 | Reverend Dennis Paschke is the senior pastor at Evangel Holton United Methodist Church, in Holton Kansas. Evangel church is a vital and growing congregation full of life that is changing lives and our community one person at a time. Dennis’ family emigrated from North Dakota to Alberta, Canada to homestead when his father was just a young boy. Rev. Paschke returned to the United States and has lived in many parts of the country. His life has afforded him many blessings before answering God’s call to full-time ministry, including being a vice president of a Fortune 100 company, serving as a chairman of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games and holding a U.S. patent. His greatest blessing in life is his walk with Christ! He believes strong faith always engages the heart and mind. EDUCATION: BSEE from the University of Calgary, Canada, and a Master’s of Divinity from Saint Paul School of Theology. FAMILY: He is married to wife Dawn and they have three sons Corey, Kyle and Marc. The family also includes one “wonder-dog” named Tucker! You can reach Reverend Paschke via email dpasch01@gmail.com. |
Religion
2012-02-27 14:18:39
More to heaven than worship?
Q: The other day my friend and I were talking about Heaven and what it will be like. She said you praise and honor God all day. It’s difficult for me to understand how that’s all one will do, . . . and do it forever. I have an even harder time imagining my husband enjoying it. Although we both go to church regularly, it’s not something he looks forward to. Is there more to heaven than this, or will this be enough?
A: At the root of our response to what we will do in heaven rests our understanding of what heaven is and what our view of God’s character is. According to Scripture heaven is that place where nothing separates us from the fullness of God’s presence.
What you know (there is a difference between knowing and believing) God’s character to be will define how you respond to being fully in God’s presence. If your image of God is as a rule-maker that we must obey, being in the full presence of God will be a fearful and anxious experience. If your image of God is as an impersonal autocratic King, then being in the full presence of God will be like an earthly slave. But the fullest understanding of God’s character is told in both of the Old and New Testaments. The character revealed in this the full canon of Scripture is of a God who has the aforementioned as part of His character but is much, much more than that. God does set down rules, but those rules are rules for our best life that lead us to the fullest life possible! God is a King who looks for us to be His subjects, but when we do He crowns us with love, mercy, grace, joy and a full and abundant heart and life! We become ones living in a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe!
Heaven is much more than a destination for eternity! It does not matter how much you go to church without a commitment and awe towards God, because this is meaningless. What does matter is that the church we go to is one where the promises of God revealed in scripture become reality in our lives. It is indeed an amazing gift of salvation that God offers us through faith in Christ that we would spend eternity together with him and overcome death! The loving sacrifice God made is exactly so we might not miss the point of life and of death. The fullest truth of Jesus’ time here on earth is that in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are not only that we see the promise of eternal life and get into heaven, but that Christ came to get heaven into us here and now!
If you chose to live your life for you alone without God you can chose that. Then when you come to the end of your life all of your accomplishments will be the sum total of your own individual independent journey and your last breathe will be the loneliest a human being can ever take. You will have missed out on an amazing journey that God had planned for you. God has so much more planned for your life that is revealed through your relationship with Jesus!
So how would one respond to God face to face when nothing separates us from the fullness of God’s love, living in intimacy with God? I believe the answer to that rests in whether we have experienced heaven in us here and now! If God does not know you and live in your life then it’s likely to be a somber meeting. If we do know each other intimately then we know that all the very best of what is available to us here and now is but a thimble full of what God has planned for us in eternity and our life has been preparation for that! Grounds for praise and honor? Well I don’t know about you but as for me - ABSOLUTELY!!!
