The Ten Plagues of Egypt, Plague 8 - Locusts

The Ancient Egyptian Board Game "Senet"

My wife and I were watching a documentary on ancient Egypt the other day. They were excavating an Egyptian tomb and they discovered artifacts of an ancient Egyptian board game called Senet.  How cool is that?  The ancients played board games!  you can still buy and play the Senet board game they played today.

One of the marks of a successful culture (at least by worldly standards) is the ability to enjoy entertainment.  You have enough surplus time and resources to stop working just to survive and just enjoy life.  In America, we take our entertainment for granted because we are in one of the most prosperous nations in the world.  Do you realize that 99% of the people in our world today will never visit Disney World.  90% will never take a vacation to the beach or even go to an amusement park.  These are luxuries most Americans can do because we can afford them while most people in the world are too busy just struggling to survive.

God wants people to be able to enjoy life.  He said, "Remember to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy…” (Exodus 20:8) And, “On that day no one in your household may do any work…” (Ex. 20:10) “For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested.” (Ex. 20:11) God didn't want HIs people to have to work all the time and never have time to rest and enjoy life.

The Pharisees in Jesus' day turned the Sabbath commands into a legalistic regulations that were a terrible burden for people.  They were no fun at all.  They were always upset with Jesus because he didn't follow the Sabbath commands the way they thought he should.  Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)  The commandment to rest on the Sabbath is one of the great gifts God gave humanity. We need to time rest. And God wants us to enjoy life. 

The ancient Egyptians were a very powerful and prosperous empire.  They had time and wealth to enjoy board games, theater, sporting events, and other entertainment.  Unfortunately, they did not appreciate God for blessing them with the resources to enjoy life.  In stead, they worshiped idols.  And through 10 plagues, God punished them for their idolatry.

Locusts
When I was a child, I heard that strange sound in the trees in late summer.  It sounded like a whinning buzzing that started soft and grew louder and louder  and then was echoed in another section of trees.  I asked my mom what it was and she said they were locusts.  It wasn't until I was older that I learned they weren't locust, but cicadas.  Cicadas are not locusts but are related.  In fact, cicadas, crickets, katydids, grasshoppers, and locusts are all cousins. 

I went to a Cub Scout camp once with my dad and they had us play a game.  In the morning, the challenged us all to find a critter to bring to a critter race that evening. My dad and I found a frog.  I thought we had the race in the bag that evening with our speedy little frog when we gathered around a big circle they had drawn on the ground that evening.  We all placed our critters in the center of the circle and began yelling for our critters to go.  The first one outside of the circle would be the winner.  All the critters started moving and I thought my frog might win.  But then a lone grasshopper leaped into the air and spread it's wings and flew off into the woods never to be seen again.  In one move, the grasshopper won the race.

Locusts are the swarming phase of certain kinds of grasshoppers. Grasshoppers usually live alone, but under certain circumstances they multiply radically and become social.  They join together and create huge swarms.  

According to National Geographic, a dessert locust swarm can cover 460 square miles and pack between 40-80 million locusts into less than a square mile (18-36 billion locusts in a swarm).

To put it in perspective, a typical swarm of dessert locusts could completely cover Whitfield County in Georgia where I live and nearly half of neighboring Murray County all at once.  A typical swarm of locusts can eat 423 million pounds of vegetation per day!  And the Scripture tells us the swarm that plagued Egypt was the worst “in the history of Egypt”.  

Unconditional Surrender
It's no wonder Pharaoh and his officials want relief.  They've already endured 7 plagues and their empire is in ruins.  So Pharaoh starts bargaining with Moses.  "You can go worship your Lord in the wilderness, but who is going?"  Moses says, "We are all going--men, women, children, and even the animals."  And Pharaoh says, "No.  Only the men can go!"

Now, there's an important principle you need to understand.  You cannot bargain with God for your salvation.  Jesus came to make a way for you to be saved from sin and death, but you are only saved through surrender; and you must surrender, unconditionally.  You can't say, "Lord, I will give you this part of my life, but I'm gonna keep that part of my life for myself."  No.  That will never do.  You must give God your whole life.  Philippians 2:9-11 says, "One day, God elevated him [Jesus] to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 

The Idol of Pleasure
Egypt was an empire with thousands of idols and false gods.  But YHWH (pronounced Yahweh), the God of the Hebrews, our God, the only true and living God, sent 10 plagues on Egypt to expose the impotence of all Egypt’s false gods so that all nations and generations would know that there is only one God—the Lord. 

