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THE UNHEAVEN YEARS
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, April 5, 2024
There are no phones in Heaven.
No computers, either. (Not even quantum ones.)
There are also no TVs or video games or stereos or combustion engine vehicles. Now, there may well be vehicles in Heaven that sound and feel like they have combustion engines, but if you don’t like those, they’re not in your part of Heaven.
There’s no Internet in Heaven or any of the technology that supports the Internet. There’s no need for any of those things because we’ll communicate entirely differently in Heaven than we do on Earth, and we’ll get around entirely differently. Clumsy, clunky, dangerous, loud, intrusive, poisonous, addictive, obsessive, and landscape-blighting technology has no place in Heaven, though sadly it’s taken over most of Earth.
Here are a few more things that aren’t in Heaven: Sickness, pain, death, depression, good-byes, regret, mourning, theft, jealousy, rage, screaming, wrinkles, hatred, spandex, phoniness, lies, deceit, dirtiness, fatigue, bad smells, rent, jail, leaky roofs and flooded basements, toilet paper, police, medical interventions, mortgage, money, debt, credit, tape, glue, Bibles, pews, drugs, bugs that bite and sting, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, plastic anything, food laced with chemicals, cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, locks of any kind, bad hair days, windowpanes, and mirrors.
Nearly everything that most people on Earth spend their days using, thinking about, and obsessing over has no place in Heaven. Most people’s thoughts have no place in Heaven. It’s profoundly sad, the degree of unheavenliness that characterizes the lives of most people. As born-again believers, we need to be different than that. We need to be aware of what’s in Heaven (and what’s not in Heaven) and live our lives to reflect heavenly reality, not unheavenly reality. Now, some things we’ll still use, with God’s blessing while we’re still in the unheavenly realm, like windowpanes, soap, and toothbrushes. But the other things that have no place in Heaven – particularly unheavenly emotions and desires – we can weed out and banish from our lives now and in so doing create a little piece of pre-Heaven all our own.
That’s what God’s Kingdom is – a little piece of pre-Heaven made by God for his children who are still going through their trials. God made Zion for us as a shelter and retreat from the unheavenliness of the world. We can expand Zion by furnishing our little part of it with heavenly thoughts and words and deeds and wild blueberries and solid wood furniture.
The computer spellchecker scolds me that there’s no such word as “Unheaven”, but we know there is. Unheaven is the world that surrounds us outside of God’s Kingdom. Unheaven is the realm that we escaped when we were reborn, but we still have to associate with it for the time being, use its tools for our purposes for the time being, but that’s the extent of our involvement with it. It shouldn’t surprise us that a spellchecker doesn’t know Unheaven from Heaven, seeing that spellcheckers are very much a part of Unheaven and there are no spellcheckers in Heaven.
So, yes, Virginia, there is an Unheaven, but there’s oh so very much, much, much more a Heaven.
WHEN YOUR KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR IS THE DEVIL IN DISGUISE
CHARLO, New Brunswick, April 2, 2024 – It must’ve hit Peter like a frying pan when Jesus thundered at him: “Get thee behind me, Satan!” Peter had only wanted to assure Jesus that he’d always have his back, come what may, but Jesus wanted none of it. Instead, he told Peter that his offer of protection showed that he had man’s perspective, not God’s, and that he thought as someone who was still in the world, not in the Kingdom, and that Peter was in fact doing the devil’s bidding.
I can imagine that not only Peter but everyone who witnessed Jesus’ tirade would have been thrown for a loop. I mean, the last thing you’d expect when offering someone your undying love, loyalty, and protection is to have it all thrown back into your face, and being called Satan, to boot. But Jesus here, as elsewhere, was precisely on point when it came to dealing with adversity. He had, as he phrased it, a “cup to drink” that was given specifically to him by God. What Peter was doing by offering his protection was wrenching the cup out of Jesus’ hand and preventing him from doing what God had sent him to do.
As born-again believers, we all have a cup to drink that’s been given to each of us by God. In drinking our cup, we’ll almost always have people trying to intervene, thinking they’re doing us a favour by “helping” us, like Peter thought he was helping Jesus. Those in the world can’t help thinking like the world, but we need to think like God, as Jesus reminded us, because once we become Jesus’ followers, the rules of engagement change significantly. In the Old Testament, we annihilated our enemies; in the New Testament, we love them even as they’re killing us.
