Re: Lea, , Cherie: Heaven

[Guest guest]

Cherie,

Thank you so much for sharing your heart on this. I will stand

beside you in saying that I believe the Bible too, and of the

promises it gives us not only of the hope of eternal life, but of

the assurance of eternal life! We can know for certain that we have

a place in heaven, because of the promises that have been given to

us through God's Word revealed to us. I think you all know my heart

on this one. This is everything to me.

Lea, dear one, please read my story! I want to share with you why my

life is abandoned to Christ, and why I believe for certain that

there is a heaven.

Cherie, like you, I hope to never preach, (please don't be offended

anyone!) but to only share my experience and joy through knowing

Christ and the assurance that He has given me that one day we will

see His face and be with Him forever. I think we all need that hope

for the future. What a blessed hope it is! God is not just some

spirit in the sky, some mythical imagination. He is really there,

and we can know that. We can have that personal relationship with

Him that goes deeper than any personal relationship here on earth.

If you ask how we can know, I can only tell you that you will have

to experience it for yourself. God will speak to your heart.

2 Chronicles 16:9 says " For the eyes of the Lord range throughout

the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully commited to

Him. "

He is there for you. It also says in Psalms 25:14 " The Lord

confides in those who fear Him; He makes His covenant known to them. "

There is is, in black and white. God will make Himself known to you.

He has shown Himself to me over and over again through many ways,

including amazingly answered prayers.

I want you all to know that I didn't always believe this. I used to

hate all things religious. I was the only one in my family who

refused to go to church. In fact, after reading the book " Bury My

Heart at Wounded Knee " by Dee Brown about the white man's violence

against the western Indian tribes, I thought Christian missionaries

were arrogant, pushy, disgusting human beings. I thought to myself,

why don't they just leave everybody alone and let them figure out

for themselves who God is and how they want to worship him? I was

angry that human beings constantly warred against each other and

committed violence, even in the name of Christ. I didn't want

anything to do with it.

But there came a time in my life, after struggling as a single mom

and needing to know if there was anything more to life than just

going to work everyday to put food on the table, when I wanted to

know if God really existed or not. It seemed that there had to be

more to life than just this meager existence, with all of its ups

and downs, suffering and injustice. I began to hunger and thirst

for knowledge about God, and to seek answers to some deep questions.

God did something in my life that I will never, ever comprehend,

because of the immensity of it. God did more than I could have ever

imagined. And I can testify that God will make Himself known to

you, not through a stale, lukewarm religious experience in a church

building on Sunday morning surrounded by other stale, lukewarm

religious believers, but through a personal, heartfelt moment of

surrender to His omnipotence, omniscience, and majesty, when you

confess with your mouth and with your heart that you love Him with

all of your being, heart, soul, mind and strength, and that you want

to see Him someday, to be with Him and you know that there is

NOTHING you can do to make yourself righteous in His eyes. We

cannot boast! All the good works we could ever do will never buy our

way to heaven. It is only by the blood that we are washed clean, and

our sins atoned for. The fulfillment of the sacrificial law. And God

did it Himself! He redeemed us. He made the way, because He wants

us there with Him. He loves us THAT much. It is not through our

efforts to be good! He loves us more than we can ever comprehend,

and don't we all want to be loved? We don't always recognize our

need, but God knows exactly what we need. And only He can fill that

God shaped hole in our hearts.

It breaks my heart to hear someone say that they believe that this

is all there is, because if that were true, for me, there would be

no more reason for living on earth. This is a world of hopelessness

and misery, compared to the riches promised us in heaven.

Do you know what BIBLE stands for?

Basic

Instructions

Before

Leaving

Earth

Okay, so that is a lighthearted simplification, but the Bible is

truly our source for knowing who God is. And if we truly love

someone, don't we want to know all that we can about them? I read

through my Bible every year, and I can say that after 23 years as a

Bible believeing Christian, I am still learning about God. He is

amazing. You can see threads of Christ woven all through His word,

from Abraham and the promise of his son, to God's request that he

sacrifice that promised son, to the atonement of our sins by the

blood, and the many prophecies of the coming Messiah. God is giving

all of Himself so that we may know Him, yet is holy.

When I gave my heart and life to Christ, I began the greatest

adventure of my life, exceeding my wildest dreams and imaginations,

(which is just one of the promises He gave us in Ephesians 3:20).

It has all been good, even through the suffering I have endured with

breast implants. He has been there with me. I know that someday I

will gaze upon His face, because it has been promised that we will.

Like Rogene has said, it's safer to bet on

God's being there and living by his Word, than to do

otherwise and find out too late that we were wrong.

