The truth according to the BIBLE is that after death we will be resurrected with Spiritual bodies. In the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, verse 50, the apostle Paul wrote, "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." The kingdom of God is a Spiritual kingdom that begins here on Earth when we are saved and are born of the Spirit, and it continues on into the glory of Heaven. I am born again and that makes me a child of God right now! Do you realize what this means? God was the Father of the man, Jesus, who had God living in Him. Now I am a child of God also, and that makes God my Father, also.
In verses 42 and 44 of the same chapter of 1 Corinthians Paul writes "with the resurrection of the dead....it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." It can't be any plainer than that. In addition, Jesus Himself told us the same thing in Luke chapter 20, verses 35 and 36, where He said, "those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead....can no longer die; for they are like the angels." Angels are spiritual beings. They don't really have wings. We may think they need them to get around in Heaven, but it is not a physical place where anything is held down by gravity.
Luke writes that Jesus said, "Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." (Luke 21:33) Jesus said, "A time is coming and is now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:23, 24) Truth is expressed in language, and Jesus said His words shall never pass away. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away." This was revealed to Jesus' apostle, John, near the end of his life and is found at the end of the BIBLE. This is followed by a description of heaven in material terms using material illustrations. If you read chapter 21 of Revelation you find a physical description of spiritual realities. There is honor for the twelve tribes of Israel and Jesus twelve apostles. The structure of heaven is described as clear gold, and clear as crystal jewels, with the light of it all supplied by God, who is Spirit, and by His manifestation as His earth-born son, Jesus. Verse 11 says that in John's vision heaven "shown with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal." Verse 18: "The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass." John is describing transparent walls and an entirely transparent city: "pure as glass" and "clear as crystal." This is John's effort to describe with our words in material terms what is immaterial and spiritual, and discernible only in a spiritual body. This is something we cannot understand in our flesh because we cannot now experience it. "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12) Heaven is not a physical place as is this world. It is a spiritual place permeated with God's Spirit. As best we can comprehend it on Earth, Heaven is formed by and of light.
Light and the whole electromagnetic spectrum of which light is a part is formed of pure energy. It is through the electromagnetic spectrum that radio and television broadcasting is possible on earth. In explaining that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven you must be born (again) of the Spirit, Jesus said, "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (John 3:6- This is the clearest illustration of spirit Jesus could have given for the understanding of the people at that time. And He came at EXACTLY THE RIGHT TIME, proven by the subsequent successful history of the spread of Christianity.
There is a time for all things in God's plan for His natural creation. The advances in technology through human history make perfect sense when you remember this whole thing is here just as a preparatory school for a much higher-order-existence for those who choose to enroll in it. The technology of today's rich countries, always a potential reality through time, has been revealed by God on His timetable for reasons that are way over our heads! We are ignorant pupils. Jesus is our teacher. He came at exactly the right time. All we need to know that really counts is in the one textbook: THE HOLY BIBLE.
As far as the development of technology is concerned, it is a constant revelation of God as to what is possible. I believe we are near the end of time now with the development of the electromagnetic spectrum and computers. God is letting us develop and use natural conditions in ways that are as sophisticated as we will ever be capable of in this world. Consider how broadcasting today conveys words and even images unseen by us through the air. In a world with more dimensions than our four think what will be possible!
Because most of us are basically bad, haven't had our sins forgiven and been reborn of the Spirit, we use these most sophisticated technologies, broadcasting and the internet, badly. Broadcasting, radio and television, is the closest thing in the natural to what communication in the supernatural will be like.
Aristotle said God is "the unmoved mover." Spiritual activity does not require motion through physical dimensions, but on earth in this physical universe God created for us it does. This life is a test of us to see who wants to be with God when He draws us toward Him. Do you want to spend eternity as a being of light with God enough to completely trust Him and obey Him?
God created us because He is love. (1 John 4:8 and 16) We know from our own experience that love is creative. God created us because He is love, and love gives and creates. When we reproduce ourselves we are in our tiny way helping God within nature to fulfill His will for increasing and expanding love. Love exists only when there are others to love and be loved by. The more others there are the more love is possible. Love only exists through relationships between and among different individual beings. We see each other, but we don't see God directly. On the physical surface we learn love within the family and following Jesus commandment to love our neighbor we learn love for the human family. This we do in the immediate present time. It isn't as immediately obvious to see the ultimate creation by God of everything in this world in the distant time past. God's Word shows us that physical reality over the scope of the entire history of this world, and we thereby are able to understand and appreciate our Creator's love, and as the greatest commandment says, love God.