“Get thee behind me, Satan!” should have been a eureka moment for Peter, but I don’t think it was, considering that he later attacked one of the soldiers who arrested Jesus. In response, Jesus had again to remind him that his heroism was misplaced and that those who live by the sword, die by the sword. In other words, Jesus was again schooling his disciples on the difference between how man thinks and how God thinks.
What about you? Have you resolved to drink the cup that God has given you, or are you happy to accept any and all offers to avoid or delay drinking it? Or maybe you’ve inadvertently interfered with someone else when they were trying to drink their cup? We need to be honest with ourselves in considering the cup that God has given us and others and what we’ve done either to accept our cup or avoid it.
Whole “doctrines of men” have been developed over the centuries pandering to our baser impulse to avoid trials and tests at all costs. One of the more infamous of these doctrines is the pre-tribulation rapture. Jesus had to go through torture and crucifixion, as did Peter; Paul was beheaded, Steven was stoned to death, and thousands of born-again believers throughout the ages have likewise suffered horrendous torture, mutilation, and killing at the hands of the prevailing religious authorities, all in an attempt to have them deny Jesus.
Our cup will not be any less onerous than the ones given to our brethren over the years, and to believe otherwise is delusional. Jesus told us that whatever they do to him, they’ll do to us, too. There’s no easy way out of the cup given to us by God. We either drink it as presented, or we don’t go Home.
FOUNDATION
CHARLO, New Brunswick, March 31, 2024 – It falls on every born-again believer throughout the ages to remind other born-again believers of the first Church, of the foundation that was laid by God for the first Church, and of the need to perpetuate this Church not by altering the foundation or burying it and laying another foundation, but by understanding in the profoundest sense that we are the first Church, and that there’s only ever been one Church: the one founded by God and headed by Jesus and peopled by born-again believers.
Nothing has changed over the past 2000 years to alter that Truth.
In understanding that there’s only ever been one Church and that this Church is the same one that early Christians made their spiritual home, each of us has the responsibility to continue the legacy entrusted to us. However few and far-flung we may be, each of us carries the torch fired by the same flame lit by Jesus himself. What an honor and privilege it is to carry that torch! And how humbling.
The full membership of the one true Church is known only to God and Jesus and to whomever they choose to reveal it. In the spiritual realm, members of the Church who are still on Earth are visibly marked as God’s people. If you’re genuinely born again and therefore a member of the Church, you bear God’s mark. By this mark, you’re known in the spiritual realm as Jesus’ followers and children of God. Even the dark entities know your spiritual pedigree and keep their distance (other than when God permits them to tempt you, during which they can only tempt you to the exact measure that God stipulates).
I am reminding you here today of the first Church and of the foundation that was laid for that Church by God because other churches are vying for your attention and ultimately for your soul. Some of these other churches also call themselves the “one true church” and try to lord over you so that you cow under their dictates. In the past, if you didn’t cow, you’d be tortured until you did or until you died. These interventions have not entirely gone away; they’re just not as public as they used to be and the methods have been… sanitized.
The foundation we stand on is the same foundation stood on by Jesus and his first disciples and followers. These are our brethren. All the Marys in the New Testament are our brethren, as are the Jameses and the Judases (except for Iscariot). All the faithful, whether named or not, are our brethren. This is our Church and these are our people. There is only one Church standing on one foundation, and anything and anyone not standing on that foundation is not ours, is not the Church.
There are many other churches standing on many other foundations. Let them be. If they choose, let them come to you, but don’t you go to them: “What concord hath Christ with Belial… and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?”
We, the Church, stand on the uncut stone of the rock of God.
Where we stand now may we stand forever.
WHY I CANNOT IN GOOD CONSCIENCE CELEBRATE EASTER ANYMORE
CHARLO, New Brunswick, March 30, 2024 – When someone brings something to your attention, you have two choices: You can either listen to what’s presented and consider its merits, or you can ignore it.
Here’s what I’m bringing to your attention, my dear fellow born-again believers: Easter is not a Christian holiday. Over the centuries, and under the direction and authority of the various Eastern and Western dominant denominations, Easter has become known as a Christian holiday, but it isn’t Christian.
