Top Ten Reasons Death Will Be Great

So how do we explain to non-believers that we actually look forward to death? Here is a top ten list that I came up with to help out (don't really try these unless you know your audience).

10. Golden streets would just be the coolest thing.

9. We get to see if St Peter is really a comedian.

8. Are the gates really made of pearl?

7. The janitor could be Ted Bundy for all we know.

6. It's a better bailout plan than Washington can come up with.

5. The music is gonna be just killer!

4. Football year round.

3. Global warming will now occur down under only.

2. We get to dog pile Adam.

And the number one reason why death will be great:

.....................We finally get to hug Jesus and say thank you.

It is really amazing to think of what we have to look forward to in life after death. When we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we know that there will be no more pain, no more anguish over the small things. The only thing that we can look forward to is the fact that life will be pure bliss and we get to worship the one and only true God........FOREVER!

So how to explain this to non-believers? I have no idea. If you didn't expect that, then I am sorry. But, only God can lead us in talking about Him and his awesome power. We must rely on God to guide us through the treacherous waters of spreading the word. When we trust totally in Him, then we are walking the right path. Death should not be taboo to talk about. Death should be celebrated. Imagine walking into a funeral and seeing a party instead of a wake for a believer? I have seen it before. We hurt from selfishness because we want them for ourselves. Ever think that God may want them more? Now it can be painful to see non-believers pass on. We then must ask if we did all that we could to plant the seed of Christ.

Noogies for Adam,
Jesus Freak Out!

Scared to Death

The worst imaginable death for me would be to either drown or be burned alive. Fire would just be painful and drowning would be like claustraphobia. Really, though, I am not afraid to die. For crying out loud, if I was, I sure as heck would not let rookie pilots fly me around the sky for a living!

So, why are so many people afraid to die? What is the underlying reason that so many are scared to leave this world? Is it because of the physical comforts that will be lost? Is it the relationships that will be broken? Or is it deeper than that? The truest saying about war lies in these simple words, "There are no atheists (or agnostics for that matter) in foxholes." Why? (I used to bug my parents with this question as a kid. Now I'm getting paid back.) Atheists become believers in a hurry because they are afraid to die.

If we look in 1 Corinthians 15:56, we see that "The sting of death is sin...." Paul is trying to tell us that death hurts because of a lack of faith, plus sin and how it came about. You see, our lack of faith also translates into the fact that we do not put enough of it in the resurrecting power of Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. How is that you might ask? If we had faith in Christ, then we would be looking forward to death because we would get to meet God and live in eternity with Him when he comes again.


So how do we explain to non-believers that, with faith in Jesus Christ, death can be a goal and not a fear? Interesting question to ponder until tomorrow. If you have great ideas, let's here them and I will post them along with mine.

'Til death do us part,
Jesus Freak Out!

"Slider (sniff)........You stink!"

Our heart has an aroma, a smell? Yes it does. If you have ever seen the movie Facing the Giants, then you may know what I am talking about. The aroma of our hearts is the attitude that we carry with us each day. If that attitude is not right, then our life is not right, our relationship with God is not right, and thus our effectiveness as worker bees for Christ is not right. Have you ever skipped church or just stopped your life for an hour or two because the aroma of your heart just wasn't right? I have. It hurt, because going to church is a wonderful thing. I get to connect in a different way with God. Plus, I am a social creature, with a need to be around people and just talk. At church, I can talk about Christ and I can interact with so many different people in a safe environment.

[I am going to rant for a second here. This mindset of mine can be dangerous though and I hope that we can all learn from what I am about to say. For too long, church is where we went to get our dose of Jesus for the week and feel better. But that is not the purpose of church. Church is not a museum for saints, it's a foundation for sinners. Church is our earthly foundation with Christ being the rebar (strength) that runs through it. It is our starting block to go out during the week and run the race for Christ. We come to church to recharge our spiritual batteries and then get back to His work. We (please put an I in this spot as well) must not stop at church as our way of reaching non-believers. Danger Will Robinson!]

Now to my point about the aroma of our hearts.

2 Corinthians has some strong words about how we "smell" to our brothers and sisters that do not believe. "(v.15) For we are to GOD the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." What a strong verse. What people "smell" on the outside is that aroma of our hearts. For those like me who wear their emotions on their sleeve, this can be difficult to overcome. To overcome our hearts smelling like trash to "those who are being saved and those who are perishing," we must stop, devote our hearts to God, and then continue. I have finally seen what this is like and it was not pretty. But it had to be done.

