The reality that our life on earth is short.

[cordie]

In recent weeks I lost my eldest uncle & this weekend I lost my favorite grammar school teacher. I'm still trying to get over the passing of Carrie Fisher & Debbie Reynolds. I honestly am troubled that our life on earth is rather short. And with some people it's shorter. My heart aches at the loss of a celebrity, the passing of someone from cancer, the genocide of human beings, even pets. So I want to poke some questions out there. Given heaven, what do you look like & what age are you? Given heaven, what do you do all day? When does the soul leave the body? What happens to our pets & animals? Why do people have to die of cancer? I can only come up with the following. Heaven is not a place; it's a state or status. Makes most sense to me that the soul leaves the body immediately upon death. No wait period. Has to be immediated. Age, appearance, gender. Wouldn't be nice if we could all choose our time to go back too. Makes no sense that God would give one an appearance; perhaps one is unisex like an angel with the personality emanating. Why cancer? Why such a harsh punishment? God raised Lazarus but why not those after him. How does taking of a person manifest itself in the glory of God. O come thee o breath from the 4 winds of the earth. Our dogs & cats, bunnies & birds. Why would not they be raised from the dead? God created them too. Define eternity. Everlasting glory. Too profound for me to establish. I try & observe the departures of all of those who have already left us, be it Anne Frank, Linus Pauling, Mozart, Shakespeare, Newton, St. Silvan, Michelangelo, John Hancock. They're all gone. I'd like to think they just went on to a place where there are no death camps, no disease, no courts of law, no IRS, no dictators. Again it's very hard to get a grip on this. I'm a big follower of sacred music of the middle ages. I find it very uplifting & all of it is about God. It puts me in a trance of how wonderful God's real kingdom is. Even then our many denominations differ in their characterization at death. This is why I simplified it & said to myself: Jesus died once & for all. If the work had not been finished, what would be the point. The goats he separates out are beyond what I describe as ordinary sinners. I think that those who try to usurp the power of God in a greedy way of trying to control large ensembles of people to be on His level is that which deprives them of any eternity in paradise.

 

[Monk Brendan]

Debbie Reynolds? All you can do is pray for the departed, ask that God have mercy on their soul, and let them go.

 

[Questore]

In recent weeks I lost my eldest uncle & this weekend I lost my favorite grammar school teacher. I'm still trying to get over the passing of Carrie Fisher & Debbie Reynolds. I honestly am troubled that our life on earth is rather short. And with some people it's shorter. My heart aches at the loss of a celebrity, the passing of someone from cancer, the genocide of human beings, even pets. So I want to poke some questions out there.

It is always good to think seriously about these things, for they are all difficult for us...loss, pain, tragedy...the shortness of our human life, and the incredible pain and suffering we see everywhere. Even the worst unrepentant sinner on the planet feels these pains, and is frustrated by not knowing their purpose.

We can know, however, that G-d uses all of these things to test and refine us, just as we can know that there are consequences for every action that is made by anyone, and that those consequences are usually painful, even when not meant to be, or thought of at all by the careless person acting.

G-d gave us the ownership and direction of our lives when Adam fell...free will is a painful burden, but a rare one...because by this we know that our G-d loves us enough to allow us to learn at our own pace, and by our own choices, and then will use everything that we do and experience to work for our good, merely because we love him, and are called to follow Yeshua.

Given heaven, what do you look like & what age are you? Given heaven, what do you do all day? When does the soul leave the body? What happens to our pets & animals?

If you search the Scriptures you will find that the word Heaven is mostly a euphemism for being with G-d, rather than a place...or in some descriptions, the Third Heaven is where G-d keeps his Throne, and out of which place he makes and directs all things.

But heaven, as we Believers tend to speak of is, as a place for the afterlife, does not exist as most people who were raised in the Greco-Romanized Chuches...the Kingdom of G-d exists, on this planet, in two different real, physical ways. The first is during the Millenium, when Yeshua rules the planet we live on now in person, and after allowing the last testing of the remaining humans, destroys all that is evil, throws the Adversary, and his followers in to the Lake of Fire, and turns this planet back to the Father, that he might remake it into a place where he can be with us...in a physical way, just as he was in Eden.

In the Kingdom, we are made to be as Yeshua was resurrected to...a perfect human body, of real flesh and bone, with feelings, and the ability to eat, to work, to play, to walk through walls, perhaps to transport ourselves from place to place as he did. We will be as he is, and that is very much like we do now, but without the carnal nature dragging at us, and yet physical, so that we may enjoy all that G-d has made for us.

