County Fairs and Paradise

Today's the day--we're going to the county fair! I don't know who's more excited--the grandkids or me. Luke wants to try his hand at the carnival games--that'll be an education in itself! Viv is excited to try the cotton candy--pink! Sam will enjoy riding around in his wheelchair and looking at the goats! Me? I'm excited to watch the children have the time of their lives!

Don't you just love county fairs! They're fun, pure and simple. Seems like the older we get, fewer things float our boat. Perhaps disillusionment sets in as life knocks the wind out of our sails. The "rides" seem less exciting and more perilous.

One thing never fails to excite--the prospect of Heaven. Our loving heavenly Father--who cannot and does not lie--has graciously provided descriptions in the Bible of what awaits us in Paradise:

• What it will look like
• Who will be there
• What to expect
• What not to expect
• What we'll do
• What we'll learn

It's going to be an incredibly beautiful place populated with the best and most loving associates God could save. We will accomplish the "impossible" unfettered by doubt and fear and pain and sorrow. The universe and beyond into infinity will be our classroom, and our teacher will be none other than the Almighty Himself.

Read about it. Start in Genesis and work your way on to Revelation. It makes terrific Summer reading (and Fall and Winter and Spring). 

The Promise of an Orderly Universe

Thanks for your words of encouragement about the disarray at our house while having some carpentry work done! Later, however, I began to wonder if my uneasiness around clutter indicated I'm a fuss budget. Who would want that? My good friend Jan Ripley came to the rescue with these words: 

"No, its a sign of liking things orderly cuz thats how God is, 

whats the verse that says do things decently and in order?" 

 ~I Corinthians 14:40 (I looked it up!)

That got me to thinking about the orderliness of God. Consider the heavens, for example!

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 

what is man that you are mindful of him,

the son of man that you care for him?"

~Psalm 8:3-4

 and

"The heavens declare the glory of God,

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech,

night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard."

~Psalm 19:1-3

and

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?

Tell me, if you understand.

Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know.

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footings set,

or who laid its cornerstone--

while the morning stars sang together 

and all the angels shouted for joy?"

~Job 38:2-7

These are just three of many Bible verses (for example, Genesis 1 and Genesis 9) that point to God's purposefulness in laying out the heavens as a sign--a sign of His love for us.

I fear that city lights and a focus on ourselves have confused us and blinded our eyes to God's messages in the stars. The end result is that men are falling for Satan's tired old lies, the ones he has perpetuated since the Garden of Eden--that God is not good, He does not love us. And since He doesn't love us, we are each free to pursue our own paths to heaven. 

Sorry, folks, there is no other path to heaven. A lot of dead ends, yes, where the disillusioned will learn that they were taken in by the world, the flesh and the devil. All the while God's truth was proclaimed in the skies, day and night, leaving the ungodly with no excuse.

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities

--his eternal power and divine nature--

have been clearly seen, 

being understood from what has been made,

so that men are without excuse."

~Romans 1:20

If you have not yet chosen to believe God, please do so today. We never know what a day may bring forth. This could be your last chance.