Is Heaven Going to be Like a Never Ending Church Service? by Aaron

I have been reading a book by John Eldredge titled “Journey of Desire”. The book basically discusses how many people, especially in the church, are killing our God given desires. He invites the readers to search their hearts to re-discover the desires God has placed on their hearts to carry out His will. These desires bring us closer to the Father, simply because He created us and He knows that those desires bring us joy. God can use those desires to reach our fellow brothers or to carry out His amazing plan.

In the chapter I was reading earlier this week, Eldredge asked the question “is heaven going to be like a never ending church service” and how does it make you (the reader) feel? This question hit me like a ton of bricks. I just started thinking in my head, are our modern day church services that we have every Sunday going to be similar to everyday life in Heaven? Will we worship God for 24 hours and then the next 24 hours listen to a sermon from Moses, King David, or even Jesus himself? Of course I’m being facetious, but this is something I have really struggled with.

So what are we going to do when we get to heaven? I have no idea what heaven is going to present as, but it won’t be us sitting in pews for the rest of eternity. Don't get me wrong I am not bashing church at all, because I think it is important to gather together as a believers. In Luke chapter 23 the author is describing when Jesus was on the cross, with the other two criminals crucified beside him. One of the criminals asks Jesus to remember him when Jesus goes into His kingdom. Luke 23: 43 “Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” When I hear the word paradise, so many thoughts flood my mind. I think about palm trees, going to the beach with my family, relaxing with no work to do, peacefulness, and the list goes on. My paradise also includes watching football (don’t judge me), playing with my son, taking my wife out to eat, and talking to the Father. Every person has a different version of paradise. Every person has different God given desires; that’s what makes creation so unique and beautiful. What does your paradise look like, and what desires has God given you?

Whatever paradise comes to mind, think about the paradise God has for you? God loves us so much that He sent his own Son to die for all of us. God wants us to get to paradise, because he wants to be with us, and because He knows Heaven is awesome. I don’t know if we’ll be living in heaven or living on the New Earth, either way the place is going to be sweet. Whatever paradise comes to mind, Jesus’ paradise for you is ten times better. Jesus wants to build you an amazing home in paradise with Him, get to know Him better. I have so many questions about what life looks like after we leave this earth. What will I look like? What age will I be after I die? Will my wife on earth be my next door neighbor? What assignment or job will God have for me? Will we even have jobs? I could probably write hundreds of questions about this.

The thing that gives me the most joy, is knowing that I will be with the Lord. Eternity is not going to look like us sitting in church service for hours and hours upon hours. Eternity is going to include being in perfect harmony with the Lord. We are going to worship the Father the rest of our lives. That worship can include carrying out the assignment that God has for us. Maybe we will sing joyful songs to the Lord at appointed times (I’d love to hear the Angels version of a worship service). Maybe one of our assignments will be to get to know all of our brothers in heaven. Maybe Jesus will find the perfect tasks for you based on all the desires he has given you. I can’t tell you what life looks like we when leave here, but I can tell you that it includes the Father and that is enough for me. I have a feeling that we want be bored though!!

Peace and God bless!

Trying Something New, by Will

In my last post I talked about the need for healing. As part of my own search for healing I took a trip to Michigan, revisiting the church where I first worked after graduating. For nearly two years I have felt God leading me to go back and allow Him to do a healing work in my life, and things worked out for me to go this past Saturday.

This is my first attempt at filming/video editing. Click the link below, and let me know if you're interested in more videos.

https://splice.gopro.com/v?id=6XZ3YJ

TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!

The Need for Healing, by Will

Let's start this out by owning a truth, everyone of us is wounded. We live in a fallen world, full of fallen people. Some intentionally wound others out of selfishness and malice. Others do it unintentionally, simply out of the fact that they are imperfect humans. No one makes it through this life without wounds, but there are those who make it through with no scars. Scars are a sign of healing, and sadly so many people are the walking wounded.

I personally lived like that for years, walking wounded. For me, the wound was shameful. I was supposed to be tough, invincible, that's what men are right? For me, I tried to cover the wound up, hoping that if I put enough bandages on it, it would take care of itself. Supposedly time heals all wounds right? While the body is an amazing thing, capable of mending itself, not all wounds can simply be left alone. Sometimes wounds are serious, and without the active intervention of a doctor, they never heal; they get worse and worse until they infect the whole body, and consume the life of the bearer.

Wounds can kill if they are not healed.

But wounds pose a threat to more than just the bearer. A wounded animal is the most dangerous kind. A lion is already dangerous, but wound that lion, and it becomes even more of a nightmare. When an animal is hurt, its only concern is to prevent itself from experiencing more pain. It becomes aggressive to protect itself, never letting anything or anyone close enough to it, even if they are just trying to help. Wounds can cause us to become guarded, pushing others away, and damaging relationships from those closest to us. Or they can even prevent us from having those closest to us to begin with.

