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What Is Heaven Like – Part One

Over the years of being a Christian and a Minister I have almost never come across someone who didn’t want to go to “Heaven”, even people who said they didn’t believe in God, especially the Judaeo/Christian God. It almost goes without saying though that there are just as many versions of what people say that Heaven is like as there are those who want to go there when they die, or even visit before they die. And of course there are different religions that actually do say there is a Heaven but again, they have their own “take” on what it’s like. And everybody’s Heaven seems to be primarily a place where everything will be to their liking and set up just for them.  

Well I’m giving a “take” from the point of view of the Christian Faith, as it is described in the Holy Bible. Of course there are a couple of difficulties with this “expose”. The Christian Bible, which is a collection of writings over a period of hundreds of generations, not only doesn’t give us a lot of specifics, but we are told and understand that we are not likely to fully comprehend what we are told. But there is enough in there, including from Jesus the Christ, the Lord, in his own words when he was here the first time, and also from him through the hearts and minds and pens of his devotees.  

Part one will be mostly introductory to the “series” and also with some view to the kinds of things we’ll be looking at in the sequels. Please, look forward to the “rest-of-the-story”. [PH] 

This historical figure Jesus Christ used a term quite frequently when he spoke, either publicly or privately, that we read as “The Kingdom Of God” and/or of His Heaven. These are for the most part synonymous with each other, although the parts directly referring to Heaven itself are many times just merely “descriptive” declarations more than the explanations of the “ways” that the Kingdom of God operate. It’s like the difference between telling a person of the deep jungles of the Amazon that we have “cars”, or “vehicles” but then don’t say why they are used, or how, and in what different ways and reasons.  

In the Bible there are literally hundreds of references to Heaven and the Kingdom of God. Other similar terms used are the “City of God”, the “Heavenly Jerusalem”, “Mount Zion”, the “Father’s House”, “Paradise”, and even more. We will not be looking at every one of them, not even most. I will be selecting different ones to examine for the purpose of a particular aspect of life and existence in Heaven, especially as it relates to our existence here on “this side” of Heaven. Jesus Christ we are told by the Bible, was in Heaven as “The Word of God”, long before he came to earth for his “Mission”. Likewise and because of this we are also told that he “embodies” the very essence of all who “Live” there. So in even examining Him when he was here and what he said and how he conducted himself, etc. we can get a better idea of what it’s like, where he comes from and where he went.  

Here’s one example. Most people I’ve either talked with and/or heard about what they’ve said about the Kingdom of God and of His Heaven describe it in such terms as though they are wishing and hoping it will be like they are saying, more-so than as though they have been there and “seen” with their eyes. That’s not necessarily a sin or a crime to do so but you can read a lot about that person and how well they know the God of “His House” [Heaven]. Even how well they know what the Bible or even Jesus and his Apostles and Prophets said about it. And many of them have actually seen it in part. And of course, you can also tell by their particular description of their “dream” of “their Heaven”, is whether or not anyone else seems to be there or not or maybe everyone there is “there-for-them”.  

Let’s refer to the aspect of what we might call “giving”. A stark contrast of the Bible and it’s recollections of Jesus and those he has allowed to see as he saw, with those here concerning “giving” is that in the Kingdom of God you are more likely to see it’s “Citizens”, [as the Bible also refers to them] almost “stumbling” as it were, all over themselves and each other trying to find ways and means of doing things for others, instead of themselves. Jesus called it “giving-without-hoping-or-expecting-to-receive-back”. Wanting to give, even all they might have, to others, instead of to themselves. A Place of little or no self indulgence yet a place also of every need and desire being made available and provided in opulent extravagant abundance. [Have you ever experienced what it’s like to do something “For” someone just to do it for them, out of love, or even out of doing them a favor, with no strings attached. In Heaven it won’t be the exception, as it is here, it will be the rule, or the “norm”].  