During his final Passover meal with his disciples, Jesus directed his followers to raise a glass in his honor and memory at future Passover meals. This directive has been stylized over the centuries as “the Lord’s Supper” and is in fact celebrated daily all over the world, not just once a year at Passover. I doubt that Jesus intended us to celebrate a stylized version of the Passover ritual every day, let alone several times a day, but that’s a topic for another discussion. What I do know that Jesus intended us to do is to observe Passover, but to do so in the new way he’d demonstrated – with the wine as his blood and the bread as his body – as a token of the new covenant.
Passover is not Easter. The dominant denominations will occasionally pepper their liturgies with words like “paschal” that appear to connect Easter and Passover, but these observances are two distinct events. The anti-christ emperor Constantine, at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, openly stated that he wanted to divorce Easter from the Jewish Passover so that the two observances would be distinct and unrelated. That’s a shame, because that’s not what God stipulated for his people when he directed them precisely when and how to observe the Passover; it’s also not what Jesus directed his disciples to do. I wonder on who’s authority Constantine overrode both God and Jesus in setting a date for Easter that had nothing to do with the Jewish Passover?
Just as a reminder, Easter occurs on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox (in adherence to the solar calendar), whereas Passover occurs on the 14th day of Abib, in the evening (in adherence to the lunar calendar). The Passover date is as good as writ in stone, as it comes from God himself. If the Passover date is as good as writ in stone and Jesus taught us to observe the Passover in the new way that he directed, why do Christians celebrate Easter and all but ignore Passover?
I’ve written here before about what I think of the Catholic church and other denominational organizations. My opinion hasn’t changed over the years; if anything, it’s solidified. When Christianity became a state religion under Constantine in the early 4th century AD, it did so by absorbing all the local pagan (that is, demonic) practices and rituals. Otherwise, the masses wouldn’t have accepted the state decree to “convert”. What that means is that the Christianity we’ve inherited is thoroughly polluted with practices and rituals that have nothing to do with the Church founded by Jesus. One of those practices and rituals is celebrating the fertility feast of the goddess Ostrea, a.k.a. Easter. And so Easter became the neo-Christian Passover substitute, with Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection clumsily overlaid, and has continued as such to this day.
I cannot in good conscience celebrate a pagan festival that was tweaked to grudgingly include Jesus. Passover, on the other hand – Passover I will observe as Jesus directed me to observe it. I will observe the Passover ritual and the accompanying Feast of Unleavened Bread. I will do so because I’ve been directed by God and Jesus to do so. I implicitly and unquestioningly trust their authority to direct me. I only wish I’d paid closer attention to their direction sooner, but as my grandmother would say, “better late than never”.
What you choose to do with this information is up to you, but I strongly suggest that you take it to heart if you’re still celebrating Easter. The early Church (which is the same Church you’re in today, if you’re genuinely born-again) continued to observe Passover as Jesus directed them to observe it. When Easter officially replaced the observance of Passover for Christians, those who rejected Easter were considered heretics and treated as such. This is a part of our heritage that is glossed over and swept under the rug, but we need to claim it, remember it, abhor it, and then stand firm in the traditions of Jesus, not of Constantine.
There is one true Church and one true Church only, and that is the Church founded by God and Jesus, as foretold in the Old Testament. Easter is not celebrated in that Church. Passover is observed, in the new way shown to us by Jesus to herald the new covenant enshrined in the new testament, sealed in Jesus’ blood. This is my Church. This is my God. This is my ritual. This is my Messiah.
Anyone trying to make me to think or do otherwise will have my Father to contend with, and good luck with that.
CELEBRATING DARKNESS: THE COMING SOLAR ECLIPSE AND EARTH HOUR
CHARLO, N.B., March 29, 2024 – Throughout human history, solar eclipses and other events that plunged Earth into unexpected or unnatural darkness were considered ill omens. Far from celebrating or encouraging participation in them like a spectator sport, phenomena that caused the light to dim or go out were universally viewed with uneasiness, even fear. In some cultures, elaborate myths developed to explain these periodic and sudden spells of darkness, and all the myths roundly and unanimously condemned the darkness as evil.
That is, until modern times, when darkness has been rebranded as an excuse to party and the only kind of fear being invoked is FOMO (fear of missing out).
For us born-again believers, darkness is not a friend. We don’t seek it out, we don’t embrace it, and we certainly don’t celebrate it or encourage its occurrence. We are to be the light in the darkness, not the breath that blows the candle out.
