In His Presence

A few hours ago, I was listening to the song “I Am”, a song by Nicole Nordeman from her album, Woven & Spun. A part of the song talks about dying, leaving this world and going home to heaven. We have all heard it before. When a child or parent dies, the person left behind is told that the person who has died has gone to home to heaven. If we were to speak to most Christians, one would discover that most Christians think of heaven as home. That however is only partially right.

When one talks of home, one thinks of a place where one stays with family and loved ones on a permanent basis. One of the tenets of the Christian faith is the belief that Christ will return one day for a church without spot or blemish. A ready church. The book of Revelation tells us that Christ will come again for us and we will be with him where he is. But a careful reading of the book of Revelation however shows that heaven is not our permanent home. Heaven is for God. The White Throne judgment will take place in heaven after which those whose names are found in the Book of Life come back to earth with Christ. We understand that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and that instead of the moon and sun, Christ’s face, his presence will be our sun and our moon. The Apostle Paul said that to be absent from the body to be present with God. That tells me that heaven is something of a place where those that leave this world go to stay before Christ returns.   

All that got me thinking. Why do we like thinking that heaven is home? Simple. Because that’s where God is. We all want to be where God is. While listening to the song, it occurred to me that the thing we most long for (but at times we don’t know it) is the presence of God. While we long for God’s presence and the knowledge that he is with us, our bodies and the circumstances we go through in the flesh living on this earth do not let us realise or know that God is with us. We go through troubles and we ask ourselves, “Where is God in all these things I’m going through?”

But Jesus told us that God would send the Holy Spirit to be with us and we know that the Holy Spirit was sent at Pentecost. We know that God has given us the Holy Spirit as a gift, just as he gave us Christ as a gift. The Apostle Paul tells us that it’s a mystery, God being with us and living in us. We don’t therefore need to die and go to heaven to be in God’s presence. He is already with us, living in us. That is what we need to understand and believe right now. God loves us and his presence is with us. Jesus promised, “I will be with you, till the end of the age.” Take him at his word. 

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

Entering The Kingdom of Heaven

The view from a hill

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” – John 3:3

“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” – John 3:5, 6

Most of the times when Christians talk about the gospel – the good news – what they are talking about is the gospel of Jesus Christ and they stop there. By that I mean they talk about the gospel of salvation as if that is the only the good news is all about. There are those who go a step further and preach heresy by saying that once you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour, all your troubles would end. Nothing could be further from the truth. To quote a tweet from Pastor Rick Warren, “Not everything on earth has a happy ending. But we need to remember that this is not the end.” I believe that there is a problem with Christianity in that we are producing an assembly line of Christians (because the Bible says there are rewards for soul winning) but we are not doing enough to let people understand how to live the life or what to expect. A lot of Christians therefore go through life not understanding what they’ve signed up for.

In verse 3 of the third chapter of John, Jesus says we need to be born again for us to see the kingdom of God. In the Bible, Jesus described himself at various times either as the Way or the door. Therefore I believe Christ is the doorway into Christianity. A lot of people go to church never having accepted Christ and think they’re Christians. They’ve filled forms where when asked for their religion they filled Christianity. They think because their parents were “Christian”, they’re Christian too. Then one day they wake up and talk about how they’ve “rejected” Christianity never knowing they were never Christians. But no one goes to a house to visit and stays in the doorway. You have to enter the house. Jesus gives the formula for entering the house. The water and the Spirit. In the Bible, the water is synonymous with the Word of God. Therefore to enter the kingdom, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit must be your constant companies.

Sadly nowadays, a lot of people say they’re Christian but want to have nothing to do with either the Word or the Spirit. They would rather be led by their humanist thinking, which of course is their flesh. There are those who in this age of political correctness have rejected the Word. They say the Bible is too violent. To others, the Bible is old fashioned and out-dated. So they’ve replaced it with their own rules that they’ve formulated from their minds which have not been renewed. They believe Christianity should be a democracy or an equal rights movement. They lobby, scheme and blackmail to get their way and feel victorious when they achieve their aims. They are more concerned with the things the world is concerned about than they are concerned with the things God is concerned about. The Bible says that as many as led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. They are more concerned about culture and their place in history than they are with God’s purpose for man. That all should be saved and come to the knowledge of God.

It’s therefore evident that accepting Jesus is not enough. It’s not enough to stay at the door when the father is beckoning for you to come in. Sadly, a lot of people don’t want to come in to see or know the father. The Bible says that Jesus is our example. Jesus knew the Father intimately and knew the father’s will. This is because he spoke with him regularly. But we distance ourselves from him and then presume to speak for him. The Word and the Spirit are longing for us to know them and through them get to know the Father. Will we oblige them?

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a thriller published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers available here http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, a story of love rejection and redemption http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ.