This World – God’s Gift

Do you ever feel guilty for not really wanting to go to heaven . . . today? A few mornings ago, Sheila and I were sitting in our screened porch enjoying the view and a few cups of coffee. The grass was green from all the recent rain and had just been cut the day before. The temperature was perfect. We had finches, blue birds, red birds . . . and as a little bonus, a mamma and her two fawns to enjoy watching.

It’s a rare thing that I take my Bible to the porch; I usually read inside. But this time I took it. My scheduled reading, Isaiah 35, was about heaven. So there I sat struggling with guilt for not wanting to go there . . . just yet. I know when we get there, we’ll kick ourselves for being so foolish; but as I sat there pondering, I realized that this is the world He has given us to enjoy for now.

The day will come when we will leave this world. Heaven will blow this world away. There will be tastes we’ve never tasted, colors we’ve never seen and sounds we’ve never heard; and all eternity to enjoy it. But for now, He has given us this world. It is His creation. He was pleased when He created it. I think He enjoys seeing us enjoying it and is okay with our not wanting to leave it . . . today.

 

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Is Your Light Actually Darkness

I heard recently of a Facebook conversation between a couple of friends. Though I have not seen the dialogue, I was told the jist of it.

One has chosen a gay lifestyle. Believing God made him that way, he is fully convinced God accepts his choice. Another from our group called him on it. The one line I remember she used was that we all heard the same preaching.

What has changed? Has God changed? Was he against it then but now he’s not? Was it just a case of man’s wrong interpretation of a loving God? Or, has Satan slipped in to deceive? Is the current view held by our mutual friend and so many others today a result of the success of this deception?

I thought a lot about this when I heard about it. I thought of how Satan deceived Eve. She had heard what God said, but Satan suggested something that made her question what God meant. And in that mental frame she was open to Satan’s new meaning.

Not too long ago, I stumbled across a verse in Luke. “See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.” It is a constant struggle to make sure that what we believe is right. If we rely on what we once believed, what we once believed can be twisted. And if it is twisted, no matter how much we believe it is light, it is actually darkness.

 

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