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Enjoying love, joy, peace, perfection and fun in heaven and the new heavens and earth! |
| One day everyone who has accepted the free gift of salvation from sin and death through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will enjoy a lifetime of knowing nothing but love, joy, peace, perfection and having fun as members of God's Holy Family, "God" being the "God" of the Holy Bible, consisting of our three Creators: our Father in Heaven, His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and our Helper, the Holy Spirit. In this blog, you will find entries rejoicing in these events to come, as well as, other entries expressing awe, joy and thankfulness for the blessings past and present I've experienced in my life, and the good times I'm looking forward to having when I'm no longer physically-challenged, when I have a perfect, agile, pain-free, sin-free, glorious holy body like Jesus' temporarily human body became when it was transformed as He rose back up to Heaven to be with our Heavenly Father and our Helper, the Holy Spirit, after spending the time He spent in His resurrected human body form on earth proving He truly was resurrected and "God Incarnate" to all of His believers who saw Him in person during that special time period in history. |
Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, 2019 When I was younger, I used to have a movie camera and a still camera that I loved to use to photograph the various fun activities of family and friends. I wasn't able to continue to do this as I got older, because of various events that changed my being able to do so, but I still love to see great photographs and movies others have been able to take, and treasure the memories of the ones I was able to take when I was younger! And, of course, if I have another movie camera and/or still camera in this time period of my life, I will feel blessed and happy to use each of them to record fun activities of family and friends. I just need more help in doing that now than I did when I was younger. But I am so thrilled to know that I will have NO physical or other difficulties in using the types of cameras and movie cameras God makes available to His children to use to make fun to see photographs and movies of the Holy City and the surrounding "new heavens and new earth"! Every time I see flying overhead shots of cities and landscapes in movies and TV series episodes, like in HOW THE WEST WAS WON and in ROYAL PAINS (my favorite doctor series), I long to be able to take such shots myself, but I have to wait until I have a new, perfect, totally physically-able body like my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ's perfect, totally physically-able, holy body, in the "home of righteousness": "the new heavens and new earth" to be able to joyously do so! But I can look forward to that wonderful time of photographic fun, reflecting on it whenever I do, and thanking God for this future use of one of my creative gifts from the Holy Spirit!!! |
| Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, 2019 We're having a beautiful, sunny Memorial Day here in Ohioland, and I'm having fun enjoying the day, relaxing, watching favorite movies and TV series on my widescreen TV, and checkin' out what's happening with friends and family on the Internet, in-between other activities, like this one: adding another entry to my blog. In keeping with the theme of my blog, I'm been reflecting on how special it's going to be to finally be living with God in the new heavens and new earth, where people will never experience anything that is NOT fun to experience again! Everything God's children do and experience there will be fun and sin-nature-free!!! Things that are NOT fun in our present heavens and earth cause pain, tears, frustration, and anger, but we have God's promise to His children in His Holy Word that all of the results of sin and its curse entering into this world will be eliminated forever in the sin-free new heavens and earth, where only happy, fun-filled, always-holy activities and relationships are experienced, with our Makers: the Heavenly Father, His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Helper, the Holy Spirit, and all our brothers and sisters in Christ! My heart and spirit rejoice and are comforted in knowing this truth God has lovingly revealed in His Holy Word, as I live through each day, with His help, experience a mix of fun and NOT fun situations, some of them as a result of my physical challenges, others because of the emotional and physical effects of the curse of sin in this temporary world we all live in. |
Sunday,May 19, 2019 Have you ever wondered what kind of parks there are in the Holy City now in Heaven and what kind of parks there may be added to those already there in "the new heavens and new earth"? I know it'll be fun finding out when I get there! In this heaven and earth, we have all kinds of special parks to visit too for fun and recreation, and each of those are like special blessings for our hearts and spirits to be refreshed in on vacations or special getaway times from our busy everyday lives. I'm hoping there will be amusement and water-type parks in "the new heavens and new earth" like we have here, because, as a physically-challenged member of the family of God now, I'm not able to enjoy those types of parks as fully as physically-able people are able to do. But when I have my promised perfect, sin-nature-free, transformed body like my Lord and Savior, Jesus' perfect, holy Body, I will be as agile and able to get around and enjoy riding on any ride and/or water slide as everybody else who has a physically-able body can do! So this is something to contemplate happily among all of the joyful things there are to contemplate doing for fun in Heaven and the "new heavens and new earth" when it's time for God's children to live there with Him forever. |
Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019 I love to play my keyboard, as best I can, with my physical challenges, with the arthritis that sometimes affects how my fingers and hands function playing instruments. I have fun exercising my fingers every day playing some of the many melodies I've written over the years, which not only exercises my fingers, limbering them up, but also exercises my memory, keeping it in good shape, as I recall all of the notes as I play my creations. So I thank God thank I am blessed to have a keyboard to play for fun and exercise! There are a LOT of other musical instruments that I wish I could play now. In fact, I'd love to learn how to play all of the musical instruments in existence, if I could do that, so that I could put together my compositions using the complete variety of instruments available for arranging my songs in unique and beautiful arrangements of them. I'm sooooooooooooooo looking forward to the day when I'll be free from the restrictive, physically-challenged body I have now … free to use my new, totally agile, perfectly functional body like my Lord and Savior Jesus' transformed body when I inherit it, so that I can bless Him and my Father in Heaven and the Holy Spirit, and all of my brothers and sisters in Christ there, with my musical gifts from Them through the Holy Spirit, composing and playing new songs for everyone to enjoy, just like all of the other Christian composers will be doing there, using all of the types of musical instruments we have to use there as we arrange and play and record our songs for everyone!!! That's going to be SOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!! |
Monday, March 11, 2019 I LOVE GOING BAREFOOT!!! I've been walking around with crutches since 1970, but that hasn't kept me from enjoying my love of going barefoot, inside and outside, as much as I can. Two of the outdoor places I love to kick off my sandals and run around barefoot in the grass at are botanical gardens like the one named Kingwoood Center in Mansfield, Ohio, and at scenic picnic areas beside rivers or lakes like Clearfork Lake outside Lexington, Ohio. I've soooooooooo enjoyed going barefoot in these locations in the past on romantic dates with women who have been special in my heart who love going barefoot too!!! I can't wait to go barefoot in the grass and along the trails of all of the parks that will be there for God's family to go barefoot in and on in the Holy City with my crutch-free, totally physically-able body like my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ's totally physically-able, transformed, sin-free, perfect and holy body!!! What joy that with be to my soles and toes and heart and spirit!!! One of my sisters in Christ was sharing with me about her love of climbing trees in her bare feet when she was growing up, and even now, she told me she loves doing that, though she's in her 50's! I told her I never climbed trees growing up, but I would love to have barefoot fun with her climbing some of the trees in the Holy City, and wherever else we might enjoy doing that together, in the "new heavens and earth" when we're their together with our bodies like Jesus' body!!! There are soooooooooooo many enjoyable-feeling things to do in your bare feet with a body like Jesus' in "the new heavens and earth" when it's finally time for that FOREVER FUN FEELING!!! Can't wait to be there and begin doing all those things!!! In the meantime, though, I will enjoy every time of blessing God gives me in this heaven and earth to go barefoot, inside and outside, someplace "barefoot special" for my heart and spirit, like ... right now ... writing this blog entry on my laptop in my bare feet in my God-provided, special apartment! |
| Tuesday, January 22, 2019 I've been having fun the last couple of days watching musical romances posted on YouTube from the Big Band Era featuring my favorite Big Band: Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. There are two really special movies titled: ORCHESTRA WIVES and SUN VALLEY SERENADE that feature not only Glenn and his orchrestra, but early acting roles for two popular TV comedians of the 50's and 60's: Jackie Gleason in "Orchestra Wives" and Milton Berle in "Sun Valley Serenade". If you'd like to see how they looked before they bcame so famous later on, I recommend these two these Big Band Musical Romances!!! WOW!!! They're both TERRIFIC!!! Which brings me to the topic of this blog entry: HAVING FUN WITH MUSIC IN THE HOLY CITY. I can't wait to experience and be a part of all of the GREAT MUSIC composed, performed and listened to in the Holy City!!! It'll all be beautiful and happy music with a variety of beats, just like beautiful, happy and fun music is in our world today. There'll be no sad songs of forlorn love, only songs of the joys love brings in our lives, love from God to us and us to Him, and love in all its righteous expressions from us to our brothers and sisters in Christ! And DANCING to all these great musical compositions will be SUCH FUN too, dancing unto the Lord with vigor and smiles all over the place: down the streets, in our homes, and on the dance floors of the various places where groups, big bands, and large ochestras perform all of the compositions gifted-by-the-Holy-Spirit-composers, like myself, have created to be a joyful blessing to God and everyone!!! WOW!!! What a THRILL to picture in our minds and look forward to, huh?!!! |