Wounds can isolate us if they are not healed.

However, wounds can go even farther in their external impact. I have found that we most often wound others in our area of wounding. When we feel pain, part of us wants others to feel that same pain. When we feel pain, it can lead to resentment to those associated with our wounding. When we feel pain, we act on it, and seek to hurt others in the places we hurt.

Wounds can be repeated if they are not healed.

This has been my experience. My wounds have brought about death to my passions and dreams. My wounds, when seen as a source of shame, have caused me to keep others at arms length, not wanting to reveal them. My wounds have caused me to seek to hurt others in the same ways that I have been hurt.

We weren't designed to live with wounds, they are not of God. Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10.10) The wounds we have are from Satan, even those given unintentionally by those who feel they are acting for what is right. The thief comes to steel our passion, kill our relationships, and destroy those around us. That is why he seeks to wound us, and that is why he seeks to keep us form seeking healing. But this is not what Jesus intended. Jesus never intended for there to be wounds, and before the fall, there weren't any. But because of the fall Jesus came and was wounded, and because of His wounding, our wounds are able to become scars, just as His have.

When we seek healing, we are pulling the three inch band-aid off of the twelve inch gash. We present it to Christ, and allow Him to get to work. It will involve some pain and discomfort, He has to go in and cut away the dead skin so it doesn't turn to gangrene, and unfortunately there is no local anesthetic for this healing work, but this is the only way to real healing. When he gets done cutting out all of the dead flesh, He begins stitching it up from the inside out, and once the wound has fully healed, He removes the stitches. What is left is a scar, a mark of a previous wound that has been healed. A story of the Healer's work. A story of pain that has been dealt with.

My own life has been on a journey of healing. It took quite a bit to get me to look under the blood soaked bandage, and even more to get me to peel it off. The process of cutting out the dead flesh has involved looking deeply at specific events, specific people, and working through the stories of what took place, and what hurt and why. The stitching has involved action, writing letters and sending them, face to face conversations when possible, traveling to significant places, I just took a trip this past weekend. Each of these stitches has been freeing, and healing, one step closer to the scar.

I'm not yet to the point of the stitches being removed yet, I'm not even done being stitched up if I'm honest, but I'm moving in that direction. When it's done I'll have a beautiful scar, with an amazing story of the life giving power of God's healing restoration. We all need healing, because all of us are wounded. The wounds we receive are bad, and bad things don't go away. The only cure is found in Christ. It is painful and it takes time. Writing out these narratives has been hard, spending hours in the car to travel to places from the past has given me some exhausting weekends, but the outcome has been worth it.

We all need healing, and the Healer is ready and willing to get to work. It will be painful, but it will result in life abundantly. This is the work that Christ came to do, turn ugly, destructive, wounds into beautiful, life giving scars, but He will not operate without your permission. Life is available in the healer if you are willing to let Him near your wound, and it is only through His healing that we can ever receive life abundantly.

TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!

Request, by Will

So this might be breaking the rules for the blog, but I'm going to do it anyway. Jacob and his wife are seeking God's direction for their future ministry. They have the opportunity to participate in a sort of training and assessment workshop that will help them discover more clearly what God has for them.

Please consider helping them reach this goal by following the link below to their go fund me page. The blog IS NOT going to turn into a platform where we seek money. This is a cause I believe in and support, and I am excited about the future potential that this opportunity will open for them.

If you have any questions you can email us at the address below.

TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!

https://www.gofundme.com/jacob-and-ariel-next-level-journey

The Journey, by Will

Vision Quest 2017 did not go as planned. I got to the woods where a pastor friend was going to meet me and pick up my vehicle. He had a previous engagement that had run later than expected, and since the sun was starting to set I wanted to get moving. I put my keys under the drivers seat, texted him the door code to get into my vehicle, and headed into the woods. I found a spot, set up my borrowed camping hammock, and started to settle in for the night, when panic over my vehicle began to set in. I hadn't heard from my friend yet, and so I decided I would wait for him by the car. I zipped up the bug net, took my headlamp and flashlight, made a mental note of where I was in the woods, and went to wait by the car.

I waited for about 15 minutes, and when he go there, just after 9 pm, the light was really fading from the sky. We arranged for the pickup time the next day, and I headed back to my campsite. Twenty minutes later I called him and told him I needed him to come and get me because I couldn't find my hammock. It gets really dark in the woods, and I had my cheap headlamp. I headed back to the trail, and as I started to head back to the parking lot, my first thought was "Well this is shot", but immediately I realized that this was all part of the quest. Somehow God was going to speak.

