heaven on earth

“But beyond these, my son, 

be warned: 

there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body. 

When all has been heard, 

the conclusion of the matter is: 

fear God and keep His commands, 

because this is for all humanity. 

For God will bring every act to judgment, 

including every hidden thing, 

whether good or evil.”

Ecclesiastes 12:12-14 

Good morning family forever,

It sure doesn't feel like you guys are family, especially when many of you don't live under the same roof as me, don't go out of your way for me when I'm hurting like my mom does, don't pay for my gas and phone bills like my dad does and don't buy me expensive gifts like my brother does.  Nope, I feel like most of you guys take rather than give haha. Take my pride, take my comfort, and take my last shred of dignity.  Yet, you guys are my more real family.  

The very ones God has called me to lay my life down for.  My pride, my time, my money, my very last breath if that's what is needed!  Yet my idea of family is more about getting love than giving it, until I'm reminded that I won't enjoy Heaven if I hold on to that lie.  In fact, Heaven will feel more like hell if I live thinking my own way is right.  (Read the book of Judges to see what community is like when everyone just does what is right in their own eyes!) 

 If I perceive something as good I will walk in that direction, away from what I perceive as bad or threatening. 

But what if my perception of good and bad is wrong?  (Which it naturally is when I'm not communing with the Holy Spirit.)

Loving the body of Christ is focused and in the body feels more like death.  Haha.  You give, give, and give and in the end get little to nothing in return from the ones you give to.  No recognition for all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes--this is a spiritual litmus test for our hearts.  Seeing what you really wanted from all your work, compared to what Christ got for all of His:

A life of constant obedience leading to death. 

Can you be satisfied with that?  

Probably not entirely! 

Haha but maybe a little.  

Maybe a part of you knows that there are some things inside of you that need to die.  

Things that control or enslave you to do things you don't want to do that take you further from God. 

Things inside of you that threaten you if you don't obey them.  But in order for those lies in your mind to die it takes feeling death inside of you.  Which is scary.  

We all know only God could control something as out-of-our-hands as death.  No human has the power to control whether or not they will die or what will happen after they do...that's all for sure God.  So when we enter into things like feeling death we enter into feeling our utter and complete helplessness and GIANT NEED for God.  Which is our true reality after all the security blankets have been stripped away.  

What if we stopped looking for how to get love and instead began looking for opportunities to give it away?  This is hard work resulting in feeling death inside (which is never pleasant) but it is a needed death of what is in me that is against God...and being against God is the real bad!  The real death! 

Imagine the kind of community and youth group we would be if that's the mentality we all had!  A competition for who could outdo the other in laying down their life!  

That is what Heaven will be like.  

And Heaven can begin now. 

Haha.  Love you guys.

Jmegrey