​The people we will accompany include:
 

• Those who may not be able to explain how a super cell develops in the sky.  But who cannot look into the blue without praising the God of creation; who can’t look at a sunrise without praising God for the light he shines on their day; or at a sunset without thanking God for protecting them through the night.

 
This entire blog is summarized in two categories.  First, the person who thinks it’s all about him as the center of life.  He won’t be in heaven.  Second, the person who knows, believes and obeys Jesus because it’s always been, is now and always shall be all about God in Christ, and NO ONE ELSE at all!  He shall be there.
 
Jesus is now our righteousness and we his sin.  But the promise is...one day to come, and from day on forever and ever, we’ll never again shame him by our sins, but only glorify him for his righteousness.
 
Heaven will be filled with humans: 

• redeemed by the blood of the lamb;
• disciplined by his Grace to serve him;
• empowered by his Spirit to succeed;
• emboldened by our All-Conquering Lord who makes us Life-conquering disciples prepared to enter Heaven and Perfected to forever dwell in its Perfection.    Fini

​The people we’ll accompany include:
 

• Those who never make another person’s inclusion in or exclusion from heaven a condition of discipleship now; as in:  if someone we love isn’t there ruins it for us; if someone is there we think shouldn’t be will make us unhappy.

​To answer the first, this illustration.  Two American paratroopers had such a brawl in training that one vowed to kill the other if he ever had the chance.  They both jumped into Normandy first thing 6 June, 1944.  The one who feared being shot by the other got lost in the drop.  What he didn’t know was the other guy also got lost in the drop.

And who did the first guy see across a small meadow in France?  Yes, the very man who threatened to shoot him on sight.  And what did both men do?  As fast as their overburdened legs could carry them they struggled toward each other, fell in each other’s open arms, pounding each other on the back, then going off together to fight Germans.

In a crises greater than their differences they found a common cause—and lost themselves in it.  In a joy greater than all our differences all in Heaven will forget everything but how glad we are to be together in Christ’s presence.

To answer the second, a two-fold response, the first prophetic.  The book of Revelation leaves no doubt:  there is only agreement in Heaven among angels, elders and the saved that God’s judgments against unsaved sinners are always true, just and deserved.

Therefore, if we can’t be happy in Heaven if someone we want there isn’t there, why think we belong there?  Only those in absolute, perfect trust in God will be welcome there.

The second response is pastoral.  As Revelation 21:4 graciously promises, God will eliminate all sources of discomfort, loss, disappointment or pain from our new body and mind.  In other words, all memory of what would otherwise surface questions, doubts, reservations, etc., will be erased from our minds.  Therefore, we will enjoy permanent amnesia of people we have loved here but aren’t there.  End Part V
 

The people we will accompany include:

• Those who continue living by faith in God, whatever happens to them.  A couple stranded in the mountains nearly died before being rescued.  Thoughts turned to God as death seemed imminent.

And what about God?  Why he let it happen to them?  Why he put them through such misery?  They didn’t say whether they had sought his wisdom before going into the wilderness.
It does raise a point of difference between the couple and apostles.  By doing God’s will, Paul and Silas began a great revival in Philippi, but took a savage beating as a result Acts 16:16-40. If anyone should ask God “why?”, Paul could write it in paragraphs and chapters.  Read I Corinthians 4:7-13 and II Corinthians 11:16-12:10.  Instead, he obeyed God’s will and took his chances at safety.  By living in faith he would never understand those who live by their own choices but blame God when they miscarry.
 

• Those who often have God denying their prayers, re-directing their lives and surprising them with unexpected, undeserved adversity.  But who never blame him, question him or doubt him.  Who instead through it all...through it all...serve him faithfully, praise him repeatedly and obey him perseveringly.  End Part IV

The people we will accompany include:

• Those who understand that environmentalists have it wrong because God’s word has it right.  They insist we preserve this earth at all costs because it’s the only one we have.  While creation itself, as Romans 8:19-25 teaches, “stretches out its neck” longing for Christ’s return.  It seeks the incineration from God that eliminates all human corruption in it so God can renew it entirely in his image as the new earth housing God’s redeemed people.

 

• Those who seek Christ, Christ and Christ Only.  J.P. Moreland rightly said that the couplet Christian celebrity is an oxymoron.  For Colossians 3:3 declares, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”  Indeed, it’s impossible to make a celebrity of someone who’s supposed to be invisible.  Who’s supposed to care nothing for personal renown by being interested only in what redounds to God’s Glory in Christ.

 

• Those who build their lives on eternal verities, not on what’s safe or popular.  Who never say, “Make it easy for me, Jesus, and I’ll serve.”  Who always say, “As long as you are with me, Jesus, bring it on!”

