Life Surprise
Life surprise is a single surprise. You need to avoid this surprise and make it a known thing during your life. Life is full of surprises and some are devastating and others are joyful and after a while we accept the good and bad, the happy and sad as just part of life. Many things that surround us provide a view of life that is misleading, but believable. We are told to be successful in this life because the earthly rewards are wonderful, on the other hand failing has its serious consequences. The consequences could be unhappiness, insufficient funds to sustain a comfortable life and health problems. There will likely be many unfulfilled desires as we seek to achieve certain goals. It turns out that most people experience both sides of the worldly version of life. There are some successes and some failures, some happiness and some regrets and some gains and some losses over a lifetime. The most successful persons frequently fear losing what they have gained and can become paranoid and selfish. Even those who appear happy, successful, without need are often in reality miserable or will be eventually. There is no real, lasting happiness on earth and so when Jesus tells the crowd about true happiness in Matthew 5 it is quite surprising. In fact, it is, if we are honest and thoughtful about Jesus’ words it is the only way to be truly happy. Jesus came preaching the kingdom and thereby providing the path to a final eternal happiness. The kingdom Jesus was speaking of is the place every person who desires to achieve the final eternal kingdom (heaven) needs to enter. This eternal kingdom is the one where happiness is what every person can agree is happiness. Later in revelation, we learn some of the characteristics of heaven in terms we can understand.
Revelation 21.4 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed
It will be an eternal existence without any sadness, without end, without pain and with the former things (of earth) having passed away. God describes the wonder of heaven throughout the scriptures using such terminology as “many mansions”, “eye has not seen”, and “the glory that will be revealed in us” and makes many mentions of heaven’s wonders. Of course, I suspect nothing will surpass the fact that God is there. I have often thought that the worst possible pain for those who are lost would be having some idea of what they missed by failing in life. Of course, I do not know, except to say the loss known or unknown to those who fail will be enormous and it will be an eternal loss.
Note about the kingdom: When you be come into obedience to God, while on this earth you enter the kingdom by being added to it by Jesus. It is the spiritual church. It is a spiritual kingdom and in that kingdom you serve Jesus and if you remain faithful unto death you will receive the crown of life, the eternal kingdom – heaven. You can read about the kingdom in great detail at this and other websites by the author.
ANYWAY, life is not about this life and living as though it is will bring you first a great surprise at the end of your life and then terrible agony and regret.
Note: the above statement is often enough to turn people away from God, and very specifically the God of the bible, that is, the only God that has ever existed. People do not like to be threatened and they reason that is what the God of the bible is doing. Everything that God does has a purpose and since He cannot lie all He says is true. If you can realize that God wants you to succeed then you can understand that God is telling you of the actuality of the suffering to come for those who reject Him. God uses fear to bring you to knowledge (Proverbs 1.7) and He means FEAR and it will help you to succeed. In fact, you need to be fearful of failing. Those who reject God in what He provides to help you are not the people God wants for heaven. Such people are a long way from those God wants. It is pride inasmuch as, “no one threatens me!” God’s test is working perfectly. It is interesting how God has revealed to everyone how to live, but at the same time only those He wants in terms of character will do His will.
Yet, how many can live for the one thing that will mean true success in life, that is heaven? When Jesus made the following statement about success in life, it set the standard that is required for true happiness.
Mark 8.35,36
35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
Worldly happiness is at best brief, heaven is eternal and the small sacrifice seems insignificant in those terms. However, we live by what we see and although what we see is temporary it is “Seemingly REAL and LASTING.” God tells us a great deal about life and these are things that cannot be known any other way. The following three verses reveal what is real, unreal, important and unimportant. The prideful person will never know these things, but God’s people are encouraged and look forward to the next life.
2 Corinthians 4.16-18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
So, how helpful is it in living the Christian life to know what is said in the above verses?
