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Pictures of Life.

No one including myself likes to hear of a cherished public celebrity passing away, especially when you yourself are ageing and childhood idols are now become memories instead of living icons that can still bring you comfort. We grew up feeling that we knew these people, as their passing from this life to the next seems to confront us with our own mortality and what will happen to me when I die becomes the unanswered question in our own minds. Celebrities can inspire hope, so when we loose them we feel like a little bit of their light in us passes away too. Nobody want to face their mortality, it is usually not until we are faced with the prospect of death that we realize how important this life is, and how important it is to be prepared fro the next life.

Not every one believes in Heaven, I think more of us believe in Hell and the idea of spending an eternity in a place of suffering scares us that we forget to live. We want to live the right way, and we want to face death with confidence when we ourselves come to that moment. There are many ideas about Heaven and the after life, from Greek Mythology, to Christianity, to the various religions in the world. We would like to think that if we were good enough God will accept us into His heaven. What I am going to talk about is the light we all possess as human beings, and our concept of right and wrong. I grew up Catholic, and the moral law was heavily ingrained onto my consciousness. I knew the difference between good and bad, but growing up the good that I wanted to do was very difficult to do at times. I chose the bad, not because it was inherent to do that, but because my desire to choose sin instead of saintliness was more powerful. If we are "saved" by the choices we make now then every choice must be a good choice, and if we are incapable not to sin, then we need a remedy for that, but it is not as simple as changing our minds, our hearts need an affection and a peace towards loving God and loving others.

If you are already out on the God thing, I would encourage you not to right Him off so quickly. Many people have an aversion to any kind of religion because they fear that God is somehow mad at them. But this is further from the truth. I know we all feel at times, that religion can be stuffy and unfulfilling and by the way "who knows what truth is?" Religion usually claim a leader, and for that practioner their leader holds the meaning and purpose for their lives. When we feel that we have found the truth, and others challenge or explain away our definition of truth, we feel angry and stop believing in God. Most people have a concept of God, and that concept usually works until we start to doubt it ourselves. Faith becomes a foreign concept, and we are left in limbo so that others can tell us what we should believe. Sometimes we doubt if we will ever have hope again untill our identity is grounded on the bedrock of our faith, and our concept of God changes from someone who is out to get us to someone who loves us and offers us unconditional love/acceptance and forgiveness.

Untill we know God in this way, not as a punisher, but as Love itself, we will think harsh thoughts about others and ourselves and when it comes time for us to go, our minds will have false ideas about the God who truly loves us and who offers us Heaven, with out conditions (except for faith) but we already have faith don't we? It can be confusing for us to really believe that we will be taken care of after we die, but to believe means to trust and to trust when it is the hardest to trust can bring great hope now, and in eternity. We need to prepare our minds and our souls while we are living, to meet with eternity, and how to define eternity is simply trust in a God. The Bible says; I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.(Proverbs 8:17 NIV)

My friends, we need to enter eternity loving God. This is Mike.

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