Homecoming

More About Jesus Seminar #21 - Guide

This is perhaps my favorite sermon from Lee Venden, and another special part is that his dad & mom (Morris & Marilyn) joins him in the beginning interview section to tell some family stories. Don't miss it!

Would you choose to live life over again if you could? I would, without a doubt!

Then Lee makes the stipulation that you would be living it all just the same as you did before, and that you wouldn't be able to remember how it had gone the first time.

Well, that definitely changed my answer.

Lee's dad and grandfather both used to ask that question and had discovered that the older the person was being asked, the quicker they would answer No thank you. Well, if we would not choose to live life over again, then we must believe that there is something better available after this life, right?

The Best Way To Spend Your Life, Is On Something That Will Outlast It!

My Retirement Plan Is Out Of This World!

We Find Our Meaning In This Life, While Planning For Eternity.

Why is it that so many professed Christians today choose to live their lives as if Heaven isn't for real?

Can we imagine Heaven?

The Bible says we can't even imagine what great things God has created for us to enjoy there! But we can try.

@17:00 Lee tells a story about a camping weekend his dads family went on when his father was young. Everyone is describing what they think their mansion in Heaven will look like. Very good story. Go listen to it.

If you believe that Jesus is real, then you'll believe that Heaven is real and I personally can't wait to see it!But if you don't believe that Jesus is real, then you won't believe that Heaven is real and that would be a sad thing indeed!

We can have a personal relationship with Jesus that will give us daily proof that He IS real.

Lee makes a fun point here. If God can create the Earth, & the Sun, the Moon & Stars in seven days, just think what he can create in Heaven for us during the past 2,000 years since He's been gone from here that long!

Einstein said, When you look up at the stars at night you can only be half an atheist, if you can be one at all.

So what will Heaven and the New Earth be like?

We are going to have plenty of things to do throughout the Universe, and we'll never tire or run out of things to fascinate us. Lots of activity, and then of course we'll STILL have every Sabbath day to rest from our labors and to spend the day praising God for saving us from that old sinful planet full of evil, hate and pain.

God created us and knows better than we do what we need to be happy, and activity is a big part of that. There will be so many things to occupy our minds that we will never run out of things to do throughout eternity. Why do I know that? Because God is the creator of all things, and He can simply continue to create new stuff every day! No Problem o folks!

Just think of how different we will be with perfect bodies and minds, that never get weary and that never forget what we've just learned. It will be amazing what we will be able to learn and calculate, where as in the here and now we need a computer to do it. I can't wait.

I can see my Angel saying, Child of God, come and let me show you the garden God has created for you. You may choose to build a home there if you wish.

Then we'll fly faster and faster over miles and miles of countryside so perfectly beautiful that it would take years to describe it, until suddenly he puts on the brakes and we land next to a 100 foot water fall.

This is it? I exclaim. Amazing place, and look, I gesture at the waterfall, I already have running water! Let's go to the top of the waterfall shall we? In what seems like an instant we are there, and what an amazing view.

The hilltop I'm on is perfectly decorated with trees, plants & shrubs surrounding a crystal clear spring fed lake that empties out into the waterfall. I'm speechless as I slowly take in every inch of the beauty of the place. On the other side of the lake I see a beautiful white sandy beach where I know I will spend some great times with friends and family.

Suddenly that thought hits me & I say to my GA (Guardian Angel), Where do my friends and family live? He says, come right over here and look. You see that hill way over there? Your Mother & Father's gardens are right near that hill!

Now, look to the right of that, he continues, Do you see those six hills off in the distance there? That's where your brothers and sisters gardens are. Now lets walk over to the east side of the lake. When we arrive I see a great valley with many large hills here and there.

One hill is pretty close by & I ask who's garden is that right there, and my GA says, well your son and his children are on the one side of the hill, and your daughter and her children are on the other side. Wow that's perfect, I exclaim. I see a lot of hills in this valley as well, and I'm just curious about who's gardens they are.

They all belong to other friends and their families but that's a surprise that I'm going to let you find out for yourself, he says and suddenly lets out a hearty laugh as he see's my eyes light up with the intrigue! And what about my friend Donna? I asked.

Follow me, he says as he heads to the other side of the lake. Looking north is another hill close by. Is that it? I ask, That's it he replied. Well who's are all those hills just beyond Donna's garden? Those are her family and friends that she brought along with her! He explained, Isn't that great? NO DOUBT! I shouted.