I mention this because publicity about the upcoming solar eclipse (April 8, 2024) is reaching hysterical proportions, and it’s easy to get caught up in it. We need to keep our distance from these dubious celebrations that are frankly bordering on pagan frenzy. What is the attraction to events that celebrate physical darkness? The same attraction that draws souls towards spiritual darkness.
In Moses’ day, darkness was the penultimate of the ten plagues brought by God to punish the ancient Egyptians for enslaving the children of Israel. The plague of darkness was not at all celebrated: in fact, the darkness was so thick, people had to remain in their homes, bedridden and helpless, for three days until the plague ended. The only place in Egypt where light shone was in the houses of God’s people. Having been in the antechamber of Hell just before my rebirth, I experienced just such a thick and total darkness. I never want to experience it again.
Earth Hour is another cultic “celebration” of darkness. Wrapped up as feel-good virtue signalling, Earth Hour calls the faithful to purposely plunge themselves and those around them into darkness for 60 minutes, allegedly for the sake of the environment. Iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, the Empire State Building, and even the so-called Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro annually “go dark” in obeisance to the call. School children are especially targeted to embrace the darkness and in so doing to guilt their parents into going along with them. Me, I purposely turn on all my lights during Earth Hour wherever I am as a small but heartfelt gesture towards those who are trying to guilt me into embracing the dark. I will never – not for any cause – purposely go dark, except when I’m sleeping.
Jesus’ crucifixion was marked by three hours of darkness, from noon until mid-afternoon. Given its long duration, this was obviously not a solar eclipse but a supernatural event brought by God as a sign, and not a good one. Just before the light returned, Jesus died. The supernatural darkness symbolized the spiritual darkness that had overtaken those who were once God’s people. It was a sign of judgement and condemnation, not a signal to party.
On April 8th, mid-afternoon, I will not be donning “eclipse glasses”, even though I currently live in the path of totality. I will not be staring mesmerized into the sun while it disappears behind the moon and turns day into night. I will instead be turning every light in my house on, lighting all my candles, and going into my closet to pray. Considering the elements that are pushing and promoting this dark event, I cannot see it as anything other than an ill omen, and I want nothing to do with it.
BE WARNED
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, March 28, 2024 – I went down an internet research rabbit hole a few days ago that God had invited me to explore. I needed the information (initially I wanted it; then I realized I needed it) to confirm a few other tidbits that he’d floated my way. Putting the pieces together and seeing what emerged was a shock enough, but an even greater shock was the vehemency of God’s warning not to say anything about what he’d shown me.
I’ve never been one to keep things quiet. When I was a kid, my mother would get me to tag along with my older sister and her friends, knowing that if my sister did something she shouldn’t, I’d blab on her. In my defence, didn’t think of it as blabbing; I just relayed the information as I saw it. My mother well knew my need to narrate my every lived experience to the minutest detail and so used me as her secret information weapon. But my poor beleaguered sister never did anything wrong so there was never anything to blab. When my mother realized that she’d raised a saint (my sister, not me), my intel services were no longer required.
God often shows his children things that he doesn’t want them to relay to others, or at least not for the time being. For me, keeping quiet can be a struggle, so it’s not enough for God simply to remind me to keep something quiet; he sometimes has to shock me into it. He did that yesterday, and it smarted, as shocks are meant to. So I had a double shock whammy – first by the information that was revealed, and secondly by the stern warning not to reveal it to others.
The Bible is full of such shocks in the form of revelations as well as of warnings to keep things quiet for a time. God often revealed information to his prophets and then told them only to say that they couldn’t reveal what they’d been told. Even Jesus did that with his disciples (for instance, at the transfiguration) and with the demons who wouldn’t stop blabbing that he was the Messiah.
Why does he do that? Why does God reveal something to us and then tell us only to say that we can’t say what he revealed? So that our brothers and sisters will heed the warning and likewise not reveal what they’ve been told not to reveal. It’s a built-in warning system for his children, by his children, and among his children, protecting them.
The internet can be a very dangerous tool for born-again believers. As much as it’s useful, it can also lead to our harm if we don’t use it as God intends us to use it. I’m not talking about porn sites or about going onto the deep web and hunting down snuff sites – we know to stay away from those. I’m talking about information that is generally just under the surface and needs only a little prodding to be brought into the daylight. Much of that information we also need to let be, but if God points us towards it (like a clue in a treasure hunt), we need to treat it as reverently as we would his direct revelations and follow his instructions to the letter.
