Will You Get a Mansion Or a Room In Heaven ?

child-621915_640I am a world-class singer—under the needles of a warm shower.

Outside the bathroom, my incredible voice does a ‘Cinderella at midnight’ act and becomes ordinary. I don’t know why that is. I still love to sing, though.

Maybe that love was born when I was a kid in our little church back home. Even as an eight-year old you could find me belting out those southern-gospel hymns in the choir.

“Choir” was kind of a stretch because the song leader usually invited anyone who wanted to sing in the choir to “come on up and help us.” I’m not sure what the difference was if you sang in your pew or from behind the song leader, but we did it.

You often found me near Bro. Billy and Bro. Adolph trying to sing bass with my soprano voice, “I have a feeling in my soul, since the Savior made me whole, way down …”

At this point the bass singers plus one soprano/bass echoed, “Way down,” then everyone sang, “Way down,” and we came back with, “way down” then everyone sang, “yes, a way down deep in my soul.”

Quite impressive. At least I was impressed with us.

Mansion Over the Hilltop

I loved to sing about heaven. One of my favorites was, “I’ve got a mansion, just over the hilltop.” I really liked that. I would have loved to exchange our old house for a mansion.

So, imagine my disappointment when I found out later that Jesus probably wasn’t talking about “mansions” in John 14:1 when He said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” (KJV) Continue reading

Do You Walk With God In Eden?

sceneryThe other day as I sat next to my river (the Marne) I had a thought: God loves to walk in beautiful places with us.

He loved walking with Adam, then Eve in the cool of the evening. He’s still walking with those who love Him. He’s made gardens everywhere–rivers, mountains, valleys, seashores.

When we go there and get quiet inside we hear his slow footsteps around us.

Some things mess it up for us. For Eve it was a quest to know, to be like God. She wanted God to scoot over on the throne to make room for her, so that she could run her life and the world, I suppose.

For Adam I think it was a relationship gone wrong. Eve was no longer the same after she ate the fruit, and to keep her he had to disobey God and become what she had become.

And the evening walks stopped.

Sitting there, a breeze murmuring God’s voice in the leaves of a tree, river’s water flowing His peace into my soul, I realized that God didn’t quit walking with His people. Continue reading