Your Permanent Home

My church recently bought its own property after renting space from other churches for almost 8 years.

We found a permanent home at last!

The property is about 8 acres of land, including a school, sanctuary, playground, wallball and basketball courts, tetherball, soccer field, housing and giant refrigerators we have no idea what to do with (not to mention the cafeteria, offices, and hallway space and a sound room the size of a small apartment). Nothing short of a miracle, for a small sabbatarian church of roughly 85 people. Despite several bumps in the road and a 2M price tag, we are finished with escrow and plan to move in to the building for our first service there on November 1st. Very exciting.

But that's not what I want to talk about.

I play a lot of online games such as Minecraft, and one day when on the said Minecraft the subject of religion came up with some online friends. Now if you know me, and even if you don't, you might have guessed by my previous posts that I KNOW what I believe and I KNOW why I believe it. I know why it's true. But many others, well, don't. I talked over the web with a Mormon, a Presbyterian, a Catholic, an agnostic, three Muslims and someone who believed in reincarnation.
And other than a few, most of them were very confused about what they believed.

Religion for some never crosses the mind, while for others it's something to actively avoid. Many people don't want to talk about it. Even strong Christians sometimes have nothing to go on other than "Jesus loves you" while that may be a great starting point, there are other things that need to be discussed. But what shocks me is that people don't know where they are going.

Even Christians of the highest degree sometimes have no concept of life after death. It's just not important to them. But it is, contrary to the popular belief, ESSENTIAL to our walk as Christians. Why am I a Christian? Because I love Jesus, yes, but also because I want to go to heaven. I want to live eternally with God. Without that hope of eternity, what is religion? Why serve God all your life when you could have been partying and doing really messed up things without eternal consequences? Heaven (And the opposite) Are abSOULutely CRUCIAL to our faith. Without it, we have nothing.

Now, I am not going to launch into a sermon with scripture references and quotes and hypotheses, again, this blog is designed to make you think. What do you think? About life after death? Take some time and think about it. Pray about it. Study the scriptures like I did. (It's extremely beneficial.) Find out what is true! Use supplemental material. Talk to your pastor or parent or even a friend. (Make sure it's a friend who knows what he or she is talking about! =-) ) Use your head and your heart. Search out the truth. You can even email me or comment on what you found personally. Get a discussion going! Find out where your permanent home will be in eternity.....!