Naked People in Heaven

Instant bad mood.  I search around for my screaming phone on the floor under my bed.  The damn alarm clock continues to scream at the top of its lungs.  Slowly gaining control of my sleeping body, I step out of bed, pick up my phone and turn off the alarm.  The pain of waking up.  In heaven, I will roll over and enjoy the waking up process just as much as snuggling into bed and drifting off to sleep.  (That is if we sleep in heaven.)

My world runs about me in fast forward.  Honking impatiently at the slow moving car, spending what we don’t have for the newest item that hits the shelves, driving around our children to some place other than home.  Why do I join the insanity of the crowd?  I do believe in busying oneself with hard work, but that is not what is happening here.  We are all consumed with what does not matter.

Now.  What we want is now.  The admiring stares of those we don’t know.  Now.  The praise of what drives us around.  Now.  Winners of the race.  Packed pantries to overflowing.  Fashonable jewelry on our bodies and extra in the closet.  Fancy modern restaurants.  Everything that our neighbors have.  Our neighbors that we want to be like, not the ones outside of our neighborhood.

But all we think about is now and we laugh at anyone that suggests otherwise.

Ted Turner is famous for a lot of things, one of them is stating what is on his mind.  Hey, I can respect that.  He likes to chose his words so that other people listen.  He doesn’t just fit into the crowd.  I respect that also.  But I wish that someone would tell him, and a whole lot of the rest of the world, that they are on the wrong train.  When Turner quoted, “I’d rather go to hell.  Heaven has got to be boring.”  I wish someone would have asked him, “What do you want most in life?”….”It will be in heaven.”

Heaven is better than being a billionaire.  There is money to spare, Hey, let’s pave these streets with gold.  Heaven is better than pornography!  THERE WILL BE PERFECT BODIES WALKING AROUND NAKED!  And it will be a good thing!  No one will be embarrassed!  (There will be no sin in heaven.  Pornography is a destructive, cruel sin.  The point is, naked bodies will be good….and everywhere.)  Heaven is better than Hawaii.  All the food will be paid in full!  Heaven is better than Christmas!  That baby Jesus, he will be with us!  It doesn’t sound boring to me!

And what will not be in heaven?  Babies without mommies.  Wheelchairs won’t be needed in heaven, or medicine, or hospitals.  There will not be divorce, no one’s heart will be broken.  What have you been through?  What hurts?  What tugs at your heart and makes you cry out, “That is not right!”  God will end it.  He will make all the wrongs undone and he will wipe away that tear.

“Jesus’ miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we want is coming.”  Tim Keller.

So, look at this world.  Read the Bible.  Take a look at what is good in this world.  LORD, FIX MY PRIORITIES!  SET MY MIND ON THINGS ETERNAL!  Get ready.  It is going to be the best party of all of eternity.  Don’t throw away your invitation.

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But Do I Know the Universe?

It is all an oxymoron. I believe, so wholeheartedly, in reading, learning, expanding our minds with a continuous process. Reaching our full potential?  Not possible!  We can always learn more!  Read my post from yesterday, I value reading and thought. 

But I wasn’t born yesterday. Just when I think I have something figured out, I am flipped upside down. It is humorous to think what I used to think I knew. I am who I never thought I’d be. One assurance of this world is to never say never. 

So, in this world of thought, what do we know?  We know we do NOT know. The scientists of the past believed the world to be flat. Men who believe they are above sin, are the first to fall. THE IMPOSSIBLE HAPPENS!  

We live in such a tiny speck of the universe in such a tiny speck of time. Time travel is impossible?  Men smarter than me point us to a worm hole and say, “maybe not impossible.” In fact, it happens every day in space!  Just because I do not understand it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. 

But remember the great oxymoron?  The only thing I can know is that I do not know.  So, how can I know?

This is a world of order!  Look at the heavens, so large my mind can not fathom. It all makes sense!  It travels in patterns, holds itself in check, composed and travels in a manner to support water, to form weather, to allow me to live. 