 

• Those who delight in a pacific creation, but don’t criticize God when it turns baleful.  They understand that Adam and Eve brought a curse from God on creation that won’t be removed till Jesus returns.  They also know that creation’s angry moods are but its vengeance on fallen humanity for causing pain and sterility it didn’t deserve.  And, that by God’s grace, despite its occasional outbursts, creation is nearly always beneficial.  End Part III

​The people we will accompany include:

• Those who now don’t care who gets credit when Christ’s work succeeds—since they know there’ll be blame enough for all Christians when it doesn’t.

 

• Those who consider enriching another person’s life with Christ more important than aggrandizing one’s self.

 

• Those who get involved in other people’s lives and problems, forgetting their own as they do.  For they know that many people are like wolf cubs in their first few months.  The cubs spend their time wandering from the den.  The pack adults spend theirs tracking them down, grabbing them by the scruff of the neck and carrying them back to the den and safety.  Program on Wolves, Discovery Channel, 6/8/90

 
Christian people are always wandering from God.  Christ-like disciples will make it their intent to:  go after them, challenge them to return, and be the ones helping them back.  People who will live with God forever are now concerned enough to care and to care enough to help those in spiritual need.
 

• Those who don’t want to HAVE it ALL, and refuse to demand it all NOW.  For they have found, with Micah 7:7, to wait before God and let him provide and direct.

 
And contrary to some who say Jesus will take everything from us until we learn to trust him and will then return it to us, Not necessarily.  For many believers have learned that what they once considered essential to their unsaved state has no use to them once growing in Christian maturity.  They have learned that surrendering to Jesus whatever he took away was the very thing they had no use for once more mature in faith.  Indeed, what they could have reclaimed, with his permission, is the very thing they didn’t want at all and would never ask to have again, even if freely given by the Father!  End Part II
 
 

​Judy and I shop at the Ralphs grocery on Old Grove Road and the Walmart on Marron Road, Oceanside, California.  Because we like the people in both stores.  We exchange greetings when we enter, hugs with several and repartee with customers, employees and cashiers.
 
The people make the difference.
 
Think of Bible people who have made a difference:  Adam and Eve, for example.  Our common parents.  He the handsomest man ever, she the peerless beauty.  Nobody ever looked that good again.  All without make-up, ladies, and without body-building buff, men.
 
To this writer, other names naturally follow:  Abraham, Joseph in Egypt, Moses, Joshua, Deborah, David,   Solomon and those GREAT prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.
 
But only as a sampling of many more.  For with the sacred writer, we say, “I do not have time to tell about...” et al, et al, so many of God’s great people of old Hebrews 11:33.
 
In the next blog, consider a few of the kind of people with whom we’ll share the new heaven and earth in new bodies and minds.  Each kind will make a difference in our lives even then.  End Part I
 

​Those who seek only to live for Jesus NOW, so they can live with him THEN, shall have the privilege.  But it begins now and continues always.
 
Years ago, in the Plaza Bonita Mall, National City, California, I saw a sign in the Glamour Shots window.  It offered a Mother’s Day Special—one for her to remember. 
 
That stirred a thought.  Jesus does for our soul in conversion and reconstitution of our spirit what Glamour Shots does for our face.  But with significant differences.
 

• They use MAKE-UP to improve a face, proving the value of PAINT; the Spirit uses MAKE-OVER of the mind and heart, not liquids, creams and clever photography.

 

• They create an instant glance soon lost in other facial movements; the Spirit captures all that’s pleasant and positive in us.

 

• They stage a posed performance in a sterile studio atmosphere, lights adjusted to the romantic moment; the Spirit equips us to victoriously face each day, whatever it brings, however hopeful or tragic Habakkuk 3:16-18.

 

• They make us what we’re usually NOT; the Spirit what we can daily be.

 

• They turn human reality into illusion; the Spirit turns human potential into divine reality.

 

• They show a better side of self; the Spirit makes us show-windows of Jesus Christ’s Glory, Grace and Truth.

 

• They paint or brush on what soap and water remove; the Spirit saturates our entire being with holiness impervious to contamination.

 

• Why be MADE-UP when we can be MADE-OVER?  Why settle for what will only amuse our friends when Christ gives what astonishes them?

 

• Why accept how we temporarily look when Christ proposes to change us forever in what he eternally IS?  Indeed, he renews our spirit now and, ultimately, re-clothes us in an incredibly new body to house it forever?  Fini

Walt Whitman, George Stuart, Charles Lindbergh, Thomas Edison, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Thomas Jefferson all rejected, doubted or didn’t think an after-life mattered enough to consider it.
 
God grants us the right to an opinion on the subject.  He won’t force Heaven on anyone.  If we want to believe that none exists, too bad for us.  For no one unprepared to be there will be there.  Make no mistake:  while God gives us freedom to draw conclusions, we have none that determines the after-life.
 
