Tickets to Ride

Tickets to Ride

Heb 11:16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

In the light of our backyard neighbors getting ready for a National Championship and all, I though it interesting to have recently visited Gainesville and the infamous Swamp while taking Daniel, my son to a SHANDS appointment.

Daniel is a patient at SHANDS and we always try and make the day a, “Daddy and Daniel day out.” We look forward to these trips as we spend some quality time together. We usually take time together at home relaxing and going out to do the everyday errands, but this event always seems to be our bonding time where we can just be boys. We eat pizza, visit a museum, drive around UF and oftentimes visit the football stadium.

If you didn’t know, the Swamp is open to the public every day of the week. The students and community members take advantage of running the staggering steps to train for athletics or their personal best. Kids and adults meander through the walkways taking in the history of “The Fighting Gators,” a history that I am privileged to have witnessed throughout my lifetime.

As we drove off from our adventure this time around, the idea came to me. During the regular weekdays at the Swamp, you are fine to let yourself in and make yourself at home, for the most part so to speak… But come game day it is a different story.

Indeed.

Imagine that scene in Rudy where the main character can’t get into the game, he walks off discouraged hoping for a brighter day. His passions are temporarily dashed.

Getting into any stadium on game day can be hard. It requires money, connections, tickets and preparations. That’s how it’s like with heaven.

Right now the free gift of grace through faith in Jesus is available for all whom would believe. However, there is coming a game day when a seat in that celestial stadium will require the redemption of a ticket. You cannot just walk into the stadium on that day and enjoy the eternal benefits of the big event.

You’ll need a ticket to ride the bus tram to the stadium and a ticket to enter those pearly gates. God’s Holy Spirit has guaranteed us a spot on the bus ride up to the stadium. Jesus is the ticket to get in. The Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance and Jesus has provided access to the Father to be with Him forever. If you’re a believer you have connections and the ultimate price has been paid.

The thing about earth? Well imagine it is like a faint reflection of The Swamp on game day. It is similar in the way it looks however, very different altogether.

On game day the excitement at the Swamp is electric, it cuts through the air like a knife. You might see a lot of your friends there and everyone generally seems to have an attitude of unity.

Of course compared with The Swamp on game day, heaven’s celestial stadium is very different and much better. Better excitement, expectation, satisfaction and no opposing team trying to mess up your winning season. Everyone is kind, holy, joyful and Godly.

The primary thing is right now we have the chance to be sure we have our tickets and our seat reserved at the game. We have the resources to be prepared and prepare the way for others to go too.

In this game there is more at stake than a national title. It is the eternal value of your very own soul and the souls of all your family and friends, even your enemies, aka, the opposing team here on earth. Your soul is the very essence of your character, your “you part of you.”

Jesus wants to see you on game day and has given you free tickets to the biggest game of all time. Really, it is the celebration of many peoples’ victories and triumphs! It is the chance to worship God eternally for his abounding grace and mercy through Jesus. A monolithic climax so vast it last forever.

Jesus wants you to invite everyone you know and meet to this big event. You have the opportunity to give them the experience of a lifetime. He has enough tickets for everybody too so, “no worries.”

The important thing is that we invite, invite, invite. Go gettem’ and fight, fight, fight. Do your job and work as a team. Don’t get down when things look bad, give it your best effort and keep on fighting for the win.

Right now in this stadium on earth we can let ourselves in and make ourselves at home so to speak, but come game day we are going to need our “tickets to ride” and leave this faint reflection behind.

Have you got your tickets to ride? Why don’t you bring a friend or two? I hear the after game party is a blast.


Ephesians 1:14
This Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we will receive our inheritance. We have this guarantee until we are set free to belong to him. God receives praise and glory for this.

Something to say for accuracy

Well I always use the excuse that I am not a math major, I went to art school. It’s a joke at best because we know that artists throughout the ages have been intellectuals and able of many different disciplines in life. So although I am not smart enough to figure this one out on my own, I am glad somebody was!

If you want a quick read on this check the last paragraph.


Thomas Nelson New Open Study Bible
Excerpt…

THE CHRIST OF DANIEL

Christ is the Great Stone who will crush the kingdoms of this world (2:34, 35, 44), the Son of Man who is given dominion by the Ancient of Days (7:13, 14), and the coming Messiah who will be cut off (9:25, 26). It is likely that Daniel’s vision in 10:5-9 was an appearance of Christ (cf. Rev. 1:12-16).


The vision of the sixty-nine weeks in 9:25, 26 pinpoints the coming of the Messiah. The decree of 9:25 took place on March 4, 444 B.C. (Neh. 2:1-8). The sixty-nine weeks of seven years equals 483 years, or 173,880 days (using 360-day pro-phetic years). This leads to March 29, A.D. 33, the date of the Triumphal Entry. This is checked by noting that 444 B.C. to A.D. 33 is 476 years, and 476 times 365.24219 days per year equals 173,855 days. Adding twenty-five days for the difference between March 4 and March 29 gives 173,880 days.

July 9th 2008

T-Shirt Design idea:

"We matter both ways..." via Angela Hughes

I matter

E=MC2

Then Angela said "we matter" can be represented in three different ways:

We matter E=MC2
We matter to God = place of value or worth
What's the matter = an emotional state (usually negative)

I put a sign by my fig tree today for Debbie Melito's sister who lives caddy corner behind our house, she travels through our yard on her way to Debbie's house just down the street. Our fig tree is really abundantly producing this year and I put a sign up with the following scripture to encourage her to enjoy some of the figs too. God's heart is for us to help take care of others and to be a blessing.

