Is heaven a real place or just a state of mind? What will I see when I arrive there?

Question: What should Christians should do about Halloween? Answer:  Those of us who are Christian parents struggle with whether to allow our children to take part in the observance of Halloween. It is alright for children to trick or treat? Should we allow children to attend the school Halloween parties? These are among the many […]

His arrival could be at any moment. So, we should be immediately and seriously thinking about it! The Bible tells us the “eyes of the Lord are always upon us...” and is mentioned several times (Psalm 34.15, Deuteronomy 11:12, Proverbs 15:3.) In the Proverbs reference, the Holy Spirit inspired King Solomon to pen that the Lord sees all “in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Sadly, Christians – yes, those who claim to follow Jesus – are sometimes the worst offenders of participating in evil. Why rank them as worse? Because THEY KNOW better! Jesus taught: “…but the one who does not know any better and does things deserving punishment, he will receive light blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:48 God requires that we followers of Jesus Christ make better choices because He has given us His presence through the Holy Spirit, His favor, His blessings, and His expectations. Christians have been charged by God to live according to His descriptions of right, not wrong, behavior. Believers may say they are living according to God’s direction in the Bible, but their words and actions tell a different story. Keep in mind, His eyes AND those of others around us are watching – more is expected of us by God, by fellow believers, and - surprisingly - even by unbelieving neighbors. The worse the world around us becomes, the more people NEED our example! God inspired John, the youngest disciple, to record these beautiful words: “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.” 3 John 1:11 God admonishes us to be holy, as He is, which means being aligned with Him, to act differently from the majority of people in the world, who live in spiritual darkness. Remember, the Bible shows us examples of how going along with the majority is usually wrong and leads to disaster. “Find out what pleases the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but, rather, expose them.” Ephesians 5:10-11 Everyone knows that to murder, steal, and commit adultery are wrong. Other sins may seem less obvious. Do you curse or laugh at a dirty joke? Do you gossip or lie so others won’t know you’ve made a mistake? What about accepting or taking part in what God calls evil? Christians should be on guard against taking lightly any events that promote the darkness represented by images of Satan, demons, witches, and more. What the unbelieving world celebrates is most always contrary to what God values – which is the LIGHT of Jesus Christ! In Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus told us: “…You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” When Jesus returns, will He catch you in the act of doing right or wrong? “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” I Corinthians 16:13 We have to live in an ungodly world. Our enemy, Satan, is always watching to detect weakness such as inconsistency in our conduct. We have difficult decisions to make about who we align ourselves with and where we should stand on issues in our society. With this in mind, The Bible gives us examples of men who God trusted to do right, but they didn’t. The Bible’s record of two particular events has always given me chills. First, there was the account of Aaron’s bad choices in Exodus 32. Moses’s brother had a front row position in experiencing the many miraculous moves God executed on behalf of the Israelites. As chief priest, Aaron was charged with leading the worship of God in their traveling tabernacle tent, and the people respected him as one with great authority. When Moses left for a while because God called him into the mountains to receive His Ten Commandments, the Israelites looked to Aaron for guidance. Moses’s time up on the mountain with God took more time than everyone waiting down below expected, and the people feared that Moses had died and might not return. They lost hope and turned to Aaron, insisting that he should create for them new gods they could turn to, golden idols that they imagined might lead them back to Egypt. Aaron not only went along with the majority in committing terrible sins but led them to do evil. As a leader in whom God had given huge spiritual responsibility, Aaron failed in so many ways. What chills me is imagining the moment Aaron realized that Moses had just arrived and caught him in the act of facilitating these enormous sins (Exodus 32: 19-25.) Aaron made bad matters worse when he tried to hide his own sin by blaming everyone else, by lying about his own part in creating idols for them, and by even leading them to worship them! Later, Moses recorded that God admonished: “For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. …For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, as I am holy.” Leviticus 11:44-45 “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Leviticus 19:2 The second account may be more well-known to those who are familiar with the Biblical record. It’s when the disciple Peter vehemently denied three times that he was a friend and follower of Jesus, who was under arrest. Peter looked across the courtyard just as he finished speaking and saw Jesus looking at him. Chills. Peter knew he had failed - big time. He had just spent several years with Jesus, was a leader among the disciple group, and had witnessed miracle after miracle, even the brief return of Moses and Elijah from heaven to meet with Jesus. As we know from these historical accounts, after Jesus’ resurrection, He redeemed Peter and appointed him to lead the disciples. Later, Peter repeated what was recorded in Leviticus: “But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘you shall be holy, for I am holy.’ “ I Peter 1:15-16 Aaron and Peter knew better. Today, we Christians know what God expects from us even better than they did! You see, we are blessed to have the perspective God has provided us through the Bible of their mistakes and His wonderful interventions in the lives of many, many people on the earth. How will YOU choose to live? Will you follow along with the majority who care nothing about trying to imitate God and the life of His Son Jesus Christ? (Bad choice) Will you be holy, showing others that we can live in the world but not be just like the world? (Good choice) Jesus said, “Blessed is that servant whom the Master finds doing his job when He comes.” Matthew 24:46 Now, the decision is yours. Pray something like this: Dear God, I know that even though I profess to love you and accept your Son Jesus Christ as my Savior, I confess that I still make mistakes. You already know that, but I wanted to admit it to you. I desperately need your guidance at every moment in my life, even when I appear to be focused on other things. I admit that often I appear to be spiritually blind to my sins and those of others around me. Please open by awareness of my wrong intentions and block the path to sin that is so wide open in every direction I turn, the wide road toward darkness on which the majority is headed. Please keep me on your “ narrow path that leads to life…” that Jesus described. ( Matthew 7:13-14 ) Thank you for loving me, bearing with me, forgiving me, and repeatedly restoring me every time I fail you! Be my constant guide along every step of the way ahead. Amen. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Holy Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:15-17