How can that be? How can it be both? Imagine if you can, every single individual there doing all they can to “serve” and bless and accommodate, etc. all of the needs and desires of everyone else, except themselves. You do the math, that indicates clearly that there will be absolutely no one there who will ever be without or not abundantly taken care of, yet they didn’t do so for themselves. Well I can hear many of you thinking, “that don’t sound too bad at all. Kind of like a Prince being waited on hand and foot for all his needs and desires. But wait, if you yourself are there you will be waiting on everyone else and not being interested in “being Indulged” yourself. Others in your life won’t have to do as they may have to do now from time to time [or maybe a lot] and that is “wait-in-line” so to speak, for you to get done with taking care of yourself and then trying to squeeze everyone else in last. If that’s you now, you won’t like “Heaven”. Sad to say that we see far far too many marriages, and parents who have a relationship with their families that is exactly like this. But God made us, from the beginning, to life sacrificially around others, especially our family members, and especially either in marriage or as parents.  

Imagine someone somewhere even in this life who, no matter what they were given, they found someone else to give it away to. All the time. And it seemed very clear that they wouldn’t have it any other way, as though that was the very reason they existed, was to be what we would call a “sacrificial” giver, to the Lord first and then to others, and then to the “community”, so to speak, at large, etc. and so on. When we see that here on this-side of Heaven it is usually seen as a wonderful sight to behold and even refreshing. At least for many of us. Quite literally it is really very difficult for us even to “Imagine” what it would be like to live in a place where all of “Life and Living” were not set up to provide every individual with opportunities to “indulge themselves”. No advertisements to “attract” your selfish or self centered base desires. No “places to go and things to do and people to see” that are for your benefit. And in Heaven there isn’t even the need for a “Law” or a rule to follow that says “don’t be self-indulgent or don’t be wanting “Me-Time”. No one there would ever even want to even come close to even slightly thinking about that, because while they were here “On-this-side” they wanted to be “just-like-Jesus”, and being like him then became their reward.  

Another big problem for unselfish non-self-indulgent “giving” is that mankind on this side of Heaven always has been and will continue to be so [until the “New Heavens and the New Earth referred to in the last chapter of the Bible] far too “Independent” in mind, heart, soul, and life. [ Just think about our History and even all of the Movies we spew forth from Hollywood on the topic] And it would seem that maybe most all people here, especially if given the right circumstances, will fight for it with a vicious belligerence. It’s so deeply ingrained in all of our subconscious programming that we have even convinced ourselves that it is a God-given-natural-instinct for survival-and-self–preservation. Sorry folks, but that’s not the way God our Heavenly Father, Our Creator made us originally in Adam. Many will say that because it’s been in our spiritual and soulish “genetic-coding”, so to speak, that we can’t help it and don’t even know how to do so. Again, Not So. Just because we carry the defective, malfunctioning, corrupted, contaminated, polluted, spirit and soul and body from our ancestors doesn’t mean we cannot do-and-be what and how God made us at all. Only sometimes. On the one hand we say that we can do such and such acts of righteousness yet on the other hand we say that we can’t because of instinctive independent self-indulgence.  

There are just simply far too many living and former peoples lives and testimonials and anecdotes over the thousands of years that prove otherwise. Even from those not professing to be born-again Christians. All that having the original sin-nature passed down to us means is that we can never get-it-right-all-the-time. And some more or less than others. But we still have the innate ability and capability to do so. Plus, having the “pre-disposition to sin” and even to be “illegally-independent” means that we need outside divine help and assistance more so than ever before not only to accomplish this level of uprightness but also the divine forgiveness and restoration when we do fail. And when someone is “clutching with a stranglehold” their “right”, as they call it, to be independent, and self-sufficient, they will have nearly an impossible time of being able to even do “random-acts-of-unselfish “Giving” without there being some strings attached. Folks, we are very far from “Heaven” and Heavenly-likeness, but not as far from a higher level of uprightness and from the Divine help of the Lord Jesus, as we think.   

Here’s a very famous and popular passage from Scripture that gives somewhat of an indication of our “inability” to even “dream” about it correctly. In 1 Cor. Ch. 2:  it reads vs. 9 “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.  vs. 10. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. We haven’t seen or heard or even imagined the things God has prepared. This doesn’t mean no one can know, but it can’t come through the mind, heart, and imagination of man. Why not?? In large part because our own nature, our urges, our instincts, even our “best intentions”, “compared to Heaven” are not only way off, but corrupt, contaminated and polluted by the mixture of good and evil we all inherited from Adam and Eve who partook of the Tree of that Knowledge of good mixed with evil. They were told not too.  [ Also read the remaining verses of that chapter vs.11-16]

But as you can also see from that passage that those who have the Spirit of God in them  can “know” and be “shown” many things that they otherwise would not have been able to see and hear and know. It’s part of the benefit of being a true Christian, having the same Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead and to have him, [at his discretion] “reveal” these kinds of things. And not simply about “What-Life-Will-be-Like”, in Heaven, but more importantly, what Life Will Be Like in our hearts and souls and spirits and minds, even in our character, personality, ethics, morals, etc. and so on.   

