Tag Archives: Heaven

Christian Soapbox, Nathan Dooley

MY GREAT AUNT FAITH

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Good morning, I’m at my third office off the road and have abstained from coffee although I had a hostess cupcake for breakfast… don’t judge me *said with a subtle laugh.

I received some heavy but celebratory news yesterday, my great aunt passed. It’s heavy because this great aunt is one I’ve had time with when visiting my grandma, and my grandma is an anchor to my life’s story. That’s why it’s heavy, but “how is it celebratory?” I’m excited to tell you about this part!

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as indeed the rest of mankind do, who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. 15 For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

If my great aunt has fallen asleep believing that Jesus died and rose from the dead—and I believe she has—so also God will bring my [great aunt] with Him [her] who has fallen asleep through Jesus! THAT… is exciting news!

Trying not to get emotional as I write this with a good crowd of people in front of me I can see the sun rising where the first day here is a vapor of smoke in the wind compared to the day my great aunt Faith is already having (considering the time difference between waking up from a dream here on earth to that of a life now in heaven). Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

However, my writing and your reading indicates we’re still here, “…we who are alive,” Paul said, “who remain…”. Ouch! Yep… still here. That’s what happens when you pinch yourself, don’t do that.

Christian Soapbox, I die devotionals, Journal

Journal Entry 7

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So the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is this not the one who used to sit and beg?”

John 9:8

PRAYER

Lord, I pray our neighbors recognize the time of our blind begging for the purpose of receiving your grace to see. Thank you for grace and faith to hope in you, Jesus Christ, for the day we’ll see your face. Amen.

SIN

To find yourself in a place with a choice – Independent will or dependent will? Which would you choose and why? How that choice is answered, I believe, reveals the nature of sin.

To have a mind with the capacity to know good and evil is to have a heart for independent will, but is an independent will of good… or evil… ? If by the grace of God my work to the outline of biblical passages presented above proves worthy, then, I believe, the reader will discover that independent will is in fact… evil. That reality of such inspiration cannot be created by man, because to be holy inspired, is to be sanctified from what—independent will—prevented revelation by inspiration of dependent will. But dependent upon who’s will goes beyond our quantum reality into the above; where the divine nature of Christ is seated. And it is there, that our faith takes us, if indeed, our faith is in Jesus Christ.

The scripture verse’s that I think prove the case for a person exercising dependent will to be of ‘good’ are these, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” and again, He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cup cannot pass away unless I drink from it, Your will be done.” (Matthew 26:42; Luke 22:42).

Lucifer was created a divine (anointed cherub) being that was perfect until unrighteousness was found, and the gospel reveals the psychology that distinguishes Christ from the Antichrist, or Jesus Christ from Lucifer; the difference being, …yet not My will, but Yours… against …I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High… (Isaiah 14:13-14). Sin… is of a will independent of God.

Until tomorrow…

I die devotionals, Nathan Dooley

I DIE DAILY DEVOTIONAL | II

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I spent the time today on a date with my wife, and so thankful for that time. Getting right to it. Let’s see … how should today’s devotional be written? Hmmm… “Lord, I need you”.

Let me write to record as my mind shifts to focus on the Word of God.

I could quickly write on P3-V6, but then I think about the freedom of spontaneity and feel compelled to write my thoughts as Scripture shift into view and becomes my focus, but what does that mean?

Well … I guess that means a couple different things; I think of the Person of the Spirit, and of what Scripture means to teach me through the testimony of the gospel—because the gospel is Jesus. I then think about Jesus being alive according to His Word and where He is with God my Father.

I’m confident that Jesus lives in me by faith and therefore is doing an extraordinary work that was not initially detected until keying in on the psychological significance of repentance, and as I learn more and more about the psychological experience of the Spirit in me am capable of facing my fears about fears I didn’t even know I had for repentance to have it’s necessary affect of change—to the glory of God—in me.

Mat 11:20 — Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. 24 Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”

As we can see from our gospel that Jesus denounces the cities—that His miracles were done—because they did not repent, so what does that mean for us today that believe in salvation through Jesus if we do not truly repent? Jesus gave us the answer from above (literally and figuratively).

If we are not truly repenting from sin although claim to believe in Christ, then are we truly believing in Jesus for salvation?

We do have the capacity to repent upon belief in Jesus because of the Word of God at work in us that believe, so let’s hold each other accountable.

Deadline hit.