{"id":2339,"date":"2015-03-18T11:22:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T15:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=2339"},"modified":"2015-03-18T21:21:56","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T01:21:56","slug":"worship-wednesday-on-heaven-you-hold-me-now-hillsong-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=2339","title":{"rendered":"Worship Wednesday – On Heaven – You Hold Me Now – Hillsong United"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Morocco<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesus answered them, “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.<\/span> I and the Father are one.” – John 10:28-30<\/a><\/p>\n

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.\u201d – Revelation 21:4<\/a><\/p>\n

The older I get, the sweeter Heaven becomes. Part of that is all the people I love who are there now – my mom, my older brother, a dear nephew, a life-long friend… Part of that is the violence, struggle,\u00a0and disorder of this world which too often gets blamed on God –\u00a0cheap blame that avoids looking into the mirror of our own neglect and disregard of the needs of others. More even than those reasons, when I see glimpses of Heaven now, I am filled with hope of what lies ahead.<\/p>\n

While living in Casablanca, Morocco, years ago, I was asked to teach a class on world religions. It was for one semester. The students were high schoolers from\u00a0influential families – all Muslim except for one Hindu student. I knew all the students through their team sports and performing arts. It was a joy to teach them. At the end of the semester, one of their assignments was to choose a religion on which they would do a critical analysis and give an oral report.<\/p>\n

As each student team give their reports, they talked about the religions’ beliefs about the afterlife. [It’s a fascinating study, if you’ve never considered it.] The beliefs ranged from reincarnation, to a hoped-for state of nirvana, to a state of nothingness or non-existence, or, finally,\u00a0to either a Paradise or Hell. For Christianity, the students reporting said, cryptically, “When Christians die, they hope to be with God.”<\/p>\n

That is it exactly. That is Heaven for me. That is Paradise.<\/p>\n

Too great a thing to hope for? Too fantastic a thing to even believe? If I believe\u00a0what Jesus says, then I\u00a0believe what he says about Heaven:\u00a0“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.<\/span> And you know the way where I am going.” [John 14:2-4<\/a>]<\/p>\n

“Where I am, there you may be also…You know the way<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Those great students of mine did their homework. Their understanding of what Heaven is for Christians was spot on. I do look forward to the day my faith becomes sight. The glimpses of Heaven we have here…and there are many…will one day be\u00a0His followers’\u00a0full eternal experience. Not because we deserve Heaven, for we don’t. Not because we worked hard enough or well enough for Heaven, because that’s not possible…but because of what God has done for us and because of His word to us…as we witness and believe Him here…for There.<\/p>\n

Heaven…with Him…Hallelujah!<\/p>\n

Worship<\/a> with me:<\/p>\n

On the day when I see
\nAll that You have for me
\nWhen I see You face to face
\nThere surrounded by Your grace<\/p>\n

All my fears swept away
\nIn the light of Your embrace
\nWhere Your love is all I need
\nand forever I am free<\/p>\n

Where the streets are made of gold
\nIn Your presence healed and whole
\nLet the songs of heaven rise to You alone<\/p>\n

No weeping
\nNo hurt or pain
\nNo suffering
\nYou hold me now, You hold me now
\nNo darkness
\nNo sick or lame
\nNo hiding
\nYou hold me now, You hold me now<\/p>\n

In this life I would stand
\nthrough my joy and my pain
\nKnowing there\u2019s a greater day
\nThere’s a hope that never fades<\/p>\n

Where Your name is lifted high
\nand forever praises rise
\nFor the glory of Your name
\nI’m believing for the day<\/p>\n

Where the wars and violence cease
\nAll creation lives in peace
\nLet the songs of heaven rise to You alone<\/p>\n

For eternity
\nAll my heart will give
\nAll the glory to Your Name [x4]*<\/i><\/p>\n

*Lyrics to You Hold Me Now<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

YouTube Lyric Video – You Hold Me Now<\/em> – Hillsong United<\/a><\/p>\n

What Did Jesus Say About Heaven?<\/a><\/p>\n

Matt Chandler’s Gospel Presentation – Like You have Never Seen It!<\/a><\/p>\n

The Gospel in 6 Minutes – John Piper<\/a><\/p>\n

Coming Home 2015 New Heaven & New Earth TCG National Conference<\/a><\/p>\n

YouTube Video – I Can Only Imagine<\/em> (with lyrics) – MercyMe<\/a><\/p>\n

Randy Alcorn Interview – Looking Forward to a Heaven We Can Imagine<\/a><\/p>\n

Randy Alcorn on a Biblical View of Heaven – Will We Play Sports? What Age Will We Be?<\/a><\/p>\n

The Big Religion Comparison Chart (See Afterlife)<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Ingrid Pullar Photography<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus answered them, “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” … Continue reading Worship Wednesday – On Heaven – You Hold Me Now – Hillsong United<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[794,50,599,33,18,795,719,761,32,47,946],"tags":[1115,1114,807,1112,1835,1117,1118,172,1116,360,1111],"class_list":["post-2339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faithfulness","category-god","category-heaven","category-inspired","category-jesus","category-love-2","category-reconciliationforgiveness","category-redeeming-restoring","category-walk-with-god","category-wednesday-worship","category-worship","tag-faithful-god","tag-first-call","tag-gospel-of-christ","tag-hillsong-united","tag-jesus","tag-john-piper","tag-matt-chandler","tag-mercyme","tag-randy-alcorn","tag-worship-wednesday","tag-you-hold-me-now"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-BJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2339"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2357,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339\/revisions\/2357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}