What comes to mind when you think about God?

Greetings!

     Let me start with a question: What comes to mind when you think about God?
     One particular man has said that your answer to that question, "is the most important thing about [you]."   So think about it again: "What comes into your mind when you think about God?"   This week's "thought" explains why he makes the above assertion.  It is taken from the book, "The Knowledge of the Holy" by A. W. Tozer, and I pass it along to you because I want to challenge you to think more deeply about what you believe about God.

     As with most of the "thoughts" I pass along, I believe Tozer is right in the things he says.  What we believe about God does have a tremendous effect upon who we are, what we do, and who we will become.  I pray that his words might cause you to earnestly consider, and if necessary make some adjustments, in relation to your view of God. In fact, if you desire a very thoughtful and readable consideration of what Scripture tells us God is like, this book is well-worth the cost and time it takes to read it (or listen to it) The following entry tells you why he wrote the book.  Enjoy.

     "What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.  Worship is either pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at any given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.  We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but the company of Christians that composes the Church.  Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.

     Were we able to extract from any person a complete answer to the question, "What comes to mind when you think about God?" we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that person.  Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders think of God today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the Church will stand tomorrow. Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God, and the weightiest word in any language is its word for God.  Thought and speech are God's gifts to creatures made in His image; these are intimately associated with Him and impossible apart from Him...  We may speak because God spoke.  In Him word and idea are indivisible.

That our idea of God correspond as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us.  Compared with our actual thoughts of Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.  A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well.  It is to worship what the foundation is to the Temple. Where it is inadequate or out of plumb, the whole structure must sooner or later collapse.  I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God...

     The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping people. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.  This low view of God... is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.  With our loss of the sense of [God's] majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, "Be still and know that I am God," mean next to nothing to the self-confident bustling worshiper [of our day]...  The decline of the knowledge of the Holy has brought on our troubles...  A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing those troubles. It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate.  If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is." 

     I have seen the truth of what he says play itself out in my own life, as well as in society.  You too (if you are the introspective type) may be able to see traces of that progression (in a positive or negative direction) in your own life.  We inevitably (subconsciously) take on the characteristics of the God that we worship.  In fact, speaking of idols and those who make them the psalmist says: "Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them" (Psalm 115:8).  This is why it makes such a difference what we believe about God.  "We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God," as Tozer put it.

     Do you believe God is permissive? You believe God is a heartless taskmaster?  You believe God is gracious and kind?  You believe God is a heartless rule-enforcer?  You believe God is Santa Claus in the sky?  Do you believe ______________?   The answer to these questions is extremely important, for you will gravitate toward exhibiting the characteristics of the God you envision.  As many have realized (and used for both good and bad purposes -- like the empathetic counselor who wants to free from guilt with the Gospel, or the terrorist who wants to enlist people to do unspeakable acts of cruelty): All you need to do to bring about change in a person is to change their view of God. 

     Which leads me to ask you one last time: "What comes to mind when you think about God?"   And to close, let me ask you to imagine how different you, and this world could be, if the answer to that question was, "Jesus." (Hebrews 1:3).

Just some food for thought, Pastor Jeff

Thoughts on Revival

Greetings All!

     Today I send out some thoughts on revival.  I do so because it seems clear to most who look around at the contemporary scene that the church stands in great need of God's reviving influences.  Not mere emotionalism.  Not religious fanaticism.  Not a sudden surge of popularity or culture-wide respect for the Church.  And not humanly generated attempts to pump up a fleeting zeal through motivational speeches.  No.  A true heaven-breathed move of the Holy Spirit which transforms hearts and restores in the people of God an all-consuming love for Him and our neighbors, a passion for His glory, a yearning for His kingdom to come, and a true concern for His redemptive will to be done on earth -- regardless of the sacrifice or cost to us.
     I send these to you with the hope that they might guide your prayers for such a blessed move of God in His Church.  May the fresh winds of the Spirit blow through the Body of Christ as we pray, confess, repent, worship, speak of His grace and love as He calls us to love.

"How little time the average Christian spends in prayer!  We are too busy to pray, and so we too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little.  There are many services, but few conversions. The power of God is lacking in our lives and in our work. We have not because we ask not."

R. A. Torrey

“Revival is God breaking in and upon and over His church like ocean waves upon the shoreline rocks.”

Jonathan Edwards

“Revival is the Church falling in love with Jesus all over again.”

Vance Havner

“Revival is a community saturated with God.”