Science. It is not a dirty word. It does not contradict religion. Science is the study of this world. This is my Father’s world!  Science is the study of God’s Creation. I learn, study, and explore with the knowledge that I can not know it all!  Put my hope in science?  Put my hope in my own knowledge?  Nah!  Quite pathetic!  It changes so very quickly and I soon find my mind irrelevant. 

Evolution?  I am not against a theory. But claiming evolution as science is ignoring science in and of itself. Entropy. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that this world continues toward disorder.  Long ago, the theory of evolution should have been discarded. 

Recently, I was told God is for the weak, those that can not “do it on their own.”  Right!  God is for those that admit they do not have the answers. So is science!  Science is for explorers! Those seeking answers to more questions than can ever be answered. 

God is for people that have messed up, for those that need forgiveness, for those that want to be something bigger than themselves. 

But weak?  Oh no!  Is education for the weak?  Is seeking answers, knowledge, and wisdom for the weak?  No!  The strongest are those that admit they do not know it all, the strongest are those that continue to learn, the strongest are those that are a part of something bigger than themselves. The strongest are those that did not make the world, do not know it all, do not have the answers, but know the one is, was, and will forever be. 

God, What Can You Do?

Man stands firm and confident and rubs his hands together.  He believes and dreams and wishes.  But with all his plans, nothing happens. He beats his forehead with his clenched fist and feels silly and stupid and upset with his failure. Man shouts, “God, if there is a God, what can you do?”

God snaps his fingers, and Earth appears. His hand rises and with it rise the Magnolia and the Palm, the daisy and the tulip, Mt. Everest and the Rockies.  His dancing fingers form Orion and the moons of Jupiter. Science is born. 

Man shrugs his shoulders and rolls his eyes. Man is not impressed and seeks more, “God, I am lonely and God I want more, if there is even a God at all.”

God breaths into the dust and the Earth is filled. Filled with lonely people seeking companionship. Filled with colors and races and languages.  Filled with doggies eager to play. Filled with enough to consume every day.  God spreads his arms offering his gift and smiles. 

Man turns his back, refusing to delight in the offering. He sits in the dust and throws a fit. Unable to create from nothing. Unable to know and understand it all. Unable to love perfectly. Man stands up and declares, “God?  There is no God at all.”

I Heart Science

Very tall for her age, even taller than her twin sister. She was long and lean, blonde and breautiful, and just as clumsy with her grace as any other fourth grader should be.  My fourth grade students were still babies, but I could see in their achievements (they were impressive) that they would be teenagers tomorrow. 

But for now, I soaked up their current love for their teacher (me), I fed off of their enthusiasm for learning, and I was blown away with their profound statements and questions. 

She raised her long arm. It was, with the rest of her body, jumping up and down in her desk from excitement. Her fingers twisted and turned through the air. She had something to say. 

I paused at the right time during my lecture (yes, I said during my lecture. Please note this was lecture and note taking time)….I paused during my lecture and smiled at Laura and nodded my head for her to go ahead with her question or comment. She proceeded with the attention of the whole class:

I (she pointed to herself)

Heart (her fingers formed a heart in front of her own)

Science (and she spread her arms out pointing and displaying the lecture notes that still covered the board)

She loved to learn. What a gift!  What a blessing!  It was learning that she was in love with, hard lecture notes at such a young age, but something had clicked and she could not contain the excitement and the joy she found in new knowledge. 

I believe that when we learn truth, we learn about Jesus. I believe that Science is the study of God’s creation. I believe that school should be hard work and not always fun, but at the end of the day the kids should beam with excitement from their new found treasure. Knowledge. 

And now I am not a teacher anymore in a classroom. I AM A MOMMY!  And it is summer break and Madison Academy is in full force. We have a list of classic books to read. We are going to conquer labeling all 50 states (she can label 30), by Fall, we will be able to list all the American presidents in order, our nature notebook will be full of sketches and information about plants in our neighborhood, and Daddy is going to teach the fundamentals of basketball. 

