What Is the "Soul"?

In the first 40 or so years of my life, I believed in the concept that I was composed of body and soul – the body was the material part of me, and the soul was the spiritual part of me. The body decayed in the grave when I died but the spiritual part of me lived on in an “immortal soul”.

If I died in a “state of grace” – that is, without any unrepented and unforgiven serious sin against me, I would be assured of heaven even if I had to spend some time in “purgatory” for purification first.

The problem was that I had to die with my soul in a state of grace. When I sinned, I fell out of that state of grace and when I confessed and was forgiven, I received again that state of grace.

Most of the time, I wasn’t sure whether I was in or out of the state of grace. Because even when I confessed and repented the past sin or sins, I didn’t really know how quickly my mind had taken up wrong thoughts and, consequently, whether I was prepared to die or not. I had no confidence in my salvation because I had no confidence in my state of grace.

My frustration was compounded because a corollary of this state of grace doctrine was that I had two natures – the sinful nature of the flesh and the godly nature of the “image of God” – battling within me for supremacy. There was this constant war between good and evil going on right inside of me, and evil seemed to win out as much or more than good did.

Jesus Christ, my “general” on the good side was supposed to be warring with Satan, my “general” on the bad side. It was likened to a civil war within me – my soul was the battleground, and the outcome of each battle determined my state of grace…or ungrace.

I believe that I have stated this understanding correctly to the best of my ability. Now there are very likely many who believe in this doctrine that can live with it spiritually. But I must state that I was in a constant state, not of grace, but of frustration and fear.

Was I really repentant of that last sin? Can God really keep forgiving me over and over? Why am I not overcoming habitual sin? Why did God create my mind and body so weak in fighting off sin? Am I going to die out of the condition known as “state of grace”?

Something was wrong. The Christian life just could not have been meant to be lived this way. God must have a better way.

And then, with an in depth Bible study, I found that God DOES HAVE A BETTER WAY!

Turn in your Bible to 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and see the true composition of all people: SPIRIT and SOUL and BODY. WE are made up of THREE parts. The spirit and soul are different! They must be different because Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is able to divide the soul and the spirit of a person – that is, the Word gives us an understanding that the soul and spirit are different. The soul IS NOT the spirit.

The next step was to go to a concordance and look up the usage and Hebrew and Greek meaning of the word “soul” in the Bible.

The Hebrew word for “soul” in the Old Testament is nephesh. 470 times nephesh is translated “soul”. BUT 9 times it is translated “creature”; 90 times it is translated “life”; 12 times it is translated “heart”; 11 times it is translate “mind”; 9 times it is translated “dead body”.

The Greek word for “soul” in the New Testament is psuche. 57 times psuche is translated “soul”. BUT 40 times it is translated “life”; one time it is translated “heart”; one time it is translated “mind”.

Genesis chapter one uses the word nephesh in connection with lower life forms twice before the word is ever used concerning man: “And God created great whales and every living nephesh that moves…” (v 21). “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living nephesh after his kind, cattle, and beast…” (v. 24). So we see that animals have a nephesh. “And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that moves upon the earth, wherein there is a nephesh …” (v. 30). “God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living nephesh that was the name thereof.” (2:19).

The words “immortal soul” do not appear in the Bible. Animals (or at least those who have relationships with man) have souls – that is, intellect, emotions and will. But animals have no spirit part. Therefore when they die, their souls die also.

But man’s soul, having a spirit part to interact with, does continue on after death. Man is more than a physical creation – he is a creature of two realms, the material and the spiritual. The human spirit is totally of the spirit realm. The human body is totally of the material realm. And the human soul FUNCTIONS IN EITHER THE SPIRIT REALM OR THE MATERIAL REALM AS IT CHOOSES.

After conversion and new birth, this new species – the Christian – now also has a totally new relationship with sin in the composite parts, the spirit, soul and body.

First of all, there can no longer be a sin of the spirit in the Christian. Jesus is living there. “Whoever is born of God [the new species of Christian] does not commit sin [in his human spirit] for His [Christ’s] seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.”(1 John 3:9). BUT WE CAN COMMIT SOUL SINS BY REVERTING TO TEMPORARY INDEPENDENT THINKING AND ITS RESULTING ACTIONS OF BODY SIN. Jesus Christ doesn’t leave the union within our spirit when we have soul and body sin.

1 John 5:17 says, “All unrighteousness is sin. And there is a sin NOT UNTO DEATH!!” The sin that was UNTO death was borne by Christ on the cross, and that is the sin that a Christian cannot commit anymore. It is simply that God’s true children cannot commit a sin that separates them from God.

The Christian can and does commit soul sins by temporarily succumbing to Satan’s external influence toward independent thinking. This can and does lead to body sins of action and to material consequences. This is just plain and simply going to happen because of the Christian’s life on earth in the material world.

But God’s response to soul and body sin in the Christian is to treat him like a member of His Family. How do you as a parent treat a child who slips up or temporarily rebels? Do you disown him? Do you reject him out of your sight? No. A good parent corrects the child in some form or other and then welcomes him forward in family love and fellowship – not rejected in punishment but loved in correction.

Correction for sin is to show us that our way doesn’t work and draws us closer to Cod than before. God wants His children to relate and deal with each other by the standards of the Family structure – God’s love. Sin, in the Christian, is still lawlessness, the illusion of independence from God. But correction draws us out of the illusion and into the reality of spiritual dependence within the Family.

So we see that God’s response to sin is both justice and mercy. God’s justice does call for punishment. But the punishment is for those without Christ. And the mercy of correction is for those IN CHRIST, those Christians of the new birth living in a union with Christ in their spirits. And the more we accept correction for those inevitable soul and body sins in the situations and circumstances of our lives, the greater will be our spiritual growth in awareness of who we are as true children in God’s Family.

We are to hand back to God the soul that is handed to us by the Creator; to choose to surrender our “control panel” in trust that the Creator knows best.

The soul and the spirit of man are created to work in union with each other. But due to the influences of our world culture, man tends to manufacture his own false sense of soul independence and to miss the nature of his true created dependence.

At this point you may be saying to me, “You mean that this understanding of what the soul is and its function within us IS THAT IMPORTANT IN A CHRISTIAN’S LIFE?

What I am saying is that, in my own experience and also in the lives of many other Christians I have seen around me, the concept of a “war between natures” within us is a very real stumbling block to spiritual growth.

Everyone deep down understands their human weakness. Oh there are many who put on a good front of supposed human strength, but it is an illusion that they have forced on themselves in response to independent reasoning. Center yourself on your human soul acting like your soul is who you ARE, and life will be difficult at best. This applies to Christians and non-Christians alike.