God explains so you can know:
> not lose heart because your body (outward man/woman) is perishing, but the inward person is being renewed day by day
> that your afflictions are momentary in the big picture and will end in an eternal weight of glory
> that everything that is SEEN (EVERYTHING) is temporary and that the things unseen are the only eternal things – i.e. your spirit, God, heaven and hell and so-on
About 100 billion people have lived and about 7+ billion still are alive and thus for 93 billion the surprise has been received. All 100 billion still exist and most of the 7+ billion living today will be exceedingly surprised. The advantage of knowing the surprise in advance is the most important thing in your life. Indeed, there are few who find happiness in the next life and people have the most elaborate excuses for neglecting the clear and straightforward instructions from God. God wants all to succeed, but will only accept those who can see beyond this life and act accordingly. We choose what we see and choose what we hear and invariably listen attentively to the wisdom of men and women. It should be no surprise that God hates those who mislead and so those many who stand and preach about God that which is different than God’s way will receive their terrible reward. Their surprise will indeed be great as they think they have done the right thing, when in fact they are the enemies of God. This is why writing about such things that are spiritual requires so much care and in fact it scares me half to death, lest I teach the wrong thing. Fortunately, the scriptures are simple and made only exceedingly complex by humankind. The complexity “always” comes from something in the scriptures that a person does not agree with, such as divorce, such as the commitment to life for Christ and the gospel, such as the laws around immorality and others. Frequently, the other reason for creating error has been the grasping for power and many have created religions for just that reason. Religion can have a strong hold on people and Catholicism and Islam are the two most obvious examples. There is absolutely no truth in either of these doctrines and yet the “power of synthetic religion” properly presented controls the masses well beyond reason. So, we have an ever-evolving new gospel, which Paul condemned. The private interpretation of scripture has been going on since the first century. Men and women standing up telling people that this is what God means or they have heard from God. The truth that God so carefully delivered in the scripture is not open to human interpretation.
2 Peter 1.20
20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
In order to be certain that a person speaks in accordance with God’s will the scriptures indicate as in 1 Peter 4.11 below:
1 Peter 4.11
11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.
Speak as the God breathed (oracles of God) scriptures themselves speak.
All the atheists and agnostics look to the history of religion and easily convert people to disbelief. THEY NEVER consider the fact that all this history of religion is hated by God. The simple gospel of Christ is what people need and then finally there is no objection, other than of course, the difficulty people have living for Christ.
I Have Seen The Logic Of Humankind
In an attempt to avoid being surprised and live with some certainty about what follows death, humankind has invented many scenario’s. It is the logic of humanity and the result is hundreds of doctrines about God and the afterlife. There is usually an analysis of bible statements and then an explanation of their weaknesses and improbability of being true. These theories are full of, “since this cannot be true” and “that cannot be correct” this new idea must be true. Their logic may be very “logical”, nonetheless it might not be correct and in fact it is not correct because it was fabricated by human beings.
The most fundamental principle of the bible is that God’s word is truth and all others are untrue – if you want to be correct, then you will need to understand the wisdom that comes from God. It is on this basis that God will judge all of humankind – namely did you follow God or follow after your view of life (often based on the wisdom of men and women). If you follow God, then you will know HOW to live to please God. These are the people God seeks to spend eternity with Him. God’s way of separating those for eternal life can be said in different ways, such as:
> the humble versus the proud
> the obedient versus the disobedient
If we look at Matthew 5.3, which is a frequent misunderstood verse:
Matthew 5.3
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
These are not “long-faced” people going sadly through life, but those who recognize sin in their life and humble themselves before God in obedience. They humbled themselves to listen to the word of God and accept things not necessarily aligned with what they believed or wanted to believe. They were wise enough to then obey God and specifically obey the gospel for the reason God provides. One might say, you are getting a lot out of one verse and this would be true except, God’s word is perfect and everything fits together perfectly. This principle of obedience and humility and having the courage to give one’s life for Christ and the gospel fills the pages of the scriptures and specifically since Christ, the New Testament. Many pages of Heaven Coach show this consistency of God in relation to humility, obedience, forgiveness of sins, and the attitude of “loving the truth.” Some good pages for your reference at this sight would be:
> The Gospel Message
> Obey The Gospel
> Cost Of Pride
> Only A Few Will Achieve Heaven
The word of God is powerful in converting the soul and yet, the most basic principle of God’s plan is for every person to make choices that will determine their eternity. In other words, although God’s truth is available and EXCEEDINGLY convincing in its message, a person still must choose God (the God of the bible) over all other things. Life’s surprise is for all the complacent, for all those who live for themselves. In other words for the vast majority of humankind. Indeed, it is difficult to overcome the indoctrination that life is about this short period of time of your earthly existence. How many can see the eternal things, that is the unseen things? Sounds like an impossibility and yet God’s word allows a person to see the unseen. Those who love the truth can see eternal things with 100% certainty and they will not be surprised. They know they will exist after death and they are the obedient ones, who will come boldly to the throne of grace, while NOT in any way be arrogant!
