So I have been continuing with the Knockin' on Heaven's Door series and it has been such a blessing!! A few highlights so far:
- the only things we can take with us to Heaven are people!
- Heaven isn't a place, it's a reign; follow a new way of life; if it's a reign, we can experience some of it NOW!
- as far as the whole, what will we look like thing... if God made us in His image, with my own God-infused personality, THAT part of me will remain when He restores. Luke 16 - rich man recognizes Abraham and Lazarus, disciples recognize Moses and Elijah during transfiguration, 1 Corinthians 13 - we will KNOW as we have been KNOWN; disciples saw Jesus and Jesus' new body following His resurrection - 1 Corinthians 15:20 - He is the firstfruits, He is our prototype
- all of what God did through Jesus in the resurrection is He defeated our worst enemy, death; that death is working its toll on our lives right now, every day, and all of that is swallowed up in victory, so we get new bodies when the curse is reversed, when Heaven is our home (1 Corinthians 15:42-44)
- do people in Heaven see us down here on earth? Hebrews 12 - as we run our race, there's a cloud of witnesses watching us
And a joke he said when talking about our new bodies in Heaven:
Ole, Lena, and little Ole went to the big City for the first time. They were walking down the street and looking in the windows of the big buildings. Little Ole spotted something that caught his eye and ran into a building. Big Ole and Lena followed him. There they all stood in front of a shiny metal door that was cut into a wall of black marble. A chubby, elderly, gray haired lady walked up and pushed a button on the wall next to the door. The door opened and she walked into the little room behind the shiny door. The door closed and the numbers above the door counted up and then down again. The shiny doors opened and a beautiful, well built, young lady walked out.
Little Ole said, "What kind of machine is dat, Dad?" Big Ole replied, "I don't know little Ole, but push dat button and shove your Ma in there."
HA! I'm also getting into the book Shame Off You which is so far so good. It is incredible to see how strongly today's culture, even parents without knowing it!, rely on shame to encourage someone to succeed. Why do we feel the need to be successful to feel loved? And it seems that shame has been around ever since humans existed... After the fall in Genesis, 3:7 says "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves" - they were ashamed of their appearance. aSHAMEd. Everyone has their demons, everyone has their reasons for feeling shameful, but what a day in Heaven when all this shame will be gone!
And to avoid casting shame upon someone, I have admitted any comments regarding last night's basketball games... LOVE.
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