And a Christian who concentrates on a war between God and Satan going on WITHIN him cannot grow into the lifestyle of a child of God without much correction. The knowledge of his human weakness combined with the concept of a nature war within will most often be such a source of frustration that it will block much spiritual awareness.

CHRIST is inside you! SATAN is outside you! CHRIST has won the victory long ago. SATAN has been defeated long ago. The nature of SATAN used to be inside you but has been totally removed and replaced. The nature of CHRIST is now in your human spirit, and He has said that He will never leave you or forsake you. AND YOUR SPIRIT IS WHAT YOU ARE – your soul is NOT what you are.

You have been given your soul control-panel in order to be persuaded by God to choose Him. God wants you to see Him as a loving, correcting Father rather than as a stern, punishing Judge.

As a Christian, God has saved your spirit – who you ARE; God is in the process of “saving” or correcting your soul to His perfect ways.

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The Lion In the Marble

The little boy approached the great sculptor who was creating a mighty lion figure out of marble. It was to be placed at the entrance to a magnificent new government building. As the boy watched the sculptor work and the shape of the lion became apparent, the boy questioned the sculptor: “Sir, tell me, how did you know that there was a lion in the marble?”

The sculptor looked up and, seeing the boy’s genuine curiosity, replied: “I knew there was a lion in the marble because before I saw the lion in the marble I saw him in my own heart. The secret is that it was the lion in my heart who recognized the lion in the marble.”

As Christians, we can well apply this story to our relationship with Jesus Christ - the Lion of Judah (Rev. 5:5; Hosea 5:14). Human beings are composed of three parts: spirit, soul and body (1 Thes. 5:23). I like to say: I AM a spirit, I HAVE a soul, and I LIVE IN a body. When we accept Christ as Savior and Lord, the Spirit of Christ comes and joins with our human spirit in an eternal living union. The soul (the mind, emotions and will) is the control panel for the body. The rest of our human life is to be spent transforming and conforming our soul choices (our control panel choices) to the awareness of who we are at our core, our human spirit.

The sculptor said, “...before I saw the lion in the marble I saw him in my own heart.” For us Christians, the “marble” can represent our soul and the “heart” is our human spirit united to Christ.

During the first two-thirds of my life, I found it very difficult to see the Lion in the marble of my soul. I thought that there was an Anaconda (Satan) and a Lion (Christ) battling for my soul and the snake seemed to win out much of the time.

The sculptor continued, “. . . The secret is that it was the lion in my heart who recognized the lion in the marble.” It was not until I saw Christ the Lion united forever to my human spirit that I was able to see the potential Lion in the marble of my soul. The Lion has to be carved out daily by a discipline of awareness and trust in the assured power of Christ within. How does the Lion appear out of the marble? - By chipping away in pieces everything that IS NOT THE LION!

Awareness! Awareness is of who we are at our core spirit - Jesus Christ! We awaken ourselves daily to the God in us and let Him enter into our heartbeat and our breathing, into our thoughts and emotions, our hearing, seeing, touching and tasting - our soul and body senses. It is by being awake to this God in us that Christ can chip away in the marble everything that is not the Lion and create Him in our souls and bodies so that the world can see Him through us.

To the world, many Christian souls are very opaque. People see nothing in the marble but a thick, impenetrable block of stone. We Christians must grow daily in a careful attentiveness to Him who dwells in the center of our being, such that through the recognition of His presence we allow Him to take possession of ALL our senses.

The key to having the ability to chip away what is NOT Christ in our soul and to shape out the form of Christ in our soul is the recognition that the old “anaconda” -Satan - is not battling the Lion WITHIN our soul because the snake has already been defeated and thrown out. He can only hiss at us or, alternatively, try to charm and smooth talk us from a distance, externally and not internally.

But let us not underestimate this struggle to sculptor out the Lion in the marble. The world around us would constantly try to confuse us about what parts of the marble are the Lion and are not the Lion. The world would have us not chip off parts that should be chipped or, on the other hand, make us chip off parts that should remain in the structure of the Lion.

But the correct sculptoring can and will be accomplished, not in our own hard work and strength, but by our trust in Christ within. God has promised us that the Lion in the marble WILL gradually take shape on a daily basis. We are all in the “art class” of life and we have the Perfect Instructor of the class. Some of us will create a very recognizable marble Lion in the course of our human life. Others may only get halfway through the process with only a “Lion’s head” before they die. What God wants is the steady PROCESS, and He does not expect perfection.

How much “Lion” is being exposed
in the marble of YOUR soul??

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The Encirclement of Protection

I’m going to date myself with this, but here goes. When I was a kid, there was no TV, just radio. When people wanted to see movies, they went to the movie theater. There was a theater a block from my home and I went there often for movie entertainment. The cost of admission was 35 cents for adults and 10 cents for children. And for that price, you got two feature length movies (called a “double-feature”), a couple of cartoons, and an installment of a “serial” such as Buck Rogers or The Lone Ranger - four full hours for one price!

I like to watch the American Movie Classics channel on TV once in a while for nostalgic value. Much of the “modern” stuff on television today is just plain junk. A while back, I was watching a old cowboy and indian movie. The indians had raided a wagon train and you know how the action goes: the wagons were quickly formed into a circle for protection, and the indians rode round and round attempting to wear down the resistance of the settlers in the wagon train. The men of the wagon party placed themselves between the gaps in the wagons and somewhat underneath the wagons to form a circle of protection for the women and children who were in the center of the circle.

If the men were good shots and had enough ammunition, the circle of protection sometimes held up and the indians gave up and went away. But if the circle of protection broke down, all was lost.

I began to think about God’s circle of protection for His children - you and I. We have Jesus Christ living eternally within us in a union of Spirit to human spirit. His Presence in our “wagon train” of life is an invincible protection for us. No external evil elements can defeat Him and break the encirclement of protection. We have this assurance of His power. But then…. how do “bad” things happen to Christian children of God? And why?

No action can touch us except with the Father’s knowledge and by His permission. It may be the sin of man that originates the action, and therefore the thing itself cannot be said to be the will of God; but by the time it reaches us, it has become God’s will for us, and must be accepted as directly from His hands.

No wild indians, no man or army of men, no power on earth or in heaven, can touch that soul which is abiding in Christ without first passing through His encircling presence and receiving the seal of His permission. If God be for us, it cannot matter who may be against us. Nothing can truly disturb or harm us when God sees that it is best for us, and Christ stands aside a little to let it pass.

