Monday, January 21

A Place Prepared By King Jesus

John 14:1-3 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. (2) In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

When troubles come and our minds rush to and fro trying to figure out what to do, it is a comfort to remember that King Jesus has prepared a place for his sheep. When the sand of our personal hourglass has nearly been exhausted, we can meditate with peace and joy thinking of this glorious place where tears and suffering will not exist. It will undoubtedly be a place much like the Garden of Eden, only with perfect harmony, beauty and peace. The gardens will flourish as the creation will be set free from the bondage of corruption caused by the fall of the human race in Adam. God’s glory will shine so bright that it will never be night. Christians will see Jesus and walk with him and talk with him on the streets of gold. Praise God that Jesus has prepared a place and will fulfill his promise to come again and take his people home. Christians can rejoice and shout the victory when that last grain of sand falls through the hourglass of their life.

When we all get to Heaven
Words by: Eliza E. Hewitt

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
Sing His mercy and His grace.
In the mansions bright and blessèd
He’ll prepare for us a place.

Refrain.....
When we all get to Heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!

While we walk the pilgrim
pathway, Clouds will overspread the sky;
But when traveling days are over,
Not a shadow, not a sigh.

Let us then be true and faithful,
Trusting, serving every day;
Just one glimpse of Him in glory
Will the toils of life repay.

Onward to the prize before us!
Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
Soon the pearly gates will open;
We shall tread the streets of gold.

15 comments:

Halfmom, AKA, Susan said...

Jazzy - I had already read both Rex's comments - they come to my email box as they are posted off of some blogs. I do not think that they were directed mostly to you, but to Mark, although you posted the "reviled" post, didn't you?

Honestly, as painful as it spounds, I can easily see what precipitated Rex to say what he did. I do not necessarily agree with all of it but I certainly recognize how a non-believer could come away from your joint blog feeling that way. In many ways, I was trying to tell you this when I posted to you and Mark. And by the way, I do not find either of Rex's posts offensive, just very, very sad that we had a chance to present the love of a king to him and we all blew it.

I guess my question is who do you blog for - if it is just each other and other believers of like-mind, then so be it. But, if your purpose, as I believe the primary purpose of all our lives should be, is to present the good news of the gospel, then you've got a ways to go on your presentation. Even I was offended by what was written and tried, as you have said, to gently tell you that and to back it up scripturally.

Lucky for all of us that our salvation does not rest on our presentation on blogs or on our own righteousness but on Christ's!

Yes, when we see the King face to face it will be a day of rejoicing indeed.

I remain your sister in Christ.

Susan

jazzycat said...

Susan,
you said.... I do not find either of Rex's posts offensive,

Wow, obviously it is very hard to offend you! I have never seen such rudeness and pesonal attacks in over two years of blogging anywhere. I think by far our biggest mistake at Bluecollar was one of being too tolerant and not taking a firmer control of the comments sooner. While it is Mark's blog, I plan on advising him that we should not tolerate such abusive, mocking and vulgar comments again. The reviling post was meant to illustrate to the Brits and others just how out of line they were with the attacks. I think the sermon passages from Matthew 7:6 by Ligon Duncan, that I put in the comments at Bluecollar, very much illustrate that we should have taken control much sooner.

I have a long standing debate both here and at his blog with an atheist and we get along very well and I have even defended him on his blog from personal attacks. You can go to rupturetherapture.blogspot.com and ask him about jazzycat. We have gone at hammer and tong, but have refrained from name calling etc. I am not going to allow it here at Jazzycat and I hope Mark will not at Bluecollar. I believe that far more people are harmed by a watered down God loves you unconditionally gospel than the gospel that Paul preached at Mars Hill in Athens which was: The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” That being said, I admire your ministry and your efforts for the kingdom.
wayne

donsands said...

Ah, the New Earth! Looking so forward to the Day when sin is eliminated, and the constant focus on self is over with.
It's difficult to imagine Don Sands without sin; unthinkable. And yet it shall be.

