Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
"If you had to choose only one musician or musical
group for listening pleasure forever,
who would you pick?"
"Mountain!!!"
@#$%
@#$%
As if anybody
knows for sure, people are always asking what heaven is like.
Still just
scratching the surface of my relationship with God through Jesus by the book,
there are hints.
Jesus calls it paradise.
The revelator
says it's the pure and perfect place of personal peace where there's no more
pain or suffering or tears or mourning or death or Hillary or Donald or...
Actually, I added
the last two in the last sentence-paragraph because it sounds, uh, heavenly.
But, really, I can't wrap my
brain around paradise or
pure and perfect and things so
uncommon to humanity no matter what Meatloaf sang about in 1977 like a Bat Out of Hell; though I
think Meatloaf remains a lot closer to getting it than most churches,
professors, and pastors that I've hung around.
From what I've
read in the Bible and heard from people who are a lot more intimate with God
than me, heaven sounds, uh, heavenly.
Words are
limiting.
Languages,
especially English, are notoriously imprecise.
Heaven's pleasures
are purported to be beyond the limitations of language.
Better than our
best imaginings.
@#$%
I had two recent
experiences that seemed, uh, heavenly;
and because heaven is purported to be indescribably better than
anything known existentially, I'm betting my soul by grace through faith in
Jesus that it's really, really, really beyond the best of my imaginings.
@#$%
I was asked to
speak at the Shattuck Grove Memorial Day Service on June 5.
Rather anal about
arriving for such things long before the scheduled starting time - Have you
ever noticed some people think it's rude to be on time? - I got to the cemetery
about 40 minutes before I was supposed to open the service with a prayer.
Beautiful day.
Warm gentle yet
strikingly strong wind; and I remembered how the Hebrew and Greek words for
wind are often used for the Spirit of God.
A feeling of
overwhelming peace and calm and serenity came over me.
It felt, uh, heavenly.
Then I looked at
the clouds and they seemed to turn into faces of all of those folks who were to
be remembered during the service; and the eternity of the predeceased
resurrected in my soul.
I amended my
prepared remarks.
Everybody seemed
warmed...strangely...spiritually...supernaturally.
It was, uh, heavenly.
@#$%
I visited a woman
at Swedish American Hospital early on June 9.
She was
recovering from the previous day's surgery.
A few years
younger than my mom, she was very helpful in the transitional years of my call
to the corner of Lincoln and Main if
you know what I mean; and if you don't, you wouldn't get it or want
to get it anyway.
Candidly, while
we share love for Jesus and love each other profoundly, we are really, really,
really different when it comes to politics; and I don't want to spoil this
recollection by elaborating.
Anyway, the room
was filled with nurses and a doctor; and as they huddled, I prayed with her.
Crouching over to
hug her and whisper the prayer into her ear, she held on to me after the amen and whispered back,
"I love you, Bob, and you are the best pastor that I've ever had."
Heavenly!
It has nothing to
do with someone saying something nice to me but
everything to do with someone loving another person with unreserved and
unedited and uninhibited and lavish affirmation/affection despite some very
human differences.
Hint.
That's a big part
of what heaven is going to be like.
Heaven is where
differences and distances and disaffections and divorces and other humanly
damning realities disappear.
There's no place
for that kinda...in heaven.
@#$%
I guess that's
why Jesus encouraged the aspirational prayer that it may be on earth as it is in heaven.
For now, all we
have are hints.
Praise God for
the hints!
@#$%
@#$%
Blessings and Love!
2 comments:
Amen. In heaven there is no beer?
"Heaven" and "Heavenly" work quite differently in my soul. "On earth as..." is a fabulous intention. Perhaps the best.
S.
Read Revelations 21:10-27 Heaven is Beautiful.
Stay Cool Everybody. God Bless Pastor Bob, For Being The Best True Pastor I Know.
Only Way to Heaven Is to Believe The Bible and Listen to what the Pastor Bob Teaches us about the Bible.
From Walton
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