New video

http://youtu.be/7_PUCrLNC6g

End of Days...

In the end, there will only be two kinds of people-those that say to God, "thy will be done", and those whom God says, "Thy will be done."  

Those words should scare you just a little bit. You are going to die and be judged one day. Also, there will be a time when this world will end as we know it. What's going to happen, where will you be?  There's just two choices, right? Heaven or hell. Where will you be?

I do believe in these places literally.

Where are they?  What are they for?  Who decides who goes where?


Imagine (some easier than others) if you have an anger problem.
Anger problems would be all about your problem, because you can't control yourself. Too inwardly focused. Day by day this steadily gets worse and worse. Years go by and you choose not address it, maybe in 20-50 it's not too bad, but could you imagine a million, it would literally be hell.  It's you totally focused on yourself.  Your really a shadow of a human at this point, but a you are totally focused on you and you alone.  Think of Lot's wife, she wasn't human after God's judgement.

So who goes to hell?  Does God send people to hell?

Again, think of the person with the anger problem.  There's so many other problems that come with anger, such as road rage, child abuse, treating employees poorly, etc...These could all qualify as being sins.  These get worse as time goes on, and the person never wants help from his anger problem. He keeps on sinning against God.  He can hear about Jesus forgiveness, but never can accept it.  He doesn't want forgiveness. He likes his anger more. It has in fact become his identity.  So this person
out rightly rejects the Gospel. As I said though, this happens over time.  In Screwtape Letters, I wrote this, “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,...Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.”  You see my friends, you choose to go to hell, you reject the gospel because of self sufficiency. Total reliability on your own part. Lace up your own boot straps.  The door to hell is locked, but from the inside. So who goes to hell, the person who loves himself more than God.  A person who denies God's help, a person who loves self more than anyone or anything else.  A person to whom God says, "Thy will be done."  


What about the person who bends the knee to Jesus?  What awaits a Christian?  Heaven of course. Don't worry about what some people call it "the pie in the sky" and other names as such. If there is no heaven, there is no Christianity. It is woven all throughout the scriptures. But also, it is not a bribe. Nobody can bribe you to heaven. You get it when you get God. And only the pure in heart want God.

What do love about life? Is it hobbies, the love of a great woman, food, or sex?  I might say these are just glimpses into heaven. You desire more than just what you can see, taste, smell, or touch. You desire something outside you.  That is heaven. You've never seen it, but you want it deeply. This is also called the God shaped hole in your heart.



Do you want to sing to and worship Jesus?  Do you find yourself drawn to church? Do you know there's something more than just self to be fulfilled?  There is something out there for you.  There is an ultimate city of different members of one society. We will get to praise God with each other as one voice.

How do we find heaven?  If we loved Jesus, we will go to a place inside heaven and have our sins be taken away.  It is called purgatory. It is not like the Roman Catholic Church explains it as a place of suffering, but it is a a place of more magnificent than earth.  We should want a place like to as we
should not want to enter the city with the stench of our past sins.  We will enter the Great City pristine and white as the scriptures reveal. It will be glorious. God himself will guide us there.  This is the person who says to God, "Thy will be done".

At the end of the Narnian series (I won't give everything away, just encourage you to read those books) I write, "But for them it was just the beginning of the real story...now at last they are beginning chapter one."

If you are interested in this subject let me encourage you to read the "The Problem With Pain" and "The Great Divorce".  You will not be disappointed.

Your Friend Jack
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither

CHURCH is...

OK when we say church, I think there can be 2 meanings.  I'll describe the one not really thought of first. Church can mean the body of Christ, all the Christians of all time. The church that is invisible to humans, and that Christ calls his own bride. The second more meaningful for today, and is just place of worship. The word church can be summed as either the church eternal or the church building

Why the 2 meanings, I think this word has been thrown around so much it has lost it's meaning. Guided by the enemy, people have changed what the word should be defined by Scripture.  

The enemy wants to distort our our understanding of why we go to a building for worship. The enemy wants us to pick a building to suit our own likes and wants. I like this music at this place, but I like the teaching of that one better. There's a woman who always wants to sit in MY seat at MY church. There's a man who sits 2 rows in front of me who irks ME as he sings off key. The woman who sits in the front distracts ME because she always raises her hands at the wrong time during worship.

