“There are many homes up there where my father lives, and I am going to prepare them for your coming. When everything is ready, then I will come and get you, so that you can always be with me where I am. If this weren’t so, I would tell you plainly.” (Jesus words in John 14)

    Okay, now it’s time for a real gut check. Take a deep breath. Reread those opening words of Jesus. Do you believe the one who spoke these words knew what he was talking about? Can you put your full weight on it?

    Two of Jesus’ trusted lieutenants, Thomas and Phillip, had trouble understanding these words.

    Jesus response to those slow to understand comes this way: “The words I say are not my own but are from my Father who lives in me... Just believe it — that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

    You’ve probably noticed that rich and poor, male and female, carpenter and preacher, all want basically the same thing: Significance here and hope for eternal life at the end of our earthly years.

    On a recent Saturday I attended a soccer game my 8 year old grandson played in. Last Friday night I joined 16,000 fans of high school football to watch our two city high schools battle for victory. These two days displayed enormous energy, poured over almost totally unimportant events, and yet the events drew me into high robust dedication to my team’s victory. It’s so important to go home a winner. The next morning I awaken to the realities I’m obligated to fulfill and all I have to offer are weary legs and a voice still hoarse from cheering at the games. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I had fun. I was grabbing all the gusto available in sports. But, in the long run, these things don’t matter.

    When I came home and entered the dark, quiet hours of the night I remembered a talk I had with Breylin last week about the importance of following God. Breylin and I talk a lot about heaven, you see, because we like to remind ourselves that their will be no goodbyes in heaven; we will all be together with God forever. He enjoys my telling him God’s promises and I greatly enjoy our time together as we talk about the future God wants him to enjoy. I want this precious child to learn about Jesus’ defeat of evil and death. I want him to commit his heart to God like David, a man who wanted to follow God but who painfully learned the “wiles of Satan.” His great, ugly sins are recorded for all of us to take care that we follow not our own desires, but seek God’s plans.

Are his words of peace and forgiveness warmly flowing over your heart?

    Now, here are my questions for your heart and mine. Lets go down deep into our soul. How lost and alone do you feel? Do you have the Holy Spirit working in your life answering the Devils dirty tricks? Do you refuse to be chained down to a prison door and run daily into Jesus’ arms so that He can hold you tight? Are his words of peace and forgiveness warmly flowing over your heart? If not, it’s time for you to declare war on the slimy, wicked enemy of our soul — Satan, the rebellious devil that hates us and hates God. It’s time to stand and declare your pledge and allegiance to the one true living God and fully accept His cleansing power of the blood of His son.

    Say with me these words:

1. I belong to God and nothing will ever separate me from His loving arms.
2. I declare that I am in God’s army of righteousness and God will win victory forever.
3. I know what to do every morning:
• Praise Him in songs of worship
• Humbly seek to treat people the way Jesus did
• Invite one hungry soul I meet today to give their soul to God
• Tell everyone to run to Jesus
• Let His Spirit fight, through my words and actions, any bad thing that may hit me from the devil
• End the day with praise songs about God’s deliverance!