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How God speaks to us today 

How God speaks to his disciples today

All of us have heard spectacular stories of people who had a spiritual experience that totally changed their life. The story of Virginia Lively is a good example: Virginia had an experience where she wept uncontrollably for four days and nights. Then she saw a white light, and in the light was a face with eyes that looked deep within her and loved her and forgave her. She understood this to be Jesus. This went on for three months. Then the face began to fade, but told her that he would always be with her. She asked how, and she was told she would be able to see him. Several years later while speaking to a group, Virginia saw the eyes of Jesus looking at her again, only this time it was through a woman in the second row. Then, as she was trying to process this, she suddenly saw his eyes looking into hers from everyone in the room.

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Requiem for Eleanor Rigby

God teaches us about loneliness and offers a way out

Have you ever watched a homeless person from a distance and wondered whose daughter she is? Whose sister or mom or classmate? How did she get where she is? How did she get so alone? In the sixties, the Beatles wrote a song about Eleanor Rigby, a woman who led a life of quiet desperation. We are told she “waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door. Who is it for?” Then the chorus: “Look at all the lonely people. Where do they all come from?”

Where do all the lonely people come from? The ultimate answer comes not from the Beatles, but from the Bible, and it is not a comfortable answer: Lonely people come from the ranks of those who choose to live apart from God.

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What is heaven like?

What is it like to be in heaven - Revelation 22

Throughout history, people have been convinced there is life beyond the grave. Jesus and the Jews of His time believed that everyone would enter the afterlife and be judged by God. Some would spend eternity with Him; others would be condemned to eternal separation. They spoke of the heavens as having several layers: the most basic was the earth’s atmosphere, the home of birds and clouds. The second was the realm of the stars in outer space. The third level transcended physical boundaries and was called paradise and the heaven of heavens–the home of God, His angels, and His people.

Inquiring minds have lots of questions about this place called paradise, but if we want to understand the nature of heaven, the first thing we must do is shed the silly images we’ve seen on television and in the movies. Heaven is not filled with remorseful people trying desperately to return to earth–it’s populated with folks having the time of their lives.

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Why did God create hell?

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What does the existence of hell tell us about God’s nature? Most of us have difficulty reconciling a loving God with a deity who wants to mete out eternal punishment. Those who reject the notion of hell often put it this way: “I believe in a loving God, and a loving God would never send people to hell.”

This is an important question, and when we look to the Scriptures for an answer, we find that no one wants people to go to heaven more than God does. No one wants people to avoid hell more than God does. This is the heart of the Bible message–God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it (John 3:17). In 2 Peter, we read that God’s desire is that no one would perish, and in 1 Timothy we are told that God desires everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. In Ezekiel 18 God asks, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their evil ways and live?”