And this is where I want to thank Laura’s parents. Because I believe that love of learning begins at home. Yes!  A teacher can spark this or squash it. But almost always, I believe children, like Laura, come from homes where learning prospers and runs wild and covers the smiles of the whole family learning together. 

So, I take my daughter’s hand and I have the PRIVILIDGE of learning alongside her (trust me, I am learning also!) I have the joy of picking, “What do I want my girl to know?” And then teaching her!  

There will be late cookouts. She will have cousins spend the night and sleep in late. We will spend entire days playing at the pool. But perhaps learning just as much as in the classroom (or dare I say possibly more?) I now say with confidence, SCHOOL IS IN SESSION!

Hearts Everywhere

On his knees by a bedside, tears streaming down her face as she hides, sitting alone in a crowd. Hearts cry out, “God, show me you are there.”

Theologians think they are thinking. Artists proudly offer up. Doctors believing they are healing. Parents satisfied that they are protecting.

Each day there is a sunrise. Once again birds fly in the sky. The ocean splashes upon the shore. Gravity holds a truth for one more day.

Observe the beating of a heart, genetic makeup of the simplest animal to the developed pets in our homes. Flowers blooming and cut for pleasure. Trees number the forest. And mountains unexplored. Rain forests alive with animals yet to be discovered.

We think we do so much, crying out that God is not there.

One more day He answers, responding with the beauty of nature and the miracle of life.

Evolution Screws the Helpless

I have learned that this is a very emotional topic.  Honestly, I am not really sure why, but if I ever talk about this (which is not that often), I get people really upset.  So, I apologize…I don’t apologize….don’t want to make you mad, but here it is:

“To suppose that the eye with all its intimate contrivances for adjusting the forces to different differences, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”

Guess who said that?  Yep, the big man himself!  CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN!!!  There is some food for thought, the man who proposed the theory of evolution denied it himself.

From a scientific standpoint, let’s look at the theory of evolution.  Years ago, I attended a lecture under Ken Hamm.  He is a genius of a man and definitely a great man of thinkers of the modern world. He completely demolished the possibility of evolution in one fatal two minute blow describing the impossibility of a giraffe evolving.  It would have died several times during that process.  But he continued and by the end of it, any evolutionist would be crawling under the table.  I can not recommend enough the resources found at answersingenesis.org

From a Biblical standpoint, there are those that believe that God created the world through evolution.  There are several problems with that but to state one:  Adam named all the animals before Eve was created.  So, this theory suggests that evolution occurred to lead up to Adam and Eve and that evolution occurred before the fall.  So, this theory states that death occurred before the fall, which is not biblical because death was a part of the curse and did not exist before it.

And now, for the title:  From an emotional standpoint, Evolution screws the helpless.  According to evolution, it is survival of the fittest.  According to evolution, this is what we’ve got, right now.  So, if you are dying a painful death, if you are a starving child, if you are living each day in agony, the remedy is to end it all.  There is no reason to keep going.  There is no hope.  There is no value for human life.  If you are born with a deformity, you are a mistake, the world will be better when you are gone.

Do I leave you with no hope?  NO!  Because I do not believe in evolution.  (Bet you couldn’t have guessed that.) And why do I write a post on evolution when I know some people are really pissed at me by this point?  Because I want to tell those that do not know that there is hope!  I have a reason to convince you!  I want to tell you that you mean something!  Sorry, but why would anyone try to convince me that evolution is real?!!!  The proof of burden falls on the evolutionist.  The God of the universe made you in his image!  You have worth!  He heals those with disease and injury and hurt!  You have a purpose!  If you are suffering, there is hope!  There is a reason to struggle and survive!  Because you are precious to the God that made it all!