Another big problem for unselfish non-self-indulgent “giving” is that mankind on this side of Heaven always has been and will continue to be so [until the “New Heavens and the New Earth referred to in the last chapter of the Bible] far too “Independent” in mind, heart, soul, and life. [ Just think about our History and even all of the Movies we spew forth from Hollywood on the topic] And it would seem that maybe most all people here, especially if given the right circumstances, will fight for it with a vicious belligerence. It’s so deeply ingrained in all of our subconscious programming that we have even convinced ourselves that it is a God-given-natural-instinct for survival-and-self–preservation. Sorry folks, but that’s not the way God our Heavenly Father, Our Creator made us originally in Adam. Many will say that because it’s been in our spiritual and soulish “genetic-coding”, so to speak, that we can’t help it and don’t even know how to do so. Again, Not So. Just because we carry the defective, malfunctioning, corrupted, contaminated, polluted, spirit and soul and body from our ancestors doesn’t mean we cannot do-and-be what and how God made us at all. Only sometimes. On the one hand we say that we can do such and such acts of righteousness yet on the other hand we say that we can’t because of instinctive independent self-indulgence.  

There are just simply far too many living and former peoples lives and testimonials and anecdotes over the thousands of years that prove otherwise. Even from those not professing to be born-again Christians. All that having the original sin-nature passed down to us means is that we can never get-it-right-all-the-time. And some more or less than others. But we still have the innate ability and capability to do so. Plus, having the “pre-disposition to sin” and even to be “illegally-independent” means that we need outside divine help and assistance more so than ever before not only to accomplish this level of uprightness but also the divine forgiveness and restoration when we do fail. And when someone is “clutching with a stranglehold” their “right”, as they call it, to be independent, and self-sufficient, they will have nearly an impossible time of being able to even do “random-acts-of-unselfish “Giving” without there being some strings attached. Folks, we are very far from “Heaven” and Heavenly-likeness, but not as far from a higher level of uprightness and from the Divine help of the Lord Jesus, as we think.  

Another Great View on Stewardship - Children - Why Wait

Here's a topic that has become an issue in mine and so many others lives, and I feel very strongly urged to write about it. It is for the Christian more so than for the non Christian. It has to do with a Biblical term and Kingdom Principle called "Stewardship".

Most of us understand that generally speaking Stewardship, including from the Scriptures, has to do with the taking care of and being responsible for anything at all that is given to us by the Lord [ or even by anyone ]. It is an area of exhortation and admonishment that Jesus Himself as well as the Apostles and the Prophets and many others have talked about, but it usually is heard taught when it comes to money or in some cases our health. But most of the time that's the extent of it. But when you read what Jesus said about this area and the Apostles and the whole Bible it should become clear that it is an extremely critical Kingdom Doctrine and Principle and yet one of the lesser emphasized.

One of the reasons that it is one of the top line of important values to God is simply because it's one of those that is to be applied to virtually every area of our new lives and the Kingdom of God. Right up there with teachings about the Cross, the Blood, the Word, the role and person of the Holy Spirit, etc. And it happens to be one of those areas that will not be done away with after the Kingdom is come and His will is being done on Earth.....................Prophecy will cease, tongues will cease, the gifts of the word of knowledge and revelation, etc. and so on will cease. But this particular area of stewardship will continue for all eternity. I believe that that is why we don't hear a lot about it being correctly emphasized and practiced as it should be. The devil and the flesh do not like this area of God's Kingdom so it is resisted at every turn.