Okay, I could go on like this, imagining The New Earth & Heaven for hours. GA & I haven't even been to the western slope yet, & I haven't even gotten down off the waterfall to show you the lake below, so you can imagine what there is left for me to describe for you, but back to the seminar.

Lee is now continuing to describe the vast multitude of things that await our learning and the numerous quantities of things that are there awaiting the energetic minds and bodies of all those who've found a friend in Jesus, and who refused to let go of him clear through the end.

There is no one who understands the uniqueness of each individual better than Jesus, and you can count on Him to have provided for your every need and desire, even more-so than you could ever imagine.

For our God to number the hairs of our head, (a detail that none of us would consider to be important in the least) just think of how much more important it is to Him to provide for our every desire before we reach that perfect land.

We will be changed into our perfect new bodies but we will still be able to recognize one another. And guess what! The food is going to be fantastic! Yep, it is going to be fresher than the supermarket ever dreamed of freshness, and you won't need your debit card!

How about that Tree of Life that has a brand new flavor of fruit every month? I'm putting in my application right now to join the 'Fruit of the Month Club, how about you?

How about the feast to beat all feasts of all time?

Just think of how many tables and chairs are going to be needed for THAT feast!

I'm hoping that the ball room for the feast is actually the sea of glass because I'm already wanting to be able to look down through that clear as crystal cap on the sea, and watch all of the life below swimming around and enjoying their perfect environment.

Apparently Jesus is pretty partial to grapes & grape juice. He did a lot with it. He told a lot of parables using the grape and vines, and for Him to abstain from enjoying the perfect grape juice that Heaven produces says something to me.

Is Jesus fasting? He must feel incomplete until He brings us home to Heaven! O what a Savior!

Some people have thought about Heaven, and their conception of it is that we are sitting around on clouds of glory just singing praise forever, and they decide that Heaven is no place that they would want to be, because they would get tired of that in a hurry, right?

Well, lets make a list of what we get tired of in this day and age. Tears?

I know that I am really tired of sin, how about you?

I'm also very tired of pain and death.

What a relief that is for the masses! No pain, no sorrow, no sickness, no death, no loneliness, no fear, no tears; None of that will be there! Sounds great right? And guess what, NO BOREDOM EITHER.

Some people have said that it is all too good to be true,but I'm saying it's all too good to NOT be true.

You just can't make this kind of stuff up, and anyone who claims that the Bible is just a bunch of books written by a bunch of guys long ago that just happened to be kept together somehow, simply has not read it and studied it nor have they seen how history itself has documented the Word of God.

You cannot come anywhere close to imagining a better description of the Almighty God of the Universe, The Creator of all things, then what was given to man BY GOD in days of old. Anyone claiming differently has no clue.

No one man has an imagination that great. The one man named Moses, who it is believed wrote the first five books of the Bible, not only dictated to his scribes the historical events from creation right down to their present time, but he also set the stage for the unfolding of the plan of the salvation of man.

You can't make this stuff up!

There isn't any one man who ever lived who was that brilliant!Anyone claiming differently has never studied those first 5 books in depth.

What is it on earth that people value the most? It differs a lot until you ask a person who has had a near death experience, or who has been brought back from death. Those people will all tell you the same thing. They are thankful for more time to spend with loved ones! Their relationships trump everything else!

That's also the best reason there is for wanting to live forever;to get that second chance to continue your relationship with God!

God WANT'S YOU there!

Well, since He does, then so does Jesus and God's Holy Spirit who have been working to get you there throughout your lifetime!

Jesus actually prayed FOR YOU in that prayer. He wants you there, but if you don't have time to spend with Him while you're here; If you are to busy to develop a friendship with him now;If the things of this world require all of your time now; then you have chosen the short lifetime of a self centered existence over a life of indescribable pleasure with your Creator!

The better choice my friends, is to continue chapter one in your never ending book of life with God, by including Him in the first chapter!

How many of you really think that you would enjoy eternity?If you raised your hand to that question can you keep it up when this question is asked?How many of you are making time with Jesus a priority day by day, in order to grow & develop that life saving friendship with Him?

If living life eternally is all about being with God forever, and you don't have time to spend with Him each and every day NOW, then why would you think you will enjoy spending every day with Him throughout eternity?

The truth is that the level of enjoyment you experience with Christ now,is equal to how much you would enjoy spending time with Him forever!

I can testify to this fact first hand!