An earthly parent’s care for his helpless child is a feeble illustration of this. If the child is in its father’s arms, nothing can touch it without that father’s consent, unless he is too weak to prevent it. And even if this should be the case, he suffers the harm first in his own person before he allows it to reach his child. If an earthly parent would care this way for his little helpless one, how much more will our heavenly Father, whose love is infinitely greater, care for us who are born again as children in His eternal family!

God takes note of the minutest matters that can affect the lives of His children. God regulates them all according to His own perfect will, LET THEIR ORIGIN BE WHAT THEY MAY!

The instances of this are numberless. Take Joseph. What could have seemed more apparently on the face of it to be the result of sin, and utterly contrary to the will of God, than the action of his brethren in selling him into slavery? And yet Joseph, in speaking of it, said, “As for you, you thought evil against me; but God meant it for good.” It was undoubtedly sin in Joseph’s brethren, but by the time it had reached Joseph it had become God’s will for him and was, in truth, the greatest blessing of his whole life. And thus we see God can make all things, even the sins of others, “work together for good to those who love Him.”

Many Christians have difficulty in living the life of faith on account of the situations that seem to them to control nearly everything about them. They tend to question whether God can really be in everything or not.

To live the human life that the Father wants for His children, we must come to a divine awareness of not only Christ living in us in a living union with our human spirit, but of Christ’s glorious encircling Presence surrounding us and protecting us from anything which can TRULY harm us. Picture as you can the wild, encircling indians, fighting armies, wicked men, raging beasts, storms and pestilences, sin and suffering of every kind, all outside of the encircling Presence. And nothing, absolutely nothing, can touch you except as the Presence divides a little to let the evil through.

And even the small and annoying things of life can pass through only as the Presence parts the circle a little. Not a mean look, nor a harsh word, nor any petty trial of any kind can affect you, unless Christ’s enveloping Presence opens the circle a little. to let it in.

We must come to see that life comes to us, day by day and hour by hour, directly from the hand of God, let the agencies which seem to control it be what they may.

I am convinced that this is the only clue to a completely restful life. Nothing else will enable a Christian to live only in the present moment, as we are commanded to do, and to take no anxious thought for the morrow. Nothing else will take all the risks and “supposes” out of a Christian’s life and enable him to say, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Under God’s care, we run no risks!

There is the story of a poor black woman who earned a precarious living by daily labor, but who was a joyous, triumphant Christian. “Ah, Nancy,” said a gloomy Christian lady to her one day, who almost disapproved of her constant cheerfulness, and yet envied it, “Ah, Nancy, it is all well enough to be happy now, but I should think the thoughts of your future would sober you. Only suppose, for instance, that you should have a spell of sickness, and be unable to work; or suppose your present employers should go out of business, and no one else could give you work; or suppose. . .”
“Stop!” cried Nancy, “I never supposes. The Lord is my Shepherd, and I knows I shall not want. And, honey,” she added to her gloomy friend, “it’s all dem supposes as is makin’ you so miserable. You’d better give dem all up and JUST TRUST THE LORD.”

Nothing else but this seeing God in everything will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and trouble us. They will then be to us only the instruments for accomplishing God’s tender and wise purposes toward us, and we will even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the blessings they bring.

Nothing else will completely put an end to all complaining and rebelling thoughts. Christians often feel at liberty to complain against man, when they would not dare to complain against God. But if our Father permits a trial to come, it must be because the trial is the sweetest and best thing that could happen to us, and we can accept it with thanks as coming from God’s own hand.

This does not mean, however, that we must like or enjoy the trial itself, but that we must like God’s will in the trial. It is not hard to do this when we have learned to know that His will is the will of love from the Father to His own CHILD.

Along with this awareness of the encircling protection of God through the indwelling Christ comes an ease of forgiveness of others. No matter what their motives personally, what they did to us has only happened because Christ opened the encirclement a little bit to bring us into some good. God knows our life’s needs much better than we do and we do not have the “big picture”. And our very act of forgiveness may be the opening to God that the offender needs.

This way of seeing our Father in everything makes life a glorious adventure, and gives a rest of heart and, more than that, a happiness of spirit.

GOD IS SURE TO HAVE HIS OWN WAY CONCERNING THOSE WHO ABANDON THEMSELVES TO HIM IN COMPLETE TRUST.

When the “indians” are circling your “wagon”, remember that the circle of Christ‘s protection cannot be defeated. Christ may part that circle occasionally. His purpose is not to allow YOU to be defeated - but rather to show you that the enemy is ALREADY defeated! The enemy cannot truly harm you, but whatever temporary damage he causes drives you to a greater awareness of God and His good purposes.

He who sides with God in EVERYTHING cannot fail to win every encounter. And whether the result shall be joy or sorrow, failure or success, death or life, we may under all circumstances join in with Paul’s shout of victory,

“Thanks be to God Who ALWAYS causes us
to triumph IN CHRIST!”

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The Gilded Water Cooler

A large bubble formed in the depths of the water cooler and slowly made its way upward, breaking the surface with a muffled bloop. Two men and a woman conversed over their cups.

“It would be nice if we got to go to the mountains once in a while like the boss instead of having to hang around here and do all the work.”

“Wouldn’t it? Questions come up and he’s never here to answer them. Everyone who has a problem wants to talk to the man in charge, and frankly, I’m sick of telling them to check back next week. Don’t they have phones at that conference center? Why doesn’t he return his calls?”

“Give him a break,” said the third party. “He’s already gotten us a better working agreement than we‘ve had in a long time, and there’s talk that when he gets back this time he’ll have an even better one - all down in black and white.”

“I‘m not any better off than I was 5 years ago,” said the first. “I haven’t seen or signed anything.”

“That’s right,” replied the second, drawing another cup from the cooler. “The company cafeteria may be free, but the same thing day after day? I miss the old haunts and a little variety.”

“You have something against low-fat yogurt, salads, and fruit - every day? It very nourishing!” the woman said in mock amazement.

“Humph!” the man grunted, tossing down his water in a gulp. “I could go for a hot reuben sandwich and a cold beer.”
The brother of the absent boss entered the office and strolled toward the water cooler.” “Morning,” he said. “This is the meeting of the minds?”

“This is it,” came a short reply. “This is about the only place any decisions get made around here anymore.”

Surlier than usual, thought the brother as he stepped toward the door of his office.

“Any word from the divine Mr. M?” a well-watered employee asked.

“Nothing yet,” the brother said. “But you know how those contract meetings can drag
on. I imagine he’ll send a fax when he knows something. Well, I ‘d better get back to work.”
He walked away, tired of defending his absent brother, tired of trying to manage a family business.

That afternoon, a few more disenchanted people gathered around the water cooler. “Why can’t anyone tell me if he ordered the parts or not?” a man shouted. “If the line shuts down, it’s my fault. If we wind up with a double inventory of parts, it’s still my fault.”