It also has, as a directly related value, the teachings about how "everything must be done "orderly" and in "order", with lots of "order". People who are very Americanized and Democratized especially do not like this one because it involves a lot of rules and regulations, and codes of conduct and behavior, and protocols and manners, etc. Plus it obviously infringes on the democratic desire to "do our own thing and mind your own business". In the O.T. there is another highly critical and pivotal principle of God's Kingdom that we see in the verses "there is a Time and a Season for Everything and a Place for everything under the Sun". [This is another one I'll go into more at a later date. Even the Lord follows these Principles. He didn't set them up only for us] The New Testament teachings are full of exhortations about "order" and "placement" [ someday I'll also do a teaching on understanding "places" and everything in it's place ] and the respect due, both to those giving someone charge of something and the actual things being "placed" in their charge. As you can see with this small amount of explanation and enlightenment that this is way bigger issue than I've even discussed here. Stewardship is the sibling of Order, and Placement, and Timing, and Respect, and Deferring, and Integrity, our Testimony and way of life, our conduct and behavior, our children and the charge to teach them to be ALL these things while they're still children, and even the requirement to be perfect, [ complete, mature] blameless, spotless, faultless, guiltless, above reproach, and on and on. It's all as big as the Bible is.

It is Written in the four Gospels that Jesus said that "If you are not faithful in that which is another's, you cannot expect to be given that which is your own" [ generally speaking. God always allows Himself the right and option exclusively, of having exceptions] This statement of the Lord can be applied like a humongous tapestry of some kind over literally hundreds of areas of everyday living, Especially in the Kingdom. The Lord also, speaking through His Apostle, said that all that we have has been given to us by Him alone. There is nothing at all that we have that came from us, even when we're lost. So none of us can boast. Also we remember reading that "every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father".

Because of this we have been given charge to take care of the Faith God gave us, the Forgiveness, the Mercy, the Grace, the Word, His Name, His Love, money, employment, food, shelter, clothing, lost neighbors and family members, and the list goes on and on and on. But I promised myself I wouldn't due a full length full blown 20 page research paper here on absolutely everything revolving around this issue, YET. At a later time I must do so and document it as a comprehensive theological and doctrinal statement of Kingdom Principles. But for now I'll try to keep it short. Let me here pick on a few things that aren't usually seen as that big a deal and are usually a sore spot with so many people in general, including and especially Christians. They usually throw these in the barrel of "legalism". Rules, etc. You Know......

Let's take a look at our offspring, our children, and the task and assignment and charge we're to keep of taking care of them, Correctly. The Bible says to train your children in ALL the ways that you and they will be held accountable for at the judgment seat [tribunal] of God, While They Are Still Children. Yet in so much of our world today, especially in the westernized democratic countries, [ not only America] the view and value is to let them be as childlike and as childish as they want to be for as long as they want to be and they'll somehow "Get it" when they are older. But the statistics and documented History in our world have clearly shown that this "plan" [ that hit America hard in 1960] has backfired terribly and it always will. I can't keep track of the hundreds of Christian Homes I've been familiar with and aware of for thirty years now that have either one of or both parents who still will not "compel" their children to learn about what they should and avoid learning about what they shouldn't. It works especially terrible in the home where the Mom will not let the Dad be led by the Lord to be a consistent, steady, disciplinarian, [ even a rough one if a child mandates it] because she has issues with her own Dad and the way so many other Dad's were when she was growing up. This unintentionally undermines the perceived authority of the "rank and office" of the Dad who is the head of the woman and of the house, thereby canceling the genuine true learning that might take place if they were both on the same page. I also can hardly bear to see Christian parents not only not preventing but encouraging their children to become involved in the kinds of music and other practices that have been outlawed by God for six thousand years. All because WE can't find the faith to believe that God can save them and keep them from falling if we don't allow them to be more "contemporary", "they're just children, let them be"............let them be small versions of big sinners. The flesh will love you for it.

But my point isn't only just about "what goes wrong", etc. I said all that to show one example of how bad it CAN go wrong, on top of the parents not even wanting to train, correct, teach, discipline, order, compel, prevent, etc. their children as God does with us when we become Christians. Let me ask you something to help you think about this a little differently. If a teenager or even someone pre-teen gets truly converted to Christ, truly repentant, truly believes, truly follows, the Lord and receives the New Life from Him, does the Lord Jesus and His Father desire to hold off on the "program" of sanctification, transformation, discipline, etc. until they are in say, their twenties? The answer is a resounding NO. If He wants to get the young person started as soon as possible on some areas of intense study and learning than why do we find it hard to believe that if we participate in this kind of approach that God can't be trusted to Help us with our offspring and their training. Good Question. Actually He CAN and He Will, again, IF we will believe Him to do so. But we also have to believe in this plan and His ways as well.