As Abba made a point of making us all very distinct and individualistic by means of genetics, spiritual and physical gifts, personal circumstances, and upbringing, it is plain that Abba enjoys our individualism, and wants to promote that. Yeshua speaks in the Parable of the Talents that those who are given a great deal from G-d need to use their gifts for the work of the Kingdom...and that will not stop when we change form at Yeshua's return. We can be sure that Yeshua will use us for whatever he needs, but only in a way that will use what he has given us, and that will also benefit us.

Why do people have to die of cancer?

We live on a world that has been broken and damaged, even as we, as the children of Adam, became imperfect, and broken. The earth is breaking down just as our genetics grow more and more mutated from all that is bad, and all the bad that is done us. Cancer is merely a normal cell that begins to act like a bacteria, wildly dividing, and killing the person who has it occur in their bodies. It is triggered by many things...poor diet, poor genetics, poor circumstance, an excess of fear and dread (I know whereof I speak...my mother died of cancer, and she always walked in expectation of every thing catastrophic that could happen...and all of her cousins died the same way, and had the same doomed viewpoint.), and indeed, can probably be triggered by the awful diet we follow, and the poor quality of food that is available to us without nutrition in it, added to by all the stressors of modern life. Cancer was mostly a rare thing until the past few centuries, and grows more and more common the longer we live on this degrading planet.

Every generation, for all of our medical advances, people are dying more quickly than our peak of the World War II generation, before food was GMO'd, and before living for oneself, and one's comfort and financial well being took the place of living for G-d, to learn to be like him. The Adversary has been working over time to destroy all that he can since the Industrial Revolution...and so far, he seems to be winning, but it is only a surface matter. Yeshua won the battle two millennia ago...we are merely waiting the final scenes of a 6000 year old play, written by G-d, and starring all of us.

I can only come up with the following. Heaven is not a place; it's a state or status.

The Heaven we will be living in will be much like we experience now, but without the struggle to follow Yeshua. Our choice in this world is choose G-d's way or our own way, and if we choose G-d's way, he gives us all that is good. We can know this because there are details of what will be in the Scriptures.

Makes most sense to me that the soul leaves the body immediately upon death. No wait period. Has to be immediated.

In the Jewish way of thinking that Yeshua was well aware of, the soul can linger in or near the body for up to three days...it is why Yeshua did not raise Lazarus until the 4th day, and did not resurrect himself until after the three nights and days of the sign of Jonah were done.

Age, appearance, gender. Wouldn't be nice if we could all choose our time to go back too. Makes no sense that God would give one an appearance; perhaps one is unisex like an angel with the personality emanating.

We can know that we will look like ourselves, and be the person we have grown to be, because Abba never wastes anything. Yeshua was recognizable as himself when people could accept that he was actually there in person, but was not seen clearly until he made himself known...in the same way that someone we know at work, or church, when seen at a baseball game in a far away city, looks somewhat familiar, but we walk by them without a word because they are out of place, and thus not immediately recognizable...no longer familiar to us outside of our expectations.

However, there is no point in our life here unless we carry who we were with us. As to our age or appearance, it will probably be according to what we have looked like in the past, if we were mature at our death or final change to immortality, and what we could be if we were still growing.

Abba loves beautiful things...all you need do is look around you to see that the fading of a perfect rose is not celebrated...only the blooming of it. And G-d, being ever kind and loving, will no doubt give us our preference...how we feel most comfortable as a person, full of health, and thus some healthily, even attractive appearance that we have had a semblence of in this life.

There is also no need to presume that our appearance cannot change in the far future, as we grow and mature, or that our broken DNA will not be corrected...to give us the best version of ourselves without changing who we are. We also know that we will be as the Angels, and that they are very beautiful, if also rather terrifying. Perhaps the humans we will be serving in the Kingdom might well think us so...until they get to know us.

As to Angels being unisex...there is no reason to think so. All that we know is that they do not marry in the way that humans currently marry. However, in reading Genesis, we do know that Angels have had sexual congress with humans, and thus have physical desires. I am sure that Abba is not averse to perfected humans loving one another in some physical way...but it will be of his devising, and under his rules, and will be pure and holy.

Why cancer? Why such a harsh punishment? God raised Lazarus but why not those after him.

All of us will be raised, whether when Yeshua comes, or at the end of the Millennial Kingdom. And as before, cancer is not a punishment so much as it is a result of the broken world and our broken bodies that begin to die from the moment we are born.

