Thursday, May 17, 2012

A little piece of heaven

Heaven. What comes to mind when you think about heaven? No more sorrow or pain? Streets paved with gold? Being dressed in a white robe, having wings and a little gold halo above your head, and singing in an angelic choir for all eternity? There is more to heaven then this. We will be in the presence of God. Let me say that again. We will be in the presence of God. Think about it. We will experience the fullness of all that is God for all eternity. The bible says that God is spirit, light, and love. We will experience the fullness of His spirit. The fullness of His light. The fullness of His love. We will be so filled with the Lord and His spirit, light, and love that we won't be able to help but clap our hands and shout hallelujah at the top of our lungs! We won't be able to help but worship and serve the Lord with the fullness of our being for all eternity! We won't be able to help but give praise to God! There won't be a single moment in heaven that we won't be filled with complete love, complete joy, and complete peace. All praise and glory be to God!

There will be no more sickness. No more illness. No more cancer. No more blindness. No more pain. For we will all have perfect bodies free from the sin and corruption of this present age. There will be no one in need in heaven. No more homeless people. No more struggling to make ends meet. No more living in projects. No more wondering where the next meal will come from.  For we will all be of one heart and mind, sharing everything and claiming nothing for our own. There will be no more sin. No more hate. No more lies. No more steeling. No more murder. No more pride. No more greed. No more lust. No more idolatry. For Satan will be conquered once and for all and all the wicked of this present age shale perish with him in the lake of fire for all eternity. God will be victorious! And all those who valiantly conquered and ran this race of life with perseverance keeping their eyes fixed on Christ who is seated at the right hand of the throne of God will receive a crown of life. Surely better is one day in the courts of God then a thousand else where. Surely one day spent in the courts of God in the life to come will make a thousand days of trials, sufferings, and persecutions in this life so worth it. All praise and glory be to God!

Here are the videos to a couple of songs that come to mind when I think about heaven. I hope you enjoy!

MercyMe: I can only imagine



Jeremy Camp: There will be a day



Tuesday, May 8, 2012

The vastness of God

What comes to mind when you think about God? His love? His mercy? His forgiveness? Or maybe His wrath? His justice? His power? When I asked myself that question, the first thing that came to my mind was His vastness. How big He is. Just how vast is God? How big is He?

To get a bit of an idea of how big God really is, let us consider the stars. The nearest star to planet earth, other than the Sun, is Proxima Centauri. This star is roughly 4.3 light-years away from the Sun. That may sound a bit confusing. A light-year is not a measure of time, but rather a measure of distance. A light-year is essentially the distance that light can travel in a year. Light travels at roughly 186,000 miles per second. At this speed, light can travel around the world seven times in one second, and it can travel over 5.87 x 10^12 (that's 587 with 10 zeros behind it) miles in one year. That's really fast! But even at that speed, it still takes light over four years to reach Proxima Centauri from the Sun. But that's just the distance to the nearest star.

The milky way galaxy is estimated to contain nearly 400 billion stars. The milky way galaxy itself is an estimated 100,000 light-years in diameter and 1000 light-years in depth. So that's incredibly large! It is hard to comprehend something that is that big in size. But that's just our galaxy.

The nearest galaxy to ours, Andromeda, is approximately 2 million light years or 1.17 x 10^19 miles (that's 117 with 17 zeros behind it) away. That distance in and of itself is staggering. But that's only one galaxy. There are an estimated hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe presently and as technology continues to improve, even more will become visible. In 2004, the Hubble space telescope took an image of galaxies that are 13 billion light years away. Mind blown yet? Mine sure is.

But you want to know what is even more amazing? God created it all. Not only did He create it all; He spoke it all into being. Not only did He speak it all in to being; He determined how many stars there would be. Not only did he determine how many stars there would be; He calls them all by name. Let me say that again. He knows the name of every star in the entire universe. How can such a God be comprehended? How can anyone dare to gasp at the depth of His knowledge? How can anyone fathom the breadth of His power? God is vast. Everything about Him is vast.

As you look at the stars tonight, know that the same God who created the universe created you. Know that the same God who counts the stars in the sky has counted the very hairs on your head. Know that the same God who knows all of the stars in the universe by name knows your name. Know that you serve a vast and limitless God.


References:
Atkinson, N. (August 3, 2009). How many galaxies have we discovered? Retrieved from, http://www.universetoday.com/36610/how-many-galaxies-have-we-discovered/

Christian, E., Safi-Harb, S. (March 17, 1998). Size of the Milky Way. Retrieved from, http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980317b.html

Li, S. (1999). Distance to the nearest galaxy. Retrieved from http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/SaraLi.shtml.

Tam, K. (1996). Distance to the nearest star. Retrieved from, http://hypertextbook.com/facts/KathrynTam.shtml

Wethingtion, N. (December 16, 2008). How many stars are in the milky way? Retrieved from, http://www.universetoday.com/22380/how-many-stars-are-in-the-milky-way/