| Monday, December 31st, 2018 "In My Father's house there are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:2) Jesus said this to his disciples before He left them to return to Heaven where the Holy City resides right now. He was comforting and encouraging them that they would one day live there with Him in individual, beautiful homes, because they were thinking, until He corrected them, that He was going to establish a holy kingdom for himself and them here on this present earth, not realizing this couldn't be possible because of our planet's still sin-affected state. But, as recorded for everyone's knowledge in the Book of Revelation, a sequence of events are developing on earth as our Creators planned that will finally result in there being a new heaven and earth replacing the heaven (that is, all of the universe above us with its many planets and moons etc) and earth that exist now, and those who are saved by their faithful trust and acceptance of the free gift of salvation through what Jesus did to pay the price for sin and its resultant physical and spiritual death (when He took on a human form and was able to resist all of the temptations humans have difficulting in resisting because He was both God and man), they will live on that new earth in the Holy City in mansion-like homes prepared by their Lord and Savior Himself. As I'm reminded of these exciting words Jesus said to his disciples before His resurrected earthly body rose back up to where Heaven is and took on its present transformed type of a perfect, sin nature free, holy and glorified body like I'll have when it's time for me to receive it, I rejoice in knowing how much fun it's going to be to walk around the Holy City and see all of the magnificently-designed homes with eye-catching outside landscaping and to be able to go inside each of them and visit with my brothers and sisters in the family of God when they invite me in for a visit, as well as, invite them in to visit with me in my home there whenever I do. Won't that be A VERY SPECIAL BLESSING for everyone to share! WOW!!! Thoughts of it are one of the excellent things of good report to think about that God's Word encourages us to think about instead of thoughts about things that are NOT excellent and of BAD REPORT that we are bombarded by all the time in news account in newspapers, on TV, and on the Internet. |
| Monday, December 31st, 2018 Before I became physically-challenged I used to love riding horses! It was one of special blessings from our Creators to be able to do so from time to time. Horses are my favorite animal creations. Knowing that there will be horses in Heaven (along with other beautiful and wonderful animals), and I'll be able to ride them there again, as my Lord and Savior Jesus does, even coming back to this earth one day riding on a horse along with Jesus when He comes back to begin His thousand year reign before the final battle of Armageddon (as described in the Book of Revelation in God's Holy Word), comforts and thrills my heart! When I think about all of the fun times I used to have riding horses, and all of the fun times I'll have again, how I smile and thank and praise our Creators! "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV 1995 Edition) "... in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13 NIV 1995 Edition) |
| Sunday, December 30, 2018 I'm so looking forward to having all of my creative dreams come true at last in Heaven when I'm living in the Holy City there, enjoying having a body like my Lord and Savior Jesus' transformed human body, walking and talking (like Adam and Eve used to do before sin entered their and, consequently, our lives) with Him, and our Heavenly Father and Helper, the Holy Spirit, being perfect and sin-nature free, one of all of the holy members of the joyous family of God!!! What a thrill it will be to use all of my creative gifts from the Holy Spirit without restrictions of any kind causing heartbreak and frustration, like restrictions in using my creative gifts have caused here on this earth because of all the various reasons I've encountered and had to live with, my creative dreams thwarted by each of them. The "BIG THREE" of those reasons have been my physical challenges, lack of money to purchase all of the needed equipment and supplies, and the support and help of others I've needed to have, especially, the support and help of a loving wife, family members and friends, their encouragement and enthusiasm expressed toward me using my creative gifts from the Holy Spirit to be a blessing to others in service to God. In my lifetime here, I've wanted to write books and movie and TV scripts, to produce and direct those; I've wanted to be a successful still and film photographer; I've wanted to create, edit, and design the graphic contents for magazines, brochures and movie boxes and music album covers; I've wanted to write songs and be a film composer, performing with others in the groups