I love that old hymn. There was a time I hated hymns, but then the love of God changed this sinners heart, and hymns became a joy to me.
What a gracious and loving Savior we do have, to do all this for us.

One word that came to me concerning all the "blog-strife": "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

We are in a spiritual battle my fellow soldiers in Christ.

Maalie said...

>I guess my question is who do you blog for - if it is just each other and other believers of like-mind, then so be it.

I agree with this remark by Halfmom. There are ways of setting the blog for selected viewers only, and there is a facility to moderate comments before they are published. Many people do this and I have done it myself sometimes if I get a spate of unwelcome traffic.

But so long as you offer free commentary, you will get them. It is not enough just to ask people to stop. On each occasion when you asked me to, somebody asked me a question to which I felt I should respond. It really did have all the appearances of personal grudge against me.

I'm afraid the garden in your picture is far too "manicured" for my taste. I trust heaven will have some wilder, more natural elements. But I'm not going there, am I?

jazzycat said...

Maalie,
A blog is like an opinion journal that prints letters to the editor. A blog has the right and duty to enforce certain rules and standards. Many do list their rules. I assure you that my intent is not for jazzycat blog to have no holds barred free commentary where anything goes. Though my rules are not published, I have them and will enforce them. There will be no profanity, no crude talk, no mocking the Christian religion, and no personal attacks of the ad hominem variety.

I and I alone will decide what to allow. This is not a free forum where rules are up for debate. I will allow you to post at my pleasure as long as you meet my standards.

For example your last sentence is snarky and sarcastic. I will let it ride this time, but I will make these decisions without debate with you or anyone else.

jazzycat said...

Don,
Exactly. The Bible teaches that the pure gospel will not only draw converts it will drive many away. Many professing disciples left Jesus and said in John 6:60 “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”

Halfmom, AKA, Susan said...

Jazzy, do I think some of the comments, including Rex’s post to be offensive? Sure, I do, but I think there is a difference though between thinking the comments are offensive and actually being offended by them. I know I am reasonably hard to offend, but I think it is because I try not to take most of the comments personally. Also, I do not expect non-believers to value what I value or believe what I believe, and I expect them to voice their incredulity at both my beliefs and values; I also expect them to retaliate when they feel like they are being treated disrespectfully and are not allowed to have their own opinions. Do remember, they are not held to the standards of no retaliation as we are, although I have a feeling that they took your comments and Mark’s as retaliatory. I cannot say whether they were or not because mind reading is not my specialty. However, it seems to me if you say they were not and Maalie says he was not trying to be offensive then I have to take both your words for it. My preference would have been to leave the comment and remove the offensive language, explaining in a different comment why I had done so and tired to use it to initiate a discussion with the person on why I thought they were offensive, hoping to aid in a Rom 2:4 response in the hearer. In fact, I will leave Maalie such a comment on your blog shortly, for I too thought his last sentence would easily be taken a sarcastic. I have a feeling he will say that he was just stating his preference in landscaping and the obvious conclusion that if he does not believe as we do that means that we think if he dies tonight he will go to hell. If you look at his blog and the pictures on it, I think he probably does prefer a wilder type landscape than the picture you posted – and we do stand on the scripture that says a personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is what is require to keep on from eternal damnation in hell. So, he may, in fact, not be sarcastic at all, just blunt.

Just so you know, I think some of Rex’s remarks are offensive enough that I will delete the comment you made to my blog with them on it, though I intend no offense to you in doing so.

Anonymous said...

Humm, Jazzy, I just reread what I wrote and it sounds like I contradicted myself, sorry. I am not personally offended by Rex's comments - I understand why he wrote what he wrote and the comments are not directed at me. However, I do understand why you are offended by them and I do not want to participate in further offense by leaving them posted on my blog, especially not for others to use as ammunition against you.

Halfmom, AKA, Susan said...

I'm logged in as myself so I dont' know why it just posted me as anon - but it is Susan here now writting to Maalie.