We have idols today too—even in our modern world.  God designed people to worship.  Trying not to worship is like trying not to breathe.  People just can't do it.  Even if someone doesn't believe in God they will still worship something.  They will worship money or power or their country or their leaders or people they admire.  They may even worship themselves.  One of the idols we worship is pleasure and entertainment. 

Now as I said before, God wants us to have time to rest and enjoy life and have pleasure.  He commanded us to rest on the Sabbath.  This was originally not some stiff religious regulation; it was God telling His children, “You got to take some time to stop and smell the roses!” 

Work can become and idol, but so can the pursuit of pleasure.  Many in our time bow down to the idol of Hedonism.  Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure and sensual self-indulgence.   

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying life.  God wants us to enjoy life.  But any time we take something that’s good and treat it like a god—treating it as more important to you than God, letting it absorb your heart and imagination more than God, and expecting it to give you what only God can give—we are worshiping an idol.  And idols always fail us and hurt us. 

We all want to be happy and enjoy life.  Ironically, the one thing that guarantees you will not be happy and enjoy life is if you spend all your time in the pursuit of pleasure.  You may find some fabricated, false sense of happiness.  Others may even look at you from the outside and envy your “happiness”, but that’s only because they can’t see how unhappy you are on the inside.  With hedonism, all your “happiness” is as empty and false as the impotent idols of Egypt. 

In contrast to hedonism, the two most effective ways to find the greatest real pleasure in life are to 1) be thankful, and 2) help others. 

First of all, be thankful.
Being grateful is not just the polite thing to do.  When we give thanks, it actually increases our capacity to enjoy our blessings.  You see, when we are unhappy, we often think the solution is to get more things or more experiences that will make us happy.  However, that is rarely the real solution.  Most often after we get the things or experiences we wanted, the satisfaction they give goes away so quickly and all we can think about is the next thing or experience we have to have. 

The solution is to learn to be truly thankful for what we have.  Our thankfulness magnifies the pleasure we receive from the things and experiences.  Amy Harris issued a challenge in her Youth Moment last week—to name one thing for which you are thankful each day.  That is a great habit—especially this month.  But don’t stop in November.  Be thankful every day.  Get a journal and each day write down some of the things for which ayou are thankful.  Another idea is to get a jar and some slips of paper and each day write down some things for which you are grateful and put them in the jar.  Form time to time--especially when you may be feeling down--take out your journal and read from your gratitude list.  Or dump out the slips of paper from your "gratitude jar" and read them.  You will find it cheers you up and brings your new joy. (My family does a gratitude jar all year long and we read the slips together on New Years Day after dinner.)

Second, help others.
Another great way to experience true and lasting pleasure—a pleasure that soaks down deep into your soul—is to help others.  Nothing brings joy like helping someone.  As Christmas draws nearer, we remember the old cliché--it is better to give than receive.  It's a cliché, but it's true.

Scientific studies show that helping others boosts happiness.[i] It increases life satisfaction, provides a sense of meaning, increases feelings of competence, improves our mood and reduced stress. It can help to take our minds off our own troubles too.[ii]

Don’t look at helping others as a burden you have to bear.  Carrying a heavy load doesn’t sound like fun and it won't bring you much joy either.  So help others with a cheerful heart.  It’s not some religious duty you must fulfill in order for God to love you.  God already loves you!  Think about just how much He loves you.  Now, turn around and help somebody else and you may find it is the most fun you’ve ever had. 

Holy Communion
Jesus gave us a special meal to remind us how much God loves us.  The last meal Jesus shared with His disciples--what Christians call Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist.  At the meal, Jesus took bread and gave it to his disciples and said, "This is my body, which is given for you." After the meal, he took a cup of wine and said, "Drink from this all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.  And as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me."  That meal symbolized the way Jesus would die on the cross for our sins. And every time we celebrate Holy Communion, it does three things that can help us experience true joy in this life and for all eternity.

First, it reminds us how God helped us. Jesus left the glorious perfection of Heaven to come down to our broken world. Doesn't feel good to know God loved you so much He gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life?

Second, Holy Communion offers us the opportunity to be truly thankful.  Holy Communion is sometimes called "The Great Thanksgiving," for in it we give thanks for what Christ has done.  This is not just being polite.  It is an act that increases our capacity to experience joy as we the depth of God's love that prompted Him to leave the glory of Heaven for our sakes.