Febreezing my heart,
Jesus Freak Out!

History Lesson #1

Why do we study history? I know a great deal of my friends in high school and college who hated history. They always wondered why we needed to know about what this famous dead guy did on this stupid date back in the "stone" ages. But the old cliche still stands: those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.

Much is the same throughout the Bible. Our Christian heritage goes back to the Garden of Eden and God's divine blessing of putting man on the earth in His image to glorify Him. But, as we all know, our blessing turned into sin the day Adam and Eve ate the notorious apple. It starts with Cain and Abel and comes full circle with what is happening in today's world. So why is the Bible so much a history book as it is the divine word of God? Because God subscribes to the old cliche. He knows that if we can look back upon what our ancestors did wrong and right, hopefully our wisdom will prevail and we will see what is the right path. But all too often we look past our history too far into the future and repeat it. Time to change.

Throughout our journey here on this blog, we are going to look at the history of the Bible and the world, and then meld the two together into a cohesive picture. Armed with this knowledge, we can all learn from the past so that we are not so foolish as to repeat it............too often.

Looking to make the same mistake once,
Jesus Freak Out!

It was the best of times.......

I did not intend to make a part two of yesterday's post, but I found a quote that serves to benefit all of us. The great transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once said: "Difficulties exist to be surmounted." Whoa. What a way to look at life.

We know that God allows our circumstances to become the way they do for any number of reasons: discipline, understanding, love, respect, honor, etc. But if we can fuse God's reasoning for what we perceive as problems with Emerson's outlook on them, then we will forever have the courage and drive to push through and make the best of the hand we have been dealt.

Now let us apply this to standing up for Christ and reaching out to those who do not know Him. When we do this, we can accomplish almost anything for God with total reliance on Him. And we can look at difficulties as a challenge and not a burden.

Looking through different eyes,
Jesus Freak Out!

It was the worst of times.........

We can all remember the beginning to Great Expectations. Sounds a great deal like the times we are facing in America today. "It was the best of times;" we all remember them. "It [is] the worst of times;" and could get even worse. How do we handle this as Christ followers? As I see it, there are 2 ways that are foolproof and grounded in Scripture.

First and foremost, we need to rely upon God to provide all that we need, and truly believe that Christ will take care of us. If we look in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus has some explicit guidance: "(verse 25) Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not [eternal] life more important than food and the body more important than clothes?" I added the eternal life to this sentence because I believe that Christ is telling us that eternal life is far more important than anything we could ever need here on earth. Verse 33: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Enough said.

The second thing we must do is pray........and pray.........and pray! 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says it best and most concisely: "(16) Be joyful always; (17) pray continuously; (18) give thanks in all circumstances...." But we cannot be selfish in this prayer. If all I do is walk into my bedroom, take my wife's hand, and pray that God will give us all the money we need and will not let bad things happen to us, I have totally missed the whole point. It's no longer about us. This is the time when the harvest is ripe and we must work hard for God in pulling in that harvest. So many people are searching for answers to the world's issues when all we need to do is present the one and only answer to them. I am not saying that we cannot pray for the physical things that we need. But when the focus for our prayer stays on ourselves, we have essentially looked past God.

It's high time we look past our own circumstances and look upon the circumstance that there are people in a far worse position in life than us: they do not know Christ personally! It's time for us to enact our own bailout plan: let's work on bailing them out of Hell!

No golden parachute here,
Jesus Freak Out!

Stop Shouting

No, this isn't the song my Skillet (for those who know who they are). What we are talking about is the voice. What does a whisper sound like? If I could only get my son to whisper more often, my ears would not ring as much. I'll tell you this, though, when he does whisper, it the sweetest thing that I have ever heard. Sometimes, when I whisper to him, he will whisper back. But sometimes he just goes right on yelling. Sound familiar?

You know what though, we do the same thing to Christ. We scream and shout and throw tantrums when we don't get our way, and all he wants us to do is whisper to Him. The funny thing is, He also whispers back to us, but all too often we are too busy raising our voices over all the other clutter in life to hear Him.

If we look Psalm 107, David talks about how God can calm the storms with a whisper. Wow! Before Jesus even came to earth and showed the disciples how it's done, David was praising God about it. If he can calm storms with a whisper, why do we think that we have any power greater than a storm? It's time for us to stop shouting and listen to His whispers.

I just need to shut up for a while,
Jesus Freak Out!