Reasons We Know Heaven is Real

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Scripture:

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” – Hebrews 6:19

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” – Psalm 90:12

 “…They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” – Revelation 21:3-4

COMMENTS: We have the recorded history of many generations of faithful men and women and children who followed God’s call and instruction and enjoyed blessing and close fellowship with God.  We also have recorded history of the suffering and even punishment of those who refused and did not follow God’s direction and instruction.   This information helps us understand them, understand how they communed with God and God with them as they navigated through life and obstacles and choices.   We see how God confirmed good choices and gave warning signs to avoid foolish choices and divert back from wrong choices.   We have evidence of fulfillment of promises God gave and preparation God provided to those He chose to be involved in fulfillment of those promises.

There are promises and prophecies yet to be fulfilled but so far God’s fulfilment history is 100%.   We also have the added blessing of personal history and history of our family and family ancestors to add to our confidence that God’s faithfulness and wise direction will continue.  All this to convince us that God can and should be trusted and followed.   To add to our confidence and sure success, God has promised to walk with us and does so by His Holy Spirit abiding and guiding us all the time.  Since the Holy Spirit is God, He can so abide with each of us at the same time and still give His full focus on each of us without distraction.  Our choices do impact our path of obedience and how He interacts with others too because of the interactive impact of our actions on others and theirs on us.

He is also preparing a home and place for us.  He is preparing heaven for us as well as preparing us for heaven.   ALL ARE INVITED AND HAVE THE CHOICE OF HEAVEN AS THEIR SURE DESTINATION AND HIS ABIDING COUNCIL ON THAT JOURNEY.  BUT NOT ALL WITH REACH THAT DESTINATION NOR FOLLOW THE PATH GOD WOULD HAVE THEM FOLLOW.

Why not?   BECAUSE NOT ALL WILL CHOOSE TO ACCEPT HIS INVITATION AND FOLLOW HIS BEST PATH.   WE ALL ARE PERMITTED TO MAKE OUR OWN CHOICE.  WE CAN CHOOSE PATH BUT WE CAN’T CHOOSE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THAT CHOICE.  ONLY GOD HOLD THAT AND WILL TRY TO ENCOURAGE US IN THAT CHOICE SO WE HAVE EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO REACH THAT DESTINATION – THE DESTINATION HE HAS PROVIDED FOR US.

Well, it seems like a “no brainer”, but satan doesn’t take defeat without a fight.  Satan wants to convince as many as he can to follow him to the judgment God has warned and promised will happen to satan and all who follow his resolve to fight God’s Will and Plan.

So, lets look at 3 of the reasons we have to give us confidence God is preparing a body and place for us to spend eternity.

  1. In the midst of life’s storms and hardships and dangers and temptations, we have the confidence and assurance of eternal life.  Paul said it this way in Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  He also in Hebrews 6:19 “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”   I think it interesting he used the word anchor.  This word compares the anchor for a ship.   The storms and waves and wind all are capable of sinking the ship but the anchor holds the ship in place until the storm pass.   But the anchor remains on the ship ready to use until the ship docks in its destination port.   God passionately has our best interest at heart, so the destination and help available to us is His assurance to us we will get to our eternal home and will be all and more than we hope for.  All we have to do is keep our hand in His and follow the path He has set.  Not a path or destination we deserve, but one His forgiveness paid for so we have access to and assurance of heaven.  Heaven is a gift no one can take or rob from us.  Those who miss out do so by choosing to do so.  They do so by rejecting Christ’s sacrifice, so facing judgment will be their own fault, not anyone else.
  2. Heaven is a real place so the reliability and skill of its builder gives us fresh purpose and meaning.  Why?  BECAUSE WE KNOW AND CAN SEE THE SKILL OF GOD’S PAST CREATIONS AND DESCRIPTION OF HEAVEN.   BECAUSE HE ALSO PROMISES NEVER TO LEAVE OR FORSAKE US.  All God’s promises and evidence of heaven gives us Good News to share so others my choose to join us in the journey to heaven.  God always has a free hand to give new followers too.  There is always room for one more. Psalm 90:12 “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  Knowing this also helps us to number and use wisely the precious time on earth God blesses us with and become more aware of importance of spending that time doing things more important from an eternal perspective.
  3. Heaven is a place of pure joy and freedom without the pain and suffering and death satan continues to pollute the earth and earth dwellers with.  So, God also assure us that by receiving Christ’s payment for our sins, we His redeemed people.   “…They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” – Revelation 21:3-4

If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 542 blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present.

You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily.  My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to   explore and use my devotional blog materials.

My hope and prayer are, my blog and devotional materials will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.

Published by donsdevotions

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Don McDaniel - Who am I? Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever. Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me. I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private. However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool. Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry. He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 . I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine. I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward. Don & Arlene McDaniel In His Service, Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951 If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ ) You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials.

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