Wishing You Were Here ...

A few weeks ago, the idea to listen to this song came to mind. I don't know why, but vivid images of a future time popped in my mind -- dreams of the New Earth, and how much I wanted my family to be there.

Lately, I have been reading the book, "Heaven", by Randy Alcorn. It's a wonderful treat to read, and extremely encouraging for believers; the hope of Heaven, of new heavens, a new Earth, with resurrected bodies, people, nations, friendships, loves, families, and everything wonderful about the current Earth retained and magnified to glorious perfection and shining majesty, with absolutely none of the evil we currently see. After reading it along with Scripture, meditating on its words, and imagining it, I can boldly and confidently state that the more one thinks correctly of Heaven, the more they fall in love with God Almighty, and the more of an earthly good they become. And, the more they pray for the lost, for those who have not yet surrendered lordship of their life to Jesus Christ.

Which brings me to my most pressing, and most heartfelt concern -- my beloved wife, who does not yet know the LORD. When I listen to this seemingly secular song, I think of her. I imagine myself standing on the magnificent shores of the New Earth, my eyes witnessing for the final time the fate of the damned, of those who did not put their trust in Jesus Christ. I imagine myself standing as I watch them being swallowed by the burning blackness of a swirling hole; their screams of torment loudly wailing as it devours them whole in its gaping mouth. I imagine my beloved wife among them, reaching her hand out to me as she looks on me a final time, crying for me to save her. I reach out as well, wishing I could do something, wishing she were here.. wishing she were here standing with me, ready to run with abandon to explore the glorious new world.

But, I have no power to save. Mankind has no power to redeem himself or others of his kind. Only the LORD, only Jesus Christ, and only Christ's shed blood on Calvary has the power to cleanse sin, to make one righteous before a Holy God. I imagine a tear trickling down my face as my beloved is swallowed up, having lost everything -- possessions, name, soul, and even humanity. Each of us had to make our own choice before God because each of us is responsible for our own relationship with God.

By all that is holy, THIS is not what I want for her! This awful fate is not what I desire for my beloved wife. I will never give her to the enemy, or any other! If there is anyone who I would give her away to, it would only be the LORD. It is my strong desire to have my wife walk together, run together, play together, learn, love, and grow together on a New Earth, in resurrected bodies, with a perfected, resurrected relationship! How I long it to be so. How I long to tell her, to point to her other family members on the New Earth and tell her that we will all be together now; that there is nobody to stand in our way any more of loving relationships. Not sin, not death, not disease, not time, not devil, and not Curse. How I long to have her and her family, and my own family with me on the New Earth where nothing selfish will ever get in the way again, where we will have time, ad infinitum, to live, love, and learn! How my heart burns to have her beside me, and say that we will never lack for anything, nor will we ever hurt or die ever again! And not only for her, but the members of our family.

I pray for her each and every day. I pray that the LORD will work a miracle in her heart. I pray that the LORD will do whatever it takes to save her; and not just her, but my mother and father-in-laws, my parents, my grandpa, her sisters, my sister, and everyone else in the family so we can all be together again in truth, love, and glory. If you're reading this, please pray for her and our loved ones as well. I don't want to be there without her. I don't want to be singing this song on the shores of the New Earth. I don't want to "wish she were here", I want her to be already there with me! Earth has no hurt that Heaven cannot cure. The Bible tells us that Jesus will wipe away every tear from our eyes. I pray that the tears I shed are not those of my wife not being with me...

Vampires and the Christian

Another day, another post. Today my wife and the kids accompanied me to work. No, we don't do this every day. I love having them with me, but I'm thinking that they ought not to have come with me this day. That's only because little Breanna is sick with a fever. Upon arriving home we checked her temperature and the digital thermometer showed it at being 101.99 degrees! Wifey doesn't look worried, mostly because she has seen this kind of thing multiple times with both our kids. Neither of us want to administer Tylenol to her, not until she is six years of age. That's because of a recent television broadcast and the advice of one honest physician we encountered at Wal-Mart who stated that giving her these medicines at such a young age would be very bad for her health. Also because of some research we conducted on the Internet related to it, all of which had negative things to say concerning giving any child under six years of age any kind of medicine. Well, I just want little Breanna to get heal fully, and soon!

This past week I became engrossed in the comic, "30 Days of Night", now a major motion picture. For those of you unfamiliar with the pilot story, it centers around a town in Northern Alaska called Barrow. Every year from the middle of November to the mid-December the townspeople experience a period of total darkness for thirty days. Vampires descend upon the town to take advantage of the darkness and feed unhindered by the burning sun. I wasn't reading the pilot story, but the other sequels in the 30 Days of Night universe.

All I can say is, what an absolutely awful state to be in, speaking of the vampire condition. For lack of a better description, I would say that such a disease would practically destroy the image of God that the LORD created in a human being. I suppose that is the reason the vampires cannot ever refer to themselves as even remotely human. And why not? The vampiric condition renders those infected by it in a totally depraved condition, all checks and balances against the sin nature destroyed, allowing it to expand itself at a logarithmic rate. No cure, and no hope for redemption. Only the touch of God could heal such a terrible affliction. Only the hand of God could ever restore such a one to a pristine condition.

But of course we know that vampires do not exist, and nobody but the LORD can ruin the image of God in a human being. I believe that when an unsaved individual enters Hell, and the everywhere-present God fully withdraws His presence from said individual, He would also annihilate the image of God in that person. Such an action by the LORD would reduce that poor soul to something far less than any animal. What other merit have we above the animals, save that we are made in the image of the Almighty?

Think about it! Everything that we are, and all that we can do -- the power to reason, our sentience, our creativity, our emotions, thoughts, feelings, ingenuity, etc. -- all stem from being made in His image! Without this very special trait, all other said qualities are gone, totally absent as if we were nothing more than rabid animals in the total embrace of sin.


But perhaps the above picture is how our soul, our spirit looks like to Holy God when we are without Christ. Perhaps that photo is a snapshot of our own souls in an unregenerate state -- marred by sin, incorrigibly depraved, in total rebellion against God, and absolutely deserving of the full wrath of Almighty God.

In many ways the depravity of man's fallen condition can be seen in the transformation from human to vampire. In the vampiric transformation, a human is first infected. The viruses rapidly multiplies, infecting every cell of the body. The victim "dies" as a result of the modifications the invading microorganism makes. The victim's behaviour and character become that of a totally depraved murderer full of sin, and morality is absolutely absent. The Bible says in James 1:14-15, But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

In the real world, a person commits sin. Sin brings about spiritual death. When sin is practiced, especially those same sins repeated such as sexual immorality, there begins a downward spiral that soon goes out of control. Eventually, if left to his/her own devices, the sin ruins their lives or even kills them.

But while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In Christ we become a new creature, all things are made new! No longer are we enemies of God, but we have been given the power to become children of the Living God. Isn't the grace of God amazing?! Most of us would readily die for those whom we love. But we would, without exception, never die for those we considered our enemies! Yet you see, that is what we are in the sight of Holy God -- an enemy -- when we have not yet accepted His gift of grace! Yet the Bible says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!

As no effort of man can change the vampire back into a human being, so no work of man can earn the salvation that God freely offers. We are all sinners, every one of us. God's Word says that there is none righteous, none that does good. The Bible says, For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Why work for something that God gives freely, showing no discrimination or partiality? Amazing love, how can it be that thou my God should die for me?