Before I came to the place where I had spent enough time to go beyond the dislike that I had developed toward God, it was rather difficult for me to get back into the study of His Word. I was one of those who had taken a stance like the one that Lee or Morris described in an earlier seminar.

I liked Jesus, and I thought that it would be great to be His friend, but I had been convinced for many years by the devil to look upon God as some Supreme Power that had established a set of laws that couldn't be kept, and so I developed a distaste for the name of God. My how dangerous is that state of mind?

The incredible part is that through all of the years covering this time period, I never stopped believing in Jesus, and I never stopped telling others that they should also believe, but although I continued to witness for Jesus, I had a deep dislike for Our Heavenly Father! Wow!

What a fool I was, and yet the Most High God did not stop loving me! For those of you who don't know the story, my youngest sister Tina, and my dear brother-in-law Rocco, sent me a different set of Lee's seminars, and they were precisely what I needed to open my eyes to the truth about God.

That truth included the true nature of God, the truth about salvation, including the life saving truth about who is doing ALL The Work in our lives! It provided proof that the constantly growing, daily life saving relationship with God is the only way that we will ever gain a victorious life of obedience.

The fact that none of it can be done of our own choosing just helped to reaffirm, in my mind, Gods love for ME. BUT! The point I feel needs to be made is that from the very beginning, I REALLY HAD A MAJOR HURDLE TO GET OVER!

When I first got into these seminars, (for a short while) every time that the name God was mentioned, I felt like there was a place in my mind that wanted to shut it out completely, that didn't want to hear that name at all!

But, the saving grace that finally removed that demon was the truth about the everlasting love of God the Father, to go along with the priceless free gift of salvation through the willing sacrifice of His Son Jesus!

I can't explain it, but it was when it finally sunk in that God the Father suffered right along with His Son, coupled with the fact that He HAD provided the perfect solution for victory in our every day lives, that I began to lose that nasty feeling every time I saw or heard His name.

The second incredible realization that gave me supreme hope was when I discovered that, not only did God not expect me to do it, He required that I didn't even try to do it! What was IT? IT, is what I was never able to do in the first place! IT, is why I became discouraged and turned my back on God.

IT, was me attempting to become perfect, to overcome sin in my life, to DO what was right and to discontinue DOING what was wrong! I had somehow missed the fact that God had promised from the beginning that HE had the power that HE would use to change the things in my life that HE wanted changed.

When I realized that HE didn't trust our strength to hold up against the power of devils and evil spirits, it all made perfect sense for the first time in my life. Amazing grace & the blessed assurance that IF I chose for Jesus to be my friend, then HE will do the rest, is what has saved me from certain destruction!

Now my new found love for God The Father that I had never before experienced has blown that former demon out the back of my head, and I know for a fact that it will never return as long as I maintain this fabulous time that God has blessed me with; That's the time that I get to spend with Him each day.

I thank God that Morris and Lee have dedicated their lives to presenting God's true nature, along with the truth about His DAILY role in our salvation.

OKAY, now back to the seminar. Lee is continuing with the daily time spent in getting to know God better. He says...

Are you really making priority time with Jesus day by day, and are you really enjoying that time spent? If so, then I dare say that you are going to be enjoying that time spent with Him in Heaven, because Heaven is all about Him, and about the time spent! It's about continuing the relationship you started Here.

It all comes back to the fact that if Jesus is worth spending eternity with, He's worth getting to know NOW. Besides that, you can't even know God's will for you, or do it, if you aren't connected to him. He is your Power Source!

One day soon a very large group of people will all leave this planet and we won't need a rocket engine to do it. What an experience that will be! It will amaze us. and the rush of relief we will feel when the reality of it all sinks in will be impossible to explain!

If you haven't watched this video you should, and if you have, then watch it again because I love all the descriptions that Lee gives of the second coming and of our arrival in heaven, along with what takes place when we first arrive. To close this group of notes, there is a song that we will all sing when we arrive in Heaven.

BE THERE!By That I Mean Be There In That Daily Time Spent, Every Day Without Fail, and you'll be amazed at the changes that take place in your life AUTOMATICALLY!

Check out the bonus materials below.

John8thirtytwo Publishing has produced a short YouTube video on what the City of God might look like. Very interesting!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvNR5i4Keg8&src_vid=EKh_U2NnIs8&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_866244 To see the 26 Video seminars complete links list, visit http://nfltrashtalk.com/peaceful-resources/