The reward for keeping quiet when we’re told to keep quiet is that God will entrust us with more and greater revelations. The punishment for revealing what God has warned us not to reveal can be harsh, up to and including spiritual death. Yes, God is our Father and he loves us unconditionally, but he also has unbending rules regarding revelations that need to be followed; if we choose to break those rules, we suffer accordingly.
When the sign says to stay away from the edge of the cliff, I stay away from it. I don’t get mad at the sign, I heed it. I’m grateful for it.
My brothers and sisters: Be warned.
JERUSALEM
JAQUET RIVER, New Brunswick, March 26, 2024 – When they took us away, I didn’t know how far they would take us or how long we were expected to stay. We just went with them because we saw no other option that would lead to life, at least not to a life that was worth living.
We didn’t trust them. I need to get that out there and lay it down at your feet so that you’re clear about our motives. We didn’t trust them but we went with them because we wanted what they offered. We wanted the food and the promise of more food, and the warmth, and maybe even a bed to sleep in. We were tired of being hungry all the time and sleeping on the ground. But we didn’t trust them and didn’t tell the interpreter our real names or where we were from. We lied and then we lied about lying and we didn’t care. We knew they were lying too, but they had food and we didn’t, and so we went with them.
I don’t know where the camp was. They blindfolded us part of the way and changed wagons a few times. I lost all sense of direction and then suddenly we were there, wherever there was. I could smell something cooking, maybe soup. It smelled good. But I couldn’t see anything because they kept us blindfolded until they’d looked us over and decided who to keep. I don’t know what they did with the ones they didn’t keep and I don’t know who made that decision. I just know they took us outside to get cleaned up and not all of us came back inside. We were still blindfolded when they took us to get dressed in some kind of a uniform and then sat us down on long benches in a mess hall. That’s when we were told to take off our blindfolds.
We looked at each other’s freshly combed hair and clean faces across the tables like we were looking at strangers. They wouldn’t let us talk and there was only so much we could say with our eyes. But there was food and there was warmth. And so we ate in silence, grateful for these small mercies and for feeling strangely safe among our sworn enemies.
I think part of the reason they wouldn’t let us talk is that they couldn’t understand us. We couldn’t understand them, either, though we quickly got used to being ordered around by the swords they were always pointing at us, even when we were sleeping. They didn’t trust us any more than we trusted them. The only privacy they gave us was in the latrines or the bathhouse, where we had to go one at a time, never more than one at a time, and never more than for a few minutes. Any longer, and one of them would show up barking an order we didn’t understand and waving a sword in our face.
I’d been a prisoner before, but this was different. They used us for labour, mostly in the fields around the camp and some of us for housekeeping duties like laundry and cooking. There were no fences. We were free to leave if we wanted to, but where would we go? Jerusalem was in ruins. All our villages were destroyed. They knew our shame was chains enough. We all, at some point, thought about running, but none of us did. We stayed where we were because of the food and the warmth, and eventually because of the silence. After what we’d seen, it was better not to speak.
When the sickness started, it hit them harder than us. At first they thought we’d done something to the food and beat us for it, but when they saw that we were getting sick, too, they backed off. It wasn’t the kind of sickness you’d get from food, anyway. It was something else, something none of us had seen before. It would start with coughing and a fever and then blood would pour from every part of their body, like their swords were carving them up inside. From the time the coughing started until death overcame them was a span of only a few days. We looked after them as best we could and then some of us got sick. That’s when they decided to break camp.
I went with them because I didn’t know what else to do. I’d been with them at that point for about six months and gotten used to the harsh incomprehensible barking and omnipresent swords. It’s amazing what you can get used to and grow fond of. I even mourned their deaths, these mine enemies.
I can’t say they treated us well, but it could have been worse and it was far far better than being left to rot in what was left of Jerusalem. When we met up with some other refugees at the Egyptian border, they let us go. They were more concerned about their own survival and so had no more use for us. It was bittersweet to see them trundle off in their wagons. Whatever hate I’d felt for them at the beginning had long since melted into a kind of grateful familiarity that surprised me. They were nothing like I’d expected. Jeremiah had told us as much.
Too bad more of us hadn’t listened.