that played all the compositions I wrote with my musical gifts. But, alas, most of these desires have not been possible because of those "BIG THREE" reasons, along with various other situational conditions, preventing my creative dreams from coming true. So, of course, it's no wonder I'm looking forward to being finally freed from creative heartbreak and frustrations when I go to be with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Heaven and the Holy City there, where my hopes and dreams will join with theirs and everyone will experience joy and fulfillment forever in using all of the gifts they've been given by the Holy Spirit to be a blessing and express love to our Creators and all of our fellow members of the family of God. I praise and thank our Creators for that every day, for having new creative hopes and dreams that I'm assured WILL come true when it's God timing for them all to come true FOREVER!!! |
| Sunday, December 23, 2018 Today I had the joy and blessing of getting out of my place for the second time this month. Because I don't drive and I'm physically-challenged, I don't go out as much as other people in any month, but, especially, in the colder, more hazardous winter months when slippery sidewalks threaten my walking on them with my crutches. But today in Ohio where I live it was cold and overcast but no new snow and the sidewalks were dry and safe for me to walk on, so my friend Rose came over to my place to visit, exchange Christmas gifts, and take us out to eat at our favorite local restaurant, Bob Evans. That was such a special treat after being at home all month, except for going out on a ride service I use to a doctor's appointment in Galion, which gave me a chance to enjoy a little scenic "road trip" from Ontario to Galion, which is about 45 minutes away. Because I think a lot about the blessings of the future everyone who is a Christian has to look forward to when they leave this heaven and earth to go be with God in the Holy City there in Heaven, and I'm making that one of the focuses of this blog, I'm often reminded of how special that's going to be, especially, when I'm out and about places with my physically-challenged, deformed body, encountering various difficulties getting around and doing things in stores and restaurants such as Bob Evans. I've written entries in this blog about looking forward to walking around in the Holy City with my body like Jesus' body and exploring and doing things in all of those beautiful, uniquely-designed buildings that are in it. As my friend Rose and I were enjoying our visit to Bob Evans, I couldn't help but talk to her again about how I'm looking forward to going to the various types of restaurants that Christians will enjoy eating in the Holy City. Just as in this heaven and earth, there will be booths and/or tables and chairs for our new bodies to sit in or on to visit and eat with our families and friends, our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ. We won't be eating any meat from animals, but we'll have a wide variety of menu choices of fruit and vegable meals and drinks, prepared by those of us who love to prepare meals there, served to us by those who love to serve those meals to us. And I was thinking how wonderful it might be to sometimes prepare and serve those meals ourselves in the various restaurants, taking turns doing that and other things in them that we have gifts to do, if we would enjoy doing so, volunteering to serve in the various ways people serve in a restaurant. Wouldn't that be a SPECIAL BLESSING!!! I always have difficulty getting in and out of the booths I sit in at Bob Evans and other restaurants because of my body's arthritis and range-of-motion and deformity problems. It's going to be SUCH A JOY to get into and out of any booth in any restaurant or other eating type place in the Holy City with my fully functional, perfect, sin-free, body like Jesus'!!! Soooooooooooooo LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUN OF DOING THAT!!! Another thing I was thinking about after my outing to Bob Evans today: at some types of restaurants they have live muscians playing for the customers, either just a piano player or violin player or, in some places, a band or full orchestra. I WOULD LOVE TO USE MY MUSICAL GIFTS FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT to sometimes provide the musical content like that for various eating places in the Holy City, whether they are indoor or outdoor eating places!!! That would be SUCH FUN to bless and please our Creators and everyone enjoying those eating places this way! What are some of ways you would love to bless and please our Creators and everyone with your new body in the Holy City when you receive it to use in loving service with the gifts you are given by the Holy Spirit? Please think about this and let me and others who read this blog know in a comment. |
