Four Things God wants everyone to know...

What can you say to someone who's about to pass from this life to the next?  And what can you say to those who love them?
 
I've been thinking about both of those questions  the past few weeks, as a close friend of ours was facing what she and all of us knew would be her last few days on earth. 
 
As I prayed about what to say to her, I felt like God shared with me four things that He wanted me to share with her, four things that I believe God wants everyone to know.  Here's what I told her :
 
1) God is real. 
2) Heaven is real.
3) Jesus is the way.
4) Don't be afraid.
 
I knew she believed these things, but I just wanted to remind her just how real they were, so I just shared those things over and over with her during those final days.
 
When she finally passed away, her family asked if I would say a few words at the funeral service, so I asked God what He would want me to share with them.  It turns out that they're the same four things that Jesus said to His disciples on the night before He died.  They're recorded in the Bible in the book of John, chapter 14.
 
The first thing that Jesus said to them was this:
 
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me" (John 14:1).
 
It was like Jesus was saying to them, "I know this is going to be a hard time for you.  But God is real.  He's really here.  He really cares.  You can trust Him, and you can trust Me, too."
 
Then Jesus told them that heaven was real, too.  He said:
 
"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am" (John 14:2-3).
 
Throughout His whole life and ministry, Jesus preached about the reality of heaven.  Even when He was challenged and some people questioned Him about the resurrection of the dead, Jesus said: 
 
"You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God" (Matthew 22:29).
 
Heaven is real, and it must be really incredible.  Although God hasn't told us everything that awaits us in heaven, He has told us what won't be in heaven--and that alone is worth it!  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.  There will be no more night, and we won't even need the light of the sun, for the Lord Himself will give the light (see Revelation 21:4,23-25 and 22:5).
 
The song-writer Keith Green said, "I can't wait to get to heaven!"  He said that if God took six days to make all that we can see here on the earth, imagine what heaven is like, because Jesus said He was going to prepare a place for us--and He's been working on it for 2,000 years! 
 
God wants you to know that He is real, and He wants you to know that heaven is real, too.
 
That's third thing Jesus told His disciples was how to get to heaven, because He didn't want them--or anyone--to miss it.  He said:
 
"You know the way to the place where I am going."
 
Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we don't know where You are going, so how can we know the way?"
 
"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me'" (John 14:4-6).
 
It was like Jesus was saying, "If you believe in Me, put your faith in Me, keep on following Me, then you'll end up in the same place that I'm going--and that's heaven!"
 
Jesus wants us all to keep putting our faith in Him for everything in our life.  That's why He came to earth, to die for our sins so we could be free from them--forgiven--and be with Him forever.
 
Having shared with them these three things--that God is real, that heaven is real, and that He was the way--Jesus shared with them the fourth thing:  Don't be afraid.  Jesus said:
 
"Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:27b).
 
I'm sure He said it because He knew that they might very well be afraid.  He knew that sometimes facing life is even harder than facing death, because of all the challenges that we have here.  But Jesus reminded them of the same things that I'm reminding you.  God is real. Heaven is real.  Jesus is the way.  You don't have to be afraid.

 

Always remember that God loves you, He cares about you and He will take care of you.  He will watch over you, He will never leave you, and He will never forsake you.  Don't be afraid.
 
by Eric Elder
 

Great Big God

One day on the way home from church a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, the preacher's sermon this morning confused me."

The mother said, "Oh! Why is that?

The girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?"

"Yes, that's true," the mother replied.

"He also said that God lives within us.  Is that true too?"

Again the mother replied, "Yes."

"Well," said the girl. "If God is bigger than us and he lives in us, wouldn't He show through?"

Opening Up the Bible

A scholarly foreigner was employed to translate the New Testament into his native language. After a while, he exclaimed, "What a marvelous Book this is!" "Why do you think so?" asked the missionary. "Because it tells me so exactly about myself. It knows all that is in me. The One who made this Book must be the One who made me!"