“Consolidated Engineering says that without our main man’s signature on the contract this afternoon, they’ll cancel their order.”

“I don’t get it,” a woman said. “We have fax, E-mail, cellular phones, Fedex, and the United States Postal Service, and all we get from him is silence.”

The talk became more heated, the threats more concrete, the plans more radical. The more they talked, the more they forgot.

Somehow they forgot that the boss had hired every one of them out of a situation of personal difficulty. Many had been overextended with their creditors and heavily in debt. Some had been convicted of financial misdealings and sentenced to prison. Others had been only a step away from a similar fate.

They all forgot that they had been given a new start, including a profit-sharing plan and a generous stock option. In reality, they owned the company. But the more they talked and complained, the more complete their self-inflicted amnesia became.

No one remembers who came up with the idea to send out for pizza, but a little impromptu office party seemed just the thing to forget their troubles - a head start on the weekend. It all began innocently enough.

“You know,” said one man, “this old water cooler has been around for a long time. It has been really important to us. We have gathered around it and enjoyed being together near it. If it hadn’t been for this water cooler we never would have gotten where we are today. It was all those talks around the cooler that did it.” They ordered more food and sent petty cash to the closest liquor store for some intoxicating spirits. The party was really cooking.

Before long, bottles appeared and soon the water cooler was up on a desk, its contents being mixed with fiery waters of another origin. Laughter! Toasts! A tipsy song sung to the conquering water cooler.

Hands wavered toward glistening foreheads in mocking salutes. “Present arms! We salute you, our fearless leader!”

More laughter. A demand that the boss‘s brother acknowledge the water cooler’s role in their deliverance. “Make him spray-paint it gold and salute it himself.”

The brother, fearing for his own safety and eyeing the security guards who had joined the insurrection, yielded to the demands among cheers and toasts. He took the spray-paint can and covered the old water cooler with a gilded glistening of gold color.

Why fight an unruly crowd? he said to himself. Maybe we can straighten it all out over the weekend after they all sober up.

The party was in full swing when the door opened quietly and the boss slipped into the room. He stood unnoticed, just inside the door, his face a mixture of pain and rage. He had planned a special celebration to accompany his presentation of the new contract, but now this. Would these people ever learn? In their cynical impatience with him, they had unknowingly traded Prime Rib at the finest restaurant for pizza from a cardboard box. Somehow it seemed to symbolize their whole approach to life.

And the contract. Would they ever know what they had lost?

Half the people still didn’t see him walk slowly across the room, tearing the new contract to shreds. But when Mr. M. hurled the huge glass water cooler against the floor, the party was over.

Exodus 32:1—20
When Moses didn‘t come back down the mountain right away, the people went to Aaron. “Look,” they said, “make us a god to lead us, for this fellow Moses who brought us here from Egypt has disappeared; something must have happened to him.”

“Give me your golden earrings,” Aaron replied.

So they all did - men and women, boys and girls. Aaron melted the gold, then molded and tooled it into the form of a calf. The people exclaimed, “0 Israel, this is the god that brought you out of Egypt!”

When Aaron saw how happy the people were about it, he built an altar before the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a feast to the Lord!”

So they were up early the next morning and began offering burnt offerings and peace offerings to the calf-idol; afterwards they sat down to feast and drink at a wild party, followed by sexual immorality.

Then the Lord told Moses, “Quick! Go on down, for your people that you brought from Egypt have defiled themselves, and have quickly abandoned all my laws. They have molded themselves a calf, and worshiped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, 0 Israel, that brought you out of Egypt.

Then the Lord said, “I have seen what a stubborn, rebellious lot these people are. Now let me alone and my anger shall blaze out against them and destroy them all; and I will make you, Moses, into a great nation instead of them.”

But Moses begged God not to do it. “Lord,” he pleaded, “why is your anger so hot against your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and mighty miracles? Do you want the Egyptians to say, ‘God tricked them into coming to the mountains so that he could slay them, destroying them from off the face of the earth?’ Turn back from your fierce wrath. Turn away from this terrible evil you are planning against your people! Remember your promise to your servants - to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. For you swore by your own self, ‘I will multiply your posterity as the stars of heaven, and I will give them all of this land I have promised to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.

So the Lord changed his mind and spared them. Then Moses went down the mountain, holding in his hands the Ten Commandments written on both sides of two stone tablets. (God himself had written the commandments on the tablets.)

When Joshua heard the noise below them, of all the people shouting, he exclaimed to Moses, “It sounds as if they are preparing for war!”

But Moses replied, “No, it‘s not a cry of victory or defeat, but singing.”

When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and in terrible anger he threw the tablets to the ground and they lay broken at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf and melted it in the fire, and when the metal cooled, he ground it into powder and spread it upon the water and made the people drink it.
The Living Bible version

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The "Pulmonary Artery" of God

When it comes to relating to those around us, how does this “love thing” work? Divine love, agape, alone can sustain your relationship to those around you in the world – not “philia” or brotherly love, not “eros” or romantic love.

We love God by loving our neighbor, and we can love our neighbor only as we love God. The two commandments form a seamless robe of righteousness.

When we try to love our neighbor without loving God, we begin imposing our human desires onto the relationship, which in the end destroys it. Unaided human love loves others for its own sake, while agape LOVES OTHERS FOR GOD’S SAKE. Human love reaches out expecting a return, in fact often demanding a return. Agape, in contrast, gives, expecting nothing in return.

When we try to love God without loving our neighbor, we cut ourselves off from the “pulmonary artery” of God. The flow of love, like the flow of blood within the human body, must be constantly recharged as the blood is constantly re-oxygenated by the lungs. It is how we breathe – and it is how God “breathes”.

Blood has to flow to function – without flow and re-oxygenating, stagnation and even clotting occurs. Therefore if the pulmonary artery of God’s love is to function, we will of necessity be drawn to those in the world around us. We then see the face of God in our neighbor, and to neglect our neighbor is to neglect God.

If we forget our neighbor in our zeal to love God, we will soon stagnate or even clot in our relationship with God. It is only through the royal flow of agape love that our deeds of compassion and mercy become a blessing. Without it, try as we might to do otherwise, our serving will always be tinged with condescending arrogance. Saint Vincent de Paul, always conscious of the poor, said, “It is only because of your love – YOUR GODLY LOVE – that the poor will forgive you for the bread you give them.”

As we have fellowship with the Spirit of Christ within us, we are drawn into the love of God, which irresistibly leads us to our neighbor. When we try to love our neighbor, we discover our utter inability to do so, which irresistibly drives us back to God. And so we enter into that great Circle of Agape Love.
1 John 4:8 & 16 says that “God IS love”. “Love” is not something God has to give to us – it is something HE IS WITHIN US, to flow, to be recharged, and to flow again.

