Urban Legends, Tall Tales, Myths, Hoaxs,
Have you ever received these emails?
1)Email Beta Test - Microsoft will pay for every email you send.
2)Nigerian needs you to allow 30 million dollars to be put into your account from his father’s to be placed into your account from a confidential security company.
God / Bible Myths
1)Foot prints poem - I asked someone if they have ever read the Bible or knew of anything in the Bible. Oh Yeah, I remember that part when life is too difficult there is only one foot print in the sand - that God was carrying me.
2)Gate called Eye of the Needle
Mt 19:24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
It has been taught that there was a gate in Jerusalem and for a camel to get through this gate - it has to unload its cargo and get down on it’s knees and squeeze its way through. That is what it is like for a rich man to get into heaven. MYTH - this is not true.
Like the Nigerian money scam, one of the worst myths portrayed to believers and nonbelievers alike is the Heaven Myth.
No not that there isn’t a heaven – it’s what we think it is like.
John Elderidge wrote in his book The Journey of Desire
“Nearly every Christian I have spoken with has some idea that eternity is an unending church service… He goes on to write – We have settled on an image of the never-ending sing-along in the sky, one great hymn after another, forever and ever, amen. And our hearts sink. Forever and ever? That’s it? That’s the good news? And then we sigh and feel guilty that we are not more spiritual. We lose heart, and we turn once more to the present to find what life we can."
Have you ever thought – man I hope Jesus doesn’t come back till after the honeymoon. I sure hope I can at least stay in this new house for 3 months and really enjoy it before He comes.
Like a pastor once shared with a fellow minister – Whenever I think about Heaven, it makes me depressed. I would rather just cease to exist when I die.
When asked why He said
I can’t stand the thought of that endless tedium. To float around in the clouds with nothing to do but strum a harp… it’s all so terribly boring. Heaven doesn’t sound much better than Hell. I would rather be annihilated than spend eternity in a place like that.
Though you may be shocked to think a Bible-believing, seminary educated pastor could say such a thing – at least he is more honest than most. Many Christian share the same view of Heaven as he.
Medical Science has proven that the death rate among humans is 100%
1 John 3:2 (NIV)
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
When Heaven is your hope, when the myth is destroyed and you can’t wait to go there. You may see it like Charles Spurgeon as he was dying. To come to Thee is to come home from exile, to come to land out of the raging storm, to come to rest after long labour, to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes.
If you can’t say like Paul did in his book to the Philippians – My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better…
Otherwise we are like the
1n 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to the shore of mainland California. She had already been the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways. The weather was foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam for 15 hours. When she begged to be take out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat alongside, told her she was close and that she could make it. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and was pulled out. It wasn’t until she was on the boat that she discovered the shore was less than half a mile away. At a news conference the next days she said, “All I could see was the fog… I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”
Two months later, she tried again. This time, despite the same dense fog, she swam with her faith intact and her goal clearly pictured in her mind. She knew that somewhere behind that fog was land and this time she made it! Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, eclipsing the men’s record by two hours!
2 Corinthians 7:1 (CEV)
My friends, God has made us these promises. So we should stay away from everything that keeps our bodies and spirits from being clean. We should honor God and try to be completely like him.
2 Corinthians 6:16 & 18 (CEV)
16 Do idols belong in the temple of God? We are the temple of the living God, as God himself says, "I will live with these people and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people." … (skip 17) 18 and be your Father. You will be my sons and my daughters, as surely as I am God, the All-Powerful."
Titus 2:11 (NIV)
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope-- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
Maybe you have heard the saying – He or she is so Heavenly minded they are no earthly good?
Baloney
People who were Heavenly Minded changed the earth.
C.S. Lewis observed, “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in’; aim at earth and you will get neither.
If I were to try to describe a place to you that you have never been before I would try to use things that you understand already. If I said to you it is like Hawaii – you would have a start of a mental picture. But if I said to you it is like Hawaii in that it is an island in the ocean and it’s climate is tropical. If I told you it has streets – you know what streets are. If I need to change the definintion a little and tell you that it has streets, but they are made of wood or brick or say Gold. It tells you more. I am not saying what they have are like streets – I am telling you they are streets, and how these streets are just like the streets you know except for they are made differently.
Most of this material comes from the book titled Heaven by Randy Alcorn. If you are studying the topic of Heaven - this resources is highly recommended!
