Remember Heaven - Everything matters

I will post. I have been reading. And I, too, check the Fellowship every time I'm on the computer to see if anyone has posted. That is because deep down, we have this need to be encouraged by others. We have set this blog up for just that. So even when I'm not writing, I'm checking. Thanks for your posts, Doug. Don't be discouraged. Be encouraged that you are being an encouragement to us when we see your posts. I want to encourage you as well, so here you go

Thanks so much for being the spur to make us get into this book. I was just talking last night with the kids about it. First we were talking about the book we're reading together as a family (actually we just finished it today), A Wrinkle In Time, and I was saying to them that in the end times, I believe it will be like what we were reading, that there will be evil that will seem good, and we will be tempted to join the wrong side, and it will actually seem like the right thing to do. The anti Christ will fool many who right now claim to follow Jesus into following him, because it will seem like the right thing to do. Then I asked the kids if they were prepared for such a situation and could they stand on what they believe, no matter what happens, even if it seems like they should follow the evil that won't seem like evil. They said they think they are ready. I hope so. I hope we all are. I believe it is very possible that that time is coming soon. I believe it will be very sad in that day, when many are lead astray, into darkness. BUT THEN, I remembered Heaven! And Hebrews 11. And how those who lived by faith were like they were because they lived as aliens and strangers in a foreign land. They looked forward to a heavenly city. Their minds were on what was to come, not the current world we're in now. The kids and I talked about how that focus would help us stand against the evil in the end times. So what if this world leader brings peace (false peace). So what if for things on this world it seems like the right thing to do to follow him. We are not made for this world. Oh how good it was to share and talk with the kids this way. I truly believe that our focus on Heaven will help us through the end times, if we have to endure it. I know the pretribulation folks will say we won't have to and we'll all have been raptured, and I hope they're right. But what if midtrib is actually the way it works? What if? So I believe we need to be ready, then if it's not that way, great. Anyway, even if the pretrib people are right, who's to say we may not need to have the ability to stand against evil and stand for what we believe individually in our own situations as so many have had to through the years. We need to be ready. Heaven is what we're made for and our focus on that time will help us be ready.

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So are you ready? Will you give in to the evil which will seem good in the end times? I pray and hope not. Heaven is our home. I can't wait.

Now, as to my favorite part of the book so far as Doug asked us all two posts ago. Firstly, just generally, it is as I said already. The best part is just getting our focus on what we are made for. Not so we ignore our current lives. But so that our current lives are transformed to be all that God created us to be while here in this world and into the next. But specifically, not many other things have I ever read in a book that have been as encouraging to me as the paragraph on page 134. He is breaking down 1 Corinthians 15:58 and the part that says, "...our labor in the Lord is not in vain." I've never really meditated on that part. The paragraph at the top of that page says, "Every kingdom work, whether publicly performed or privately endeavoured, partakes of the kingdom's imperishable character. Every honest intention, every stumbling word of witness, every resistance of temptation, every motion of repentance, every gesture of concern, every routine engagement, every motion of worship, every struggle towards obedience, every mumbled prayer, everything, literally, which flows out of our faith-relationship with the Ever-Living One, will find its place in the ever-living heavenly order which will dawn at his coming." (bold added)

Thank you Jesus! Our labor is not in vain. I guess it doesn't say some labor, or even labor that seems to have good outcomes. Just labor. And following our Lord is labor. We live in the realm of the enemy right now. Battle is upon us. Just getting out of be in the morning is an act of war when we're right minded. I have always loved 1 Cor. 15:58, but now even more so. Give me a pulpit:) Anyway, I hope that is as much of an encouragement to you as it was to me. It all matters. Every bit of work for the Lord. Little things to big things. Turning off junk on TV to going on a mission trip. It all matters. 1 Cor 15:58 says so. God says so. Oh how good He is. To Him be all the glory!

I love you all.