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"Satisfaction Guaranteed" - But Not Necessarily Yet!

I just returned home from a shopping trip to Home Depot - the giant of the hardware and builder’s business. As I arrived there and entered the door, there was a large sign which read:

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
If you find a better price than ours
at any of our competitors,
we will beat their price
by 10% off their price!

You have to be BIG to make a guarantee like that! The “little guy” might be put out of business if he tried to make such a guarantee.

As I thought about their guarantee, my mind began to focus on God’s promises, God’s “guarantees” to those who accept Him.

Everyone likes the satisfied feeling, and many companies today thrive on the concept. So confident are many that their advertisements read, “Satisfaction guaranteed” or “Complete satisfaction guaranteed,” implying that if for any reason you don’t like the product you purchased, you may return it for a full refund.

But have you ever read the fine print and found that you didn’t qualify for the “satisfaction guarantee” - because you hadn’t taken the right steps in the right order? It might be as simple as saving a cash register slip. But without it, no guarantee. If the purchase was an automobile, you might have to change the oil at a certain mileage. If it was a machine, you might have to use a certain brand of supplies to validate the warranty. None are unreasonable requirements, but each meant that you had to think ahead to make good on the warranty.

When God first made His offer of salvation to our race, He put His total satisfaction guarantee on it. But there are conditions to be met.

The first and foremost condition to be met is: “BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31). This is having the faith and confidence in the first place to take God up on His offer - to commit to the “purchase”. SALVATION is a “product” created by the death of Jesus Christ to take our punishment for sin.

But are we fully satisfied right from the start with what we have “bought into” to become a Christian child in God’s family? No, we can be sure that everything WILL NOT be to our liking. Christ didn’t even suggest that His gospel would immediately satisfy. In fact, His salvation for us may even create temporary dissatisfaction.

Why? Because our salvation is designed to develop and improve, not coddle and accommodate. Our salvation is not meant to keep us as we are but to make us better, more upright, stronger in principle and in character.

OUR SALVATION IS GUARANTEED WHEN WE MEET THAT FIRST CONDITION OF BELIEVING ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST - BUT OUR SATISFACTION IS NOT GUARANTEED! There is still another condition to be met to have satisfaction.

Dissatisfaction must precede satisfaction because Christ’s offer overturns our natural self-satisfied feelings. We are born with a nature that likes ourselves as we are. Christ’s message comes to tell us how we can be remade - reborn - into something of infinitely greater worth, so much more that we can scarcely comprehend the difference. As we come to know Christ after our rebirth and His coming to indwell us, we want to learn more, hear more, do more, so that we can BE MORE. . .satisfied as God’s child.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to show that there is something more to life than the humdrum, something more than living to satisfy “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). God calls us to live on a higher plane, and guarantees satisfaction in the knowledge that good will always triumph.

In the meantime what do we do with the problems? Do we feel that sometimes we have more than our share? Christ shows us that there is another condition to be met after conversion and new birth which can turn these problems into possibilities - possibilities for inner growth, moral excellence, and spiritual achievements.

The second condition for God’s “satisfaction guaranteed” is CONTINUED TRUST in the indwelling Christ. As we live this human life among the world, the flesh and the devil, we can temporarily lose sight of who we are in Christ and slip into self-will and lack of trust in Jesus as Lord. It’s easy to do with our human weaknesses. But it temporarily voids our godly satisfaction warranty.

But it does not void our salvation! The Father uses the consequences of this slip into sin as a correction to a wayward child to bring us back to trust and to the satisfaction He has guaranteed.

The apostle Paul talked much about satisfaction. Here was a man who had been through some of the greatest trials and adversities that a person could endure. Read 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 for a blow by flow description of the troubled life of Paul. Here was a great man of God who, by all Bible indications, lived the condition of continued trust as fully as anyone we know of. But did he receive “satisfaction guaranteed”? Was God’s “warranty” in place in his life? Let’s let him tell us:
“I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content [satisfied]!...I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11,13).

Paul met the first condition of BELIEF in Jesus Christ as Lord - and he had obtained salvation. Paul never questioned his salvation. He knew who he was in union with Christ and that it was forever. Speaking to his Christian brothers and sisters of the new birth, he said, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. . . For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39).

But Paul also knew that in order to have the “satisfaction guarantee” warranty in effect, there was another condition to be met – CONTINUED TRUST in the indwelling Christ. He said that he could “do all things” - that is, have satisfaction in being used by God in the things which he accomplished, “through Christ who strengthens me” - that is, whenever Paul chose obedience rather than trying to do his own thing.

Such a one is humanly satisfied, and he is eagerly looking, longing, preparing for the full spiritual satisfaction, even a life where he will experience more than eye has seen, or ear has heard, or the human mind has imagined (1 Corinthians 2:9). He is looking for the fullest rewards in exchange for a life of faithful trust and service.

This is what God has promised. No traps, no surprises, no loophole conditions that God can wiggle out of, just conditions to be met and then we will be satisfied - humanly now and fully spiritually later.

Again, the upfront, forthright conditions for entering the family of God are:
(1) BELIEF in Jesus Christ as Lord - that purchases the “product” of salvation forever and, on that day of new birth, activates the “Satisfaction Guarantee”.
(2) CONTINUED TRUST to the indwelling guidance of the Spirit of Christ. As each Christian child of God commits himself on a daily basis to live by trust in God, he will have the guarantee of satisfaction or contentment. There will be times when his human soul mind, emotions and will cause him to lose perspective and temporarily try to live life by his own human steam and power, and fail - that is, sin.

God doesn’t wipe out the fact of his salvation as a child in God’s family. He receives the built-in correction for his sin and is led back in whatever unique way God chooses to a new awareness of his eternal union with Christ. He learns a lesson. His dissatisfaction with his action leads to trust and satisfaction again.

The dissatisfaction is only for a moment in time. Just beyond this point the recognition of the new Life in Christ (which has been there all the time) is renewed and strengthened. It is a Life filled with the eternal realities which God has planned for every believing and trustful child.

And that is where it ends.
IN TOTAL SATISFACTION.GUARANTEED!

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Tender Mercies

Bless the Lord who crowns you with tender mercies (Psalm 103).

I was entering my senior year in a military high school, focused and driven. World War II had just ended when I started high school. I loved the life of a student and my grades showed it. I was a staff-sergeant in the ROTC military aspect of my school. I will never forget the phone call with the news that I had been appointed lieutenant-colonel for my senior year – the second highest rank among the students. I was to lead three military companies of a hundred men each through my senior year. It was a feeling of sheer ecstasy – a landmark in my life.

