Heaven
When I was a kiddo, the "Kids Praise!" tapes were really popular. Did y'all ever listen to them? With Psalty, the singing songbook? Anyways, one of the songs that was on the tape was called "Heaven Is A Wonderful Place". The lyrics went like this...
Heaven is a wonderful place
Filled with glory and grace
I'm gonna see my Savior's face
'Cause Heaven is a wonderful place
There are so many great songs about heaven, but one of Brian's favorite hymns is "When We All Get To Heaven". This is a great ol' Baptist hymn.
Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
Sing His mercy and His grace.
In the mansions bright and blessèd
He’ll prepare for us a place.
When we all get to Heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!
While we walk the pilgrim pathway,
Clouds will overspread the sky;
But when traveling days are over,
Not a shadow, not a sigh.
Let us then be true and faithful,
Trusting, serving every day;
Just one glimpse of Him in glory
Will the toils of life repay.
Onward to the prize before us!
Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
Soon the pearly gates will open;
We shall tread the streets of gold.
As believers in Christ, we should set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. We should remember that our life here is but a breath, a vapor, and that it can end at any moment. We may live for 50 more years or 5 more minutes. What matters is not what we were able to buy on this earth, what level we accomplished in our career, but did we trust Christ as our Lord and Savior? Did we realize that we are sinners and that the only way that we will spend eternity in heaven instead of eternally separated from Him, is if we believe that He, being the perfect sacrifice, died on a cross for your sin and for mine. Without his sacrifice, we would be eternally separated from God, because He is holy and we are not. But if we trust in Christ for our salvation, and believe that His death served as the payment for our sins, our sins will be washed away. Then, when our last breath comes, we will pass from this earth into heaven, where there will be no more tears, no more death, no more suffering.
Last week, I learned a verse from 1 John 5:11-12
"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."
It is so simple, yet so important. Do you know where you will go when you die? And if God asked you why He should allow you to be in Heaven with you, what would your answer be?
I believe that yesterday, Brian's grandfather went to heaven, and that he is no longer suffering from the Alzheimer's disease that has been so cruel to his body for the past 12 years. He passed from death into life. Eternal life with his Savior. Yes, we miss him, but he wouldn't trade heaven for earth for anything. And we will see him again someday. How exciting is that??
Brian is so much like his grandfather, he learned so much from him and he has so many great memories of him. And man, did they look alike. I borrowed a picture from his grandmother yesterday to copy, and the more I look at it, the more it looks like Brian to me. What do you think?
God is Good.
Heaven is a wonderful place
Filled with glory and grace
I'm gonna see my Savior's face
'Cause Heaven is a wonderful place
There are so many great songs about heaven, but one of Brian's favorite hymns is "When We All Get To Heaven". This is a great ol' Baptist hymn.
Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
Sing His mercy and His grace.
In the mansions bright and blessèd
He’ll prepare for us a place.
When we all get to Heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!
While we walk the pilgrim pathway,
Clouds will overspread the sky;
But when traveling days are over,
Not a shadow, not a sigh.
Let us then be true and faithful,
Trusting, serving every day;
Just one glimpse of Him in glory
Will the toils of life repay.
Onward to the prize before us!
Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
Soon the pearly gates will open;
We shall tread the streets of gold.
As believers in Christ, we should set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. We should remember that our life here is but a breath, a vapor, and that it can end at any moment. We may live for 50 more years or 5 more minutes. What matters is not what we were able to buy on this earth, what level we accomplished in our career, but did we trust Christ as our Lord and Savior? Did we realize that we are sinners and that the only way that we will spend eternity in heaven instead of eternally separated from Him, is if we believe that He, being the perfect sacrifice, died on a cross for your sin and for mine. Without his sacrifice, we would be eternally separated from God, because He is holy and we are not. But if we trust in Christ for our salvation, and believe that His death served as the payment for our sins, our sins will be washed away. Then, when our last breath comes, we will pass from this earth into heaven, where there will be no more tears, no more death, no more suffering.
Last week, I learned a verse from 1 John 5:11-12
"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."
