Heaven: What Will It Be Like? (Before Jesus’ Second Coming)
Q: So what does the Bible say heaven will be like before Jesus' second coming?
Before Jesus' second-coming, believers will likely be in a spiritual, temporary state in God’s presence where our souls will go until they are given new bodies on the New Earth at Christ’s second-coming (emphasis has been added throughout verses below):
After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the ...
Heaven: Does Purgatory Exist?
Purgatory is the belief widely held by the Catholic church (but characteristically rejected by Protestants) that a Christian will first go to purgatory “after death [to] undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”[1] The Catholic church also encourages undertaking ways of helping those who have passed away: “The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.”[1] The word “purgatory” simply means to have the quality of cleansing or purgin...
Crying Out To The Lord
Editor's Note: This devotional is an excerpt from the 2018 Hope Mommies e-book.
In May of 2012, I walked down the aisle to the song “How Great Is Our God.” I was 33, my husband 34, and it had felt like we had waited an eternity for each other. Perhaps it didn’t feel like that to my now husband, Kevin. He’s much less dramatic than me. I knew that I wanted our wedding to be a taste of the wedding we’re really created for. The one where we meet our Savior, face to face, where we sit at the great wedding feast that will go down as ...
Heaven: Is My Baby There? {Part 2}
Editor's Note: This is the continuation of a two-part article. Part one can be found here.
[Continued]
My husband brought me the food in bed during my Scriptural search; he also listened to the thoughts that brought me tears of happiness through tears of sorrow. We made new, sink-worthy dishes that would need to be washed, and I spoke as one caught between the sight of two worlds—the world where I lived in mourning and the world I could see ahead.
The pages of Scripture growing to feel thick between my fingers with this beautifully weighty news, I questio...
Heaven: Is My Baby There? {Part 1}
Editor's Note: This is the first of a two-part article. Part two will be posted tomorrow.
[This article was written in the months after my daughter's home-going in 2013.]
In the days after coming home from the hospital where my daughter was stillborn, I sat in bed before the Bible for many hours, searching. I would need to either trust God in the unknown or see Scriptural reason to believe that my daughter resided with Him. Humanly speaking, my most natural belief would have been that she somehow reached heaven.
Looking as a mother at the vacant body of a new, ...
Announcement: “Heard” E-Book Release
Today, we announce the release of the 2018 e-book created for Hope Moms, "Heard."
With genuine desire, the shattered human heart can yearn to know that God hears its cries, that they reach His ear. The psalmist says, “I call upon You, for You will answer me, O God” (Psalm 17:6a ESV). And He hears the humble, honest cries of our indescribably depleted hearts (or, what seems to be left after crushing loss) as we call upon Him through the one Mediator: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5 ...
Receiving Looks of Judgment? Look to Christ. {Christmas Meditation #4}
Ah-ha, there is that raised eyebrow again. They think I have done something wrong though they won’t say anything. Their expression communicates clearly the judgement they are making. It hurts to see them think, "For this to have happened to her she must have done something wrong. God is judging her."
For Mary, the mother of Jesus, I think she had to have experienced something like this at least in a small way. Before Joseph, a good and caring man, had the dream from God which supplied the explanation, Mary must have seen the judgement and sorrow in his eyes. They ...
The Central Significance of Christmas {Christmas Meditation #3}
December is here. The lights are going up and people are looking forward to the Christmas season again. It is the time of year that brings to mind many joyous themes and remembrances of Christmases gone by with family and friends. Along with the many joys of remembering are also times of sadness when loved ones who we wish were around the tree with us are no longer here. This mixture of joy and sadness in our memories drives us to search for a deeper meaning to Christmas. We hear themes of peace on earth, love, and the giving spirit, and perhaps how Christ exemplified ...
A Sunrise, a Light from on High {Christmas Meditation #2}
Electricity is a wonderful convenience until we lose it on a stormy night. Suddenly it is so dark we cannot see the hand in front of our face. As we stumble over chairs and other furniture seeking some source of light we truly know what it is like to experience darkness.
John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah refers to people who sit in darkness, and the prophet Isaiah refers to people walking in darkness. Neither of them are referring to physical darkness but to darkness of the soul. Just as we have all experienced physical darkness on a stormy night, we have all ...
Spiritual Forces of Evil Surprised and Defeated {Christmas Meditation #1}
The agents of an ancient, wicked ruler entered her house. There stood her toddler son looking to her for care, love and protection. The agents grievously took his life in his mother’s sight. Her heart could only well up in uncontrollable sorrow and grief. Why did an evil king in a furious desire to retain power bring this about? There was no rebellion against the king in her son. She could not be comforted. This story was repeated scores of times in the town of Bethlehem and its region some 2000 years ago (see Matthew 2).
One little boy had barely escaped and was now ...
