Ceejay Horrell

Matthew 23:37 says, - how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings… NIV

You know you can rent anything today, cars, houses, tools, plants, videos, babysitters and according to a report by Teresa Wantanbe in the Seattle Times on Wednesday May 13th 2009 you can ‘Rent-A-Family’

A couple and their 2-year-old son greet the wife's 70-year-old mother at the train station and escort her back to their home for an afternoon of Japanese noodles and warm conversation. Grandson kisses grandma and daughter holds her hand as they talk about all living together someday. Grandma's emotions may be real. But her "family" isn't.

They are professional stand-ins, hired by the grandmother at a cost of $1,125 so she could experience the warmth of even a simulated three-hour family visit. The woman's real daughter, a 37-year-old working mother of two, is too busy to see her mother regularly.

Something is wrong with the human family, you might be suffering in isolation but you’re not alone. God can bring surprise endings into our lives. We may be runaways, with our back turned away from God, but He loves us despite our mistakes, we are His family, His children, and He’s in search of each one of us. 

It has always fascinated me that although we may know each other, we’re bond together by life’s ups and downs. We all know what it is to laugh and to cry, and we’re affected by the world around us. Observing minds recognise that something’s wrong with the world we live in, and bewildered millions have more questions than answers.

I honestly believe the answers can't be found in science and technology, because the worst problems of the age are not scientific but moral ones. The issue is man's heart, this disconnect from our Creator and Lord. Perhaps you’d continue to join me on this journey as we discover what God has to say about all this. 

As a boy I kept fish, I would sit for hours staring at my fish tank and dreaming of new ways to decorate and enhance the scenery. Cleaning it was a chore though, I had to be so careful, and my fish would go mad, franticly trying to swim clear of my net, even if it meant jumping out of the tank. My actions were incomprehensible to them, and the only way I could ever have some hope of calming the situation would be to actually become a fish and explain my actions to them in a language they could understand.

That’s exactly what God did for us; Jesus is the ultimate revelation mankind has received from God. He loves us so much He became one of us, so that we could understand Him.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3: 16-17 NIV

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Psalm 19: 1-4 NIV

In The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis tells the story of a woman who gave birth to a son while confined as a prisoner in a dungeon. Confined to this dungeon with his mother for years, the boy had never seen the outside world, his mother tried to describe it by making pencil drawings. Later when he and his mother were released from prison, the simple pencil sketches were replaced by the actual images of our beautiful world.

People have many misconceptions about heaven, some visualize themselves playing a harp on some celestial cloud; others see them themselves walking around on streets of gold. But what does the Bible actually teach us about Heaven and what our relationship with God will be like?

John 1:12-13 says; Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

We become children of God when we believe in Jesus for our salvation, but what does it mean to be a child of God. Romans 8:17 and Galatians 4:7 says; Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory… So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are His child, God has made you also an heir.

Did you get that? We’re heirs! An heir is usually a son or daughter that will one day inherit all the father and mother own. If we are heirs of God and if Jesus is now our brother then this status is elevated to us in Heaven, everything that Jesus is promised belongs to us as well. What an incredible thought!

This was a transcript excerpt from my ‘Unplugged’ series titled Heaven; access the entire program by clicking on this link ‘Unplugged Heaven 07’