A little piece of Heaven here on earth......

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all his angels are with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. The people of every nation will be gathered in front of him. He will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, my Father has blessed you! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me into your home. I needed clothes, and you gave me something to wear. I was sick, and you took care of me. I was in prison, and you visited me.' Then the people who have God's approval will reply to him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or see you thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and take you into our homes or see you in need of clothes and give you something to wear? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' The king will answer them, 'I can guarantee this truth: Whatever you did for one of my brothers or sisters, no matter how unimportant [they seemed], you did for me.'" Matthew 25:31-40 (GWT)

My eyes are still not dry from the ride into work, an hour trip on way that I often do on autopilot. Since I 'splurged' the five dollars for a cheap attachment so that I can plug my nieces' gift of an used MP3 player into my 1995 'classic' radio system, I can listen to my favorite tunes on the way....connecting with God in a way that life doesn't seem to allow outside of the worship services of my new church, The River. I'm probably a sight, driving down Dixie Highway, Telegraph, M-10, and the Southfield Freeway.....arms popping up to the sky and belting out the song louder than the radio itself!

It wasn't the events; so many within the last few months that have my eyes in tears, raising my hands and voice in praise to our Lord and Savior...though one would understand surely if that was indeed the reasoning and approve of it.....

One song, listened to over and over and over.....hit me as God wrapped His warm and loving arms around me this morning and for the first time in a while.....I drove along in silence, playing the same song over and over again.............for the hour's drive......

"I can only imagine what it'll be like when I walk by Your side. I can only imagine what my eyes will see when Your face is before me. I can only imagine. Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for You Jesus or in awe of You be still? Will I stand in Your presence or to my knees will I fall? Will I sing Hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all?" I Can Only Imagine MercyMe The Worship Project.

I've often felt that wonder, that wonder of what the awesome and powerful impact of having my Savior standing before me and speaking to me person-to-person in a physical, relational way....far beyond the times His Father has spoken verbally to me or the Spirit has impassioned me......that day I long for, strive for, and know in my heart will eventually come; in His time and not my own. It is why I hang on by that fingertip on the ledge of this broken world....it is why I struggle against the flesh. For that moment in time, that place in the Heavens. Something my heart longs for, yet has never yet known.......

Or has it?

There is that saying, "A little piece of Heaven here on Earth." It has been used as a slogan for a destination vacation spot or some fancy new treatment at the local spa, inferring that the blissfulness and joy of Heaven has been 'recreated' at that spot or with that treatment.....

God told me this morning, as I listened to MercyMe......"A piece of Heaven here on Earth for you, My Beloved son."

And I knew how I will act when Jesus stands before me, face-to-face. I will fall to my knees, eyes in tears of joy, and be unable to speak..........

A month or two ago, a brother of mine in the ministry M3 sent me an email asking about how things were going. I mentioned that I was okay, not buying up Lincolns to drive and huge homes to dwell in; but 'struggling well' as one of our mentors says. Things were tight, but not disastrous........I mentioned needs that were unfulfilled but being worked towards............

He said that he had some clothes his kids had outgrown for my son, who seems to have experienced a major spurt in his growth.........we made plans to meet to exchange them as the months progressed, emails of clothing sizes and such flying back and forth in the air of the Internet age.

We met up last night as my son practiced flag football with his team on the field of The River's eventual home a short jog away on the highway. Recently my thoughts, as I am sure the thoughts of parents everywhere have, turned towards the looming holidays and how they were going to be so different from the holidays in the past recent years.....as I remarked, somewhat bitterly to a friend, "This Christmas is going to rely on the charity of strangers."

Don't get me wrong....it isn't that such isn't appreciated, far from it. I'd rather focus my attention on giving to others than having to ask for gifts for my children, for that is the only reason I'd ask for it in the first place.

It was a blessing in disguise....a brother in Christ I haven't seen since the Story Weekend we both went on a year ago, Vito, was there as I arrived. A brother who's story touches my own and who's heart is reflective of God's powerful light. It was great to reconnect with my brother-in-arms, and to be reminded that lives touched are lives changed.

The gentleman, Tim, who's house we met at said a comment that describes best the connection that, untapped for a year, still exists between a burly, Italian powerful man of God and I; "You can always tell the guys who have shared a story weekend."

As I travelled back to the practice field to watch the remainder of practice, I peeked in the bags that my brother had helped load into my car. It struck me as odd that there were tags sticking out of the bags......and the clothes, supposedly used, had that 'new clothes fold' to them. I arrived at the field and parked. I noticed one smaller bag within one of them, so I pulled it out.

Inside were some gloves and a head band thingy from Isotones....you know, keeps the ears warm....as it was colder, I grabbed the head band thingy....I had to remove the tags though......