He picked me up, and we went back to his house and talked for about an hour. I went home, got up at 5:15 am, and was back in the woods at 6:00. I found my hammock very quickly in the daylight, and then began hiking. God spoke, using the events of the previous night, and helped give me focus as I move forward. It didn't go as planned and that's ok. God used the whole experience, especially the parts that didn't go as planned, to reveal things to me about the identity He has for me.

After getting back, I went to a local coffee shop and began to process some things. I have a journal that I am tracking through this process of healing/initiation/identity claiming, and I began by reviewing my notes from Vision Quest 2016. As I did I picked up on a theme that has been repeated over the past year, and as I sat there with my 3x5 cards and my journal I began to piece things together. Over the past year a concept has continued to pop up, and it is the idea of the journey.

Life is a journey, and the journey is the point. Too often we focus on the destination, making that the goal. We want to get there, but when we do it isn't all that we thought it would be, it doesn't satisfy us like we think it will, and that's because it isn't about the destination, but the journey to get there. I was walking my dog that evening and when I'm alone I talk to myself, it helps me think. As I talked through the idea of the journey I thought of a memory from my childhood that captures the reality that it's about the journey.

In elementary school computer class I was introduced to one of the best computer games ever, The Oregon Trail. You start in St. Louis, form your wagon party, buy supplies, then hit the trail heading west. Along the way you trade, hunt, collect wild edibles, cross rivers, and try not catch a disease or get attacked by animals. Do you know when the game ends? There are two scenarios, you either die of dysentery, a bear mauling, or drowning in a river, or you make it to Oregon. The game doesn't continue because the point isn't the destination but the journey there. It's called The Oregon Trail, not Oregon.

Where we are going is important, I'm not saying that it isn't; we need a destination otherwise we are just aimlessly wandering. Proverbs 29.18a says, "Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained". The destination matters, we have to know where we are trying to get, otherwise we end up no where.

I've found that I've lived my life to this point in one of two extremes. I've either been so focused on the destination that I've sacrificed the joy of the moments getting there and wound up unfulfilled when I've reached the goal, or I've set out with no real plan and just hopped I'd figure out something along the way and everything would just fall into place. One way misses out on the process, and the other is chaotic randomness that goes no where.

We have to have a vision, a destination we are heading towards, but we cannot make the destination the full focus. The destination was never meant to be the point. It's the reward at the end of the process, but in our culture of instant gratification we don't like process, and because of this, the destination never satisfies us, and when we reach one, we quickly set out for another one, hoping it will make us happy. It never will. The other option is the millennial approach, of "I'll figure it out later, I'll worry about it when the time comes." This approach has no plan, no direction, and just ends up wasting time because it aims at nothing but the moment.

The point of a journey is to get somewhere, but the somewhere is just a small part of the journey. Life isn't about the destinations, but about the journeys that get us to them. We have to be going somewhere, the destination is the goal that keeps us focused during the trials of the journey, but we cannot focus on the somewhere at the expense of the process.

I don't want to spend my life longing for someday when I arrive and everything falls into place, I've done that, and it's miserable. You get discouraged that you aren't where you want to be, and you just hope something happens to fix it. I don't want to live with no vision and just hope everything works out in the end, I'm not wired to function like that. But I don't want to wait to live for when the ideal arrives, because simply waiting for it makes no progress towards it.

You only get to Oregon by leaving St. Louis. You only make it to Oregon if you're willing to cross the rivers, climb the mountains, and face the dangers of the trail. But you only appreciate Oregon if you've endured the hardships of the trail to get there, and you're only prepared to make a new life in Oregon by surviving the trials of the trail.

I've spent too much time wanting the journey to be over, and thinking life will be perfect when everything falls into place. I haven't wanted to embrace the journey, and so I've gotten no where. When I have tried to venture forth it's been with no plan or direction, and so I've circled around and ended up right where I started, getting even more frustrated and not wanted to set out again. There is a destination we are meant to arrive at, but it is only accessible if we undertake the journey to get there. We will only appreciate the destination if we embrace the journey.

This is the model that Jesus set for us. He came ultimately to be the atoning sacrifice who died and rose again; that was the destination. Jesus was focused on it, everything He did moved Him closer to it, but Jesus never sacrificed the moment to get there. His journey to the cross modeled obedience, service, and unconditional love. In the garden as He prepared for His arrest He prayed, "I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17.4). He was always moving towards the cross, but He was fully immersed in the moment, embracing the journey.

That is how I want to live, intentionally moving towards the destination with focus and purpose, but not sacrificing the moment at the expense of the goal. I want to embrace the journey so that I can appreciate the destination when I finally arrive. That is how life is meant to be lived.

TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!