We all have experiences like that. Maybe it’s that graduation from college with the degree to go on to a better life. Maybe it’s that job acceptance at a place of employment. Or maybe it’s that long-awaited phone call that the adoption has finally come through. There are no words to describe our joy. Or maybe we’re biting our nails in the third row back of the darkened auditorium when daughter Katie spells “masseuse” and wins the spelling bee.

Or, perhaps we’ve traveled more than a hundred miles to cheer the hometown team on and son Mike makes the final basket to win the state championship.

These are landmarks in our lives and we ought to treasure those singular moments. We glue the letters and certificates and newspaper stories in our scrapbooks. These are the big stories that are easily featured. But do we sometimes ignore the little tender mercies that surround us every day?

Counselors warn us that we shouldn’t depend on these highpoints of life to carry us through. One obvious reason is because they come so infrequently, and besides no one can live on such high planes of excitement. We’re simply not constructed that way psychologically.

Indeed, many people feel somewhat depressed after such singular experiences. There’s a huge buildup of anticipation and then a big letdown – whether we win or lose.

Yet we often ask God for the big gift while failing to see all the little gifts all around us. There is an old hymn titled: “There Shall be Showers of Blessing.” It speaks of wanting to hear the “sound of abundance of rain.” The final words of the chorus are: “Mercy drops ‘round us are falling, but for the showers we plead.”

I think we easily set ourselves up for failure when we are pleading for showers, while ignoring the mercy drops that are falling all around us – those “tender mercies” mentioned in the scriptures.

What “tender mercy” examples?

A big one is just living in the USA, certainly not a perfect place, but one that has freedoms like no other place on earth. We have a relatively temperate climate compared to places like the African desert or the icy reaches of the North.

Another example is having plenty to eat. Our choices of food, both in quality and quantity, are unsurpassed and are light-years ahead of many places on our globe.

The clothes we can choose from to wear keep us warm and comfortable and are certainly “tender mercies”.

What about family? Certainly there can be dysfunctional families but, in general, we are blessed with parents and siblings who provide relationships on a daily basis. Every day on earth, children are being made orphans by war and other tragedies.

Our air and water supply, though becoming somewhat polluted, is still good enough to breathe and drink and keep us alive.

Tender mercies do not carry an “I Won the Lottery” headline. Sometimes they seem so small and trivial that we hardly notice, but they sustain us on a daily basis – if we are aware of them.

Thanks to God for the occasional shower of blessings but the “mercy drops around us are falling” and we have a lot of little “tender mercies” from God that we can be thankful for.


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The Death of Old Lou, a Christian

So you are thinking about death. Well, let’s talk about it. But let’s not begin with the question, What will happen to “Lou” after he is dead? Starting there is really the wrong place to begin. Instead, let’s ask this question: Where did Lou begin?
Where did you, Lou, have your true beginning? After that, we will move forward to your birth, your salvation, death, and glory!
To put it another way, to really understand your future, we need to make a trip into the past. I invite you, then, to go back in time to your real beginning.
You see, if we began this inquiry at the point of your death, we would actually be starting in the middle of the story.
Lou, where did you have your true beginning? At the time of your birth? Surprisingly, no, much further back than that. Get ready for a surprise!

Take my hand, Lou, and let’s find that moment of your real beginning. That was so long ago. In fact, we will have to return to a point in time that predates the creation of Adam and even predates the creation of this realm.
Did you exist back before creation? If you were but a body and soul, the answer would be no. You would be a temporal being, one who had a beginning and, of course, an end.
But you are not just a body and soul (1 Thessalonians 5:23). You are part spirit. This means part of you came from some place other than this material realm. The physical belongs to the physical world, the spirit belongs to the spiritual world. Your spirit had its beginning in the spiritual realm.
Are you mostly a body? Are you mostly a soul? Or is it possible that you are mostly a spiritual being? It is unquestionable, Lou, the most important part of you is your spirit.
It is difficult, is it not, to think of yourself as having begun somewhere besides your old home town.
Part of you did begin those many years ago. That is when your body began. Your body is temporal, guaranteed not to last over about one hundred years!
(By the way, that may be the most exciting part of dying. You received a body many years ago which today is worn out. That tired old broken-down machine is wanting to quit. One day you will be rid of it, forever!)
What of your soul? Your soul began when your body did, but your soul, unlike your body, has no end. By definition, your soul is everlasting.
Everlasting means to have a definite beginning but no end. The soul of Lou, which began so many years ago back in your home town, is going to go on and on, forever. You will soon give up your body, but you will continue on as an everlasting soul.
Things are definitely looking up. You will get rid of a worn-out body, and you soul will be set free.
But let’s not stop there, because you are not primarily a body, neither are you primarily a soul. Nor is your true beginning back in your old home town. Of a certainty, your end is not in a cemetery.

Let us journey backward through time in search of your beginning. The best news of all awaits us somewhere back there.
We journey back to the creation of our world. But this is not far enough. We must now travel back to that place that is before creation.
We are on our way to a place that existed before angels. We are going back to a time so remote it even predates the existence of heaven. What could possibly have existed before creation?
There is only one thing which existed before creation, and that is God.
Come, Lou. We have arrived at our destination. We have come to a place where God is the everything! He is all that there is. There is nothing else except God. Before, creation, He is the ALL.
Now, Lou, if you will hold onto my hand, we will dare to step into God! Dare we? Yes. The Scripture assures us again and again that we are in Him!

As we move into the very being of our God, we find ourselves in a realm where there is no such thing as death, where there is nothing temporal. There is nothing created here. Everything is uncreated. Everything is God! We are in Life itself. Or should I say, “We are in Life Himself!” His Life goes on forever. . . in both directions. There never was when God was not. There never was when His Life was not.
We stand in the realm of billowing revelation, light beyond all light. In Him there is unhindered brightness. We stand engulfed in shafts of incandescent glory.
What are we doing here, in a place before creation, where God is all? And dare we say that you, Lou, had your beginning here?

Hold on tightly now. We are about to find the answer to that question for we are about to plunge into the very center of the being of God.