Answer: We can only control what we ourselves talk about and post publicly, such as on social media. Even where hostility already is expressed, we can set the better tone, or a good example of respectful, fair, and kind dialogue. Remember what parents have repeated to their children for generations - If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. God inspired more about this to be recorded in His scriptures. Not only does He mean for us not to hurt others with our words but to select them to encourage and grow others to understand His great love for them! “A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” Proverbs 15:4 “There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Proverbs 12:18 Most important of all is whether our words – which spring from deep in our souls – are pleasing to God. Regardless of the public image we would like for others to see, Jesus said that words reveal a great deal about our true thoughts and how we live whenever we open our mouths to speak: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34, Luke 6:45 “…the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man…out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” Matthew 15:19 Next, what is important to God is the way we treat others. When people know we are Christians, will they be drawn to God and His love we share among ourselves, or will they be repelled by our insincerity? We are His ambassadors and represent Him to a dying world. Tragically, a person’s bad impression of hypocritical followers of Jesus may never be undone, which means the heart of an observer may become hardened to the truths about God so that he or she misses out on salvation. What a sobering responsibility we have! “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” James 1:26 If we lose our honorable reputation, we lose a great deal – in our church, community, and family! Trust collapses and doors close. If we respond badly in anger and malice, no one will take our claims of faith in God seriously anymore. The Bible states that having “ a good name ” should be more desirable than monetary riches. (Proverbs 22:1) When people can see that we act on what we say we believe, then they trust us and are willing to open their own hearts and minds to hear the message of Jesus Christ. When Jesus was asked what was the most important commandment, He responded to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, and to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. (Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 10:27) Our speech demonstrates love for God and others, or, sadly, a lack of it. “…neither filthiness, not foolish talking, not coarse joking, which are not appropriate, but rather giving thanks.” Ephesians 5:4 “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.” I Peter 3:10 “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, hate, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.” Colossians 3:8 The scriptures have much more to advise as warnings about the influence of our words in the lives of people around us. With our comments, we can make or break others. That’s a lot of power. We can build peace, or we can set the world on fire! When we start a fire, we often suffer along with our victims. Have you ever hurt someone deeply with a criticism or opinion? That person may always suffer from that painful, unhealed wound. “Likewise, the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small spark. The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals have been tamed by mankind, but no human can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. My brothers and sisters, this should not be so.“ James 3:5-10 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Proverbs 18:21 God has given us life to serve Him and use our mouths to help one another by building up others – not by tearing them down. Each day, be sure to offer a good word to cheer someone’s heart, and watch and see how God blesses your life immensely, too! When we show love, people experience what God’s love feel like, possibly for the first time. “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.” Proverbs 12:25 “Let no corrupt word come out of your mouth, but what s good for necessary encouragement, that it may give favor to the hearers.” Ephesians 4:29 “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24 “Let your conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:6 Has God’s Holy Spirit brought forward thoughts of someone you have hurt with your words? Here’s a good place to start in making this right: Lord, thank you for bringing this broken relationship to my mind. You know who I need to apologize to and how I might better rebuild that relationship. Please help me to do this in your perfect timing and with a very humble heart. Would you prepare that person’s heart to hear my words and heal our relationship? Please transform me and rid me of my tendency to be speak hastily and harshly. I look to you for guidance, dear Father in heaven. Thank you!  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

Answer: God created us in His own image (Genesis 1:27) and allows us what is called “free will,” which means that we can choose to do right or wrong. The Bible details many people who did what was right in God’s eyes, but it reveals many who did evil. Even the main author of the […]

Question:  I used to go to church, and I still believe in Jesus and that I am a Christian.  But I have drifted into doing some things that I know I should not be doing.  How can I keep from messing up my life all the time? Answer:  You mentioned that you believe in Jesus.  […]

Question: What exactly does the Bible commandment mean not to take God’s name “in vain”?  Answer: The third commandment that God gave to Moses to teach others was: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”  […]

Question: Should parents take children to church or just allow them to make the decision to attend when they are older? Answer: Attention, parents! The Bible warns that God holds parents fully accountable for their children’s spiritual instruction and guidance. For many families, most of this happens at church. Parents who neglect this do so […]

Question: Is Jesus just one of the paths to get to heaven?  Answer: The people of the many religions of the world are hoping that their earthly worship of other men, women, animals, and objects will earn for them a heavenly future. The Bible warns that, sadly, those beliefs are false. Jesus Christ is the […]

Question: I don’t feel as confident as other people seem to be about whether God will allow me into heaven when I die. Is it possible to be sure that I am a Christian? Answer: Absolutely, you can be sure! A Christian is a Christ-believer and follower of Jesus Christ. Think about when you first […]