| Friday, November 9, 2018 Do you get excited entering a new building that you've discovered for some business, whether it's in a mall or on some street in the downtown or suburb areas of a city? Me too. It's always fun to see what delights await you to enjoy inside an attractive outer exterior. When I read about God's Holy City, "New Jerusalem", and reflect on what God's Word says it contains, I can't help but to be excited and curious to visit and explore the inside of all of the buildings that God designed for His children to revel in! In our world, we have cities with magnificent new buildings that architects have had fun designing to look different from all other buildings, to have unique, futuristic appearances on the outside that compel you to come inside them and see and enjoy their interior design work too. Knowing our Creators' hearts (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit's hearts), as all of their saved, reconciled children, come to do through learning about them in God's Word and in a growing personal relationship with each of them, I know they had just as much and even more fun designing and creating all of the buildings' exteriors and interiors to bless everyone who sees and explores and uses them for their individual purposes. What kind of buildings will we find in "New Jerusalem"? How will we use them? We can be sure we won't need money to buy or pay for any item or services provided in them, for money has only been a necessary exchange item developed by mankind after the Fall to purchase items needed or simply desired by us, and often on this earth and in its towns and cities, as God's Word says, money has been "the root of all evil". Since their will be no evil, only righteousness, on "the new earth" and in its Holy City, "New Jerusalem", we can safely and rightly conclude that we won't need to us money to purchase anything needed or desired there, that what we need or desire will be given to us there as gifts from God to bless our lives. Anything we may desire there, we know we will desire in the right way for our benefit and the benefit of others, with righteous hearts, living in new, sin-nature free, perfect bodies like our Lord and Savior Jesus' transformed Holy Body is now, as we enjoy our home with Him and our Heavenly Father, and our Helper, the Holy Spirit, a home filled with only righteousness, love, joy, peace, and thanksgiving for everything we are, we have, and receive!!! So …. WOW!!! What fun it is to think about all these good things to think about, and to wonder and look forward to discovering what's inside all of the buildings in the God-built Holy City, "New Jerusalem"!!! |
| Wednesday, November 7, 2018 Our world is filled with wonderful places to visit and explore. Places that fill our hearts with wonder and excite our spirit of adventure when we encounter them and realize that we have been blessed with something new and special to experience, a memory to treasure throughout our lives! God's Holy City, "New Jerusalem", will be a place where all His saved, reconciled children are discovering new blessings all the time as they visit and explore all it contains, from its vast exterior delights to its buildings' awesome interior decors, each designed to provide for the needs of God's holy family, in working, playing, and fellowshipping together. Right now, God's holy city resides in Heaven, greeting each saved reconciled child of God when it's time for them to join Him there. But, as God's Word rejoices in sharing with us, "New Jerusalem" with one day reside on the new earth that is created by God after the final defeat of Satan and all of the fallen angels after the conclusion of the "Battle of Armageddon", and what a glorious, wonderful day that will be! I'm sooooooooooo looking forward to that day, and experiencing all the joyful blessings "New Jerusalem" will provide forever for me and all of my brothers and sisters in Christ as we live in it, working, playing, and fellowshipping there with our Creators and each other!!! |
| Saturday, May 26, 2018 One of my favorite things to do is just sit back in my easy chair in my bare feet and blue jeans and listen to the soundtrack suites composed by film composers for various movies. How 'bout Y-O-U? Do you enjoy listening to the soundtrack suites of your favorite films? You can find a wonderful collection of these on YouTube, where I often go to enjoy the soundtrack albums of my favorite composers, such as Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith, Neal Hefti, Elmer Bernstein, Dominic Frontiere, Lalo Shifrin, Nelson Riddle, Jerome Moross, John Williams, Dimitri Tiomkin, and others. What a blessed, delightful gift it is to be inspired in writing the great soundtrack compositions for a wide variety of genres of movies! Whether it's romantic comedies, western classics, exciting action-adventures, suspenseful disaster movies, sci-fi thrillers, or poignant dramas, film composers adeptly provide the right musical tones and nuances that enhance a film's viewing enjoyment. On YouTube, you can subscribe to various soundtrack album contributors' channels (such as the channel by "Soundtrack Fred", one of my favorite music channels) and just sit back, close your eyes, and enjoy a "film music concert" whenever you have the time and want to do so. |
| Thursday, May 10, 2018 There is a fascinating article about the many varieties of frog species (over 7,000 to date), and how some of these individual types of frogs differ from each other, at the Answers In Genesis website. This article is titled: WONDER JUMPSTART and its written by Dr. Gordon Wilson. I enjoyed reading it today and I want to recommend it to you to read too. All of these many varieties of frogs could not have somehow evolved into being, through millions of years of imagined evolution, but rather, testify in their intricate, unique designs, as does all of Creation, that each one was created by God, being formed in their kinds on the day that God spoke all of His land creatures into being. "Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them." (Psalm 111:2) "Oh Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures." (Psalm 104:24) |