Duncan Campbell

“A revival means days of heaven upon earth.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Revival is ultimately Christ Himself, seen, felt, heard, living, active, moving in and through His Body on earth.”

 Stephen Olford

“Revival is that strange and sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people, restoring, re-animating, and releasing them into the fullness of His blessings.”

Robert Coleman

“Revival is an extraordinary work of the Spirit that invades the church to re-energize us with God’s eternal purposes in Christ Jesus.”

David Bryant

“Revival is a sudden bestowal of a spirit of worship upon God’s people.”

A. W. Tozer

“A true revival means nothing less than a revolution, casting out the spirit of worldliness and selfishness, and making God and His love triumph in the heart and life.”

Andrew Murray

“Revival is God revealing Himself to man in awful holiness and irresistible power. It is God’s method to counteract spiritual decline and to create spiritual momentum in order that His redemptive purposes might be accomplished on earth”

Arthur Wallis

“Revival comes to the church when we are thoroughly possessed by the hope held out in the gospel—and that hope is Christ Himself.”

David Bryant

With prayers for God's Spirit to stir afresh in your heart, Pastor Jeff

Spiritual Inebriation

Greetings All!

     I have always contended that who we become in life has to do, not only (of course) with the direct input of God into our lives through His Word and His Spirit, but the guidance, influences, and input of other people whose wisdom and counsel and insights we have sought out. This is one of the reasons I always check out the libraries of other people!  I want to see who they have turned to for guidance and inspiration, and have thus, in some way, helped form them.  James Stuart Bell also understands this principle. And therefore he sought to inquire who the authors were that influenced the life of someone he admired -- A. W. Tozer.

     This selection, therefore, comes from his book, "From the Library of A. W. Tozer -- Selections from Writers Who Influenced his Spiritual Journey."   This particular excerpt (only one of hundreds in his book) is from a book in Tozer's library by Jan Van Ruysbroeck's (or John of Ruusbroec, born in 1293 A.D. near Brussels, Belgium) called, "The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage."  In this selection he speaks of one of the joys of being the Bride of Christ -- "Spiritual Inebriation."  Enjoy.

Spiritual Inebriation

"The joy of the Lord is our strength."

Nehemiah 8:10

"Do not be drunk with wine, with leads to debauchery, 

but instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit."

Ephesians 5:18

     "Spiritual inebriation is this: that a man receives more sensible joy and sweetness than his heart can either contain or desire.  Spiritual inebriation brings forth many strange gestures in men. It makes some sing and praise God because of the fullness of joy, and some weep with great tears because of the sweetness of heart.  It makes one restless in his in all his limbs, so that he must run, jump, and dance, and so excites another that he must move and clap his hands.  Another cries out with a loud voice and so shows forth the plenitude his soul feels within, and another must be silent and melt away because of the rapture which he feels with all his senses.

     At times he thinks that all the world must feel what he feels; at times he thinks that none can taste what he has attained. Often he thinks that he never could, nor ever shall, lose this sense of well-being; at times he wonders why all men do not become God-desiring.  At one time he thinks that God is for him alone, or none other as much as him; at another time he asks himself with amazement of what nature these delights can be, and whence they come, and what happened to him.

     This is the most rapturous life (as regards our bodily feelings) which man may attain upon earth.  Sometimes the excess of joy becomes so great the man thinks that his heart must burst. And for all these manifold gifts and miraculous works, he shall, with a humble heart, thank and praise and honor and reverence the Lord, who can do all this, and thank Him with fervent devotion because it is His will to do all this.  And the man shall always keep in his heart and speak through his mouth with sincere intention: "Lord, I am not worthy of this. Yet I have need of Your boundless goodness and of Your support." In such humility he may grow and rise into higher virtues." 

     On the day of Pentecost unbelievers accused the disciples of being drunk (Acts 2:15).  Why?  Surely it was because of the sheer joy they felt, and the glow on their faces that attested to it (similar to what is described above) when the Holy Spirit came and fell upon them on that day.  After all, it was only 9:00 o'clock in the morning and they were obviously full of intense joy and energy (or the Spirit's "power" - Acts 1:8 - or dunamis in the Greek, the same word from which we get our English word "dynamite").  Of course, speaking in tongues (or languages they had not learned) may have played into it as well!

