The Third Heaven

One of the cool things about a daily walk with God is that if you will let Him lead you through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you will get to learn some interesting things.  Here is what I mean.

2 Corinthians 12:2(NKJV)

2I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. 

When I saw the phrase "the third heaven" I thought what the heck is that?  This is where letting the Holy Spirit lead is important.  I felt prompted to go learn what it meant.  As I've written before, the internet is an incredible resource for your faith walk. 

I went to Yahoo and searched on the following phrase: the third heaven

I got back 188,000,000 hits.  Apparently I'm not the only person who has had this question because there are a lot of pages out there with this phrase on it.  So I just started at the top with the first article.  I then read a couple more of the articles.  If two or three sources seem to be saying pretty much the same thing then I accept that as the answer. 

Where it gets really interesting is when you start getting somewhat different answers.  That can lead you into many different areas as you try to get the what the Holy Spirit leads you to believe is the correct answer.  How does He do that?  Well in my view He does that by guiding you on what links to click and read and what "rabbit trails" to follow as you do your research. 

One of the first places I like to go is Wikipedia.  While I detect a bit of subtle anti-Christian bias in some of their articles I find it is a great place to pick up a lot of knowledge quickly.  This again is where the guidance of the Holy Spirit is so important.  Wikipedia articles are loaded with links to other info.  You could waste a whole day clicking on all of the links.  Let the Spirit guide you on which ones are worth the time and which ones aren't. 

As I read about "the seventh heaven" I learned about superapostles, shamayim, the incident at antioch, judaizers, and many other interesting things.  These are things that I probably wouldn’t have normally ever read about but they definitely deepened my understanding of God's Word.

Now to get back to the original question, what the heck is the third heaven?  Would you like to know the answer?  Then I invite you to enjoy the journey and find out.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Heaven

Simplicity

I've always been a big fan of simplicity.  I'm sure you've all seen the acronym KISS-Keep it simple stupid.  That's why this passage jumped out at me.

2 Corinthians 11:3(NKJV)

3But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the £simplicity that is in Christ. 

Pay attention to the warning here.  Paul is telling us that our walk with Jesus should be pretty simple.  It's not like the OT with a whole bunch of rules and regulations.  It's pretty simple.  Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  Stay in the Word and pray.  Stay focused on Jesus.

The warning is to guard against anyone that tries to make it more complicated.  Satan is the Lord of deception.  It's hard to be deceived when things are simple.  Satan can only deceive you by making things more complicated than it needs to be. 

So as you enjoy your walk with Jesus, remember Simplicity is the word of the day!

An Abundance for Every Good Work

Do you have a cool new idea on a way to serve God.  Something that He has laid on your heart, but you're not sure if you can do it?  You don't know where to begin.  You don't know how to fund it.  You don't now who else can help you with it.

If so then look at the second part of this passage from II Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 9:6-8(NKJV)

6But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 

7So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 

8And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 

"may have an abundance for every good work".  That is a promise from God.  If He has given you a vision of something that He would like you to do for Him, don't let fear and doubt get in the way of your serving God.  He has promised you an abundance for every good work.

But an abundance of what?  Everything you need!  You need direction?  He'll provide you an abundance of it.   You need the courage to get started?  Just ask Him, He'll provide you an abundance of it.  Need help?  Just ask, He'll provide it.

If God has given you a vision, what are you waiting for?  God has promised you an abundance of everything you will need to bring that vision to fruition.  All you have to do is get started!

Are You a Finisher?

2 Corinthians 8:10-12(NKJV)

10And in this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago; 

11but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. 

12For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.

You know it is one thing to get all excited about something, it is another thing to stay excited and engaged, to see it through and finish.  We see this issue in all walks of life including our faith walk.

Our faith walk with Jesus is meant to be a long term, life long event.  So  many times you will see new Christians all full of excitement, but a year or two later it has faded away.  They started but they couldn't finish.

What does it take to be a finisher?  Discipline.  It's simple but not always easy.  That's why it takes discipline.  That ability to make yourself stay on task even when you don't want to. 

Let me give you an example from the physical world.  A couple of months ago I decided to start doing a minimum of 10 pushups a day, every day, for the rest of my life; as long as I am able.  For me it was a way to commit to a minimum level of physical fitness.

It was pretty easy at first when I was excited about it.  Now that I've been doing it awhile, there have been a few days that I just haven't felt like doing it.  Discipline is making my body do it when I don't really want to, day after day.

So here is the simple part.  First, accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  If you haven't done so already, simply say a prayer asking Jesus to come into your life and guide you.  Next step, get into the Word every day and pray every day.  Simple right?  This is the part that takes discipline.   It's real easy to let life interfere with your Spiritual walk.  Don't let that happen.  Stay disciplined. 

Scripture tells us that there is an advantage to being a finisher.  What could that be?  Well in your spiritual walk with Jesus it will be a life beyond measure.  Don't believe me?  Give it a try!

Outside Was Conflict, Inside Was Fear

2 Corinthians 7:5(NKJV)

5For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears. 

What causes us to fear?  The Bible tells us clearly that we shouldn't fear but yet it is hard not to sometimes isn't it?  There seems to be this disconnect from what we know intellectually, that God tells us not to fear, and what we experience in the "real world". 

I think the thing that causes us to fear is generally things that are happening outside of our control.  We as humans like to feel in total control of our situation.  Lack of control leaves us feeling less than certain.  Think about it.  If you are certain of the outcome your generally not as fearful. 

So how to change this?  First become conscious of it.  Second, know God's promises.  Are you as certain of God's promises as you are when you are in control of things?  You should be.  It's called faith.  When you start to learn all of God's promises and learn to lean on them with the same certainty that you lean on your own decisions, you will begin to experience the fear free life that you can live in Christ!

Atheist Blogger Converts!

Last week I wrote a post called "I Don't Believe There Is an Invisible Sky Daddy" in which I talked about the value of asking questions to lead people to Christ.  I ran across this story today.  It's about an atheist blogger who has just converted to Catholicism. 

Sometimes as we go through life we are hesitant to witness to certain people because we figure they already have their mind made up, or we are intimidated by them, or whatever.  Well here was a young woman that was not  only an atheist but a very public atheist at that.  She wrote a blog that was read by many!  There was a comments section of her blog where she argued her views in a very public way.  And yet others still witnessed to her even though they knew her mind was already made up. 

So the first lesson here is we need to do our job which is to spread the Word.  Our charge is to spread the seed.  Let God worry about the harvest!  The second lesson is again the value of questions.

It was a question from a friend that finally moved her to our side.  She had a sense of morality but when her friend asked her where that morality came from she didn't have an answer.  I encourage you to read her story.  I've provided a couple of links.  And I would also ask that we keep this woman in our prayers as she continues her faith journey.

http://www.catholic.org/hf/faith/story.php?id=46700&wf=rsscol

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unequallyyoked/2012/06/this-is-my-last-post-for-the-patheos-atheist-portal.html

Do Not Despise a Thief

Proverbs 6:30-31(NKJV)

30    People do not despise a thief      If he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving.

31    Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold;     He may have to give up all the substance of his house.

I found this scripture interesting.  There are many in the world that would agree with the first part of this passage.  That if someone is starving or needs to feed their family and they steal, we as a society should overlook their offense.  We should be compassionate and understanding.  We shouldn't  punish them or at least we shouldn’t punish them as severely because of extenuating circumstances.  Because of their circumstance that would be the Christian thing to do.

Look what Scripture says about the issue.  It seems to say yes be understanding because of the circumstance BUT the thief still has to provide restitution and damages, even if it costs him everything he has.  Pretty interesting isn't it?