MIRROR MIRROR: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
CHARLO, New Brunswick, March 24, 2024 – There are no mirrors in Heaven. There aren’t any windowpanes either, though there are windows. You don’t need screens and windowpanes in Heaven because bugs don’t bite or sting and the weather stays outdoors where it belongs. Everything is perfect in Heaven, so everything is right where it belongs.
I’ve written before (here, here, here, and elsewhere) about Heaven, or at least about what God has shown me and allowed me to share with others. One way to describe Heaven is “Earth perfected” or perhaps you could describe Earth as an imperfect prototype of Heaven. Not all of God’s creation on Earth makes it to Heaven, and there’ll be things in Heaven that we, if we do make it there, have never seen before, things we can’t even imagine now. The visions given to Ezekiel and other prophets hint at that.
Paul talks about seeing the Heavenly realm “through a glass darkly” or seeing “in part”. God shows me little pieces of my little piece of Heaven and glimpses of other people’s little pieces, but that’s it for now. I see only in part. Sometimes he goes into more detail but tells me to keep those details to myself for the time being. But I do know, because scripture tells us, that we’re known by different names in Heaven and in fact we’re already known in the spiritual realm by those names. Each name is unique: There’s only one of each, just like there’s only one of each of us. We’ll learn our name if and when we get to Heaven.
Jesus tells us that we’ll be like the angels and that people don’t marry and aren’t married in Heaven. That’s a roundabout way of saying that people don’t have children in Heaven. There’s no procreation there or activities that lead to procreation. It’s shocking for some people to think there’s no sex in Heaven, but there isn’t. There are no sex organs, so no sex. Jesus wasn’t kidding when he talked about people becoming eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake. Sexual activity is very much a crude relic that we leave behind like so many filthy rags, some of us leaving it behind even before we leave Earth.
I wish I could describe to you the perfection of Heaven, but the best I can say is: Imagine the best day you’ve experienced on Earth being the prototype for Heaven. There are no “off” days or “bad hair” days in Heaven because the elements that cause you to have off and bad hair days on Earth are not present. There’s no free will in Heaven, so no bad choices are made resulting in bad days. There are also no more tests, trials, or temptations, so again, no bad days. There are also no ill-meaning or unhappy people in Heaven causing spiritual contagion to everyone around them. All sources of pain and unhappiness are gone and our will is completely and perfectly aligned with God’s, so every day in Heaven is a perfect day, as all our choices are godly ones.
I’ve written before about the perfection of our glorified Heavenly bodies. We’ll all be beautiful with a beauty surpassing even the greatest beauty on Earth, as our bodies will not be flesh and blood but a Heavenly substance that never decays. We’ll all have perfect athleticism, perfect pitch, perfect rhythm, and perfect form. This will make us superb athletes (though we’ll still have to work at learning our chosen disciplines), superb singers (like the angels!), and superb dancers, and we’ll all be beautiful to look at. In fact, we’ll be so beautiful, God will not permit any mirrors in Heaven lest we get caught up in the beauty of our own image and become vain, like Satan did.
Some of you will be pleased to learn that we’ll eat as much as we want in Heaven and never get fat. ;D
We’ll sleep every night (if we want to sleep; we don’t have to: I mean, our heavenly bodies don’t require sleep) in a perfect bed with perfect pillows, enjoying a perfect sleep that leaves us perfectly refreshed when we wake up in the morning.
We can talk with all the animals and insects; they can understand us and we can understand them. There’s no animosity in Heaven, so we’re all friends. If you want to have animals and insects as friends, you can. If you don’t, you don’t have to. Heaven is like that.
Nothing dies in Heaven; there’s no decay and no dirt or dust, so there’s no housecleaning. You also don’t have to cook (unless you want to) and dishes get cleaned in a way that I don’t yet quite understand. You never have to bathe or wash your hair because you don’t sweat and you don’t pee or poo. You’re perpetually clean. Being perpetually clean remains your default state for all eternity. But you can take a bath if you enjoy taking baths and you can swim with all the creatures in deliciously warm seas without fearing them or having them fear you.
Your allotted land in Heaven is made up of all your favourite natural places on Earth. When Jesus says to store up your treasures in Heaven, he also means all the places in God’s earthly creation that you love. God shows me my house in Heaven every day, and I see that it’s full of all my funny little earthly treasures that I alone value, along with all my treasured foods, while outside are my treasured trees and flowers and landscapes and views. Everyone in Heaven has a unique house full of their special treasures and surrounded by their favourite landscapes and views. Some live with others and some live alone, depending on their preference.