"In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth." (Ephesians 1:8-10) When God created the heavens and the earth He was preparing the perfect environment for the creation of other beings with whom to have a relationship, making possible the giving and receiving of more love. God created human beings so that He could have a relationship with us. Paul tells us what the purpose of a saved Christian life is in Ephesians 2:10.... "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." In order for pure love to be possible between and among us new beings, God created human beings as He did other beings (i.e., the angels) with freedom of choice. If we were not able to love God and each other volitionally, because we choose to do so, we could not love at all. God not only by creating us brought us into existence; but at Creation God gave the creatures He made in His image the freedom through language to love Him or not to love Him. We know of God only through language as to His name and attributes. We see the results of His work in nature, but we may have a personal relationship with God through language, prayer and His Word. This is how we are made in God's image, not that God is male or female or has two arms or two legs, but that we both express ourselves, think, and plan through language. We also have a personal relationship with God through what we do for others in His name. These acts Jesus said you have done unto Me.
God made light first, more of what He Himself is already. God put light into nature before He made the stuff, of which we are made, bodies of material animated by energy. When we become like Jesus at the Rapture when we are resurrected, our glorious new bodies will be of a kind that we have not and could not experience in nature. We will not be confined to the kind of world which we only know now. Jesus said, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." (John 3:19-21) Jesus said that. Now go back and read it again; and then think about this: there will be no privacy in heaven, because there will be nothing at all to be ashamed of. There will be no sin, therefore no shame, therefore nothing to hide. There will be nothing hidden in heaven. Jesus said, "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known." (Matthew 10:26) Can you imagine the relief to have nothing to be ashamed of? (Actually this is what we have already right now if we are saved and our sins forgiven.)
This is the kind of place God is preparing for the saved people. If you are unsaved, you undoubtedly do not want to go there. You'll never know the joy you are missing, because when you are saved you then know you do want to go there and you have found out what love truly is.
Heaven
Heaven is a wonderful place,
Filled with His Glory and His Grace.
Heaven is more than just a song.
Where all is right and nothing wrong.
Heaven is more than some place we go
To dull the burdens of this world's woe.
Heaven is different with no darkness at all
In spring, summer, winter, or fall.
Heaven is Holy life without care,
It is God's light that shines everywhere.
There is no darkness at all anywhere.
The light from God has no barrier.
There will be no pain
No sin will remain.
Sin brought suffering, but in Glory
Sin will be a story!
We will hear the angels sing.
Our love to Jesus we will bring.
Everyone there with love for Him
There in Heaven love never grows dim.
"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty"
Creator God whom we worship rightly,
"Who Was, Who Is and is to come!"
Our life in Heaven will be awesome.
You are Worthy, O Lord, our God
Who made us from the sod.
Worthy is He who was slain.
Despite sin, Heaven we gain.
We'll be with the Great "I Am,"
The Alpha and Omega, our sinless slain Lamb.
He'll speak my name from the radiance of His Light,
Brought home in His love with the power of His might.
Heaven is such a wonderful place
Filled with the Love of God and His Grace.
Far beyond what we can describe here on earth,
Beyond life here even after our new birth.
A place God prepared for those who love Him,
Who are obeying Him and doing our best not to sin.
It's not just head knowledge, but being really saved
That changes our lives to being well behaved.
Heart knowledge will find us in that great place.
All the sins we've committed God will have erased.
Heaven is perfect, as we will be then
With no trace of sickness caused by sin.
Where, my Friend, do you stand today?
I hope you're walking with Jesus all the way.
Repent of your sins and let Jesus save you.
Let Heaven be the place that you're going to.
When you are "born again" salvation begins then.
Sealed by God's Spirit, heaven is your home already.
You know God's love; serve Him and do not sin.
Walk the "narrow path" and advance sure and steady.
Gain ground as your sanctification goes forward.
