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See also Death
See also Eternal Life
See also Second Coming
A Texas millionaire had fallen ill. Doctors consulted did not seem to understand what ailed him. The millionaire let it be known that any doctor who could heal him could have whatever he desired.
A country doctor was able to cure him and as the doctor was leaving after a week's stay, the Texan said, "Doc! I am a man of my word. You name it and if it is humanly possible I'll get it for you."
"Well," said the doctor, "I love to play golf, so if I could have a matching set of golf clubs that would be fine."
With that the doctor left. The doctor didn't hear from the Texas millionaire for some months. Then one day he got a phone call from the millionaire.
"Doc, I bet you thought that I had gone back on my word. I have your matching set of golf clubs. The reason it took so long is that two of them didn't have swimming pools and I didn't think they were good enough for ya. So I had pools installed and they're all ready for you now!"
Don't underestimate God's plans for your life. Sometimes the temptation is to think that God only has little He wants to do in our lives when in fact there is an abundance that He desires to lavish upon our souls. When we think we will only get little, it can be too easy to not bother following since we feel we aren't going to miss much.
Every time we neglect God we avoid His greatness in our lives.
C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain, Christianity Today, Page 46
We are afraid that Heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no longer be disinterested. It is not so. Heaven offers nothing that a mercenary soul can desire. It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
A minister waited in line to have his car filled with gas just before a long holiday weekend. The attendant worked quickly, but there were many cars ahead of him in front of the service station. Finally, the attendant motioned him toward a vacant pump.
The young man said, "I'm sorry about the delay. It seems as if everyone waits until the last minute to get ready for a long trip." The minister nodded, "I know what you mean. It's the same in my business."
-- Author Unknown
NOT HOME YET
An old missionary couple had been working in Africa for years and were returning to New York to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they were defeated, discouraged, and afraid. They discovered they were booked on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions. No one paid any attention to them. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President's entourage, with passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the great man.
As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, "Something is wrong."
"Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here this man comes back from a hunting trip and everybody makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us."
"Dear, you shouldn't feel that way", his wife said.
He replied "I can't help it; it doesn't seem right."
When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of the President's arrival. No one noticed this missionary couple. They slipped off the ship and found a cheap flat on the East Side, hoping the next day to see what they could do to make a living in the city.
That night the man's spirit broke.
He said to his wife, "I can't take this; God is not treating us fairly".
His wife replied, "Why don't you go in the bedroom and tell that to the Lord?"
A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, "Dear, what happened?"
"The Lord settled it with me", he said.
"I told him how bitter I was that the President should receive this tremendous home-coming, when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as though the Lord put his hand on my shoulder and simply said,
'But you're not home yet'!
Charles L. Allen in Home Fires
A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father. Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed; "Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!"
An evangelist asked all who wanted to go to heaven to raise their hands. Everyone in the audience did so, except one elderly man sitting near the front of the auditoriom. The preacher pointed his finger at him and said, 'Sir, do you mean to tell us that you don't want to go to heaven?' 'Sure I want to go, but the way you put the question, I figured you were getting up a busload for tonight!'
Moody's Anecdotes, Page 125-126
There is an old legend of a swan and a crane.
A beautiful swan alighted by the banks of the water in which a crane was wading about seeking snails. For a few moments the crane viewed the swan in stupid wonder and then inquired:
"Where do you come from?"
"I come from heaven!" replied the swan.
"And where is heaven?" asked the crane.
"Heaven!" said the swan, "Heaven! have you never heard of heaven?" And the beautiful bird went on to describe the grandeur of the Eternal City. She told of streets of gold, and the gates and walls made of precious stones; of the river of life, pure as crystal, upon whose banks is the tree whose leaves shall be for the healing of the nations. In eloquent terms the swan sought to describe the hosts who live in the other world, but without arousing the slightest interest on the part of the crane.
Finally the crane asked: "Are there any snails there?"
"Snails!" repeated the swan; "no! Of course there are not."
"Then," said the crane, as it continued its search along the slimy banks of the pool, "you can have your heaven. I want snails!"
This fable has a deep truth underlying it. How many a young person to whom God has granted the advantages of a Christian home, has turned his back upon it and searched for snails! How many a man will sacrifice his wife, his family, his all, for the snails of sin! How many a girl has deliberately turned from the love of parents and home to learn too late that heaven has been forfeited for snails!
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, New York, Macmillan, 1960), p. 119
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
Andy Wilcock
Imagine as a child being told by a friend to come round to his house tomorrow at 4pm. At about 3.45pm the next day you suddenly remember about the invite while you are playing in the garden. You rush round to your friends house, still wearing your old clothes, shoes covered in mud and your hands caked in muck. You've always ended up playing in his garden anyway. When you arrive your friends mum invites you into the front room. To your surprise the room is full of friends from school. They are all in their best clothes, hair combed and polished shoes. Each of them holding a box covered in brightly decorated paper and a card in an envelope sitting on the box. Your friend is at the far end of the room opening one of the boxes, he has a badge on saying "Nine today".
How do you feel? ("I'm in the wrong place!" Maybe?)
How did Moses, Isaiah, Peter, James or John feel as they witnessed the glory of God revealed to them?
Clean Laugh
While handing a 25 cent-off coupon to the supermarket clerk at the checkout counter, a woman inadvertently missed her hand, and the coupon slipped beneath the scale and was gone.
The checker looked distressed, so I the woman said, "That's Okay, it's in coupon heaven now."
"Coupon heaven?", the checker said.
"Yes", the woman said, "That's where coupons go when they die."
"Only the redeemed ones!" said the checker.
Clean Laugh
The pastor was talking to a group of young children about believing in Jesus and going to heaven. At the end of his talk, he asked, "Where do you want to go?"
"Heaven!" they all piped up. "And what do you have to be to get there?"
"Dead!", one boy yelled.
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