Our pets are there, too. You’d better believe it and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise – our beloved pets are in Heaven waiting for us, and we’ll be able to talk to them and interact with them just like we talk and interact with people on Earth. Only it will be better in Heaven, because there’ll be no misunderstandings and no biting or scratching or fleas, just love.
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One of the saddest things about unbelievers is that they miss out on visions of Heaven. They have no conception of Heaven and think that Hell is going to be a party place where they’ll be able to party with all their family and friends forever, doing whatever they want as long as it feels good, but that’s the last thing Hell is. Hell is the holding pen for those who end up in the lake of fire, and the lake of fire doesn’t sound much like a party place to me. And forget about spending eternity with all your friends and family who didn’t make it to Heaven – there are no family reunions in Hell, just fear and pain and dreading what comes next. And then there’s only pain and endless remorse.
I would rather forgo whatever I have to forgo now, doing without and allowing God to work through me in ways I might not entirely understand, than to try to get my Heaven on Earth and lose the real Heaven when all is said and done. The little bits and pieces that God shows me of Heaven are themselves sufficient for me to forgo whatever I have to forgo now, be it through a test or a trial. God says he requires mercy not sacrifice and mercy is almost always more difficult than sacrifice. Mercy is the ultimate test. Better to pass that one now, while there’s still time, and pass it again and again and again, whenever it’s required, because when the age of mercy draws to a close, no matter how much you plead and sacrifice, it will be too late.
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There are no mirrors in Heaven, though allegedly we won’t miss them. I have it on good authority that wondering what we look like doesn’t even occur to us in Heaven. That sinful part of us – the pride part – will have been removed.
That’s another reason why there are no mirrors in Heaven: We won’t want any.
HARD TO SWALLOW: WHAT’S EATING OUR FOOD SUPPLY?
CHARLO, New Brunswick, February 23, 2024 – When Jesus told his disciples that he had meat to eat that they knew not of, he wasn’t talking about GMO or other frankenfoods that have become the daily bread of most Westerners. For Jesus, his food was to do the work God sent him to do, which should also be our food, as Jesus’ followers. But unfortunately (and unavoidably, while we’re still here on Earth in a human body), we also have to eat physical food every now and then to keep us going. This leaves us at the mercy of food-floggers who are growing less and less concerned about our satisfaction as consumers and more and more focused on making money and pushing an agenda.
I write this as a preamble to the subject at hand today, which is the sorry state of our food as a consumer product. I won’t be covering the poisoning of our food (that subject deserves an entire library of books in itself) but will instead take a look at some radical changes that are occurring in the production, marketing, distribution, and retail sides of our food supply. These changes have led to major shifts in price, quality, and accessibility over the past few decades, especially since the launch of the “great reset” in 2020.
Note that the changes listed below are in no particular order and that the list is far from exhaustive. Feel free to add to it in the comment section below.
- Inflation: This is the change that’s getting the most press these days and goes hand-in-hand with currency devaluation.
- Shrinkflation: This refers to smaller amounts of product either in the same-sized packaging or “New Look!” (code for smaller) packaging that essentially attempts to camouflage the shrinkage. Prices either remain the same or go up.
- Lower quality: Known as “skimpflation”, costlier ingredients are swapped for cheaper ones.
- Extended ‘best before’ dates: This obviously benefits the producers and sellers, not the consumers. It’s a trend that I’ve noticed gaining traction over the past few months. Buyer beware!
- Removal of products from the marketplace: Less variety and fewer food options is mainly caused by large producers buying out smaller producers and then typically phasing out all the small company’s products. The introduction of the “planogram” system, where companies have to pay hefty prices for shelf space, also led to smaller producers being shut out of the marketplace.
- Fewer distributers: These are the companies that essentially decide what you should or should not have access to in a store. Even the stores themselves are at the mercy of their distributors. They have immense power over our food supply and there are surprisingly very few of them and growing fewer every year.
- Fewer stores and shorter retail hours: One of the most visible changes that’s happened in the past few years is the closing of stores and the reduction in shopping hours, reflecting the shift in power dynamics from the consumer to the retailer. Good luck finding a 24-hour supermarket when you need one!
