Religiosity

Will we know each other in heaven? Let’s cut to the chase with a one-word answer: Yes! The two-word answer would be, “For sure!” And the five-word answer would be, “You can count on it!” But being a wise and discerning reader, you will want more than the word of a pastor on this. You will want to see it in your  Bible . So let me offer seven Scriptures that I have used to help people who wonder if they will be reunited with their believing loved ones in heaven. All of these point to our knowing one another in the resurrection, and some of them point to believers knowing one another immediately after death. 1. David and his son King David had a son who died in infancy. When the little boy died, David said, “I’ll go to him” ( 2 Samuel 12:23 ). David knew that he would see his son again in the presence of the Lord, and knowing that he would be reunited with the son he loved brought him comfort in his bereavement. 2. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Our Lord said that many wi

33 Verses to Remind Us - We Do Not Have to Fear: 1.    “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” ~  Isaiah 41:10 2.   “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you."   ~ Psalm 56:3 3.   “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ~  Philippians 4:6-7 4.   “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.” ~  John 14:27 5.    “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” ~  2 Timothy 1:7 6.    “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is

Sabbath. It was the fifth in a list of 10 rules carved into a rock by the hand of God. The command was to “remember it,” and until recently, what many translated that to mean was, “go to church on Sunday.” There wasn’t a sustaining from any other weekly activities, and there wasn’t a focus on anything soul-nurturing beyond the one-hour service guaranteed to make you feel good and send you on your way. But lately this Old Testament word has been making a come-back. And not just because “self-care” seems to be the hip thing, but because the heart of command has been dusted off by scholars, teachers, and writers who have wooed us with their crafty words back to a place of remembrance. We now know that Sabbath is as much as what we abstain from (work) as what we run towards (rest and relationships). It’s more than “not going into the office,” in our culture where we plug in and log on and continue with our workdays long after we punch out. It’s less about where we go on Sunday morning

Here’s what happens in times of suffering. When the thing you have been trusting (whether you knew it or not) is laid to waste, you don’t suffer just the loss of that thing; you also suffer the loss of the identity and security that it provided. This may not make sense to you if right now you are going through something that you wouldn’t have planned for yourself, but the weakness that is now a part of my regular life has been a huge instrument of God’s grace (see  2 Cor. 12:9 .) It has done two things for me.  Photo Credit: ©Thinkstock Suffering Exposes Our Idols First, it has exposed an idol of self I did not know was there. Pride in my physical heath and my ability to produce made me take credit for what I couldn’t have produced on my own. God created and controls my physical body, and God has given me the gifts that I employ every day. Physical health and productivity should produce deeper gratitude and worship, not self-reliance and pride in productivity. I am

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Thousands of people are dealing with storms, symptoms, fears, rogue emotions, and anxieties that have upended their lives. A friend said to me the other day, “Dealing with emotional stress and crazy health symptoms is no longer just a topic for conversation. This is an epidemic crisis. Countless people are stirred up, stressed out, and long to know the kind of health, freedom, and wholeness that Jesus promised us.” I asked a couple of friends, one a counselor, the other a doctor, if they were seeing the same thing. Without hesitation, both answered yes. The pressures of life, the pain in our past, and the stress-perspective we choose, all swirl around us, and even more so within us. There’s not a woman who can honestly say that she’s unaffected by it all. And because of the storm, we react—if not inwardly, then outwardly—to our hurts, our fears, and to our perspective, especially if it’s skewed. Eventually, our minds, bodies, and emotions suffer the accumulative effect of living a