Third, Holy Communion is a sacred ceremony, that God uses to empower us to help others just like Christ helped us. His Spirit fills us and enables us to love people like God loves them.  And we can help people.  And helping people brings us joy.

So, I pray today you will stop trying to find joy through hedonism--a relentless pursuit of pleasure.  Instead, turn to God and find true and lasting joy as you learn to be thankful and seek to help others the way God helped you through Jesus Christ.

[i] [1] Post, S. G. (2005). Altruism, Happiness, and Health: It's Good to Be Good. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 12(2), 66-77.

[ii] Midlarsky, E. (1991). Helping as coping. Prosocial Behavior: Review of Personality and Social Psychology, 12, 238-264

Holy (COVID) Communion

Introduction
One of the most influential events in my life was the "Walk to Emmaus" spiritual retreat.  I attended in 1996 when I was only 21 years old.  This was before I was a preacher (or even knew I was going to be a preacher), back when I was still in college trying to figure things out.  I had heard of the Walk to Emmaus from others at church.  Then my friend asked if he could sponsor me to attend.  I agreed and it was so powerful it helped shape everything that's happened in my life since then.

After attending "the walk", I served on many teams--right up until this year.  Unfortunately, all future Walk to Emmaus retreats are on hold indefinitely because of COVID-19.  It's just not safe to gather a hundred people into a small conference center where social distancing is not possible.  So many of our usual activities are disrupted right now—school, church, sports, etc.  How do we find the inspiration, encouragement, and release that we need? 

I want to talk about that today.  But first, let's read the story of the original "Walk to Emmaus" together from the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 24:13-34

¹³ That same day two of Jesus’ followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. ¹⁵ As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. ¹⁶ But God kept them from recognizing him.

¹⁷ He asked them, “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?”

They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. ¹⁸ Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days.”

¹⁹ “What things?” Jesus asked.

“The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. ²⁰ But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. ²¹ We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago.

²² “Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. ²³ They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! ²⁴ Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said.”

²⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. ²⁶ Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” ²⁷ Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

²⁸ By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, ²⁹ but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. ³⁰ As they sat down to eat,^[d] he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. ³¹ Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!

³² They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” ³³ And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven disciples and the others who had gathered with them, ³⁴ who said, “The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter.”

Two Disciples Living in Dark Times
Often when I tell people about the spiritual retreat called “The Walk to Emmaus”, they think it is some kind of hike or walking trip.  It is not.  It is based off this passage from Luke.  Two disciples are walking on the road to a town called Emmaus when Jesus comes up along side them, but they don’t recognize him.  He walks with them and explains how the Old Testament Scriptures said that the Messiah would come and be crucified and rise from the grave.  Then, the two disciples recognize Jesus when he breaks bread for Holy Communion.  

One of the two disciples was a man named Cleopas.   The other disciple isn’t named.  If he was one of the 12 disciples, Luke probably would have told us his name.  So I think it’s safe to assume it wasn’t Peter, James, John, or any of the other “famous twelve” men we know as the Apostles.  I don’t know about you, but it encourages me to think Cleopas and the other disciple were a couple of the lesser known followers of Jesus. (You see Jesus had many followers and we only hear the names of a few of them.)  I like that, because I’ve never thought of myself as anyone special—not someone worthy of my name going down in history for people to remember thousands of years from now.  I’m just a regular guy trying to follow Jesus through this messed up world.  How about you?  And the fact that Jesus appears to these two obscure guys on the road to Emmaus speaks to me.  That’s my story.  Maybe that's your story too.

And why do we assume these two disciples are guys at all? I mean, as far as I can tell, it never says they were guys.  Does it?  We just assume they were men.  And whenever this story has been told for two thousand years, or whenever someone painted a picture of “The Walk to Emmaus”, they painted the two disciples as men.  I guess that says more about us and our preconceived notions than it does about the actual story.  There’s no reason I can see that this couldn’t have been two women walking along (or a man and a woman).  Cleopas was probably a man—it’s a man’s name.  But etymologists also speculate Cleopas could be the shortened form of Cleopatra (and as far as I can remember, Cleopatra was typically a girls name).  I don’t know, it can get confusing—kinda of like my name could be male or female.  (My wife and I once attended a party where know one knew us and we said we were "Chris and Kelly", but they didn't know which one of us was the husband and which was the wife, because both our names can be used for either gender).

