Silly people holding on to this world - yes, your daddy's one of them sometimes

I posted about you in a response on Youtube today. Pastor J.D. Farag, in one of his prophecy updates, said Elijah was possibly offered the chance to really keep doing a great work in Israel or go up in this chariot of fire to Heaven. And I thought othought of how I always sense you saying how silly your Daddy is for choosing this world over what you're in now.

I don't need to mention more about him, I would imagine you've met his daughter already. Although, how does that work? With all those people up there, maybe you don't meet everyone right away. Or maybe "meet" doesn't apply if you automatically know people, or maybe you're so busy playing and conversing aboutg all the wonderful thigns it's like a coupe small children who can play for hours and not ask each other's names. Because to them, it's just not important. The joy of the moment is.

I know what you're going to say. "It's a surprise, Daddy!" I can't wait for that big surprise. And yet, after a while I found myself following the weird baseball season of 60 gams this year, hoping they'd manage to get it all in. I've found myself wanting to see just how bad the NFC East can get or some of the other fun stuff about sports, though I am cutting back on that pretty much. I haven't enjoyed the NFL much ever since Rick got sick and later died of cancer, which I mentioned in an earlier post. So, my love for sports is less. I even got to the point where I didn't midn if we got raptured before the Cubs finally won a World Series.:-) (And, of course they did it against my Indians.)

We all have things we cling to that God tries to get us to loosen our grip on. NOt that He can't rapture someone who is holding on to something, but it'll be a lot tougher for that individual. Just like when Uncle Tom passed, he naturally started letting go of a lot of things, and a month before he died, I told him he was going to get to see you and have an ice cream social upon entering Heaven, to which he replied "I know." (That was about the last thing he ate bits of, often saying "Kids all scream for ice cream.") It was so cool how a couple nights before he died, instead of his by then really weak voice my mom's cousin heard him in his normal voice, though she could only make out the name "Bill" - his oder brother - and "I'm good" like someone had asked if he needed more ice cream. :-) Okay, I know that probably wasn't it but who knows. (Well, you probably do, you were probably there, I asked Jesus to let you. :-) But I also know you'll just tell me you can't say because it's a surprise.

Sorry, I'm getting off topic here. I guess that's good in a way, I do have most of my sights set on Heaven. It's just so hard now with the pandemic because we can't just go door to door witnessing, though I do hand out tracts at times, and people take them. Our senior pastor at my church was in the hospital with covid andpneumonia in fact, and he's only in his early 50s. His wife and a couple other staff members had it, too.

But, the great thing is, we can still pray. And, people are still trusting Jesus to save them. I may get a little silly here because I imagine what it's like to be there in Heaven. But, the good thing is, it inspires us to want to share the Gospel with others when we have our eyes set on Jesus.

It's so simple for someone to get to Heaven, and yet people make it so complex. It's as easy as ABC -

Admit you're a sinner, that you fall short of God's standard of perfection, and don't deserve to go to His perfect Heaven.

Believe Jesus Christ, God in flesh, died to take the punishment for your sins and rose from the dead, and that what He did was all that was needed to get you to Heaven.

Call on Jesus to save you from your sins, Confess that you are a sinner in need of a Saviour and Choose to let Jesus forgive you and come to live in you and make you new inside.

A person cando that right now, praying something simple like this but believing with their whole heart as they pray. "Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I don't deserve your perfect Heaven, but I know you died for my sins and rose from the dead. YOu took the punishment I deserved so I could be saved from my sins. I call on you to save me and forgive me of all my sins, come live in me and make me new inside. I believe you have saved me not by any work I have done but through your shed blood ont he cross. I confess you as my Saviour today, and believe you have written me in your Book of LIfe. In Jesus' name, Amen."

I hope many will read this, and they will copy it for many others. I pray even after the rapture it'll be available. Because there will be so many missing loved ones.

I pray we will see justice done on this earth still, becasue I want to see God glorified. But, at the same time, I know that He knows what will bring HIm glory. And, He may be ready to judge this whole world. I don't know.

I just know I look forward to seeing you and celebrating all that God has done. Becasue His perfect Heaven is so much greater than we can imagine here.

Till we meet.

Love, Daddy

random thoughts as I imagien how we'd interact - and how we will someday

I opened a razor that was maybe 10 years old today. Your silly Daddy could just imagine you asking all sorts of questions - why did I wait so long, etc..

My mom and ad retired within a couple years of each other soona fter, and so had bought a number of thigns for me to have in reserve - I already had an electric razor in reserve because I had forgotten one on vacation in 1991. The one from the late '80s went kaput - the engine finally wore out in it - and so theone from '91, which had been used sparingly since - is now the main one.

It would have helped a lot, as I may have said, to adopt while my parents were still healthy (Mom still is, Dad's okay but has Parkinson's) and able to get around a lot better, due to my handicaps. I coudl still adopt now, of course, but I guess part of why I was so anxious and begged the Lord for a little one finally is because I knew it wouldn't be quite as easy, at least not to have a newborn.

So, the Lord urged me to go forward and believe in faith He could give me a child and the money to adopt that child, and then just when thigns seemed ready suddenly the money wasn't there coming in like I expected, and while He blessed me with you, He also showed me how I needed to trust Him with you. And so, your daddy's here on earth anxiously awaiting that time we can meet face to face.

It would have been so much fun to tell you how excited I was so often about having you, and how much I love you, and sharing your story with you so you would know how much i cared. I guess in a way I still can. I mean, I'm doing this, I imagine little bits and pieces of of things like you peppering me with questions for many minutes. It's not the same as raising you here on Earth, but I do feel, in some smallway, that I do know you.

And I promise I'm not going to say "I hope you don't mind not knowing me yet" becasue I know you're going to say, "Silly dady, I in Heaven!Remember?" And, I laugh at that giggle you probably have at my silliness, and it makes me feel good, becasue I know that you are well cared for, that you're enjoying it so much up there, where nobody has seen or heard or even imagined the wonders that await us.

Meanwile, I'm down here, but not down. Because I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, God in flesh, to take the punishment for my sins. I believed by faith that what He did on the cross - when He died and rose fromt he dead - took all the punishment for my sins, and I called on Him by faith to save me from my sins. I know I'm going to Heaven now, only because of what Jesus did, I know I can't make it on my own merit.

But you, you have that chance to get there becasue jesus saves to the uttermost, and you died before you could understand that need to be saved, even before you were born. And so, I know we shall meet, and you can tell me about all the joyful thigns you've seen and experienced when I get up there.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to adopt on this earth; I'm in my mid-40s and money just never worked out yet. But, I know no matter what, I have a little one who makes me smile just in my imagining, and is a very special person to me. I may not be able to physically tell you that, but I'm sure you know. And, that's what important.

Love,
Daddy