     Though some fear the intense emotions that can often attend centered prayer, joyful worship, or the experience of the Holy Spirit, it did seem to be part of the experience of the early disciples and apostles. Have you experienced such times? Have you ever found your heart so full of joy it was hard to contain?  Ever been moved to sing, praise, clap, cry or dance, touched as you were by the overwhelming sense of God's grace, goodness and love?  Ever sensed the presence of God's holiness and complete otherness in such a way that it moved you to feel that to even speak a word, or simply move, would have been inappropriate and irreverent?   Have you ever become so conscious of the reality and presence of God that it altered the way you viewed everything happening around you, and made even the most common things beautiful and sacred?

     Such experiences are not uncommon in Scripture. And dare I suggest that if we pursued God with the intensity of many of those in Scripture, we might find such experiences more commonplace too? 

Living in the grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

12 Quotes that Touches the Heart

Greetings All,

Today's "thoughts" are a little different than most weeks.  Today, as I was glancing through my Bible, my eye focused on some of the quotes I had written into the side columns and empty page spaces over the last 30 years or so. They are thoughts that obviously touched my heart in some way or I would not have taken the time to pen them into those spaces. Thus I offer you 12 of the many I have written there. I do not know what books some of these came from, but in the cases where I do, I give the reference.  I trust one or two may touch your heart as well.  In fact, if one happens to do so, just out of curiosity, let me know!  Enjoy.

     "God, of your goodness give me yourself, for you are enough for me. If I ask anything less, I know I shall continue to want. Only in you, I have everything." 

Lady Julian of Norwich

     "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all." 

Isaac Watts, Celebration Hymnal

     "A loud cry in the ears of God is that burning love of the soul that cries out: "My God and my love, You are all mine, and I am all Yours." Deepen your love in me, O Lord. Let your love possess me and raise me above myself with a fervor and wonder beyond imagination.  Let me sing the song of love. Let my soul spend itself in your praise, rejoicing in your love."

Thomas A'Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

"Oh, Lord!  If I worship you from fear of hell, burn me in hell; 

and if I worship you form hope of paradise, exclude me from it.

But if I worship you for your own sake -- 

then withhold not from me your eternal beauty." 

Anonymous

     "There was once in man [before the Fall] a true happiness, of which there now remains to him only an empty trace which he vainly tries to fill with things from his environment. Yet all these efforts are inadequate, for the infinite abyss can only be filled with an infinite and immutable object, that is, by God Himself."

Blaise Pascal, Pensees

     "The saint has spiritual joy and pleasure by a kind of effusion of God upon the soul. In these things the redeemed have communion with God; that is, they partake with Him and of Him." 

Jonathan Edwards,  On Knowing God

     "We must return to New Testament Christianity, not in creed only, but in complete manner of life as well.  Holiness, obedience, humility, simplicity, earnestness, self-control, modesty and cross-bearing must again be made a living part of the total Christian concept and be carried out in everyday conduct. We must cleanse the temple of hucksters and moneychangers and come fully under the authority of our risen Lord once again."

A. W. Tozer

     "Prayer for revival will prevail when it is accompanied by a radical amendment of life and not before. All night prayer meetings that are not preceded by practical repentance may actually be displeasing to God -- to obey is better than sacrifice [I Samuel 15:22]...  God is not interested in increased church attendance unless those who attend amend their ways and begin to live a holy life [Isaiah 1:10-20]."

A. W. Tozer

     "As grace is at first from God, so it is continually from Him and is maintained by Him... Men are dependent on the power of God for every exercise of grace, for carrying on that work in the heart, for subduing sin and corruption, for increasing holy principles, and enabling us to bring forth fruit in every good work."

Jonathan Edwards, from the sermon, "God Glorified in Man's Dependence." 

     "Can one be spiritually content apart from the continual experience of the divine presence? Can one be a true Pilgrim without a passionate yearning for the Divine Reality?" 

Anonymous

     "Strength and struggle go together. The supreme reward of struggle is strength. Life is a battle and the greatest joy is to overcome. The pursuit of easy things makes men weak. It is in following the path of least resistance that makes both rivers and men crooked."

Ralphe Parlette 

     "A leader is a person who, on a large scale, is able to rise above their own fears and anxieties and so succeed in changing the world. They can work for years at their purposes, but they also have to have something absolutely mold their vision. What is not before their eyes must be more real to them than what is. When people have a vision of what they want to do and are willing to accept torture, danger, difficulty, anxiety, instability, insecurity and even death, then they are leaders. And if they are successful, then that certifies it." 

Norman Mailer, TV Interview  (Mailer originally used the word "hero" in place of "leader.")