Look around. Remember, this, is before creation. What you see all around you is the very Life of God. We are surrounded by a Life much higher than human life could ever be.
It is in this mysterious place, in this mysterious age, that God was making plans to create. One of the things which He decided to create was you, Lou. He had already thought up the idea of giving you a body and a soul. But He had also made another decision. Long before your Lord ever began creating, He had decided He would one day take a portion of His very own Life - a part of His Life which you see surrounding you now - and place that Life... His Life... in you!
Understand, it was way back here when your God chose to put His eternal Life inside you. He made that decision here in this mysterious and distant age! He chose you before creation; He predestined that a portion of His being be placed in you.
LOU, THIS IS WHERE YOU BEGAN. IN HIM. It was here, in Him, that your Lord marked off a portion of His being to one day be placed in you!
Do you know what that means? It means the main part of you (the most important part of you) never had a beginning! Dear Lou, there is a part of you that always has been, is, and always shall be.
This is the place of your true origin!
Let me say that another way. It was way back here that God purposed you to become one of His children. Lou, the only way you (or I) can be our parents’ child is by having the life of our parents passed on to us. And so it came about, in the determination of God, He marked off a portion of His being to someday become one with you.
I will create the heavens. Then, on yet another day, I will create the earth. On still another day, Lou will be born. He is one whom I have chosen to be My own child. On a very special day, on the day of his redemption, I will take this particular portion of Myself and place it deep within Lou. This portion of My being will be the central essence of Lou. He will have within him, traits of My nature and of My Life. He will express a uniqueness of My divinity that no one else will. Lou will be unique among all My children. This portion of My Life, which I have purposed to be in Lou and to become part of Lou, will continue on... forever.., from everlasting to everlasting.
Would you like to see that very portion of His divine nature which He purposed to place in you?

Do you see that pulsating, vibrating, glowing, shimmering element of God? Have you ever seen anything so beautiful, so flawless, so unutterably perfect? That is you, Lou. That is the portion of God which He has - here in eternity past - marked off in Himself to be placed in you. You are looking at that portion of your Lord’s divine nature which is destined to be placed in you and to become part of you and one with you.
When will this wonder occur? At the time of your conversion. At that time the very Spirit and Life of God will become one with your spirit.
Behold, the real Lou! -
In the eyes of God, you, Lou, are an eternal being. You had a long, rich history living in the center of the very vortex of God Himself. A portion of you was in existence long before a little baby named Lou was born. Later, at the time of your salvation, this very portion of God’s divine nature indwelt you. And became one with you.
Reach out and touch that element, Lou. Never forget just how beautiful, how indescribably beautiful, how holy, how pure this element of God is. Nor will that change when it enters into you at the time of your conversion. The beauty, purity, holiness and perfection of that portion of God in you has not altered, and will not alter, throughout all your life as a Christian. Nor will there be any change in His Life on the day you die... or the day after. Never forget the purity, the perfection, and the glory you see here. And most of all, never forget that this portion of God - like all of God - can never die!

It is almost time for us to make our way back to space and time, to the physical creation, and to earth. Would it not be nice if we Christians spent more time back here in eternity past seeing how wonderful we are?
But just before we leave, there’s something else here you should see.
You have now stood in that place, in God, where you existed before the foundation of the world. There is something else here that has to do with you. It is another event that took place before the foundation of the world.
Before we view this hallowed event, may I ask you some questions? Have you ever wondered why God purposed to make you? What provoked Him to predestine you to receive His eternal Life? Why did He love Lou that much? Have you ever doubted His love for you? Especially on a bad day when you were doing everything wrong? Our sinfulness can raise serious doubts in our minds about His love, can it not? Did you ever ask yourself, “What is God ever going to do with a believer as poor as I am?” Well, if you have done this, Lou, you have wasted an awful lot of time worrying for nothing.
God chose you long before you were born. And long before you were born, He also took care of your sinful state. Can you grasp this? He took care of your sinful state before He created anything!
When did He do this? Well, that is what we are about to see. And remember, we are in a time before creation.
Take my hand again, Lou. Let us visit that place where He took care not only of sin, but death, too!
Do you see something up there ahead? Do you know what that is?
Come closer.
There!
That is the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the worlds. (Rev. 13:8)
What can I say to you about this holy and sacred event, this incredible act of love... except to point out that a marvelous thing happened back here in the eternals that was to later take care of all your needs.
Come, Lou, for now it is time to journey forward in time. We are about to come to that place and to that very day when you were born.

Do you recognize the young woman? That is your mother. She has been handed a very beautiful baby boy. She has just named the baby. Its name, of course, is Lou.
You might say that this is the day your body and soul had their start. (Keep in mind that the body is guaranteed to last no more than a hundred years! The soul is guaranteed to go on forever.) Note the sparkling personality this newborn has. Yes, that is your soul shining its delightful personality out through your body. But keep looking, for there is more to see. Look deep inside that lovely little baby and you will see your spirit - your very own personal, unique, human spirit.
Alas, Lou, your spirit is dead! Let me explain.
What is a newborn baby doing with something dead inside it? Your human spirit is dead because of the tragedy of the fall of Adam. Your ancestor, Adam, passed on to you (and to me, and to all the sons and daughters of Adam) a human spirit. But he also passed on to us - woven right into our DNA - the nature of sin.
When Adam was created, his spirit was very much alive. But his spirit died in the presence of sin. Since then, everyone who has ever come into this world has arrived with a stillborn spirit. You and I, and all of us, make our entrance into this realm with something dead inside us.
Well, we do not want to stop on this sad note, do we Lou? There is a much better day out there which awaits you. Do you know of what day I speak? I speak of the day you became a believer. That is the day your temporary body and your everlasting soul intersect with that wonderful eternal Life which God marked off in Himself before the foundation of the world.
Your God is by nature spirit, and His Son Jesus Christ - after His resurrection from the dead - became a Life-giving Spirit. This incredible Life of God (including that part of Him that was marked off for you and destined to become a part of you) is life-giving. Right now Lou has something dead in him that needs to have life given to it.
What would happen if Lou’s dead spirit came into contact with His life-giving Spirit? Let’s find out!