| Wednesday, May 9, 2018 WOW! There are so many wonderful, beautiful things you can do with a musical gift from the Holy Spirit! I've been rejoicing in the demonstration of all of these things today as I spend some time this afternoon on YouTube listening to music videos there of compositions by Phil Collins, Gerry Rafferty, and other favorite singer-songwriters! What impresses me MOST ... what blesses my heart MOST ... is how EXCITING it is to work on the ideas that come to you, happily, naturally, as a new composition pours out from your heart, your mind, your spirit ... putting all those ideas together, combining the lyrics that come to you and the melodies and rhythms ... trying out the many possible instruments to see which sound best to make your finished composition perfectly arranged and a joy to listen to by God and everyone you've written your song to be blessed by! I can't wait to be creating beautiful, meaningful, loving and significant compositions with a perfect, totally physically functional body like Jesus' transformed body! I can work on writing songs now too, but not in the same joyous way I know I'll be able to then. While I wait for that total freedom to use my musical gifts from the Holy Spirit, it's so special to enjoying listening to the demonstrations of the musical gifts of my favorite composers on YouTube and other places. |
| Tuesday, May 8, 2018 I'm always so blessed and filled with awe and appreciation for our Creators: our Father in Heaven, His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and our Helper, Teacher, Gift-giver, and Prayer Partner, the Holy Spirit (who together are shown to be "God in Three Persons" in God's Word), every time I spend time reading all the information about God and the truths about Creation, sin and death and salvation over at the AnswersinGenesis.org website! Today I was reading some more of the many articles there about dinousaurs and how the Book of Genesis makes it clear that they were not alive millions of years ago, but were among all of the land animals God created during the six days that God created all that He spoke into existence on our earth, living as vegetarians in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve before the Fall, and after the Fall still living with mankind, even being among the two of every kind of animal God commanded Noah to take aboard the Ark, leaving the Ark after the flood with Noah and his family, and continuing to live with mankind until some later date when some species of dinosaur kinds died out. The founder of the Answers in Genesis apologetics ministry, Ken Ham, has informative teaching videos about the dinosaurs and other Creation topics you can watch on the AnswersinGenesis.org website, that I'm sure you'll enjoy watching and being blessed by, like I am. So .... Go to: www.AnswersinGenesis.org and be blessed and awed there by our Creators by all of the fasciniating and exciting truths based on the Book of Genesis and the others books of God's Word! "Be wise in the way you act toward those who are not believers, making good use of every opportunity you have. Your speech should always be pleasant and interesting, and you should know how to give the right answer to everyone." (Colossians 4:5-6 Good News Translation, aka GNT) |
| Sunday, May 6, 2018 One of my Christian brothers surprised me the other day by sharing with me that he had never read the expression "the home of righteousness" in God's Word. I was surprised to learn that he hadn't read it before. I found it in my 1995 edition of the NIV Study Bible, in 2 Peter 3, verse 13. It stood out to me as a special phrase of encouragement about what our new, forever home in the new earth will be filled with for everyone living there: RIGHTEOUSNESS. So I wrote myself a note in the margins of this page of 2 Peter in large bold letters that the new earth will be THE HOME OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and have thought about the new heavens and new earth as such ever since, happily using this quote from 2 Peter 3:13 in various articicles and blog entries I've written describing our lives in the new heavens and new earth when they are created. But since my particular 1995 edition of the NIV Study Bible was published, I've just discovered the NIV editors have changed their translation of 2 Peter 3:13 to read: "But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells." It still means that the new heaven and new earth will be "the home of righteousness", but this truth is stated in a different way now in the NIV later editions, as well as, other translations of the original texts of God's Word. A home is a dwelling place for its residents, as is all of its contents, and the descriptive atmosphere found in that home. I've been going through other translations of 2 Peter 3:13 over at the BibleGateway site to see if any of them translate the verse as being "the home of righteousness" too. The majority, I have found, say: "where righteousness dwells", but in The Good News translation, this verse is translated: "But we wait for what God has promised: new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will be at home." No matter how you say it, Peter was encouraging his audience to look forward to living one day, as he and the other apostles and disciples of Christ were doing, in the new heavens and new earth created by God as a new home filled with the joys and blessings of righteousness! Praise the Lord!!! |