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

When Praying is Wrong

Greetings All,

As I was looking through the books on one of my shelves this week, a small pamphlet fell to the floor.  It was entitled, "Keys to the Deeper Life" by A. W. Tozer.  In picking it up I glanced through it and my eye came across the heading of one subsection. It was curiously called: "When Praying is Wrong."  Since most of us would be hard-pressed to think of a time when praying could possibly be wrong, I read what he had to say and decided to pass it along to you to ponder as this week's "thought."   (I have taken the liberty to update from the KJV the biblical texts he cites.) Enjoy.

When Praying is Wrong

     "Most evangelicals no longer initiate, they imitate -- and the world is their model. The holy faith of our fathers has in many places been made a form of entertainment, and the appalling thing is that all this has been fed down to the masses from the top...  The radical element in testimony and life that once made Christians hated by the world is missing from present-day evangelicalism. Christians were once revolutionaries -- moral, not political -- but we have lost our revolutionary character.  It is no longer either dangerous or costly to be a Christian. Grace has become not free, but cheap. We are busy these days proving to the world that they can have all the benefits of the gospel without any inconvenience to their customary way of life. It's "all this and heaven too." 

     This description of modern Christianity, while not universally applicable, is yet true of an overwhelming majority of present-day Christians. For this reason it is useless for large companies of believers to spend long hours begging God to send revival. Unless we intend to reform, we may as well not pray. Unless praying men have the insight and faith to amend their whole way of life to conform to the New Testament pattern, there can be no true revival.

     Sometimes praying is not only useless, it is wrong. Here is an example: Israel had been defeated at Ai, and "Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the ground on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening came; he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads."  According to our modern philosophy of revival this was the thing to do, and if it lasted long enough, should certainly have persuaded God and brought the blessing.  But, "the Lord said to Joshua, 'Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions... Go consecrate the people. Tell them, 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel says, ' That which is devoted [to another god] is among you, O Israel.  You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove [the accursed thing] from among you."

     We must have a reformation within the Church. To beg for a flood of blessing to come upon a backslidden and disobedient Church is to waste time and effort. A new wave of religious interest will do no more than add numbers to churches that have no intention to own the Lordship of Jesus and come under obedience to His commands. God is not interested in increased church attendance unless those who attend amend their ways and begin to live holy lives. Isaiah spoke of this same thing in as well: "When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you, even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen, for your hands are full of blood. Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing wrong and learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow..." (Isaiah 1:11-17).

     Prayer for revival will prevail when it is accompanied by radical amendment of life, not before.  All-night prayer meetings that are not preceded by practical repentance may actually be displeasing to God.  "To obey is better than sacrifice" (I Samuel 15:22).  We must return to New Testament Christianity, not in creed only, but in complete manner of life as well. Separation, obedience, humility, simplicity, earnestness, self-control, modesty, cross-bearing -- these all must again be made a living part of the total Christian concept and be carried out in everyday conduct. We must cleanse the temple of the hucksters and the money changers and come fully under the authority of our risen Lord once more. And this applies to this writer, and to this magazine, as well as to everyone that names the name of Jesus. Then we can pray with confidence and expect true revival to follow."

     I needed to hear that.  The Church needs to hear that.  We all need to hear and consider it if we struggle with why God is not answering our prayers.  Grace does not mean God turns a blind eye to all sin. It means He loves His people enough to do whatever He knows is necessary to get them to consider their sins, repent for those sins, and turn from them -- even if what He must do is refuse to answer their prayers until they have turned away from them (Ezekiel 14:4-5). His will for our lives, is, after all, "our sanctification" ( I Thessalonians 4:3 / Ephesians 5:15-20 ).  And because that is His will for us, He will not relent from His work of purifying and conforming us to the likeness of Jesus -- the stated purpose for which He chose and predestined us (Ephesians 1:4-5 / Romans 8:28-30).

     Tozer's words made me do some soul-searching which led to repentance.  Maybe the Spirit has moved in you too, and you sense the need to do the same. If so, remember the words of Luke, that when we repent, "times of refreshing come from the Lord" (Acts 3:19).

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Eternal Perspectives -- A Collection of Quotations on Heaven, the New Earth, and Life After Death

Greetings All!

Just over 15 years ago I had an older gentleman in my church in Honduras ask me: "Pastor, why is it that no one preaches on heaven anymore?  Everything seems to be focused on the here and now."  He was right then, and his words only more so now.  Heaven is not a common sermon topic anymore -- and the lack of it is seen in the lack of life in many churches. Without an eternal perspective, our priorities as Christians become stunted, get twisted, and can even become unchristian.