It will be an eternal existence without any sadness, without end, without pain and with the former things (of earth) having passed away. God describes the wonder of heaven throughout the scriptures using such terminology as “many mansions”, “eye has not seen”, and “the glory that will be revealed in us” and makes many mentions of heaven’s wonders. Of course, I suspect nothing will surpass the fact that God is there. I have often thought that the worst possible pain for those who are lost would be having some idea of what they missed by failing in life. Of course, I do not know, except to say the loss known or unknown to those who fail will be enormous and it will be an eternal loss.
Note about the kingdom: When you be come into obedience to God, while on this earth you enter the kingdom by being added to it by Jesus. It is the spiritual church. It is a spiritual kingdom and in that kingdom you serve Jesus and if you remain faithful unto death you will receive the crown of life, the eternal kingdom – heaven. You can read about the kingdom in great detail at this and other websites by the author.
ANYWAY, life is not about this life and living as though it is will bring you first a great surprise at the end of your life and then terrible agony and regret.
Note: the above statement is often enough to turn people away from God, and very specifically the God of the bible, that is, the only God that has ever existed. People do not like to be threatened and they reason that is what the God of the bible is doing. Everything that God does has a purpose and since He cannot lie all He says is true. If you can realize that God wants you to succeed then you can understand that God is telling you of the actuality of the suffering to come for those who reject Him. God uses fear to bring you to knowledge (Proverbs 1.7) and He means FEAR and it will help you to succeed. In fact, you need to be fearful of failing. Those who reject God in what He provides to help you are not the people God wants for heaven. Such people are a long way from those God wants. It is pride inasmuch as, “no one threatens me!” God’s test is working perfectly. It is interesting how God has revealed to everyone how to live, but at the same time only those He wants in terms of character will do His will.
Yet, how many can live for the one thing that will mean true success in life, that is heaven? When Jesus made the following statement about success in life, it set the standard that is required for true happiness.
Mark 8.35,36
35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
Worldly happiness is at best brief, heaven is eternal and the small sacrifice seems insignificant in those terms. However, we live by what we see and although what we see is temporary it is “Seemingly REAL and LASTING.” God tells us a great deal about life and these are things that cannot be known any other way. The following three verses reveal what is real, unreal, important and unimportant. The prideful person will never know these things, but God’s people are encouraged and look forward to the next life.
2 Corinthians 4.16-18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
So, how helpful is it in living the Christian life to know what is said in the above verses?
God explains so you can know:
> not lose heart because your body (outward man/woman) is perishing, but the inward person is being renewed day by day
> that your afflictions are momentary in the big picture and will end in an eternal weight of glory
> that everything that is SEEN (EVERYTHING) is temporary and that the things unseen are the only eternal things – i.e. your spirit, God, heaven and hell and so-on
About 100 billion people have lived and about 7+ billion still are alive and thus for 93 billion the surprise has been received. All 100 billion still exist and most of the 7+ billion living today will be exceedingly surprised. The advantage of knowing the surprise in advance is the most important thing in your life. Indeed, there are few who find happiness in the next life and people have the most elaborate excuses for neglecting the clear and straightforward instructions from God. God wants all to succeed, but will only accept those who can see beyond this life and act accordingly. We choose what we see and choose what we hear and invariably listen attentively to the wisdom of men and women. It should be no surprise that God hates those who mislead and so those many who stand and preach about God that which is different than God’s way will receive their terrible reward. Their surprise will indeed be great as they think they have done the right thing, when in fact they are the enemies of God. This is why writing about such things that are spiritual requires so much care and in fact it scares me half to death, lest I teach the wrong thing. Fortunately, the scriptures are simple and made only exceedingly complex by humankind. The complexity “always” comes from something in the scriptures that a person does not agree with, such as divorce, such as the commitment to life for Christ and the gospel, such as the laws around immorality and others. Frequently, the other reason for creating error has been the grasping for power and many have created religions for just that reason. Religion can have a strong hold on people and Catholicism and Islam are the two most obvious examples. There is absolutely no truth in either of these doctrines and yet the “power of synthetic religion” properly presented controls the masses well beyond reason. So, we have an ever-evolving new gospel, which Paul condemned. The private interpretation of scripture has been going on since the first century. Men and women standing up telling people that this is what God means or they have heard from God. The truth that God so carefully delivered in the scripture is not open to human interpretation.
2 Peter 1.20
20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
In order to be certain that a person speaks in accordance with God’s will the scriptures indicate as in 1 Peter 4.11 below:
1 Peter 4.11
11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.
Speak as the God breathed (oracles of God) scriptures themselves speak.
All the atheists and agnostics look to the history of religion and easily convert people to disbelief. THEY NEVER consider the fact that all this history of religion is hated by God. The simple gospel of Christ is what people need and then finally there is no objection, other than of course, the difficulty people have living for Christ.