Caroline is published!  please click on the link below for more information about Beautiful Life with Cancer, Hope During the Hard Times and to purchase

https://www.createspace.com/5093811

“I Now Pronounce You Science and Creation”

‘Til death do them part, Science and Creation are a happy couple.  A while ago, on the local Christian station, I heard an announcer say how sad it was that “science” was the word of the year.  His logic was that it had replaced religion…..ummmm…NO!  And then I read articles explaining how Christians live by choosing to just believe in stuff and ignore science….ummmm….NO!  And then I hear that as we learn more and more about how things work, that we worship God less and less…..again….NO!

I am raising a little Scientist.  By the age of 7, she has lost hours studying random matter under a microscope (during play time), I have sat with her and read about splitting hydra, her deepest wishes and best presents have included:  2 geckos, fish, a frog, hamster, guinea pig, dog, and 2 kittens.  (that list would continue, but I have to stop it somewhere.)  She sits and reads animal reference books for fun.  She knows that the holes on the side of a geckos head are supposed to be there.  (Silly Mommy getting worried.)  She knows that there are no female peacocks….they are called peahens.  She can tell if a live turkey is male or female by its plumage.  Her questions never end, “Why do the leaves change colors?  What makes a storm?  Why do people’s bodies grow?”  There is NO END to the questions!  And as I have researched, as I have found answers, as we have learned together, (love of Science does not come naturally to me)  but as I have learned, something has happened:  I HAVE WORSHIPED GOD!

OK, I’m loosing some people.  Some have clicked out and already labeled me a nut.  Others are contemplating in their head that they believe in Evolution or The Big Bang, or perhaps, you say you believe in a combination of Evolution and Creation?  One thing, I will limit my comments to one thing:  The third law of thermodynamics is entropy.  Entropy says that matter falls apart over time.  It says that the world continues toward destruction, decomposition, or chaos over time.  Evolution says that matter improves.  According to Science, Evolution is not possible!

Imagine a grandfather building a car.  Imagine that grandfather taking his grandson by the hand day after day.  They spend hours together.  The grandfather explains to the grandson how the car works.  He tells of how, day after day, he built the car.  He says what came first.  He tells of the first time he started up the engine and heard it roar.  What is happening?  The grandson is building a relationship with his grandfather.  He is learning more and more about his grandfather.  His love for his grandfather will grow.  He thinks his grandfather is pretty cool for building that car.  He knows the car would not be there without his grandfather.  Science is God taking us by the hand and saying, “Let me tell you how I made this.  Look at the water, do you see that it is made of H2O.  Look at the worm.  Do you see that it is male and female?  Look at your body.  Do you see how I made your heart pump blood?”

Little tantrum here, please excuse my loud voice, Do not tell me that because I am a Christian, I do not believe Science.  Christians!  Do not tell me that science is evil!  Science is the study of God’s Creation.  It is a gift to us.  …..and at Christmas time, I like to ponder over my gifts and thank the giver.

Maestro

Potter.  In the palm of your hands, rolling, forming.  Holding up your clay with the tips of your fingers and then placing it in the atmosphere.

Chef.  Measuring out the water, holding up, tilting, splashing the oceans onto the clay of the earth.  Glancing through the pantries.  Choosing a container, removing the lid and sprinkling out the seeds upon the ground.

Conductor.  Your baton is held in your right hand, your left hand held up.  Paused.  Gently sway, lowered, lowered.  Then you lift your right.  The trees rise.  Your left hand raises the flowers.  The grandest symphony.  All of creation applauds

Artist.  Painting the sunset, adding a mountain here and a flower there.  Your hand on your chin as you take a step back.  Yes, let’s paint a river here.  And a bit more stars there.

Scientist.  Beakers, hot plate, goggles, and gloves.  The equations are figured, the findings are calculated.  Science is a great study of the measurements of your creation.

King.  Your wisdom sets laws, your justice carries them out.  No evil is tolerated, no criminal roams free.  Opportunity and freedom flourish.

Father.  Wrapped in your arms, you kiss my cheeks.  A proud smile spreads across your face, lifted to your knee, your finger touches my nose and then you say, “My child, just wait, the best is yet to come.”