Some, from what they call near-death experiences, have concluded that only reward, not punishment, exists after death.  The book Life After Life recorded the experiences of such people.  Some, who had previously believed in Bible teaching, revised it to match their experience.
 
What did it prove?  Only that they saw in their experience what they expected to see—subjective hopes fulfilled.  In reality, it’s nothing but a rebirth of 2000 year old Gnosticism. 
 
II Corinthians 5:10 and Revelation 20:12, among many other passages, teach reward or punishment after death.  Indeed, God warns us that we are not only judged by what we do here, but both good and bad are recorded.  If unforgiven, all sin remains recorded, so no doubt exists, with no appeal possible.
 
Do not let Satan deceive us with what humans SAY they have discovered in near-death experiences when their experiences are patently contrary to what God’s word TEACHES. 
End Part I 
 

​As it’s the property of rain to be wet, and the property of fire to burn, it’s the property of Jesus to transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body.  He says he can do it by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control—an awesome power of creation, of regeneration, of dominion.  He can do what he pleases, and he pleases to transform our lowly bodies!  Amen.
 
Our age has lost this hope.  Judge by the latest modern procedure to find new life for the body.  It’s called cryonics.  The blood is drawn from the body.  Then a solution is instilled to preserve the organs.  Then the corpse is stowed in deep freeze, held in suspension till future medical technology can revive it.  The treatment costs at least $70,000, and a few have already been frozen.  That is a hope born of desperation.
 
Jesus has a better idea.  Belief in him guarantees eternal life that begins now.  If we die, not to worry:  Jesus lives.  If we decay, worry even less.  When Christ is ready, he will reunite soul and body in a glorified, eternal state.
 
In the meantime, this promise:  not only are our victories victories, but our defeats are really victories in disguise.  Our sorrows are really joys; all pain is really pleasure, wearing thorns; all weakness is strength, all labor is really rest.  And this...even this...death is no end but just a beginning of indestructible life.  That is our destiny!
 
Go to the rest homes and see the infirm; but that isn’t the end.  Go to the hospitals and see the sick; but that isn’t the end.  Go to the graveyards and see the dead; and that isn’t the end.  Against all that, go to Revelation 22:1 and see “the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”  Go to Revelation 21:9 and see “the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.  It shone with the glory of God and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”  Then go to Revelation 21:3 and hear, “A loud voice from the throne saying ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’”
 
To finish the tour, go to Revelation 21:5 and hear God say, “I am making everything new!...it is done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.  He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”  And none of all that will be the end either.  No.  But, praise God, praise God!!  It is the Beginning that has no end!

​Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain! My Captain” celebrates the restoration of the Union after the Civil War.  It also grieves the loss of President Lincoln.  Each of the three stanzas ends with a reference to that loss:  “Fallen cold and dead.”  “You’ve fallen cold and dead.”  “Fallen cold and dead.”  The Union saved, YES!  Abraham Lincoln, DEAD!  Not a dream; a nightmare.  The cause outlived the person who embodied it, because the cause soared greater still, however great the man.
 
But Jesus and the Kingdom of God, co-terminus, exist together, indivisible!  He is both the Cause of the Kingdom and the essential Person in the Kingdom!  Forgiveness of sin is experienced because he rose from the dead.  Heaven is won because Jesus lives.  Hope in tomorrow flourishes because Jesus Reigns forever.
 
And if we still can’t find in the promises what moves us to accept and live for Jesus, personalize them.  All who now sing so low they can’t hear themselves will then be belting out hymns like Enrico Caruso, in solos or in vast choirs.  Those who can’t imagine themselves standing in front of people talking will be preaching like Billy Graham.
 
Those who don’t know a scripture verse larger than “Jesus Wept” will be quoting long passages from David’s psalms and Paul’s epistles.  Those tone deaf will be composing cantatas.  Those who can’t move their hips except to walk will be like David, leaping in sacred dance before the Throne; or, like Joy Hurley, unfolding their arms in the sacred allure and soft moves of hula.
 
Those who don’t know high C from a C-note will find themselves experts in trumpets, guitars, violins and—Sergio Saucedo—accordions.  They will all play in sacred harmonies the soaring passion of Elijah and the towering “lift you off your seat, rise from your seat and stand on tip-toe” strains of the Hallelujah Chorus.
 
And...for those who like to keep their distance from others—who feel uncomfortable hugging...we’ll be laughing and hugging everyone in sight and, when We All Get To Heaven, there’ll always be someone in sight!
 
The last word:  hold lightly what we now cannot keep.  Hold firmly what in faithfulness to Jesus Christ we cannot lose!  Fini