I Have Seen The Logic Of Humankind
In an attempt to avoid being surprised and live with some certainty about what follows death, humankind has invented many scenario’s. It is the logic of humanity and the result is hundreds of doctrines about God and the afterlife. There is usually an analysis of bible statements and then an explanation of their weaknesses and improbability of being true. These theories are full of, “since this cannot be true” and “that cannot be correct” this new idea must be true. Their logic may be very “logical”, nonetheless it might not be correct and in fact it is not correct because it was fabricated by human beings.
The most fundamental principle of the bible is that God’s word is truth and all others are untrue – if you want to be correct, then you will need to understand the wisdom that comes from God. It is on this basis that God will judge all of humankind – namely did you follow God or follow after your view of life (often based on the wisdom of men and women). If you follow God, then you will know HOW to live to please God. These are the people God seeks to spend eternity with Him. God’s way of separating those for eternal life can be said in different ways, such as:
> the humble versus the proud
> the obedient versus the disobedient
If we look at Matthew 5.3, which is a frequent misunderstood verse:
Matthew 5.3
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
These are not “long-faced” people going sadly through life, but those who recognize sin in their life and humble themselves before God in obedience. They humbled themselves to listen to the word of God and accept things not necessarily aligned with what they believed or wanted to believe. They were wise enough to then obey God and specifically obey the gospel for the reason God provides. One might say, you are getting a lot out of one verse and this would be true except, God’s word is perfect and everything fits together perfectly. This principle of obedience and humility and having the courage to give one’s life for Christ and the gospel fills the pages of the scriptures and specifically since Christ, the New Testament. Many pages of Heaven Coach show this consistency of God in relation to humility, obedience, forgiveness of sins, and the attitude of “loving the truth.” Some good pages for your reference at this sight would be:
> The Gospel Message
> Obey The Gospel
> Cost Of Pride
> Only A Few Will Achieve Heaven
The word of God is powerful in converting the soul and yet, the most basic principle of God’s plan is for every person to make choices that will determine their eternity. In other words, although God’s truth is available and EXCEEDINGLY convincing in its message, a person still must choose God (the God of the bible) over all other things. Life’s surprise is for all the complacent, for all those who live for themselves. In other words for the vast majority of humankind. Indeed, it is difficult to overcome the indoctrination that life is about this short period of time of your earthly existence. How many can see the eternal things, that is the unseen things? Sounds like an impossibility and yet God’s word allows a person to see the unseen. Those who love the truth can see eternal things with 100% certainty and they will not be surprised. They know they will exist after death and they are the obedient ones, who will come boldly to the throne of grace, while NOT in any way be arrogant!
Yet, how many can live for the one thing that will mean true success in life, that is heaven? When Jesus made the following statement about success in life, it set the standard that is required for true happiness.
36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
God explains so you can know:
> not lose heart because your body (outward man/woman) is perishing, but the inward person is being renewed day by day
> that your afflictions are momentary in the big picture and will end in an eternal weight of glory
> that everything that is SEEN (EVERYTHING) is temporary and that the things unseen are the only eternal things – i.e. your spirit, God, heaven and hell and so-on
21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
The most fundamental principle of the bible is that God’s word is truth and all others are untrue – if you want to be correct, then you will need to understand the wisdom that comes from God. It is on this basis that God will judge all of humankind – namely did you follow God or follow after your view of life (often based on the wisdom of men and women). If you follow God, then you will know HOW to live to please God. These are the people God seeks to spend eternity with Him. God’s way of separating those for eternal life can be said in different ways, such as:
> the humble versus the proud
> the obedient versus the disobedient
> The Gospel Message
> Obey The Gospel
> Cost Of Pride
> Only A Few Will Achieve Heaven
The word of God is powerful in converting the soul and yet, the most basic principle of God’s plan is for every person to make choices that will determine their eternity. In other words, although God’s truth is available and EXCEEDINGLY convincing in its message, a person still must choose God (the God of the bible) over all other things. Life’s surprise is for all the complacent, for all those who live for themselves. In other words for the vast majority of humankind. Indeed, it is difficult to overcome the indoctrination that life is about this short period of time of your earthly existence. How many can see the eternal things, that is the unseen things? Sounds like an impossibility and yet God’s word allows a person to see the unseen. Those who love the truth can see eternal things with 100% certainty and they will not be surprised. They know they will exist after death and they are the obedient ones, who will come boldly to the throne of grace, while NOT in any way be arrogant!