Study God's Word and do what Jesus tells you to.
Firm in the Lord you grow stronger, more stalwart.
Most important love God and other people, too.
You find it rewarding visiting those in need,
Going to the hospital to visit once a week,
Bringing joy to shut-ins is doing a good deed.
Even greater, showing one Christ whom they seek.
A cold glass of soda give the postman on a hot day,
Help someone lost to find their way,
Baby-sit without pay, so saints can go out and play,
These are all things that will make your day.
J. Vernon McGee says that a father
Stands in for God to their little ones.
Spending time with one's children should never be a bother.
We learn a lot when we have daughters and sons.
I have a son, Michael, a young adult now.
Bring up a child in the way he should go;
And he won't depart from what God will allow,
Not even when he is old and slow.
Heaven is here when we live righteous lives.
After we are saved we live closer to God.
Now His child, our life really thrives,
Heaven here on earth, no longer just earth's sod.
Salvation when you are born again begins then.
God's Spirit seals you; Heaven's your home already.
You know God's love; you serve Him and not sin.
You walk with Jesus as you advance sure and steady.
--Ellis
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Over 2,000 years ago during the period of time between the Old and the New Testaments, the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, realized that our souls (mind, emotions, and wills) and our spirits are separate from ooour body 's through which we express them in this world. Plato's split of mind from body wasn't fully understood before his time. Today with the advent of radio and oour present understanding of the electroomagnetic spectrum which includes light, we now know how we will be in Heaven in eternity with the Lord.
Plato's mind, separate from the body is the manifestation of electromagnetic radiation in waves as an individual mind building up knowledge through time. Brain cells store memory but active conscious braiin waves are received outside our dimensions and recorded in heaven by God which are reconstituted as our individual glorified bodies of light when we are resurrected at the end of this world's organization as developed by God through time here. The saved Christian's experience and knowledge is never lost throughout eternity.
--Ellis
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Competition or Cooperation in Heaven?
"It is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment."
(Hebrews 9:27 NAS
"All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive." (Psalms 22:29 NAS
"Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever!
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all
the families of the nations will worship before Thee. For the kingdom
is the Lord's, and He rules over the nations." (Psalms 22:26-28 NAS
"Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as
a speck of dust on the scales." (Isaiah 40:15 NAS
Why did God set this world up with the potential competition between
people? When we completely trust God's walking Word, what Jesus said on
Earth about Himself and ourselves, and trust the Holy Spirit on Earth
today, we grow in truth and love toward God and each other. God is
preparing us for Heaven which is not a physical place, where we will not
need or use possessions as we do here. Competition or cooperation?
Which projects love?
What did the first Christians of the early church do with their material
possessions as told in the BIBLE's book of Acts? Those individuals
pooled all their possessions and held them in common: pure communism.
Not the kind of the former Soviet Union and all its allies which was a
"dictatorship of the proletariat," but the purest form of communism.
Because people are NOT basically good, generous, and unselfish,
communism goes against the grain of human nature. For people,
competition produces a higher motivation to work than cooperation; and
so here and now capitalism works much better than communism. Which form
of economy do you think will be in Heaven? For which form of
interaction is God preparing those of us who are going to Heaven where
materialism does not exist?!
Our attitude toward money is a particularly accurate outward sign of our
spiritual health, because it indicates whether devotion to self or
surrender to God is at work. Money is nothing more than a medium of
exchange. What it amounts to is how we keep account of goods and
services exchanged among us. However it can mount up for an individual
and then amounts to more than just goods made by others of us and
services performed by others of us. Some have more than others. The
individual having more is now deemed more successful than others with
fewer goods and services. In the minds of most people today an
individual's worth is based upon material value, not spiritual value.
You cannot serve God and money. The love of money is the root of all
evil. Its right there in the BIBLE. This is so simple and so clear.
You were born of the flesh when you came into this world. Jesus said you must be born again of the Spirit.
John 3 (New King James Version)
1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.''
3. Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.''
4. Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?''
5. Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7. "Do not marvel that I said to you, `You must be born again.'
8. "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.''
--Ellis
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Unmoved Mover
This short one verse poem I wrote some time ago isn't so easy to understand!
The ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, wrote of God as Creator, that He was "The Unmoved Mover." This is what this poem has reference to.
Into Forever
I change, ranging through time.
You are unchanging, ranging over time.
I change now, moving through.
You, My God, are the Unmoved Mover;
And I belong to You.
In my end I change -- one last time
Into Your unchanging Love for all time.
--Ellis
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How Ready Are We For Heaven?
If we humans were not all separated from each other by our separate
individual minds in our separate bodies, but were totally able to read
each other's minds, -- nothing could be hidden, there could be no
secrets among us. Ephesians describes this kind of unity in the Spirit
as a desirable thing. Jesus prayed for it in chapter 17 of the Gospel
of John: for us to be together in Him as He is together with The Father
in Him.
Is this what heaven will be like? This is how Godly life is described
in the Bible.
"Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the
light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the
truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he
has done has been done through God." (John 3:20-21 NIV)
"Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord
comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose
the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise
from God." (1st Corinthians 4:5 NIV)
Nothing is hidden. All is revealed in the bright illumination of light.
Could anyone start a war when no one could have any secret weapons of
mass destruction? Will heaven be like this?
Brothers and Sisters, in preparing for Heaven, do we not need to be
thinking as if our thoughts are transparent to other people as they are
already now to God? They will be in Heaven. Do we not actually need to
be thinking and behaving with nothing but pure motives and with no
deceptions toward other people in our sanctifying practice in preparation
for living in Heaven?
We know this is what God wants us to do anyway, but we see here the
practical value of it in getting ready for Heaven. Do we take Heaven
seriously? We would say: Yes! Why then don't we think in terms of
preparing for it? Isn't it strange that most of us don't? Isn't it a
good idea to think and do the way we need to be thinking and need to be
doing in getting ready for Heaven?
Won't it be a shock to find ourselves in the midst of the joys of Heaven
and not be ready for the complete love and totally honest life style of
Heaven? Remember, GOD IS TRUTH. How many of us will be comfortable
with the honesty and experience complete joy in the universal love of
Heaven because we followed God's commands here that prepare us for
Heaven? How many of us are this serious with our thinking and in what
we do in our Christian Walk? If the degree of our readiness for Heaven
is any indication of the certainty of our salvation, how many of us are
really going to be there?
--Ellis
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No Secrets in Heaven
If we humans were not all separated from each other by our separate
individual minds, but were totally able to read each other's minds, --
nothing could be hidden, there could be no secrets among us. Ephesians
describes this kind of unity in the Spirit as a desirable thing and
Jesus prayed for it --- for us together with Him in chapter 17 of the
Gospel of John.
Is this what heaven will be like? This is how Godly life is described
in the Bible. (below) Nothing is hidden. All is revealed in the bright
illumination of light.
"Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the
light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the
truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he
has done has been done through God." (John 3:20-21 NIV)
"Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord
comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose
the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise
from God." (1st Corinthians 4:5 NIV)
Could anyone start a war when no one could have any secret weapons of
mass destruction? Will heaven be like this?
--Ellis
--------------------------------
Trust Here and in Heaven
How many people can we trust here on earth? When I know someone is a sincere Christian I know it is more likely that I can trust him or her than people in general. Even then one can never be absolutely sure.
Now, --- would, could this ever be the way it is in Heaven? Things will be perfect in Heaven. That's right. There will be no sin there. Why do you think God tells us to be perfect? "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) It is in preparation for Heaven, preparing us for Heaven where everything will be perfect. That is hard to imagine, isn't it? Living here on this wretched place of war and injustices everywhere, we might wonder how it could be possible that everything could ever be perfect anywhere. How many of us are really striving to be perfect? Will we be prepared for Heaven?
Well, we know God cannot look upon sin. Heaven will be perfect! With everything being perfect in Heaven we know that means that we can have complete trust in everyone else there. Amazing.
"In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth." (Ephesians 1:8-10) When God created the heavens and the earth He was preparing the perfect environment for the creation of other beings with whom to have a relationship, making possible the giving and receiving of more love. God created human beings so that He could have a relationship with us. Paul tells us what the purpose of a saved Christian life is in Ephesians 2:10...."we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
We were created to have a personal relationship with God through what we do for others in His name. These acts Jesus said you have done unto Me, and Jesus was God.