Do you recognize that building over there? It is a church. Do you remember what happened to you one day in this building? Let’s go inside.
See the young boy sitting at the end of the pew? The one next to the window? He is twelve years old. You had forgotten how handsome you were, had you not? Watch now, as that handsome young boy bows his head.
Quickly, look deep inside him.
His human spirit is still dead - just as dead as it was on the day he was born. But now turn around. Let us see what is happening in God!
A door in the heavenlies is opening. Do you recognize the scene? There is that portion of God that was marked off before the foundation of creation. That holy thing, so pure, so perfect - a portion of the very nature of God - is about to come inside the young boy.
That young boy - you, Lou - is about to make the most important decision of his life. He is going to confirm his need for a Savior, the need which others spoke for him at his infant baptism.
See! God’s Life is coming out of that heavenly door and is passing through your body and soul. His Life - His life-giving Spirit, His resurrecting Life - is heading straight toward your dead spirit!
Remember, Lou, you had your real beginning in God. Well, right now that very portion of God is about to become one with you, today.
What you are seeing is that mysterious event called “being born again”. Your spirit is inside your body and soul. His Life is about to touch your spirit. That young boy, in mystery beyond mystery, is about to receive the Lord... inside him... forever. That portion coming out of God’s nature contains all of God. (All of God is in every part of God.)
The greatest single event of your life is about to take place. Part of God, marked off in Him so long ago, just now touched your dead spirit!
See!
Incredible!
Your human spirit has been brought back to life by His Life! Part of you just rose from the dead! But that is not the end of this wonder. There is more. Keep looking at that young boy. Watch! God’s Life, His Spirit, is now becoming ONE with Lou’s spirit.
Your spirit has been made alive. Now your resurrected spirit is coming into oneness with the Life of God. From this moment, the two are inseparable. Your spirit and His Spirit have just become ONE.
We will leave this place now. But keep this in mind: There is a part of you that has been resurrected from the dead, and there is also a part of you that has come from out of God Himself. His eternal Spirit has never known death and will never know death.
Yes, a time will come when you will lay aside your body, but the most important part of you, your spirit made one with God’s Life and God’s Spirit - will never taste death.
One last thing before we depart.
If you will look very carefully inside that young boy, you will see a tiny seed deep within Lou’s spirit. That tiny seed constitutes one of the greatest mysteries and one of the greatest glories that will ever be revealed.
You will very definitely see that mysterious seed again! On a very special day.
But we will talk of that a little later. Right now, let us return to the present, and there let us consider the future.
What will happen in that moment when you breathe your last breath?
Actually, when Death comes he will have very little he can claim. He cannot claim your human spirit, for it has been resurrected from the dead. (And is one with God!) What else, then can he claim? Death cannot claim God’s Life in you, simply because God’s Life cannot die. Death cannot claim your soul, for it is immortal and redeemed - redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus.
What is there for Death to claim? He can claim only that which you are probably very willing, at this point, to let him have. He can claim that temporary body of yours.
He doesn’t get very much, does he?
Have you ever realized, Lou, just exactly what you are bequeathing to Death? He gets a worn-out body which tends to easily come under the influence of sin.
You leave to him nothing more than a weak body and all past remembrances of the fall. That is what Death gets. You might say that you, not Death, get the last laugh.
And even as you render up to him your body, at that very moment you receive the hope of glory!
I think, Lou, you know what takes place after that.
“To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
Your soul and your spirit (with the Life of God in your spirit), at that moment are set free.
Do you remember what we saw back there in church the morning you became a believer? God’s Life passed from the spiritual realm and came into you, there to become one with you. At the moment of death, the scene reverses itself. You pass out of the physical realm, back through that door, and once again enter into that spiritual realm where you began!
I have a notion the first face you will see as you pass through that door and enter the realm of the heavenlies will be that of a Man. You know Him as your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
You are going to meet a Man in the heavenlies. A physical, visible human being in a realm where everything else is invisible and spiritual.
How is that possible?
Your Lord has already received His glorified body - a body that can be seen with the human eye, yet a body that has all the properties of the spiritual realm. His physical body has become like unto His spirit. The body, the soul and the spirit of your Lord are so much one that the physical and spiritual elements cannot be separated.

Look well upon your Lord, Lou... and know... in that moment you will be like Him!
Having laid aside a worn-out body, but with a spirit that is alive and “back home”, you will be able to look upon the very face of God, in all His ultimate glory.
Exactly where does all this take place? Quite frankly, Lou, I do not know the name of the place. The Lord once said to the dying thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Paul said, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Will you be in a place called paradise, which, I assume, is some glorious part of the heavenly realm? Or are paradise and heaven one and the same? I do not know. I can only tell you this. You will be with Him. Nothing else matters.
How long will you have to wait until the Lord returns to earth with the vast host of the redeemed and with the angels? Not long at all - not long for you, not long for Paul, not long for Abraham - for you will be living in a realm where there is no such thing as time.
And what will it be like when the Lord and Lou (and an innumerable host of angels and redeemed) return to this planet?
Let us see.

There will be at least one hundred million angels coming with you (Rev. 5:11). Add to that all of the redeemed who have “gone on before”. That should be quite a sight!
Imagine! You, standing in the heavenlies with that vast company, waiting for the door between our two realms to open!
Gabriel will blow his trumpet and the Lord will give a shout that will split the foundations of creation. With that, He will descend (with the redeemed and the angels beside) to claim His own who are still on earth.
As you near the earth, you will experience the other greatest moment you will ever live. Lou, do you recall seeing that little seed hidden so deep within your spirit? Well, that seed is going to burst forth from out of the depths of your spirit! Do you know what that little seed is? Why, it is the “hope of glory”! That little seed is your new, transfigured body!
You are going to receive a body that is like unto His - wholly physical, yet completely spiritual. Think if it! You will have a body and a soul that have become like unto your spirit.
At last, Lou, you will be complete.
In that moment, you will have received full salvation! You will be as flawless, perfect, pure and whole in your body and soul as you are right now in your spirit. You will be a completed son of the Living God.
As you approach this planet, you will see some incredible things happening down here on earth. The redeemed ones here on earth are going to see their decaying, sin-prone bodies change in the twinkling of an eye. Then they are all coming up to meet you!
That will be the most spectacular moment that has ever been or ever will be.
What then?

Lou, I would like to tell you that I understand everything I am about to say, but I do not.
First of all there will come forth a new earth to replace this old one.
Then comes the most exciting part... and the most mysterious: All who are redeemed are going to become one.
It appears, at least to me, that in our gathering together and becoming one, we shall find that we have, all together, become a girl - one glorious, beautiful, betrothed girl!
Who is this beautiful, flawless young woman?
She is the most beautiful woman who has ever lived. She will carry within her all the gifts of her Lord. She will combine all of the personal traits of the God who gave her His Life. All those portions of divine nature, which were placed in each one of the redeemed ones, will now join together and make one complete, glorious bride for the Lord.
Radiating out from the young woman, so pure and perfect, will flow forth the second greatest glory that will ever be known.
She is the glorious bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. And YOU, Lou, are a part of her! There you are... in her. Your unique qualities are an important part of her - a necessary part of her.
What takes place next is beyond all understanding and all telling. This lovely girl, more beautiful than anything that all words or poetry could ever describe, will then become ONE with her Lord!
At that indescribable moment, you will return to that place where you began. LOU, WE ARE ALL GOING BACK TO WHERE WE CAME FROM!
Then He who is the All will become the All in All. You will find yourself once more in the very center and vortex of God.

And you will be ONE with Him forever more.

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