Tag Archives: hell

Our chance…

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A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, “Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.” The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.  The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, “You have seen Hell”.

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man’s mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, “I don’t understand.” “It is simple,” said the Lord, “it requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.”

When I started this blog I was thinking a lot about this parable and at the time I thought that I might find myself at the wrong table if I was called to stand before our King. Now I am sure there are still many days when I sit down at the wrong table, but I am trying everyday to be more intentional about taking a seat at the right table.

With the world wide spread of Covid-19 we now find ourselves in a situation where we clearly have the chance to choose a table every time we meet our neighbor. All of us are potentail carries of Covid-19 and if we choose to wear a mask, but are surrounded by others who are not wearing masks, our pontential for contracting the infection is only decreased to 70%, while the very act of wearing our own mask decreases the chances for our neightbors to contract the desease to 5%. We are very clearly dependent on the decisions of others to stay healthy and to decrease the spread of Covid-19.

Will you take this opportunity to sit down at the right table everyday? Show your love for others by wearing your mask!

Philippians 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Opposites

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I was talking with my daughter the other night before bed and she brought up heaven and hell.  She wondered why God would send anyone to hell?  It is such a simple question, and yet so deep that it has been debated by the greatest of minds.

It’s so interesting to me that in heaven there are no opposites.  The opposites of heaven exist only in hell.  For example, in heaven there is love, and the only way to describe the opposite of love in heaven is to say, “the absence of love”, because in heaven there is no word for hatred since it doesn’t exist there.

We live in a world where opposites co-exist, and yet our true home is in a world where opposites don’t exist.

I don’t think God sends anyone to hell, but it is almost as if heaven can’t hold us while we still contain the opposites of heaven within ourselves.  Maybe it is the great weight of these opposites within that cause us to fall from heaven as Lucifer did so long ago.  Maybe as we release them to Jesus we become light…

  • Free of physical weight
  • Electromagnetic radiation – some of which (waves within a certain portion of the spectrum) make things visible

And once we have become light (in both definitions) – there is no place that can hold us but heaven.

Oh my Love, my Lord, my sweet Jesus – the mysteries you have buried around every corner amaze me, excite me and fill me with great joy as I stumble upon them time and time again.

Our Best Life

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Since I was young, I have understood the power of believing in something and repeating it to make it happen.  I even remember when I first discovered this.  I was 10 years old, and I thought a friend of mine at school had pretty legs.  For a week I thought to myself everyday how nice it would be to have legs that looked like J’s, and a week later I woke up, looked in the mirror and was shocked to see that my legs looked like J’s legs.  I was also shocked to see how terrible they looked on me!  I quickly started wishing for my own legs back and within 4 days they were back.

Luckily with my realization that I could positively control my life with my thoughts I also had a lesson built in that I should be careful what I wish for since I might not like the end result.   This very naturally became a part of my life that I never really thought about, but just always did and assumed that everyone else did the same thing.

Whenever I felt ugly or overweight I would just start reminding myself every morning and night how beautiful, confident and perfect I was just the way I was and a few days later, I would be feeling beautiful, confident and perfect just the way I was.

By high school I had quit wishing for specific things like great legs, and had started wishing for “Things to work out for the best” which eventually transformed into wishing for “My Best Life”.    Any time I was nervous, scared, or had bad thoughts cross my mind, I would immediately chastise myself for these concerns and repeat, “This is my best life”.   Anytime I was surrounded by love, beauty, kindness I would confirm to myself by again repeating, “This is my best life”.   It always worked and I have always felt very blessed in my life.   I even had a friend who would always jokingly comment on my sunny and 85 degree life.

I finally ran into a problem about 5 years ago.

My cousin was killed in a car accident at the young age of 20.  On top of mourning the loss of my young cousin I was plagued with the question of how “My Best Life” could possibly include the premature death of my cousin.  I thought about this for quite some time following her death and considered many different explanations none of which seemed to really answer my question.   It might seem obvious to you, but it took quite a few books, documentaries and discussions before it finally hit me.  I realized that wishing only for “My Best Life” was actually very selfish.   By wishing for “My Best Life” I did not take into consideration the lives of my loved ones or anyone else.  I never considered that in order to achieve “My Best Life” I might be blocking the paths of others as they strive for their best lives.

This really concerned me and I came up with two possible solutions

  1. I could continue repeating and believing in “My Best Life” and always include an additional thought that I do not want to block another path in order to achieve “My Best Life”.
  2. I could extend my original approach and pray for “Our Best Life”.  By changing one small word in my prayer, I could stop worrying about blocking other paths because this now opened the door for everyone to join together on the one path of  “Our Best Life”.

I now fully believe that if we all pray for “Our Best Life” then it will be.  It requires a leap of faith to move the focus from my own life or from your own life to the lives of everyone else, but if we could all take this leap just imagine how much more amazing all of our lives and our entire world would be!

If I pray for me

Then it is 1 small prayer

If I instead pray for the other 6.8 billion people on earth and they in turn each pray for the other 6.8 billion people on earth

Then it BEGINS

AMAZING, WONDERFUL, AWESOME DREAMS that we cannot even imagine for ALL OF US!

When I think of my new prayer for “Our Best Life” it always reminds me of this parable, and helps me realize that I have been sitting at the wrong table for a long time.  I want to change that and I think changing one word is the first step.

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, “Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.” The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.  The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, “You have seen Hell”.

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man’s mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, “I don’t understand.” “It is simple,” said the Lord, “it requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.”

Now that you have the background I am asking you to join in and begin saying out loud “It is OUR BEST LIFE” when you first wake up in the morning and again before going to bed at night.

Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

It is “Our Best Life”, let’s say it, believe it, live it and wish for it everyday for EVERYONE!