John Lennon wrote a song in which he encouraged his listeners to imagine no afterlife.  Imagine no heaven, and then imagine no hell - it's easy if you try.   Just live for this moment and to hell with hell and the afterlife.  Statistics show that more people believe there is a heaven than those who believe there is a hell.  

Believing in hell is an inconvenient way to live.  It causes all kinds of guilt and conviction and brings up subjects like your soul, your sin and your eternity.  It's better to just imagine it doesn't exist and then you don't have to waste time thinking about it, right?  Right. 

You don't have to understand that the whole idea about Jesus Death is that He died YOUR DEATH - the one YOU were supposed to die because of your sinfulness.  You don't have to contemplate what might happen if there actually IS a God who is actually going to require you to pay for the sins you've committed.  And if someone, somewhere, should dump all that, you know, uh, fundamentalist heaven/hell stuff on your psyche, you can just turn up the music and drown them out while you imagine there there is no heaven or hell. 

Furthermore, you won't ever be moved to tears when you try to comprehend the LOVE - the UTMOST LOVE that caused God to become a Man and live a sinless life because that's what the human race needed -  and offered His sinless Blood as YOUR sacrifice, and then He died Your death.  And you don't have to waste time this Sunday being all hyper and joyful and emotional and rejoicing that DEATH had no power over Him because He never sinned.......and therefore... if you align yourself with His death... and count His Blood as YOUR payment for YOUR sins...Death will have no power over you and you will ALSO be resurrected from Death Itself.. and have your own REAL RESURRECTION.  Nah, why bother?  Just go have another vente latte with an added shot or two and read the New York Times and laugh at all of us who believe that Heaven and Hell exist and God sent His Son to save us from Hell.    

Unfortunately, John Lennon doesn't have to imagine anything any longer.   He is wherever people who die go.  I don't know where he is - but he does - and his days of imagining have ended. 

Wives, deep in the heart of every husband is a secret he may not openly admit:  he wants to be your hero.  No matter what state your marriage may be in at the present time - good or bad - he STILL wants to be someone you look up to.   God created us and He knows what makes us "tick".  That's why the Bible teaches wives to RESPECT and HONOR their husbands because this is what a husband needs. 

If you read the first few chapters in the book of Proverbs, which talks about a husband being wooed away from his wife, you'll notice that it says, "he could not resist her (the other woman's) flattery."  It wasn't her killer body that enticed him away, it was her killer flattery.   He was hungry to be someone's hero.  If you want a hero of a husband, you should know that the ultimate hero maker in your husband's life is Y-O-U.    Are you a hero maker or a hero breaker?  I must admit that in the past I've been both. 

Many Christian women speak to me about the fact that their husbands are not the spiritual leaders in their homes.   Truth is,ladies, if you want your husband to be the spiritual leader in your home, you must want your home to be a spiritual one.   Do you? I don't see many church going women who really do more than go to church.  They go to church, they take their kids, they sit next to their husbands, smile at the preacher BUT their focus in life is exactly the same as their non-church-going girlfriends.  They want things. More things. Bigger things. Newer things.  Better things.  Things.  Things.  Things.  OH.. yes.. and a Godly husband who loves God.. but.. not so much that he does something stupid like become a missionary to Haiti or anything.  NOPE.  They want a Godly good man who keeps his good job and keeps buying them more and more STUFF.   Girls, you know I'm telling the truth. 

Whatever life goal is important to you is what will be your husband's life goal.  I am constantly confounded by Christian women who complain to me about their husband's lack of spirituality, while at the same time all they want is for the guy to make more money so that they can have more things.  Honey, he's giving you what you really wanted:  THINGS.  How unfair of you to complain that he isn't also Abraham and Moses.  Jesus says, "Not everyone who says 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but ONLY he who does the will of my Father." 

Do you, as a wife, live every day doing the will of your heavenly Father?   If not, then don't complain if your husband doesn't either.  More importantly, do you live every day encouraging YOUR HUSBAND to do the will of God before all other things?   What do you really want?   Whatever you REALLY want is what your husband will REALLY try to give you.  So don't say you want a spiritual man unless you really want a man whose focus is on unseen things.   Unseen things.  It isn't fair to want a man who is a spiritual leader while you continue to be a material girl. 

Dear little wifey, a husband who seeks God's kingdom first is a husband who is doing GOD'S WILL and not yours.  Abraham's wife didn't say,  "Are you crazy?  I am NOT leaving my family and my house and traveling like nomads in the desert!!!"  She followed him as he followed God.  God's will is always about God's Kingdom.  God's will is always about seeking that which is lost.  God's will is about "there" and not "here".   Does your husband look back on the days of your lives so far and see a woman who has always strongly encouraged him to do what GOD would have him do?   Do you encourage him to follow God no matter what?  

You can't have it both ways.  You cannot want the world, and the things in the world AND then complain because you have a husband who wants the world and the things in the world. Would we have a Billy Graham if he wasn't married to a Ruth Graham who loved God so much that she endured a lifetime of weeks without a husband at home? Would Abraham have been the Father of Israel if Sarah would have refused to leave her home and follow her husband to the place God was leading?   You might say,  "My husband is no Billy Graham or Abraham".  Well, Billy Graham wasn't "Billy Graham" until after Ruth Graham said to her husband,  "Do God's will FIRST."    How do you know what God might do with your husband's life if you refuse to follow him to the places God leads?   Do you dare to tell your husband that you want him to be God's man no matter what it may cost you materially, financially and emotionally?  If God has blessed you with a Christian husband, then you have a heavenly hero living in your home.  Dear wifey, are you a hero maker - OR - a hero breaker?

"Forgive them, Father.  They know not what they do."  is what Jesus pleaded for the people who were killing him.   KILLING HIM.   There is no greater crime against someone than to take His life - especially when it's an innocent one.   He didn't plead HIS case.  He trusted God to plead it for Him.  He didn't want revenge.  He trusted God to judge fairly. 

He didn't HATE them,  He loved them.  God's plan for my life is to turn me in to the image of Jesus.  I know who I really am.  To become like Jesus is going to take a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.  I say "Yes, Lord.  Do Your work in me."  That's the end of my involvement.  God wants me to be like His Only Son.   Therefore, I am called to forgive.  With some people, this is difficult and sometimes it seems impossible. I'm sure some people find me difficult to forgive.   But "difficult" is not the same word as "impossible".  Sometimes we confuse ourselves by convincing ourselves that the difficult things God requires are impossible things to do.  With God all things are possible.   If I WANT to be like Jesus, I will be.  Not in my own power but in His.   The Forgiven Ones must be The Forgiving Ones.