Yeshua, just as Abba himself, does not interfere with the working out of G-d's plan on this earth except when the intervention into our lives can actually help us over the long run. Healings are always according to our faith, but in compliance with his perfect will for us. Everything, good or bad, happens to every person to give him more choices to make, and thus more consequences, good and bad.

The death of the body is a sorrow only to those who do not understand that this life is a temporary one, devised to rescue us from Adam's bad decision to eat the forbidden fruit held out to him by Eve. The choice to eat forbidden fruit was YHVH's gift of free will. The eating of it against Abba's express commandment gave us the kind of human life we now have. But even at that moment, Yeshua's death at the cross was devised as our means of redemption.

How does taking of a person manifest itself in the glory of God. O come thee o breath from the 4 winds of the earth. Our dogs & cats, bunnies & birds. Why would not they be raised from the dead? God created them too.

Every creature on this planet is made from G-d by G-d from his creative force. Every one of the fragile creatures we take as dear fur babies are a gift of G-d...a wrapping up of his love into flesh.

Although there is no Scripture that calls for the raising of animals to a time in eternity, many animals will be in the Kingdom of G-d...and there is no reason not to ask Abba for our pets to be given us again to enjoy, unless in some way it will harm us. I cannot imagine any of my pets not being a valued part of my eternity, and so I do pray for these things, knowing that Abba doesn't in the least mind my childish desire for such little comforts...because he designed them all to be a comfort to us.

Define eternity. Everlasting glory. Too profound for me to establish. I try & observe the departures of all of those who have already left us, be it Anne Frank, Linus Pauling, Mozart, Shakespeare, Newton, St. Silvan, Michelangelo, John Hancock. They're all gone. I'd like to think they just went on to a place where there are no death camps, no disease, no courts of law, no IRS, no dictators. Again it's very hard to get a grip on this. I'm a big follower of sacred music of the middle ages. I find it very uplifting & all of it is about God. It puts me in a trance of how wonderful God's real kingdom is. Even then our many denominations differ in their characterization at death. This is why I simplified it & said to myself: Jesus died once & for all. If the work had not been finished, what would be the point.

Eternity is the procession of life outside the confines of time. Actions and reactions follow one another still, but there is no limit on how long anything will last, because there is forever to enjoy it in. To have unlimited time to study, to learn, to talk to other people of their past, and their present...unlimited enjoyment of all things...this is G-d's gift to all of us who love him.

The goats he separates out are beyond what I describe as ordinary sinners. I think that those who try to usurp the power of God in a greedy way of trying to control large ensembles of people to be on His level is that which deprives them of any eternity in paradise.

What happens to those that do not believe and trust in the actions of Yeshua is entirely up to Yeshua, based on their actions in their life and on what they knew of G-d during their lives, but is not determined until the Resurrection of the dead at the end of the Millenial Kingdom, and the occurrence of the White Throne Judgement. None of us deserve kind treatment by G-d...it is a gift.

Whether he choses to give other kinds of gifts to anyone who does not choose to love him, and to follow after Yeshua is up to him. I forgive all those who act against me because I want to be forgiven...but Abba does not have to forgive, and indeed, must be as just as he is merciful. How people will be judged, except for those that take the mark, is very much a matter between them and G-d, and I am happy to leave it to him. I hope you will be relieved to turn it all over to him as well.

 

[cordie]

Thank you to the Messianic person here for a well-thought out reply. i'm disappointed in the monk's reply. Too sarcastic. Yes Debbie Reynolds-she was an ordinary soul with great contributions. Let them go? Don't understand.

 

[Monk Brendan]

Thank you to the Messianic person here for a well-thought out reply. i'm disappointed in the monk's reply. Too sarcastic. Yes Debbie Reynolds-she was an ordinary soul with great contributions. Let them go? Don't understand.

At the time you are praying for a dead person, that person is already what? DEAD! The only thing that you can do is ask God to have mercy upon that person's soul.

Debbie Reynolds was married three times--the Biblical exemplar is only ONE.

But I was not throwing asparagus at her (sorry, casting aspersions).

 

[Mountainmanbob]

I have had a lot of thoughts lately regarding How Time Slips by so quickly here on Earth for us. My Flesh does not want to leave this place but yet my spirit knows Heaven would be so much better. A place without sin I cannot even imagine. But that is the goal for all of this is fading away quickly. The Bible God's Word tells me to finish the good race. I need the Holy Spirit to help me with that for I am weak. Jesus will not lose one that the Father has given to him. Oh God please have mercy on me a sinner.

M-Bob