| Wednesday, May 2, 2018 What do you like to do for FUN? There are so many FUN things to do in this heaven and earth! A LOT of these things require having a physically unchallenged body, but even with a physically-challenged body you can find FUN things to do in this heaven and earth. But I was wondering today as I reflected on doing FUN things, if you've ever found yourself thinking about and rejoicing in knowing that, as a child of God, as part of the "Bride of Christ", there will be all kinds of special, FUN things to do, with a sin-free, fully functional new body like Jesus' transformed Body, in the new heaven and earth, in your "home of righteousness". That's going to "really be something", and it'll be FOREVER FUN! Everyone there will be at peace with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each other, living to express God's love and the loving hearts they've been given to each other and all of this new Creation in unending FUN ways! We'll have beautiful surroundings, beautiful music, exciting activities to be a part of, and every animal there will be happy to see us (like our pets are now) and never a threat to us or each other. They'll be as they were originally created to be before the Fall, at peace with mankind and each other! Won't it be THRILLING FUN to not have to worry about some of the kinds of animals we have to worry about now being a threat to our lives?!!! Again, I ask: What do you like to do for FUN ... and what do you look forward to doing for FUN in the new heaven and earth, your "home of righteousness", as one of the children of God? Please share your answers to these questions with me in a comment on this entry in my blog. "... in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13 NIV 1995 Edition) |
| Wednesday, May 2, 2018 One of the creative gifts I've received from the Holy Spirit is "a photographic eye" for composing beautiful photographs of Creation. I'm not able to use this "photographic eye" as I would love to do right now because of my physical challenges, but I've been blessed to enjoy taking some pretty attractive photographs in the past when my body was more agile and I had the cameras and help I needed from people who helped me to get out to take those photographs. I miss being able to use my "photographic eye" gift, but It's a great blessing to know that I can count on using this gift again and in a fully functional body when I do like my Lord and Savior Jesus' body, in a place filled with beautiful sights to photograph, in "the home of righteousness", the new heavens and earth, when it's finally time for them to be created to last forever as the sin-free, problem-free, joyful home of all God's reconciled children! "... in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13 NIV 1995 Edition) |
| Tuesday, April 24, 2018 Three of my favorite fellow Christian composers are Phil Keaggy, Paul Davis, and Gerry Rafferty. Paul and Gerry are enjoying being with the Lord in Heaven already, sharing all of their musical and other gifts from the Holy Spirit with Him and everyone there now. Phil Keaggy and I are looking forward to the day that we will join Paul and Gerry and our other musically-gifted brothers and sisters in Christ and be a musical blessing there, as well as, here in this heaven and earth. I don't know Phil Keaggy, personally, as well as others do who count him as a personal friend and servant in Christ, but I look forward to doing so one day, especially, when we've both been called to be with God and everyone in Heaven. I have met Phil, though, and enjoyed sharing some precious time with him backstage, after one of the concerts he gave that I and other brothers and sisters in Christ attended, from the church group I was a member of at that time, years ago. Phil's a great guy and devoted to sharing his faith and love for God in song and personal testimony, in concerts around the U.S. and in music videos around the world! Paul Davis has had many Top 40 hit songs throughout his lifetime here that have become personal favorites of mine because of their arrangements and Paul's vocals and his bandmates' backup of Paul's vocals and arrangements. Songs that are probably favorites of yours too, such as: SWEET LIFE, COOL NIGHT, '65 LOVE AFFAIR, and I GO CRAZY. And his Contempory Christian hit: DO RIGHT. I love to listen to love songs with great, perfect arrangements like these!!! Gerry Rafferty has a long list of Top 40 Hit Songs too with great arrangements and vocals, such as: RIGHT DOWN THE LINE and BAKER STREET. My heart has been so blessed to learn that Gerry, like Paul Davis and other popular Top 40 artists of our generation, had accepted Jesus into his heart and life by faith in Him too, and will be among all of my fellow musically-gifted brothers and sisters in Christ in the family of God with me in Heaven and the new heaven and earth when it's time for that, using our musical gifts together, to entertain and bless our Father, our Lord and Savior, and our Helper, the Holy Spirit, and everyone there, with the gifts to do so that we've been given! Praise God!!! "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created." (James 1: 17, 18 NIV 1995 Edition) |
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