It is so simple, yet so important. Do you know where you will go when you die? And if God asked you why He should allow you to be in Heaven with you, what would your answer be?
I believe that yesterday, Brian's grandfather went to heaven, and that he is no longer suffering from the Alzheimer's disease that has been so cruel to his body for the past 12 years. He passed from death into life. Eternal life with his Savior. Yes, we miss him, but he wouldn't trade heaven for earth for anything. And we will see him again someday. How exciting is that??
Brian is so much like his grandfather, he learned so much from him and he has so many great memories of him. And man, did they look alike. I borrowed a picture from his grandmother yesterday to copy, and the more I look at it, the more it looks like Brian to me. What do you think?
God is Good.
posted by Amstaff Mom | 5:39 AM
12 Comments:
Amstaff-
I'm so sorry to hear about your husband's grandfather, but you're right - you will see him again: And rejoice for the interim that he's walking on streets of gold! How amazing is that?
You know, after reading Steve's blog, then yours, I realized how grateful I am that I found you guys: when I first started blogging, I hesitated to write about God on account of the fact that I didn't want to "scare anyone away". How absurd! How is that furthering the kingdom? This is a great resource to spread the word, and while each and every post doesn't have to be "churchy", we can incorporate God in even the little things as we hopefully are all doing in our everyday lives outside of "blogland".
Thank you for this post, thank you for your honesty, your fearlessness, and your love for the Lord. Even though I'm not quite three-dimentional to you yet, and I'm merely a voice echoing through the web all the way from Wisconsin, I am moved. Daily I am moved by your love, and the love of many others in this "circle" I have found myself in, that unmistakable love you all have for our Lord, our Savior, our God.
Steph -
You are so very sweet. I too realized, that while I don't write about my salvation everyday, it is such a part of who I am, that I can't help but write about it sometimes. So I write about my faith, and my blog parties. They are all a part of who I am. One is not equal to the other, but it all makes up this journey we call life.
I am not AT ALL fearless. But if I can minister to those around me, then I should.
May we encourage each other always! Your friend in Texas, AM.
JCol - what an amazing post. What a statement you can make that Brian will see his grandfather in heaven, what peace and joy comes with that truth.
Thanks for challenging me to look beyond today, beyond my circumstances, and to focus where I should on HIM and His glory.
Sweet post.
the ending looks familiar?
WOOHOO!!!
That IS Brian.
uhkey Uh... Key please.
Gotta love how the Faith of our grand parents and their grand parents trickles down... It is an encouragement to us... so our great grand kids will hopefully be on the right track.
Also, on a side note... like the suitcases between posts.
I had those kids praise tapes growing up too!
i can still remember one that went,
I don't ever wanna grow up
Why?
Because if you do, you get to busy to play
I don't wanna grow up either why?
Because grown ups get too busy to pray...
Pray?
Mom says praying doesn't help much.
Oh
And it was this cool dialogue between two kids. So cool.
Oh Amstaff....
I am so glad that you know where he is. It brings much peace to us loved ones that are still here!
The psalty song! AWESOME! I loved that song. It was fun to remember my childhood!
What a wonderful post! I am trusting that one day I will see my dad again on the other side. I miss him so.
I haven't read many posts on your blog about the Lord, but I somehow felt you loved Him! I guess it was that kindred spirit.
Great songs and scripture. We had many of those songs around our house and we all still sing them at times. Have you heard of Uncle Ben and Aunt Sue? They are a character building series, they are awesome. I think you can even hear them on 91.7 on Saturday mornings.
I love that hymn. One of our previous pastors got us all to shout on the last line of the chorus where it says "sing and SHOUT THE VICTORY," and we're all still doing it even though he's been gone a long time.
Thanks so much for posting this. It's gonna be great to meet up with loved ones and friends.
Bianca, you weren't needing to give miles, if you had a frequent flier #, then I would give AA your acct# so you can earn miles for the flight. So if you still want to try to find it, let me know.
Sorry for the confusion. And my email is theamstaffmom at yahoo dot com
I remember Psalty! I wanna see my saviors face cuz heaven is a wonderful place - I wanna go there..
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