It could have been a married couple—Cleopas and his wife.  A lot of scholars think that was the situation.  I guess that makes sense to me, but we can’t know for sure.  The truth is, we know one was Cleopas and one was unnamed.  We don’t know their genders.  We do know they were two of Jesus followers, and they were confused and probably frightened.  Their master had been arrested and crucified.  And know some of their fellow disciples were claiming Jesus alive again.

This is an important story for the dark times in which we live.  Many are wondering who they can trust. We feel like the world we know and love is coming to an end.  You may feel like society has changed so much that you no longer fit in.  Well, consider Cleopas and his companion in this story.  They were living in dark times too—much darker than ours.  While we’re arguing about whether we should wear masks or send our kids back to school, these disciples lived in a time when the government very clearly could not be trusted and had just definitively confirmed they were out to get Jesus and all his followers.  They arrested Jesus in the middle of the night, convicted him in a kangaroo court, and sentenced him to death.  The very next day, the nailed him to a cross and threw his dead body in a tomb.  You can’t make it more clear than that.  Now Cleopas and the other disciple are walking away from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  (I’m tempted to re-translate that “They were getting the heck outa dodge!” because their afraid the soldiers would be breaking down their doors next and dragging htem off to be nailed to a cross.) 

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were sad.  They were afraid.  They were on edge. They were amazed at the crazy story they’d heard that Jesus' body was missing from the tomb and he was alive.  I can’t blame them for not recognizing Jesus when he walked right up beside them.  We miss some pretty obvious stuff all the time—especially when we’re worn out, scared, and/or overwhelmed. One time I grew out a beard for the winter and then shaved it off on Easter morning.  Then my wife had a cup of coffee with me and didn't even notice until hours later when she saw my at church.  Haha!  I've done a similar thing to her after she came home from the hair salon with her hair colored and styled and, like an idiot, I said, "So what'd you do today?"  We miss stuff all the time.

Jesus Reveals Himself

Thankfully, Jesus revealed himself to the two disciples when he broke the bread.  They must have been present at the last supper when Jesus broke bread and said, “This is my body, which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)  When the risen Jesus breaks bread with them on the way to Emmaus, they realize it's Jesus! He is alive!

Holy Communion is a very special sacrament Christ has given us as sacred way to know his presence with us.  It helps open our eyes.  As we break the bread and drink the juice, we see Christ with us.  We also remember how Jesus' love lead him to die on the cross for our sins.  We are called to repent of our sins and return to Christ so that His blood washes away our sins. Holy Communion also reminds us, in a special way, that Christ is with us, strengthening us to face whatever darkness surround us.  Jesus is the light of the world and His Holy Spirit lives inside all who believe; and the darkness shall not over come the Light.  Therefore, we can shine brightly for all the world to see.  The light of a candle is the most noticeable when it lights a dark room.  The light of Christ in our life is most noticeable when we shine in a dark world.

However, as special as Holy Communion is, don’t ever forget Jesus is always with you if He is your Lord.  He was walking with the two disciples the whole time they were on the road to Emmaus.  They didn’t recognize him, but he was there the whole time.  Don’t you know that—if you are a believer—Jesus is with you the whole time too?  Not just when you are taking Holy Communion, but all the time.  

We haven’t celebrated Holy Communion at Pleasant Grove since the beginning of March (for obvious reasons).  Four months.  Yet Jesus has been with us the whole time.  His presence is not the issue.  It’s our recognition of his presence.  Do you recognize he is walking beside you?  How can you remind yourself daily that he is there?

Let me summarize a short list of things—besides Holy Communion—that help Christians remain aware that Jesus is with us always. 

Habits to Help Remember Jesus is With Us 

Here are some things that have helped me and others see Christ's presence.  First there is prayer.  I'm not talking about the eloquent prayers of a church service that use fancy words.  I'm referring to the honest, straight-forward heart prayer that we can all pray.  Things like, "Lord, I don't know who to trust anymore.  Show me the way."  Prayer is essential to a real life relationship with Jesus.  Do you pray like that?

Then there is reading Scripture.  The Bible is the Word of God and we need a word of God right now in these crazy times.  Where else can we hear a word from God if not fromthe Pages of His Word?  Are you reading it?

You can also remember Jesus is with you by reading other material too.  I often hear a word from God while reading a good book.  Maybe you can too.  But please, pick good stuff.  What you read becomes part of your spirit.  If you read a lot of trash, soon you will be full of trash.  So read good stuff so you will be full of good thoughts and ideas.