Thus, in honor of him (who left these earthly shores a few years back) I offer you these selections from Randy Alcorn's book, "Eternal Perspectives -- A Collection of Quotations on Heaven, the New Earth, and Life After Death."  It is a massive collection of quotes on that topic from Christian's throughout the ages. I trust the one's I've selected (read and meditated upon, two or three a day) will increase your hunger to know more and cause you to see the benefit of such a renewed focus. Enjoy.

"Christians are living too much in the "present now" -- and [therefore] the anticipation of better things to come has almost died out in the Church of Christ. We find ourselves so well-situated now, that we don't really need any of tomorrow's heaven. We don't need to hope -- we have everything well enough now."

A. W. Tozer

"All beauty in the world is either a memory of Paradise, or a prophecy of the coming transfigured world."

Nicholas Berdyaev

"O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without You, it would be a hell; and if I could be in hell, and have you still, it would be a heaven to me, for You are all the heaven I need."

Samuel Rutherford

A mere glimpse of heaven would be enough to re-energize us and give us renewed strength to persevere till the end.  "In 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to the shore of mainland California. She'd already been the first woman to swim the English channel both ways. The weather was foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam for fifteen hours. When she begged to be taken out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat alongside her, told her she was close and could make it. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and was pulled out.  It wasn't until she was on the boat that she discovered the shore was less than a half mile away. At a news conference the next day she said: "All I could see was the fog... I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it."

C. J. Mahaney

"On a tombstone in Indiana that dates back more than one hundred years is written: 

"Pause, stranger, when you pass me by;

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, so you will be. 

So prepare for death and follow me.

An unknown passerby scratched these additional words on the tombstone:

"To follow you I'm not content,

Until I know which way you went."

Ron Rhodes

"Only the pure in heart will see God, because only the pure in heart want to see God.  Heaven would not be heaven to those who detest holiness here. Those who seek not God's presence now, would never be happy to dwell in it for all eternity then. And God is just, He will never give the Christ-rejecting unbeliever then, what they don't want now."

"He who hopes to be gathered with saints in heaven, while he only loves the gathering of sinners on earth, is deceiving himself." 

J. C. Ryle 

"God loves us enough to tell us the truth. There are two eternal destinations, not one, and we must choose the right path if we are to go to heaven. All roads do not lead to heaven. Only one does -- Jesus Christ... As human beings, we have a terminal disease called mortality. The current death rate is 100 percent. Unless Christ returns soon, we're all going to die. We don't like to think about death, yet worldwide, 3 people die every second, 180 every minute, and nearly 11,000 every hour.  If the Bible is right about what happens to us after death, that means that 250,000 people every day go either to heaven or to hell."

Randy Alcorn

"More important than all the physical beauty of the heavenly city; more important than the fellowship we will enjoy eternally with all God's people from all nations and all periods of history; more important than our freedom from pain and sorrow and physical suffering... more important by far than any of these will be the fact that we will be in the presence of God and enjoying unhindered fellowship with Him."

Wayne Grudem

"Some of you while sitting here today (in worship) have been trying to lift up your minds to heavenly contemplation, but you cannot. The business has gone so wrong this week; the children have vexed you so much; sickness has been in the house so sorely; you yourself feel in your body quite out of order for devotion -- these enemies break your peace...  [But remember] life is but a moment. In short time you will appear in eternity. And though impatience counts it long, yet faith corrects her and reminds her that one hour with God will make the longest life seem but a point in time, a mere nothing, a watch in the night, a thing that was and was not, that has come and gone."

Charles Spurgeon

"The reason why we have no ease of heart or soul [is that] we are seeking our rest in things which can never satisfy, and not seeking to know God, almighty, all-wise, all-good...  We shall never cease wanting and longing until we possess Him in fullness and joy. Then we shall have no further wants. Meanwhile, His will is that we go on knowing and loving until we are perfected in heaven...  The more clearly the soul sees His Blessed face, by grace and love, the more it longs to see it in all its fullness."

Julian of Norwich

"When the Bible defines eternal life, it is not in terms of location or duration, but in terms of relationship with God: 'This is eternal life,' says Jesus, 'that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent' (John 17:3)." 

Daniel Brown

     May your contemplation of eternity move you to live more fully in the present, and resolve once-and-for-all where you shall spend it.  Alcorn is right when he says, "not all roads lead to heaven."  That is what the Bible clearly teaches, along with the twin truth, that, "Only one road leads there -- Jesus Christ."

That others may know Him, Pastor Jeff