I did not like the authoritarianistic ways of my Dad and his generation when I was growing up. I didn't like the strictness about socializing, spending money, school, playtime if there was time after homework, etc. But that's because my sinful fallen nature was my only friend and it was my surrogate Dad, and it wanted to be Independent. Period. But just because my Dad went about carrying out his tasks and assignments in what I would call a lousy and overly harsh way, as did most of my friends parents, doesn't mean that they had the wrong idea or the wrong plan and goals and objectives, etc. They had the right idea but maybe some of the  wrong mode of operation in far too many cases. [ not all families mind you] Keep in mind, the statistics of history of the people raised in the way they did it up until the fifties clearly shows that even though an awful lot of the children were treated overly harsh by today’s standards that is, there was a dramatically smaller rate of crime and other social and cultural horrors like we've had since then. AND, compared to the Horrific Violence and Damage of the sins we were committing against the perfect standard of the Holiness of God while even we were children is by far greater in comparison to SOME of the horrific things that were done to us by our misguided parents and other elders. Meaning that compared to what was done to us what we did to God's standard was indescribably worse.

Let me try to wrap this up by including briefly just a couple of other areas of Stewardship that are also seen by many as minor and not very important to God. How about the homes we live in that GOD Himself caused us to be able to live in. How well do we keep house. How concerned are we about being sanitary so we cut down on sicknesses. How well do we do at being orderly and organized and neat and tidy. Pick it up, put it away, find a place for it and keep it there, right now. Yes of course you can get carried away with that and run a concentration camp. Where's the Happy Medium, the Balance. But then why is it when someone who lives like a slob [ in my book] goes to the home of someone who keeps their house almost spotless convinces themselves that they are overdoing it and have OCD or something. I have heard countless times that those "neat freaks" have control issues and/or they're just plain bad and wrong in the way they keep their personal lives. Yet usually those who complain about the "neat freaks" have a house that too many times looks like a tornado hit it and their vehicle is a gross misrepresentation of a Christian, and they won't obey the traffic laws, and they waste their God given money, etc. and so on. It's nuts. The point here again is "Is this an area of Biblical Stewardship or not. Yes, it is because all areas are. And the smaller seemingly less important areas should be easier to get the victory over instead of justifying the failures and insulting those who do it right.

Actually these and all these kinds of things are very important to the Lord. It's just that he's not focusing only on precisely what we are involved with near as much as he is interested in our attitude and willingness to be as complete and blameless as we possibly can be, USING whatever area of stewardship we have in our lives, no matter how small. Jesus also said that "if we are faithful in the SMALL THINGS he will trust us with bigger things". Are we supposed to be concerned with and take good care of our homes, our cars, our clothing, our finances, our yards, the places we rent that belong to other people as well as to God, our children's Christian future and training, our jobs, our relationships, our ability to speak and hear and see and touch and care, our health, our testimony, our driving, and on and on. Yes We Are. Remember, even the lost can do it many times way better than we can. Let’s kick it up a few notches to honor our God even more, simply because we love him.

Not Quite What We Used To Be 

Sorry for the rough draft but this is the first edition of what will one day become a book and I need feedback on this so far.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read a familiar passage that says “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”  Exactly how far can we go with that truth.

In our world today, especially here in America, we have a lot of people groups of all different kinds of ethnicities and cultures living in the same land. And a large portion of them were not born here but relocated here either temporarily or permanently and either legally or illegally.

But in this article I am primarily going to refer to those who have become Christians. Believers in and Followers of the Lord Jesus the Christ, born again of the Spirit, the Blood, and the Word. And just like our country America has experienced an inflow of aliens from other cultures and nations so has the Church of God the body and bride of the Lord Jesus.

That almost goes without saying. Even if only one particular “race” as people label it or one ethnicity and culture were to be dwelling in our country and they all came to the saving knowledge and grace of God through Jesus the “Body of Christ, the Church” would then be filled with that group.