Preaching has often reminded me of Jesus presence.  It was preaching that helped me hear God's call to repent of my sins and follow Jesus as my Lord.  It was in sermons of good preachers where I heard God calling me to be a pastor.  Preaching has inspired, challenged, convicted, and motivated me.  Make it a regular habit to listen to good, biblical based preaching.

Music can also be a special grace to help us recognize Jesus presence with us.  Does the music you listen to turn your eyes toward Jesus?  you don't have to listen exclusively to Gospel or Christian music.  (Everyone enjoys a piece of cake now and then, but it's not healthy to eat cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.)  So be sure to listen to music that turns your heart to God, because what you consume with your ears can either build up or destroy your heart.

There is also contemplation.  What do you think about while you are going about your day or while you are out in the world.  When you are at the beach on vacation, do you see and hear the waves of the ocean as the majesty of God' creation or are you too busy looking at the pretty girls in bikinis?  What you think about habitually altars the shape of your mind.  So let your thoughts shape your mid positively.

There is one more thing I want to mention.  What were the two disciples doing on the road to Emmaus?  They were talking to each other about their thoughts and concerns and hopes and dreams about Jesus.  And it was as they were walking and talking that Jesus showed up.  Do you have a friend to talk to?  Do you always, only talk about sports or the latest TV shows or gossip?  Do you ever talk about more important things like your faith in Jesus?  I hope so. For when we talk with our friends about Christ, he appears and we begin to understand.

The Afterlife

Revelation 21:1-8

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

³ I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. ⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

⁵ And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” ⁶ And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. ⁷ All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.

⁸ “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Introduction
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Revelation 21 gives us a vision of God’s ultimate plan for humanity and all of creation.  Most people are only thinking “What’s next?  What happens after we die? Will I go to heaven?”  But God’s plans are much grander and far reaching.  Ultimate, God will restore the original vision He began when He created the world in Genesis 1.  God will create a new heaven and a new earth, for old heaven and earth will pass away.  And the great shout of Revelation 21:3 will come true: “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.”  God’s redemption is not just for people.  God will redeem all the animals, the trees, the plants… All creation will be renewed.  We will live in peace and harmony with all the earth—just as it was when God first created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden to live without any fear or shame or suffering.  And Isaiah 11:6 foretells, “In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.”

I had several questions asked about heaven and the afterlife and I want to address those today.  And I think it is especially appropriate today as we celebrate All Saints Sunday, the day we honor and remember our loved ones who’ve gone to heaven to be with the Lord.  For all who are truly Christian--who believe in and follow Jesus Christ--are saints.  We are perfect in God's sight, because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.

How does God decides when to call people to heaven, young or old?

God is sovereign. That means God has absolute authority and absolute right to do whatever He decides.  First of all, this is because He made us.  Secondly, He rescued us when we were already dead because of our sin.  The only thing enabling us to draw a single breath is the providence and protection of God.  So God has two reasons to claim absolute sovereignty over us.

That being said, God allows us the freedom to live autonomously.  In other words, we get to make our own decisions.  We can choose to live a clean, healthy life, which tends to lead to a long life.  Or we can smoke and drink and eat two pounds of bacon every day for breakfast and cake for dinner and never force our bodies to exercise.  That will probably lead to poor health and an early grave.  It’s your choice; God gives you the freedom how you want to live.  Furthermore, others have a choice too.  People choose to get drunk and drive and crash into innocent people causing untimely deaths.  Big corporations sometimes choose to pollute our earth, favoring short term profit over the long-term environmental health of our planet.  How many cancers and tumors and other life-ending health problems are the result?  Our world is broken because of sin. 

Sometimes, God calls a person Home to heaven.  Sarah Brooker, a godly member of my church, may be an example of God specifically calling a saint Home to be with Him. Sara was a woman who lived a full life and touched so many; a lady who fulfilled God’s will for her life to the last day.  A lady who wanted to go to heaven for the last ten years, but who faithfully endured the sorrows of this life and declining health for the sake of Christ until Jesus finally said the job was done.  Then, and only then, when she realized her work for the Lord was done, she laid her head back and the Lord called her Home.

But we need not assume that every person who dies was personally chosen by God to die at that moment.  That’s a wrong way to think.  God can choose when a person goes to heaven, but more often than not I think it is our own decisions (or the decisions of others around us).  We need to be extra careful when we claim God is the one naming the day and hour of every single person's death.  I’m not going to blame God for the man who dies of a heart attack when that man was repeatedly warned about his unhealthy eating habits, high cholesterol, and lack of exercise.  I’m not going to blame God for the death of a young girl hit by a drunk driver.  Do you see where I’m going with all this?  Let’s stop making God the scape goat for all our suffering and death.  Let’s take responsibility here.  God created the world.  But then we took over and we’ve been ruining this place for thousands of years by our own rotten choices.  I’d rather blame anyone than God for all these tragedies.

