I Am Thankful For . . .

I am thankful for . . .

Jesus Christ - who took upon Himself all of my sins and all of God's wrath toward me to make me righteous and reserve my eternal destination with Him. Who has given me His promises (The Bible) which allow me to have hope in this hopeless world. Who promises He will never leave or forsake me. He is all mighty, all knowing, all holiness, who gives daily mercies, bears my burdens, breaths life into my lungs for each moment that I'm alive on this planet, and who is responsible for all the good gifts that I have been given.

Heaven

The Pew Research Center started categorizing American's religious beliefs into three unique groups. These three groups are "Highly Religious", "Somewhat Religious", and "Non-Religious". (You can click here to view the entire report) What I found interesting is that in the two groups that have some religious beliefs, over 94% of all those surveyed believe in the existence of Heaven. (Even in the "Non-Religious" group there was 12%  and 4% respectively of those people who professed to believe in the existence of Heaven) Let's spend a little bit of time examining the perceptions of over 90% of the planet population who do believe there is a Heaven.

Whether a culture indoctrination of the existence of an after-life, or a faith-built belief system, it is evident that people want to believe there is a better place than planet Earth. But what do they believe about Heaven? Check out some of these quotes:

"One road leads home, and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness." - C.S. Lewis

"Go to heaven for the climate, hell for the company." - Mark Twain

The End Of Ourselves

When I was in my late teens I took a trip out west with some friends. Somewhere in Utah our car broke down and so two of us started out for help. In the desert. In the middle of summer. I remember the sun was directly overhead when we started out because after the first mile my scalp started to burn. Now one of the advantages of being in your teens is that you are stupid. That is also the disadvantage of being young. Did we think about taking water? Nah! Did we think about estimating our endurance before we reached the next town for help? Nah! Adventure awaited!

The year was 1979 so there were no cell phones and we had no way to stay in touch with our friends or call ahead for help. So we walked. And walked. After the third hour, walking under the summer sun no longer seemed like an adventure. It was becoming a marathon, an endurance test. After the sixth hour it started to feel like a test of survival. Finally, around 8:00 that evening, we reached a town that had a mechanic and most importantly, a water fountain. Parched, and exhausted, I had discovered that my resources were not unlimited and that there were some challenges that not even youth could overcome.

The Serenity to Accept - John Ortberg