In America in recent years there has been a lot of debate, argument, dialogue about what to do with all of the different nationalities that want to make America their home. Even regardless of how they got here, legally or illegally, the question is still out there of what to do about their “New Status” as Americans. Do we require that they lose all their previous identity entirely and become “melted in” to the rest of America and become “only American”?  Or do we allow them to be a Nation or ethnicity within a Nation. Or, more likely, where is the reasonable compromise. And exactly how do we do this and when and how to implement it and if need be, enforce it. Do we use the pattern of other countries or even the way things have been done in this matter throughout the past 200 yrs. in America. There is just no way to simplify this very complex issue and come up with a “plan” that will please everyone. Well then who do we please? The ones that have already been born here? That won’t work well because many of them have been born here and are automatic citizens simply because their Mom happened to be here when the child was delivered. [ That rule has helped to make things even more complicated] Or do we use the approach of the right side of Conservatives that we used to see in years past where an individual and/or family was allowed to maintain their own cultural ethnic traits and practices but keep them primarily to themselves and within the confines of their own households and family get-togethers. Or the view farther to the liberal socialist left that would say let the immigrants decide for themselves and let all of us tolerate whatever they want to do and they can have as many rights to be just like they were in their native land and culture and do not discriminate. Neither sounds very likely to happen. Then do we need a compromise between these two main views. Not necessarily and certainly not just simply for the sake of a middle ground compromise.

Whatever happened to the idea of America being a “melting Pot”. That’s where we got the requirement of the immigrant to learn the English language and academics and history as fully as they know their own and whatever religious or political or cultural particulars of their own ethnicity must be kept to themselves. For the Muslim woman for example that would mean they could wear their headdress but not cover their faces. [ they do that even now in many of their own native lands] and no special “rights” concerning the use of public places just because of their previous cultural practices. They could keep their own language but not use it in public because that would be seen as rude and divisive and separatist.

Well our country in the past 40 yrs has transformed quite a bit in all of these ways and it certainly does seem to need now an up-dating of the mechanics of this policy towards immigrants and their American born relatives. The part that gets a lot of long time many generations of Americans is when the new immigrant and their American born family members or even their long time resident grandparents begin to insist and demand certain aspects of their own native culture be allowed and respected on the same level as being an American. It makes it very clear that they want to see them selves as what they would be in their native land first and fore-most and then be an American secondly or thirdly as Americans, and that only “on paper”. Our Country was never meant to be a full continent sized international airport or grand central station like greater Asia where all of these numerous individual “races” and cultures and ethnicities, etc. are all simply “existing” together on the same large continent. But that is precisely what a great many of the aliens now in our land and wanting to come here are insisting on. As a Christian I am to “flow” with whatever ends up happening, within reason, because our citizenship is technically in “Heaven” even though we won’t go there until we pass from this mortal life. We’re hoping to find others who will want to do the same some day. But for those not in our category it doesn’t seem fair or proper or appropriate for the America of old to now become like the United Nations instead of the United States. Our invitation to immigrants from other lands was always to give them a place they could call home, maintaining some semblance of original culture [ see the way the Irish or Ukrainian, or Italians, etc. have done here for the past 150 yrs. ] yet being first and foremost NOW mainly American and “melting” into this new land, this new culture, etc. Be bi-cultural besides being bi-lingual. If the liberal left has their way we would soon become a new United Nations, literally. And if the Conservative right has theirs we will see some sent back, and some lose almost all of their original “flavor”, so to speak. [ although I feel that the conservative right is a lot closer to the way it was before and now still should be than the liberal left. The Liberal left wasn’t even around to a large degree until the 1960’s. we were doing reasonably well until they were allowed to come up into power ] When you become an American, the right way or the wrong way you are now an American and no longer first what you were before. Your old ways

But back to the issues of the Church and how the similarity is seen. If I were to be naturally born here in America or anywhere else in the world and my skin color and traditions and religion and practices were such that they identified me with a particular culture and ethnicity [ African, Hispanic, Asian, Anglo, etc. as general categories only. Or even such as Mexican, Puerto Rican, Japanese, African, Arab, etc. ] and then I were to become born again as the Bible talks about and literally become a “New Creature In Christ” where the “old is passed away and all has become new” as God judges in the Bible. Well then what happens to my original ethnicity and culture and nationality that I received not only from Adam and Eve but also from my parents generations and ancestry? Are they all now gone, disappeared, no more? I don’t believe that the Bible teaches that exactly that way but I do believe there is some relative truth to that.