And to the original question—how does God decides when to call people to heaven?  I think He doesn’t have to make that decision very often.  I think we usually make it ourselves, in one way or another. And sometimes, when God does specifically call an individual Home, I believe it's an act of mercy.

God’s question for you is:  What do the decisions you make in your life say about when you will be going to heaven?

What do Methodist believe about The Rapture?

The rapture is a term some Christians use to describe a future event when Jesus calls all Christian believers who are alive, along with the resurrected dead believers, up to "the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air".  It is based on 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.”  Some Christian denominations place more emphasis on the rapture and the End Times than others.  My Grandma was more and more interested in eschatological studies, including the rapture, the older she got.  She  hope her and her husband would be spared the pain of death and separation.  She saw the world around her becoming increasingly evil and longed for Jesus' return.  She hopes she and her husband would live to see the day He came back and they would be raptured to meet Him in the air.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.  She died in 1994 and my grandpa died five years latter in 1999.

Methodist don’t have an official doctrine about the rapture (or many other End Times concepts) other than what we say in the Apostles’ Creed:  we believe Jesus “will come again to judge the quick and the dead.”  We know Jesus is coming again.  It plainly says it in Scripture.  Most Methodists believe and accept the concept of a rapture, but we tend not to be as concerned with the End Times.  We are more concerned with the present.  We want to live our lives for God now, sharing the love of Christ with as many as we can as often as we can in as many ways as we can.  We believe if we do this, we will be ready whenever and however the end comes.

God’s question for you:  Are you ready if Jesus comes for you today?

Will I recognize my family in Heaven?

Yes.  In fact, I believe you will recognize them better then than you ever did here on earth.  1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

Here on earth, we recognize people by mostly by their physical appearance.  My older brother and I look pretty similar and sound even more alike.  Over the phone, we can almost be indistinguishable.  Back in the day before everyone had caller ID, I would often call my mom and she would think she was talking to Nelson.  And being he practical joker I am, I would just go with it and pretend to be my older brother.  And I could make it several minutes before I would laugh and let my mom know who it really was.  My brother used to do the same thing when Mom would mistake him for me.

That will be no mistaken identities in heaven.  Just as God sees into your soul now, we will be able to see deeply into the core of those we love when we get to Glory.  We will see and be seen this way.  And just like Adam and Eve who were naked in the Garden of Eden but were unashamed, we will have nothing to hide in eternity.  We will gladly be completely open and vulnerable, so that people can see who we really are, and we will not be ashamed.  Yes.  We will recognize our loved ones, even better than we know them now.

God’s question for you is:  How do you recognize your family and friends today?  Do you see them mostly for how they look or what they do for you?  Could you look at them in a deeper way and recognize something in them you’ve missed before?

What am I supposed to get out of Holy Communion?

First, Holy Communion is an opportunity to do something Jesus asked you to do.  Think of someone you love who has died.  Suppose they asked you to do something just before they died.  Something simple, a simple ceremony that you should do often to remember them.  Wouldn’t you do it?  Well, Jesus, whom we love, said "take and eat and drink in remembrance of me."

Second, Holy Communion is a chance to commune with all the saints (all believers of Jesus Christ), both living and dead.  As we gather around the Lord’s Table to remember Him and His sacrifice, so to do all the saints gather with us.  How this happens is a mystery, but we allude to it every Sunday as we recite the Apostles’ Creed:  We believe in the communion of saints.

Third, Holy Communion is a chance to commune with Jesus Christ.  Jesus is not dead; He is alive.  And He is with us as we celebrate communion.  Yes, I know Jesus is with us always; but through Holy Communion, He can open our hearts in a special way so we can experience His presence with us.  I encourage you, as you take Holy Communion, to seek to know Christ’s presence with you as you kneel at the altar to pray.

Fourth, Holy Communion is a sacrament God uses to pour His grace into our lives.  Grace is God’s undeserved love and favor.  Through Holy Communion, God strengthens and equips us to live as His people.  Just as food nourishes your body, God’s grace imparted through Communion nourishes your spirit in a special way that you can live as His people.

Conclusion
I hope it has been helpful to ponder the questions with me.  May God bless you.

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