These comments were all transferred over from the original website

Posted: February 11, 2000 by Rickster

i really appreciate your letters

Posted: February 11, 2000 by Bruce

Jim,

I am SO...SO...SO...very thankful that you have NO FEAR to speak and teach what has been shown you! My vision of Christ and His Kingdom is MORE like yours everytime I read something new you write.

There is much that I believe that I do not share with everyone because it is considered "heretical" by most Christians. It's like you wrote...they "hear" what you are saying but they "interpret" it all backwards. That's the way it was with Jesus wasn't it? That is why he spoke in parables...so that those who had "ears to hear" by the Spirit...would clearly understand what he was talking about while the others were condemned by the same parable.

Isn't it that way with God? How you perceive Him is how He will be to you. If you see Him as a hard taskmaster...then He will be that way with you. If you see Him as kind and compassionate, merciful, and forgiving...then that is how He is with you.

Isn't it it strange that at the end of the book of the REVELATION of JESUS CHRIST that John wrote...he says...that the "FEARFUL" and unbeliving are part of the group that are thrown into the lake of fire?

Have you got any insight on this yet?

Posted: February 11, 2000 by Nancy

Dear Jim,

Greetings form the frigid north--Maine! I sure hope you are enjoying yourself in ..Florida did you say? Is that where you live? You poor thing! Today when I awoke at 5:00 am the snow was beginning to fall. It's around noon now and we've gotten about 8" from the looks of it. It's still coming down hard. School was cancelled today. We have a lot of happy children right now. Most of the rest of us here are waiting for spring.... patience is a virtue, so they say. I tell my husband that we have to put up with winter in order to live in paradise. :)

I'm writing in response to this week's letter..."The Fear of Heaven"

What you say is true. We're generally afraid when it comes to heaven. That's so sad, because we really don't need to be. If we have believed on Christ to forgive us our sins; if we believe in Him for salvation and all that "salvation" holds for us, (small word, BIG meaning!) then we really have nothing to fear, do we?

I especially hate the thought (which has turned into many a sermon, I'm sure) that my mansion in heaven will be made out of the pitiful pile of lumber that I've been sending heavenward by virtue of my own good works. That kind of thinking has done great damage and caused much hurt to innocent Christians who really want to live in a way that pleases God, but who are fed a certain line about measuring up to a Christian standard. This type of thinking, while perhaps looking good and pious is actually rooted in legalism. We seem to have this need to look good, even if only in our own minds. We all want to come up smelling like roses, when really we've just got to accept the fact that as far as holiness is concerned, we all smell more like what you aspire to shovel.

Seriously, if we are living in fear and worried about whether or not our own works measure "up to snuff", then we are probably relying on ourselves and that's called being self-righteous. As Christians, our righteousness can only come from Christ. Not that we actually are righteous, but that God reckons us as so because of Christ. If I were relying on my own works to provide for myself in heaven, then I'd surely end up living in a cold, dirty hovel. This whole line of thought brings I Corinthians 3:12 to my mind, which speaks on rewards. I suspect we have given this passage a different meaning than was intended by the writer. Could you talk about that for just a bit? I don't have all the answers, I guess. I think it's speaking on teaching the truth about Christ and whether or not what a person has taught others will be used by God to build His church (people, not institution), or whether it will be discarded by God as a useless effort. Although I've been trying to re-arrange my thinking to what the Bible REALLY says, and not the old song and dance about "living the good, Christian life", I don't have evrything figured out yet. So I'd appreciate your thoughts on that passage.

Our salvation just isn't based on our own works. We're low-life sinners. You and me both along with everyone else out there. That's the bad news. But the bad news is what makes the Good News so darn good! We are "In Christ." What I don't deserve, He gives to me freely, and that includes heaven. I don't claim to know much about heaven. But the more I know about God, the more I can say that it really doesn't matter what He has planned for me for the rest of eternity, because I know it will be something good and right. Considering the enjoyment He's provided me in this life, I can safely assume that I'm not going to be miserable in the hereafter!

Our mansions in heaven from John 14:2 have been interpreted in many ways. They could be either literal material dwellings that Christ is building with an actual hammer and saw as we send Him our lumber, piece by piece (but I don't think so), or they could be defined in a more abstract meaning of the term "dwelling place." Whatever the term "mansion" means, I know mine won't be built on my own good works(at least I hope not!), but on the goodness, perfection, and holiness of Christ. You know, I don't think we need to worry about how our own lives are comparing with each other's. We are all in the same boat when we're "in Christ." I certainly won't get what I deserve, but neither will any other Christian. We'll get infinitely more, I'm sure. That's just the way God is.

There are a lot of misconceptions and bad teaching in the church about salvation and what it means to be "in Christ." I pray that sites like yours will be given great influence to counter error with the truth. There are so many who need to hear it.

Nancy - in paradise