- Globalization (redistribution) of food: Developing countries such as China and India are also developing huge appetites for Western products. Many of our domestic food producers are now focusing on those markets and leaving local shelves bare.
- Replacement of meat with “meat-like” or other proteins: Check the ingredients list for protein substitutes like crickets and maggots that are being slipped in under alternative names. You vill eet ze bugz, whether you know it or not.
I used to enjoy grocery shopping, but now I just grit my teeth and try not to yell in frustration at the shrinking content of the packages and higher prices. Not to mention how the flavour has been eroded by lower-quality ingredients and extended best-before dates. I eat what I have to for the time being, ever grateful to God for supplying my daily bread, but all the while I comfort myself thinking about the amazing variety of FREE FOOD that’s waiting for me in Heaven (if and when I get there) and how good it will all taste!
FOREVER FRIENDS
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, February 22, 2024 – Angels are a fascinating topic not only for believers but also for those who claim not to believe in anything at all except maybe angels. Many people have had what they consider to be an angelic encounter, though at the time they were unaware that the person they were interacting with was actually an angel in human disguise. That’s because the number one rule for God’s holy angels when they take on human form is: “Do not tell anyone you’re an angel!” So, if you’ve based your understanding of holy angels on movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life” or TV shows like “Touched by an Angel”, your understanding is going to need an overhaul to align with reality.
Prior to my rebirth, I didn’t have any encounters with God’s holy angels. Those only started after I was reborn. That’s not to say that God’s holy angels weren’t acting in my life in some way when I was an atheist – I believe they certainly were. I just didn’t see any, either in their glorified or human form. Or better said, God didn’t let me know about the encounters. But less than a year after I was reborn, I met my first holy angel in human form, at least the first one that God let me know about. A few years after that, I met my second holy angel in human form, and a few years after that I met my third. Again, these are the encounters that God’s pointed out to me (after the fact). That’s not to say I didn’t have other encounters that God hasn’t yet revealed.
In every instance, I was in a major pickle and the angels appeared seemingly out of nowhere to help me out of it. I was unaware, of course, at the time, that they were angels, but there was something about each of them that struck me as odd, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I also recall the following about them (again, in hindsight):
- Deep feeling of familiarity: I had the sense that we already knew each other, or at least that they knew me. There was nothing awkward about our conversation. I felt I could trust what they were saying to me and offering to do for me, though for all intents and purposes we were complete strangers.
- Insisted on helping: They wouldn’t take “no” for an answer and were gently but firmly insistent that I accept their help. Their insistence was almost mesmerizing, as if I couldn’t say “no” even if I’d wanted to.
- Wore costumes rather than clothes: Their clothing could be better described as costumes than clothes. For example, one of them looked like he’d been tasked with dressing like a tourist from England in the early 20th century, and so sported a tweed jacket with elbow patches, a white shirt and a tie, good leather shoes, cufflinks, etc., and a 1930’s-style men’s haircut. He didn’t look out of place; he just looked distinctive.
- Suddenly appeared and disappeared: In all cases, the angels appeared suddenly; when I turned, they were unexpectedly there. (I didn’t see them approaching.) They also disappeared the same way, unexpectedly and when I was looking the other way.
- Brief encounter. Our encounters were very brief – no more than a minute or two. But I also had the sense that time changed when I was with them. It’s possible that our encounters were longer (in Earth time) than they seemed at the time to be.
- Incredibly warm, polite, and respectful: Along with a deep sense of familiarity, I found the angels to be genuinely warm and incredibly polite and respectful. They spoke English perfectly, but it was a very formal style of English, as if they’d donned the language the same way they’d donned their costumes. Still, there was no affectation in their words or their mannerisms. Everything about them was genuine.
- Instant friendship: I liked them immediately and I sensed that they liked me. Even for the brief time we were together, I felt like we were friends.
Remember that Jesus told us we’ll be like the holy angels if/when we make it to Heaven. I believe that our time here on Earth as born-again believers is angel-training of sorts. All the things that the angels did for me in my encounters with them, I’m expected to do for others in the same warm, respectful, and unaffected way, as a follower of Jesus.
I sure hope I’ll meet up with my angels again if and when I make it Home. They disappeared so fast, I didn’t have the chance to thank them or even to say good-bye. I have the feeling, though, that if I do make it Home, I’ll not only see my angels, but we’ll be friends forever.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 