Leviticus 23:22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

There is always a reward for serving the Lord and honoring his commands. See this scripture that popped up when I searched online for the Lev reference.

Deuteronomy 24:19
"When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

I want the LORD to bless me, and he has. I want us to be a blessing to all people the LORD has called us to bless.

Mal 3:12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.

Mt 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Mt 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Ro 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.Ro 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

Ga 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

Re 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

Ps 86:9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.

Ps 72:17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.

Ps 67:4 O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.

Ps 22:27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

Wow

I Like Flat Coke

I remember as a kid going to my dad's house to visit. Usually a weekend stay, sometimes a Saturday cook out or family get together. One of the things I remembered in my own home tonight was ... flat coke.

See dad used to buy the cheap brand of cola and they oftentimes had that "not so fresh" and watery taste. They would usually come from half empty bottles that sat for long periods of time in between use.

Dad and his household used fruit juices to mix their cocktails and so the colas often sat for a day or two etc...

So here I am tonight drinking a glass of flat cola that was left next to my plate since dinner. That was around 9:00PM it is now 1:30AM.

I have not thought of or had that familiar taste in well, since I was a kid visiting my dad's house.

It struck me how the unpleasant and often overlooked things in life, even the minuscule slight annoyances can be triggers later on to become awesome memories.

Even if it is, flat coke.

I miss my dad; he's been gone now about 6-7 years. Every once in a while I get a nudge from God that he's there, I also get those moments when I feel like his son. I can't wait to see him again!

Proverbs 10:7 The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.

I lost my Son

This was an idea to show that God can relate with the grief we have over losing someone, including as a result of a tragedy or being the victim of a heinous crime. This case is a result of being falsely charged and executed.

I lost my son.

I watched him die.

There is nothing harder than burying a child, even if he was the age of a man. He will always be my son.

I watched the court prosecute him. The crowd demanding public execution. The magistrate wringing his hands…wringing his hands.

Then the final verdict, guilty. The crowd roared.

My son had watched his friends leave. At his arrest they fled. They abandoned him.

Some hid in the crowd pretending not to know him.

Then they led him away. The guards mocked him, taunted him and beat him. Over and over they beat him. In front of me.

He winced in pain, I could not do anything. I cried a deepest cry, inside. The pain, the anger. I was beside myself. My son. He winced in pain. They whipped him. Scores of flesh fell from his bones. The lines on his body, the bruises, blood everywhere. He winced in pain.

I watched as they led him away, they punched him and shoved him. He fell again and again. They spit on him and pulled out his hair. They ripped his beard off of his face.

The blood, he winced in pain. He shuddered. I shuddered, I held my head, I closed my eyes, yet I couldn't look away. I could still see him. My son.

He carried the very instrument of death for the officers. They mocked him, the crowed thronged upon him, yelling at him, and some cursed him. They spit on him again and again.

My angered roared. My sadness sickened. My depression great. My son, my son. I felt he was innocent. I knew he was innocent of the crimes they accused him of.

The blood spattered, he fell to his knees. The cross drove thorns in his back, what was left of his back. Bones exposed, muscles hanging, was he even a man?

They threw him to the ground. They hammered and laughed. They yelled in delight. They spit on him, they hurt him. My son.

I saw him struggle, to breathe.

They strung him up. They put him between two others. They were killing him. I watched. I felt numb, shocked.

They gave him vinegar when he cried for water. They laughed; they wanted to prolong his suffering.

The blood streamed down the cross, then seeped into the dirt. It cried out My name.

His mother watched, she stood at the edge of the crowd, where he could see her. In horror she watched the death of her son.

Some friends were there, most would not come forward to speak or be seen. I saw them watching my son die.

He cried for me, I could not do anything, but look away. It was almost too much to bear.

The darkness, the dank, the vile and the destructive. The sin, the death. He felt it all. My Son.

The weight of everything belonging to everyone even the world itself, the very thing He created. The people rejected him, the very ones He created.

With one last declaration he gave up His ghost. His body went limp. The blood spilled and flowed. Broken, poured out. His head went down.

It grew cold, the sky grey, the thunder roared, the earth shook, my anger burned.

The guard stuck him with a spear just to make sure. Water and blood streamed from his chest.

They killed my son. I watched the whole thing, yet couldn't do anything.

That day I buried my son.

Will you come honor my son?

Romans 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

Joh 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

Isa 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

The monkey believed in him first...

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, cool movie. Dustin Hoffman is a legend.

The movie shows a little sock monkey who desperately wants a hug from a non-believing accountant. My daughter spoke with the wisdom from the Ancient of Days stating, the monkey believed in him first (referencing the accountant). Isn't that the truth? The monkeys believed in God who created man first before humanity started believing in the monkeys.

Evolution teaches that we evolved from the critters, from amoebas and then finally monkeys. I heard a preacher say once that if you believe first there was spineless slime… Then the slime critter formed a backbone and over millions of years eventually crawled out of the ocean and started climbing trees, hopping around or walking around. Then eventually the critter started to look like man and then eventually evolved into man… Well that takes more faith to believe in something as random as that than to believe in God as a creator.

Given evolution is supposedly to have happened by chance after all… and the fact that there are so many other possibilities in the universe etc…

Well

I can grasp the concept, but doesn't it seem a little far fetched, no pun intended? Universe… far fetched… You get the picture… I just find it really interesting that we can understand most of the inner workings of a butterfly and say for example the construction of it’s wings, yet we can’t believe that someone greater than ourselves created the universe? Think about it and let me know… Even if you think I’m just ignorant… Educate me…

Peace

Genesis 1: 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

The monkey believed in him first...