I sure don't want to miss that great day in heaven when we are all

gathered there with Him!

I can tell you without a doubt that before I gave my life to Christ,

my life was empty and void of joy. Oh sure, there was surface joy.

But I didn't have that deep, abiding joy that is unlike anything I

have ever experienced before. The world was a scary place then. It

is not anymore.

Heaven is a real place. God's word is powerful and effective.

We can have eternal life through Christ our Messiah, who is coming

again.

If you seek Him with all of your heart, you will find Him, because

He loves you and wants to be found by you. There is only one

truth...God's truth. Men may make up their own ideas, but only

God's will stand. And when He reveals it to you, you will have the

assurance you long for. The world will never look the same to you

again, because you will have heaven in the horizon... death will not

be something to fear, but will fill you with peace because you'll

know you are going home to a better place.

Lea, I love you. May God reveal Himself to you..God, may your Holy

Spirit fall upon us afresh and remove the veil that keeps us from

seeing the truth.... Amen!

Love,

Patty

> >

> > Lea, it is hard to look forward to uncertainty. The afterlife is

> the

> > biggest mystery, only known to those who have actually died. I

> look

> > forward to it immensely! I don't know whether I will be greeted

by

> > at the pearly gates, or Charon on the river Stix. I may

end

> up

> > in the Summerlands, or maybe sent back into another life form. I

> > have no doubt that I could be transformed into an alien being or

> > possibly into another time period on this Earth. But what I do

> know

> > is that it will be the greatest adventure of all, to discover

the

> > truth whatever it is. There may be eternal damnation, but if I

> > arrive in that place then I must have done something to deserve

> it.

> > My personal belief is that this life can be cruel enough that we

> > don't have to suffer afterward. Death is most difficult for the

> > living, but there has never been a living being that has not at

> some

> > point experienced that death. Death is as natural as birth.

There

> > should be nothing to worry about or fear because you will surely

> get

> > the most amazing roller coaster ride of your life no matter what

> the

> > outcome. The only thing that I hope for is that we will at some

> > point be able to meet up with loved ones from this life and have

a

> > little reunion before we move on. Wouldn't that be a party to

> > remember!!

> >

> > Much love,

> >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Lea, you mention some movies I haven't seen and I will be sure to look

them up. : )

[Guest guest]

Patty - you said it all ... thank you for sharing your story and

His! He allowed us to get implants and go through all of this for a

reason, and if it is for the comfort of others and for sharing His

glory, how exciting! Thanks for all you do here.

Cherie

> >

> > I would like to put my two cents into this conversation too - I

> know

> > that this support group isn't about religious beliefs or

> necessarily

> > spiritual matters, but it seems that's where the conversation is

> > tonight. , something that you said stood out to me in

your

> > note, about eternal damnation and deserving it. I wanted to

share

> > that I believe the Bible, and just want to say that it says that

> we

> > ALL deserve eternal damnation. It says that we have ALL sinned

> and

> > fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) It also says that

> the

> > wages of sin is death, but (THANKFULLY!) the gift of God is

> eternal

> > life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

> >

> > I really love you all, and am not preaching, but rather wanted

to

> > share the assurance God has given me.

> > Lots of hugs, Cherie

> >

> > --- In , " ktitko " <ktitko@y...>

wrote:

> > >

> > > Lea, it is hard to look forward to uncertainty. The afterlife

is

> > the

> > > biggest mystery, only known to those who have actually died. I

> > look

> > > forward to it immensely! I don't know whether I will be

greeted

> by

> > > at the pearly gates, or Charon on the river Stix. I may

> end

> > up

> > > in the Summerlands, or maybe sent back into another life form.

I

> > > have no doubt that I could be transformed into an alien being

or

> > > possibly into another time period on this Earth. But what I do

> > know

> > > is that it will be the greatest adventure of all, to discover

> the

> > > truth whatever it is. There may be eternal damnation, but if I

> > > arrive in that place then I must have done something to

deserve

> > it.

> > > My personal belief is that this life can be cruel enough that

we

> > > don't have to suffer afterward. Death is most difficult for

the

> > > living, but there has never been a living being that has not

at

> > some

> > > point experienced that death. Death is as natural as birth.

> There

> > > should be nothing to worry about or fear because you will

surely

> > get

> > > the most amazing roller coaster ride of your life no matter

what

> > the

> > > outcome. The only thing that I hope for is that we will at

some

> > > point be able to meet up with loved ones from this life and

have

> a

> > > little reunion before we move on. Wouldn't that be a party to

> > > remember!!

> > >

> > > Much love,

> > >

> > >

> >

>