Maalie, you have mistaken my intent in asking Jazzy what audience he was blogging for. Your have taken my comment out of context as it had nothing to do with open commentary; it was a scriptural issues, not an editorial one.

And Maalie - "please don't" was sufficient for me remove myself from bluecollar - although that was not their request. They simply requested that I not respond to you there. The only reasons I did were because Jazzy did and I was already working on the comment to you before Mark made the request. It seems to me that it should be sufficient for all of us to respect the wishes of the blog owner. Certainly I would feel free to do the same on my blog.

Jazzy, thank you for the space. Please feel free to let me know if you do not want me to respond to Maalie on your blog - and certainly understand that I am not happy about him using my comments out of context against you.

jazzycat said...

Susan,
Thanks. I understand your friendship with the Brits. I have spelled out my policy in this thread. I might add that in the future comments should be on topic as much as possible.
Thanks.
wayne

Anonymous said...

very, very sad that we had a chance to present the love of a king to him and we all blew it.

This sentence stops me and makes me think, "Just what is the love of a king?"

Is it only making others "feel good" about what we say? Making sure the receiver isn't offended - and I don't mean offensive language here, but by the offense of the gospel to the flesh?

In fact, I think it is our Christian duty to represent the highest standard - while accepting the humble repentant sinner; We are not to stand by and let worldly filth go by (by 'filth,' I'm not speaking of persons, but language, ridicule, mockery, sarcasm, rudeness, etc).

We can accept unbelievers at Bluecollar and at our individual blogs as well. I'm confident that every member of the Bluecollar team would welcome unbelievers at the group blog and at their individual blogs, but we do not welcome foul language, mockery, abuse, ridicule, and other such things that only serve to drag down all readers as well as the hosts.

I support Jazzy in his ban over at Bluecollar. I think he responded with both wisdom and grace.

Anonymous said...

Ah, I forgot to mention something when I started off my comment regarding "the love of a king."

If we go to the NT and look closely at Jesus' words to his audiences, many were offensive - but not because of language or tone. It was the content of what He said that offended the flesh.

So when we speak of showing "the love of a king," I think we have to realize that Christ's love includes more than just the compassion, grace, acceptance, warm fuzzies we all like to associate with love - but it also comes with frank truth, which I have seen communicated over at blue.

I'm not saying it's done perfectly over at Blue every time, but on the main, by and large, I think the past few engagements over the previous week have been handled by the bluecollar team with patience and an honest attempt to carry on a respectful, respectable conversation in the face of sarcasm and mockery.

jazzycat said...

Susan,
Thank you. Well said.

Maalie said...

> he was just stating his preference in landscaping

Solomonian as usual Susan. Garden design is of course an art form and goes back many centuries, Europe and Japan (I have been there) are obvious exponents. As an art form, appreciation is very much a personal value judgement. The garden in this picture is the work of man, not god. I expect it has its damp, muddy, weedy places as all gardens do.

When I visited the gardens of the Palace of Versailles near Paris recently, I left my friends so they could enjoy the "manicured" area and I headed straight off to the wilder areas where I found three bird species we would not expect to see in England. It would be debatable who enjoyed the visit most!

If Jazzy describes me as sarcastic, I might be tempted to suggest he is cynical.

Oh, and apologies if I misconstrued you remarks about posting, it was not intentional.

jazzycat said...

Maalie,
I also enjoy the beauty of the wilder places that have been less impacted by the hand of man. This blog is full of photos of the area near Telluride, Colorado that I think is unbelievably beautiful. That being said, I think gardens tended by man also point to the majesty of our creator God.

Cynic, eh! I invite you to check out under best of Jazzycat in the right column two articles. False global warming part 1 and part 2. Yes, I am very much a cynic of much of the manipulation that is going on in our post-modern politically correct culture. Under Best of Jazzycat there is also some satirical articles on the same subject that might show my cynicism with the wisdom of man. If you have comments on them, please leave them there. I will get e-mail notification if you do.