we all get to Heaven.