Jesus is preparing Heaven, the perfect place for we who are saved out of this world.
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:1-4)
The kind of place Jesus is preparing for saved people is transparent as to truth. No lies in Heaven. If you are an habitual liar you won't be there.
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (Revelation 21:7, 8)
Friends, don't lie.
--Ellis
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The Three Heavens
In 2nd Corinthians 12:2-7 (NIV Version here) the Apostle Paul relates
the following:
"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the
third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not
know--God knows.
And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I
do not know, but God knows-- was caught up to paradise. He heard
inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will
boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except
about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a
fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one
will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say. To keep me
from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great
revelations...." [Paul now goes on to speak of his `thorn in the
flesh.']
Here Paul writes about "a man" he knows, but most authorities agree that
he is referring to himself. Paul says that the third heaven is paradise
where he heard inexpressible things. It is interesting that he notes the
possibility of having been there during this surpassingly great
revelation "apart from the body," which means he would be existing there
without a body. If so, he would be in the form of a spirit with no
material body,-- such as would be the case for a "being of light" which
is pure energy with no material attributes. This hints at the idea that
the third heaven, being a spiritual place, isn't in the same world of
physical bodies as we are used to from here on earth, be they our own
bodies or the heavenly bodies beyond our planet.
Why was Paul, as he describes it, "caught up to the third heaven"? Why
the third heaven? He describes in the briefest manner his experience in
the third heaven, but completely skips over the first heaven and the
second heaven. He must have gone through those to reach the third
heaven where Paul clearly says he was "caught up to paradise." There is
no doubt that the third heaven is paradise. What then are the first and
second heavens?
The first heaven which Paul went through to reach paradise is where the
birds and the bees fly and the butterflies and flies. This is the first
heaven? Yes, because it extends from the outer atmosphere of our planet
down through the blue sky where our airplanes and rockets fly with or
above the clouds, clouds which when you think about it can reach the
ground where we then call them fog. So on the ground we are walking in
the bottom of the first heaven, although we are accustomed to thinking
of heaven as only being "above." They are all three above us for the
most part. The first heaven reaches up past the butterflies and birds,
past our airplanes and rockets, up until the air runs out and our
atmosphere has become so thin that it disappears. This is the top side
of the first heaven and the bottom of the second. This is where the
first and second heavens meet.
Do you see what is the second heaven? It is all of outer space with
everything that is in it. Our inner space of the beautiful cloud
formations and the rich blue sky is our first heaven. The second is our
outer space, and if Paul is right, the second heaven may be all of space
and everything in it beyond earth. The third heaven is likely an
entirely spiritual place which is in the dimension of eternity where we
can't see it from inside our world of nature and time.
Those of us who know something about the second heaven, who have peered
out into it through our arrangements of parallel lenses and mirrors,
have seen the beauty of the second heaven which in many places is the
most beautiful display of God's handiwork that there is to be seen
anywhere. The second heaven is beyond the birds, but not beyond the
stars. It contains the stars, quasars, the planets, the whole of outer
space outside of our inner space, the first heaven.
The first heaven is the little air bubble that surrounds our planet,
kind of a small heaven. The second heaven is the massive expanse of
outer space with its huge multitude of galaxies averaging 300 billion
stars each, a rather large heaven. Far beyond second heaven, somewhere
that only God knows (and I don't think the apostle Paul knew until after
he died since he didn't know whether he was inside or outside of his
body when he went there) -- somewhere that only God knows, is the
glorious, indescribable third heaven of light and Light Beings, where it
is never dark, as the apostle John tells us in Revelation, "The city
does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God
gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp." (Revelation 22:23 NIV)
These are the three heavens. They are all absolutely remarkable. I
kinda like to lie on the ground looking up from the bottom of the first
into the second heaven,-- and maybe at the same time I may be looking
through or even directly into the third unseen heaven, but I won't know
that until God is ready for it to be my eternal home.
--Ellis
Adding your comment:
I thought it's a little late for reading something like this and thought it'd be a better idea to read it on another time.You know I'm sometimes very busy and the only time that I can come to the site is my midnight.
But you can be sure I never miss any one of your pieces.