Supplements

"I pray that . . . (God) may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being." (Ephesians 3:16)

 

The fitness center in which I work out several times a week has pictures on the wall of club members who have won prizes in regional bodybuilding contests.  One of them is of a fierce looking man who often has his workout at the same time of day-early morning - as I do.  He has a shaved head, long mustache and eyes that bore holes through the air.  His time in the gym is alone time - Mr. Bodybuilder never speaks to anyone or even acknowledges that others of us are in the gym.  The picture on the wall of his finely chiseled body in full flex pose, wearing the championship belt of the Masters Division (age 50 and above), is a reminder of who the alpha male is in this neck of the woods.

One holiday morning the club attendant was late arriving.  Several of us sat in our cars, listening to radios, waiting for the doors to open.  Mr. Bodybuilder drove up in a canary-yellow convertible and started pacing up and down on the strip mall sidewalk.  After a five-minute wait, he strode back to his car and said the only words I've ever heard him speak: "I can't wait! I've got supplements to take!"

The only supplements I take are jam on toast and cream in coffee.  But apparently there are additives available that do more than stimulate the palate.  Some seem to help one look like a Michelangelo statue.  What if there were also supplements available to help improve one's attitude?  A friendship pill, a good-cheer capsule, or a relax-and-smile tablet might help some I know.  Some need persistence supplements, others could use a self-worth additive.  Many would benefit from salting their breakfast with determination and a positive spirit. 

What was impressive about Mr. Bodybuilder's commitment was his discipline.  His supplements were taken at a certain time, with determined regularity.  Nothing was going to prevent that from happening.  The benefit of similar discipline in prayer . . . in study . . . in serving those in need . . . in worship . . . in building relationships within one's family-who can tell what kind of championship awaits the one who faithfully develops the inner being? 

 So when I saw another man on an exercise bike in the gym reading a Bible the other morning, I strode back to my car thinking, "I've got supplements to take!"

Copyright 2009 Dr. Michael A. Halleen.

 

Isn't it strange...

• Isn't it strange how a £20 note seems like such a large amount when you donate it to church, but such a small amount when you go shopping?
• Isn't it strange how 2 hours seem so long when you're at church, and how short they seem when you're watching a good movie?
• Isn't it strange that you can't find a word to say when you're praying but you have no trouble thinking what to talk about with a friend?
• Isn't it strange how difficult and boring it is to read one chapter of the Bible but how easy it is to read 100 pages of a popular novel?
• Isn't it strange how everyone wants front-row-tickets to concerts or sports matches but they do whatever is possible to sit at the back row in Church?
• Isn't it strange how we need to know about an event for Church 2-3 months before the day so we can include it in our diary, but we can adjust it for other events in the last minute?
• Isn't it strange how difficult it is to learn a fact about God to share it with others; but how easy it is to learn, understand, extend and repeat gossip?
• Isn't it strange how we believe everything that magazines and newspapers say but we question the words in the Bible?
• Isn't it strange how everyone wants a place in heaven but they don't want to believe, do, or say anything to get there?

Author Unknown  
 

Some Quotes on Happiness

Happiness is an attitude of mind, born of the simple determination to be happy under all outward circumstances.
J. Donald Walters

 

Happiness is not a state to arrive at but, rather, a manner of traveling.
Samuel Johnson
 
Your unhappiness is not due to your want of a fortune or high position or fame or sufficient vitamins.  It is due not to a want of something outside of you, but to a want of something inside you.  You were made for perfect happiness.  No wonder everything short of God disappoints you.
Fulton Sheen

 

The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so.
William Ralph Inge

 

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.
James Oppenheim

 

The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do.
James M. Barrie

 

Success is getting what you want; Happiness is wanting what you get.
Dale Carnegie

 

If happiness could be bought, we'd be unhappy with the price.
(unknown)

 

I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.
Martha Washington