BUT we should look at Church from God's point of view.

God's view is more like the first definition.  I will explain more if there are questions

Screwtape and Wormwood

I don't want to spend too much time speaking on the enemy, but what do you think the enemies job is? Do you think demons and satan are there to put things in our minds, or keep them out?
What is the best way to defeat the enemy depending on your answer?

Holy Spirit is...

Here is my post on the Holy Spirit... This is from Mere Christianity.

In Christianity God is not a static thing – not even a person – but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. The union between the Father and the Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person. I know this is almost inconceivable, but look at it thus. You know that among human beings, when they get together in a family, or a club, or a trade union, people talk about the ‘spirit’ of that family, club, or trade union. The talk about its ‘spirit’ because the individual members, when they are together, do really develop particular ways of talking and behaving which they would not have if they were apart (this corporate behavior may, of course, be either better or worse than their private behavior). It is as if a sort of communal personality came into existence. Of course, it is not a real person: it is only rather like a person. But that is just one of the differences between God and us. What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, this Person is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are God. 

Also This

This third Person is called, in technical language, the Holy Ghost or the ‘spirit’ of God. Do not be worried or surprised if you find it (or Him) rather vaguer or more shadowy in your mind than the other two. I think there is a reason why that must be so. In the Christian life you are not usually looking at Him. He is always acting through you. If you think of the Father as something ‘out there’, in front of you, and of the Son as someone standing at your side, helping you to pray, trying to turn you into another son, then you have to think of the third Person as something inside you, or behind you. Perhaps some people might find it easier to begin with the third Person and work backwards. God is love, and that love works through men—especially through the whole community of Christians. But this spirit of love is, from all eternity, a love going on between the Father and the Son.


but not this...
Holy Ghost Shake

What are your views on the Holy Spirit?
Let me know what you think.

Your Friend Jack-
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.

Jesus is...

In my book,"The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe", we see the lion Aslan give his life for the betrayer Peter to the White Queen. You could say he sinned, and when he did, he became a slave to the White Witch. But, the great and mighty Aslan gave himself up for the sins of Peter. She takes him to the stone tablet and kills him. She thinks she has completely won the Land of Narnia. There will always be winter, but no Christmas! Then three days later, Aslan returns with a fierce GROWL that shakes the whole country of Narnia. He defeats death, and then defeats the queen. Peter and his three companions become Kings and Queens of Narnia, of course all thanks to Aslan.

Narnia is a world in which I thought up which could be like our world, but with talking animals and interesting things of this sort. The role of Jesus in our world would be played by Aslan in Narnia. I thought what would Jesus be like in this world? It was necessary for him to be the most powerful and graceful of all the creatures in Narnia. Naturally a lion fit this description. When he roars, the whole creation shakes!

At the end of the big battle in the book, Aslan walks away from the victors over the White Witch and her minions. It is not understood why he is leaving, and Mr. Beaver (A Narnian) explained why. "He warned them saying, "He'll be coming and going. One day you'll see him, and the next day you won't." He'll often drop in. "Only you mustn't press him. He's wild you know. Not a tame lion."

Jesus was tame tame in our world either (when he was walking around in it). What makes me say this? People in his day and ours say he's a good teacher, a prophet, or a way to God. He will not agree with what people say about him. We must.listen to him what he says about himself in the four Gospels in the Bible. He stated over and over I am God. We can conclude no sane mere mortal would say, "I am God." So, my famous say is Jesus is either a Liar, a Lunatic, or he is LORD!

When I read the Gospels, he clearly calls himself Lord and accepts worship, and no good Jew of his time would accept the worship of people. Not even the angels in the Bible would accept worship either. My conclusions again, Jesus is exactly who is said he was.  The Lord of all creation, God.

What are your thoughts, Do you agree, Disagree, Unsure???  Let's discuss this most important matter.

Jack-
“I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia.” 

Your thoughts on...

So before I write on Jesus, I was wondering what your thoughts on Screwtape Letters.  Obviously if you are a Naturalist, you will doubt anything such thing as Angels and demons. A Bible believing Christian should have no doubt we are in a war between good and evil (although the ultimate battle has already been won of course by Jesus).  How do you have a balance between knowing that there are are demons who infiltrate our lives, and they can only do do so much if we battle them with the Word?

Jack
“Whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out...”