Practice ended early, the coach citing the cold and the falling darkness (the field is unlit). My son, as my dear child is oft to do, was excited about the practice just completed....and the adventure awaiting ahead trying on what he assumed were used clothes from another family who's son had outgrown them. He was excited, after the introduction of the head band thingy.......which he was quick to inform me was his favorite, since it kept his ears warm.

Long story short....the clothes were new, with the store tags still attached. My BIC said that his friend that was giving the clothes didn't have any used, so went out and bought new. It was a soothing balm to this Dad's soul to watch his son's excited and delighted face as he tried them on and made plans for what he would wear for his next month's worth of schooling.......and his comment of 'can I make a card to thank your friend?'

A little piece of heaven here on earth.................

When I called my friend about how the 'used' clothes were new, my friend told me that a brother wanted to bless me and had arranged with my landlord to take care of my December obligation.

A little piece of heaven here on earth.................

The biting cold of another Michigan winter is whispering at the doors of the season and yet I am warm inside. Because a few of my brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ followed the example of the Groom Himself, and displayed the light of His love, the power of His touch, and the compassion within His heart in a darkness of a broken world.

Proclaiming the Gospel without uttering a word, without a handshake in appreciation.

Showing the love of Christ in a simple way, maybe, but in a way that is undeniably God's. It isn't the clothes in and of itself.

It is a group of people who moved where God told them to go; without question and without qualm.

I don't have to wonder what I would do when I come face to face with the Savior, His hands and feet bearing the nail marks and the wound in His side. I don't have to think about whether I would sing His praises or be in utter awe to the point of silence.

I am seeing Christ reflected from the actions and words of silent beacons in the darkness of the world, I feel the whisper of the robe of the One who walks beside me in the words of those who interact with me during meetings and discussions.

Maybe it is just that being at the bottom, I can hear my God more clearly because I have no where to look but up. It may be, as I see how I can't do this life alone, that I rely on God's mercies each day.

It may be, but I don't think so.

The deeds of loving kindness, true benevolence, and agape love are what we, as church, called to in service to our King. They can be done in many different ways by all types of people, regardless of financial status or inclination.

As Chrysostom said, "He said not I was sick and ye healed me; or in prison and ye set me free; but ye visited me and came unto me." Personal and real service, involving some sacrifice of ease, time, or even property.

We aren't to do such things, such acts of unparalleled beauty and mercy, because they entitle us to eternal happiness but rather for the sake of God as a mark of our holiness as believers under the effects of grace.

A light upon the hilltop, shining into the darkness.

Exposing a piece of heaven here on earth............

"Thus life and death, good and evil, the blessing and the curse, are set before us, that we may choose our way, and as our way so shall our end be." Matthew Henry.

A taste, real and savory, of the Kingdom yet to come..............

Some people try to hide their failures, sinful nature, or mistakes made. Not me, I want people to know 'why' I look this way. I've travelled a long, long way and some of the roads weren't paved. The joy isn't in the road travelled, but the blessedness of those met upon the journey home.

In this life, regardless of your 'lot', make sure that you direct your light in a manner befitting the King you serve. Do something that is honoring to your God and King. A smile over the handing out of a warm, home-cooked meal to those displaced from a home, a blessed word to the 'grumpy' co-worker who is worried about their job, or a contribution of funds to a shelter, food bank, or clothing store for the poor.........something that stretches you in a way that makes you reach beyond what you can do so God can show you how to do it.............

In the darkest recess of a broken, fallen world is where the smallest light can shine the brightest .......


Bring a little piece of heaven to those you know here on Earth.

And find out how you will act when you meet Jesus face-to-face!

A death worth dying for......................

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13 (WEB)

One of the few verses in the Bible that I can quote without looking, without mistakes. Though I'd be hardpressed to quote the chapter and verse, I'd get the book at least right, because John was known, among all the disciples and apostles, as the "Beloved".

"Love" is mentioned over seven hundred times in the NIV Bible translation, and is the corner post of probably 99% of the sermons in every church in the world that claims at least a passing fancy to the Christian faith. It is the cornerstone of our creation, our lives, and our salvation. It is, for all intents and purposes, the glue that holds it all together.

Romeo and Juilet, the passionate forbidden love that ended in an eternal embrace. Napoleon and Josephine. Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Examples flood our society, often rising above the 'common' experience, of love......it's not just a warm and gushy feeling anymore. It is the mortar that holds the brickheads called Humans together.

Love makes the world go round.........

Merriam-Webster defines love as strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties or an attraction based on sexual desire, admiration, benevolence, or common interests. It is a noun, coming from the Old English lulu and Latin lubere, meaning to please. Of course, it is also a tennis term, a way of saying one side has no points scored............

