Many people have such a poor experience in their Christianity that as far as they are concerned, it’s not worth sharing with anyone else.

Christianity is far, far better than most Christians realize! It’s about caring love for others—what could be better than being part of a group of people who really care about you and are willing to get serious about helping you when you are in need? People who will share your joys and your sorrows. But even better than this is the presence of God’s own Spirit in your life—the Spirit whose presence brings love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self control. All the things that make this life really good are found in Christianity, you’ll never find so much joy and peace anywhere else in this world. But the best news is that Christians get to participate in things beyond this world—in the creative works of an eternal and infinite creator. And it’s not that hard to become a Christian—all you have to do is focus your life on living for God. I didn’t say living by the rules of some preacher or teacher. The prophet Micah put it very well: “He has showed you, Oh human, what is good, and what does God require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?” Do justice—that means do the right thing. Love mercy—that means forgiving people (turning retribution over to God because he knows how to do it exactly right) and caring about the needs of others. Walk humbly—that means no arrogance or selfish pride. How easy and right that is!! It just means ending the rebellion against God and learning to live in the ways of doing right.

The flip side of this is that those who refuse to end the rebellion can’t be accepted into the eternity God has planned—they can’t be trusted to work in his creations. They will be fit only for the garbage heap. Some think there is no garbage heap, but God says there is and he says that you will not like it at all!

I strongly encourage you to find the Christianity that is really worth sharing. If you find the real thing, you won’t be able to shut up about it. It’s just that good. For help in finding this, read the book Revitalizing Christianity. Better yet, get the book and the study guide and really study this material. Even better, get a group together to seriously study this new perspective on Christianity that is only about 2,000 years old.

—Charlie

A serious problem among Christians and non-Christians is drastic misconceptions of heaven. Frankly, most people who have any familiarity with Christian teaching seem to think of heaven as an eternity of nothing to do but tell God over and over how good he is for what he did in the good old days back on earth. Everybody has a crown, so anarchy reigns. God is a narcissist in love with himself who demands constant praises to bolster his ego. Gold and gems are so common that they have no real value except as paving stones. Nothing else to do for all eternity except to sit around and reminisce about the good old days.

If you’ve seen the movie The Preacher’s Wife, you can see this represented well. Denzel Washington portrays an angel thrilled to be back on earth because earth is obviously better than heaven. He has been sent to help a preacher, and he tells this preacher that in heaven there is this long line of angels just waiting for an opportunity to get back to earth for a mission like his. Obviously, heaven is much worse than earth! With that kind of heaven, who needs hell?

But the picture Jesus gave of heaven, though very limited, is of a place where those who get there are given rewards commensurate with the skills and abilities they learned to use for God on earth. The differences from this earth are pretty dramatic. In no particular order:
• The physical environment is unpolluted beauty beyond description (lots of great vacation opportunities)
• The social environment is unselfish, generous, caring love from every person to every person
• The soul environment is no tempter and full understanding of what sin is (rebellion against God) and what terrible damage it can do
• The activity environment is some meaningful task for which you are well suited and in which you will find great joy (with the implication that if you ever get close to being bored with this task, there are plenty more just as exciting)
• And the spiritual environment is the very intimate presence of God’s Holy Spirit at any and all times

All of this brings an environment of joy so powerful that yes, we will be praising God forever, but not for what he did back in the good old days—for what he is doing in the here and now of our experiences in heaven. And you can only begin to imagine what vacations with those in heaven would be like! It’s a forever party filled with people excited about what they are doing in an environment filled with joy and love.

—Charlie Webster, Director

When I was a child I remember hearing adults frequently telling me not to run in God’s house or not to do most of the things that I really enjoyed when I was in God’s house. Now, the Bible makes it very clear that Christians are God’s house, not a building. But as a child, I didn’t know that. My impression was that God really didn’t want children to run and play, so I had to wait until I was out of his sight to do the fun things.

There are ways to tell children to respect the needs of adults and to care for the church’s property without making God into the bad guy.

And we as Christians need to be constantly aware that we are God’s house. If we are truly Christians, where we go, God goes. We need to be very aware of that 24/7/365.

—Charlie Webster, Director