Back to the secular Americanized discussion we were having just for a moment. Just like someone from let’s say Mexico were to come here to take up residence in America and become formalized citizens, and swore allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, paying taxes, learning the language and customs, buying property, and so on etc. That would then become their official status until either they move to another country or back to their own and go through the same process. Of course once we pass from this world to the next, whatever we were here is of no value or significance anymore, period.

Just like for the person who becomes a Christian anywhere here in this world. Once they pass from this world to the next, where their citizenship actually and truly is, whatever culture or race or nationality or ethnicity or religious views and language or skin color were at one time will be completely irrelevant and a part of forgotten history.  The Bible says this to be true. But for the time being we as Christians are here and we carry with us a working of our old life and nature and ways and now a new one as well from the new life in Jesus, the new identity, the new customs, traditions, beliefs, views, values, etc. What do we do with the old. How much of it is allowed to be “seen” and “shown” or demonstrated. I believe that the Bible teaches that it would be impossible for certain things to be removed now as I said “For the Time Being”. Such as our skin color, our facial features, our given names, our language, or likes and dis-likes concerning food or music or clothing. There are a number of things that are just there and waiting to be passed on when we leave this life.

Well my friend, all of this entire issue has the most to do with priority and values. For the time being we cannot change our skin color, for example, nor our facial features, nor the language we were raised with, but just as Christians with their new life we are to learn a “new language, [ I’m not simply referring to “tongues” but the language of the Bible, Praise, worship, etc.] new values, new priorities, etc. Who we were as naturally born men and women of Adam and Eve is no longer to have the highest or top place in our new Christian lives, because now we are “In Christ”. Just like when someone becomes an American the right way, for the first time, whoever they were before is now Not the primary value and right. They are Now American First and foremost and secondly or thirdly what they were before. And now as Christians, and maybe Christians who move to America or somewhere else, who we were before is “passing away” as the Bible declares and is being literally “replaced” with entirely different and new views and values, etc. Even the new Christian value of putting others first before ourselves must be done within the context of being a new creature in Christ, before we are of the new Country we live in, before we maintain anything of what we were ethnically before.

Let’s look at someone like me for example. A much different set of circumstances yet still following the same pattern from Scripture. Unlike someone born in another country like Africa where they are not mixed ethnically with anyone else, as a Christian they only have their original and natural born ethnicity and nationality. Whereas someone like me who is mixed with the Slovak/Slavik culture and traditions, plus Ukrainian and Russian, and then Dutch/German, and also Native American/Canadian Algonquin Indian. All of this in my genetic and ancestral heritage. But then I was born in America as was both of my parents. So I am American as well. Maybe someday I discover that I also have Jewish in me somewhere. The point being that I could either be all of the above, or pick just one, or maybe just two or three, plus being an American. And then I become Born Again. Now I AM Now In Christ, as A Christian and a child of God and a Brother to Jesus and the Saints. I now carry with me to the end of my life all of these resident in my being and psyche. Yet I do not live with any internal or external cultural conflicts of interest or any other kinds of conflict. I am completely comfortable with being first and fore most primarily a Child of the Most High God and a Brother of Jesus, [ spiritual genetics here] secondly an American, which is far more than just an identifier of the particular geographical location on earth where I was planted. And I WAS Slovak/Slavik, Indian, Dutch/German, Ukrainian/Russian, and who knows, maybe even a smidgen of Jewish as a remote possibility. In fact the way I read the Holy Scriptures the connection to my natural ancestry before Christ is way down even lower than third on the list because it is the least relevant now to me as a Disciple of Christ, a Man of God, an Ambassador in Bonds, a Heavenly Emissary, a Citizen of Zion the Holy City of God. I’m looking only forward not backwards.

Yet I am not ashamed or embarrassed of my previous national heritage, plural as they may be. I love the cultural trappings I’ve learned about, the different foods, clothing, language, names, music, etc. of literally all of them. But their importance to me now as a New Creature in Christ is a distant memory. To place these values any higher than they are now would be to go backwards, to complicate many things that God meant to be left alone for the Christian. They would actually become an opportunity of the devil to tempt, to offend, to be inappropriately proud and arrogant, and seriously ruin my witness and testimony. I heard of a Christian recently  saying to another Christian that their relative was not acting  __________enough. You fill in the ethnicity label. Who it was specifically is also irrelevant. This should not be. And that relative was an unbeliever or at best a new Christian who was now witnessing a damaged testimony from that person who won’t “let go” of a part of their heritage that was nailed to the cross.

