Pastor Prince

We're material beings by nature.  That's a constant of human history.  Seems we can never get enough stuff.  No matter how much we make, we think if we made just a little bit more, we would be happy! But in Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus comes along and tells us not to accumulate wealth on earth, where we can lose it.  Instead, we should bank wealth in heaven, where we can't lose it. Makes sense, given that eternity is so long and life here on earth is so short.  But life here on earth is now and visible, and life in eternity is in the future and invisible! When we follow Christ, we enter God's eternal kingdom, and start living by its values.  The values of the kingdom are the opposite of those of the here and now.  The here and now evaluates people by how many material things they accumulate.  The kingdom evaluates them by how much they give away!  The list goes on! How do we accumulate heavenly treasure?  Jesus doesn't say here, but elsewhere he says

I hope you've been watching Ken Burns' documentary on country music.  Especially compelling to me was a segment on how difficult life was, even in the early decades of the 20th century.  One of the tributary streams of country music was church and gospel music.  For many people, their only hope the life to come.  Plus, contact with death was much more intimate.   One of the early country hits was "Can the Circle Be Unbroken" by the Carter Family.  (Yes, I know we know it as "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," but "Can" was the original!)  The song is a lament about the passing of a person's mother, the dearest person in her life.  The grief of the song is deep, but the hope is high.  The chorus says: Can the circle be unbroken, By and by, Lord, by and by. There's a better home a-waitin' In the sky, Lord, in the sky! The people in Bible times had even tougher challenges.  In addition to the harshness of life, they also

If you've ever been to court, you know that it can be an awesome experience.  The judge wears a black robe and sits above everyone else.  You feel the weight of his or her authority and the law.  Even if you're just an observer, you're impressed! The scriptures speak of a court experience we have ahead of us: the last judgment.  That's when we stand before God and give account for how we've lived! The last judgment is so awesome and personal that the scriptures use various pictures to describe it.  In Matthew 25, Jesus said it's like virgins keeping their oil ready for the bridegroom's return, like a master who settled accounts with his servants, and like a shepherd who separates his sheep from his goats at night. The apostle Paul said it was like an appearance before a high government official (2 Corinthians 5).  He also says it will be like fire applied to a house (1 Corinthians 3). The last picture in the scriptures is the great white throne