Mother's Birthday 4/11/2013

Good Morning.

May your day be like a cup of Door County Cherry Creme Coffee. Sweet and smooth, that's what I am having.

Today would be my Mother's birthday. She passed three years ago and is now home with the Lord. I would be lying if I said that we did not miss her. We surely do and I think about her very often. But today I will celebrate her life by raising my coffee cup and saying happy birthday Mom. Now my my mother is in the presence of God. I am sure she is not sitting there in heaven watching over the family and worrying about us. That would not be heaven. Mom is worshipping the King, the great I Am, the Alpha and Omega. She is no longer of this world. Oh I might receive some flack on this, but think about it. I can't imagine her saying " Oh not now God, I am watching my older son  now write a blog post". We need to look at Scripture and get real with our thoughts about heaven.

John was carried away to heaven in Revelation chapter 21 and this chapter is perhaps the best description of heaven that we know of; at least the heaven that will be seen by those who are Christ’s today. John describes it in Revelation 21:10-27:

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.
13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west.
14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia [or 1,400 miles!] in length, and as wide and high as it is long [1,400 miles wide and tall!].
17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits [that is 200 feet!] thick.
18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.
19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst [these last two stones are unknown or only exist in heaven today].
21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.
26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

In verse 27 we see that nothing impure will ever enter heaven. Worry is impure and no way can Mom be doing that. So today I toast Mom and am just a little jealous knowing Who and what she sees right now.

God bless, Let's get real with our thoughts on heaven.
Marty