Remember Jesus said that in heaven there will be no more nationalities or ethnicities or cultures that were here on the earth and that even or gender of male and female or in between will be no more. If you say well I’ll wait until then to let go, that’s not only not Biblical and Christ-like but it is sin and potentially damaging to the truths we declare from the Holy Scriptures.  

This brings up another side door issue. That being of people such as Gay’s or Homosexuals. If we are going to [ and we certainly should ] tell them that the new life “In Christ” is a completely and totally different way of living and existing and does not and never will include their particular sexual expression, then we must tell that as well to all other people, regardless. Whether it’s about someone’s ethnicity, lifestyle, gender, philosophy, ideologies, etc. The message should be the same to all. This is precisely why the homosexual for example cannot stay “that way” In Christ because of the truths about this New Life. It’s not just simply a matter of the differences we will experience In Heaven. We are to have the process “started” now down here. 

Yes “for the time being” we are still in this world, in our old bodies, and the old sin nature is still in us, [although no longer the rule] [and that war rages on]  and we also are now “In Christ” and no longer “In Adam,

As I said, Once born all over again we are no longer who, or what, or how, or why, we were before in our old natural birth but are now in a spiritual birth and new life. And this applies to “race”, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, religion, culture, etc. and so on.

Marriage Issue for the Gay Sub Culture

Just a couple of “prophetic” type comments that the Lord through his Spirit has given me to say.  About the issue of the Biblical definition of marriage and what some see as a need for legislation on it. There are literally thousands of individuals born as men or born with both packages and selected as men that have had sex change operations to make them women. Not for marriage sake but for the sake of what they see as a rectifying of their own sexuality and sanity. That's only the reported number. I know of some personally. If an amendment is passed saying that marriage must be seen as a union between a man and a woman I guarantee you, as a sound prediction, there will be a flood of men who are in a same sex marriage who will have an operation to make them women, as well as those who will do so because they will be wanting to get married. The legislation will only make things worse and more complicated. We as Christians simply need to make our position known that marriage is between an individual born with female reproductive organs only and the other being someone with only male reproductive organs, and that were born that way. Those born with both packages can easily determine whether or not they have ovaries and can have a menstrual cycle.

But that also brings up another issue about those individuals. Are we really supposed to believe that Jesus died for those who would be born with both sets of reproductive organs and hormones, etc. Yes he did. Are we including them in our prayers and witnessing and preaching. These are outcasts, misfits, many we don't even know about their dark secrets, shameful even to them. Male and Female. These are merely those who have been infected and affected genetically by the lineage and disease of sin throughout the ages and are still souls of mankind.

As far as the protesting against abortion that was done. Remember, a candle in the darkness may seem small or insignificant to itself but the darkness can never put it out. We are not to measure or determine whether or not we're doing God's will by whether or not the numbers are great. The real key is whether or not we can find ourselves feeling compassion and pity and mercy towards these desperate people. They are behaving in much the same way as they will in the first 30seconds of hell, if they don't get saved. They act like they're lost indeed and so scared they're hysterical. I don't mean that in a funny way.

The Bible clearly prophecies that certain things will get worse and worse and we can not stop them. But we are to let our voices be heard in public (through the many outlets there are) and in private in our prayer closets. Let's not fall prey to the enemy telling us that he's winning and we're doing hardly nothing. He's clearly losing because all that was prophesied is coming true, and he cannot extinguish even a tiny candle light, let alone a big prayer. We are not to despise small things nor discount the effect we cannot even see. We are on the winning side, we are more than conquerors, we do have the greatest and most powerful resource in the Living Word, the Blood, The Spirit, the Anointing, and so forth. We must believe, no matter what it looks like that we won, not them. We won yesterday, today, and we will tomorrow. Let's not let the devil even think about him affecting us negatively. We can say, "you heard me devil", through our own "still small voice". God determines the effect, we just make the announcement.