"What is the real definition of love?" asks Blade31 in her article, The Real Definition of Love, on the blog Purple Slinky. "Love has many different meanings to all different types of people. There are many stages of love at different ages and different types of love. My definition of love is what I personally think of it."

"Love to me is always caring about the person not wanting to be without them," this 18-year old author continues, "and not being mad or staying mad at the person." Of course, even she recognizes that such purity of love doesn't exist in the world today. People, even in the highest and best of love's expressions fight, argue and hurt each other. But love, in Blade31's opinion, is worth it....the trouble, the baggage, and even the pain because love gives meaning to live and without it "Life would be so boring."

Therein lies the human expression of love; it is what we want it to be which is often not what we dream it should be. Love is never painful, never hurtful, and never judgmental. Love is the koombiya...koombiya type of feeling; always welcomed and never burdensome.

Love doesn't cause someone to seek out its physical expression in the arms of someone else. Love doesn't divide a family because it is the best for the survivors. Love doesn't say things in an email like "It is because of me you have your children", "You're unfit to be a father" or "Don't contact my family because we don't want any contact with bad seed."

Love doesn't say or do such things.

Love isn't a double edged sword in the hands of someone else, slicing you in two and leaving you broken and wounded to bleed out upon the wooden uncaring floor of what once was your life. No, love isn't anything like that.

Love doesn't leave you empty, fearful of the judging eyes of former friends, family, and colleagues. Love isn't supposed to be like that, by any sane person's idea.

But Love often does.

I have been told that I am a 'bad seed' because I won't have contact with my soon-to-be ex's family, and haven't gone out of my way to make a way for my children to have contact with them. Though there has been no phone calls, no letters of interest, or any other attempts on the 'other' side to give assurance that the fears and pain that was caused with the separation and pending divorce would not be carried over into such contact.

Love doesn't cause pain.

The truth is that love has become passive, abusive, and a shadow of its former self.

If love doesn't make you feel good, delight and tantalize you with the newest and strength of its beckoning allure, it isn't love.

If we look, though, to the highest expression of love by a human being....a human that was fully human and fully God.....we see what love truly is and find ourselves with our own limited, blinded, and foolish definitions of love to be sorely missing of the mark.

Christ hung for three hours upon a cross of wood, iron spikes brutally hammered into his hands and feet with a crown of thorns mashed into his head. He did this only after hours of beatings, verbal and physical abuse, and an assortment of horrors that only humanity can be capable of upon itself.

In the most painful form of applied death known at the time, he hung by those iron spikes.....and gave a thief hope while allowing the other the fruit of his hatred.

When he knew that his human life was ending after thirty-six years of living, he saw his mother's pain and gave her solace in the arms of another he loved.

He looked out upon the landscape of the arrayed humanity watching their 'justice' being fulfilled and begged his Father's forgiveness for them......."for they know not what they do..."

That is love. Pure, uncorrupted Love.

It was this highest expression of love that caused Christ to shout out as his final breath was drawn and cry out in anguish, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Rejected by a Holy and Pure Father as he had to have been, taking the stain and death of mankind's sin upon his body.

That is love.

It was that love that kept him upon the path to that cross, even after he asked for 'this cup' to pass away from his lips, but only if it was in the will of the Father who sent him. It was this love that caused him to heal the solider's ear which Peter had sliced off, as they gathered around with irons and chains clinking in the night air. It is this love that caused him the greatest pain.

That is love.

Yet his love for us caused him not to stray from his course and complete the mission that he had undertook three years prior. Death upon the Cross, to be offered up as the blameless Lamb for the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.

We are saved by that Love and called to live that Love.

It isn't easy.

I often feel like I am hanging on a cliff, by one single digit of my weakest hand, just the tip of that finger gripping the edge and holding me from the impending drop to certain and painful death. I am tired, sore, and weary of hanging on. Yet, I won't let go. I will not give up that fragile hold upon the life that I have been given.

Unless another was ready to fall..........................

Then I will, to save another.....physically, or spiritually...I will let go of my selfishness and save another.........

All I have left to give in this world; far beyond money, shelter, food, and clothing............

Is my life, in service and in sacrifice for another.

We are all called to serve as Christ served the church; to love our wives with that purest expression of love, to give our lives so that another might live. It may not be a physical death.......it may be a living 'death', of denial of self for another's sake......but it is death all the same.

So our hearts will not be hardened. So our love will represent God's love.

A complete, encompassing, and purest love..........................

Agape love

Divine love.....................................

And within that death that love causes us to experience, we find ourselves alive in His wonder and His grace.................

to save the hearts of those lost in the darkness.

"Plusquam ferrea aut lapidea corda esse oportet, quae non emolliet tam incomparabilis divini amoris suavitas"

(Those hearts must be harder than iron or stone which are not softened by such incomparable sweetness of divine love.) --John Calvin, French theologian