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Heavenly imaginings

4/28/2017

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"And yet the question persists: What will heaven be like?

"I have my own ideas about my arrival there, anyway – ideas firmly grounded in earthly things, however, so they probably aren’t even remotely true. 

"Still, it’s all I have to work with. And so my fantasy begins with suddenly finding myself walking down a dirt road on a perfect summer day, surrounded by flowering shrubs and big old trees and zillions of flowers. The birds are singing and the butterflies are flitting and there are bunnies and foxes and horses all over the place. 

"As I stroll along, I suddenly notice a cat coming towards me – a white cat, it seems. As we get closer to each other, I notice that the cat has gray paws and ears and amazing blue eyes. And then in the blink of an eye I realize that it’s my precious Siamese Sam, who died in November of 2001. He races up to me and leaps into my arms, his purrs the background music to a joyful reunion. 

"And my dream goes on, with me meeting each of my beloved pets along the way – including basset Woody, who died just months after Mom –  until I finally see, in the distance, the Piet Mondrian house whose picture hangs on the wall of my home office (shown above). And as I get closer I can see my first yellow lab Thumper, and standing behind him, my mom and dad and Granny …

"My fantasy always ends there, however. I can’t seem to get any closer. Maybe there are simply some joys that are too overwhelming for an earthly heart to handle."

--From Heaven Without Her, page 246
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"His coffin was packed"

4/24/2017

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"His coffin was packed."

My first thought, when I saw this subject line on an email, was of ancient pagans who wanted their coffins, and their crypts, packed full of things to take along into the afterlife. 


But then I read this wonderful quote from All In: You are one decision away from a totally different life, by Mark Batterson. And I realized that this had nothing to do with occult visions of an imaginary afterlife; the author simply meant that the man who was his subject was ready at any time to leave for the Christian's ultimate destination. 

"A. W. Milne . . . set sail  for the New Hebrides in the South Pacific, knowing full well that the headhunters who lived there had martyred every missionary before him.  Milne did not fear for his life, because he had already died to himself.  His coffin was  packed. For thirty-five years, he lived among that tribe and loved them. When he died, tribe members buried him in the middle of their village and inscribed this epitaph on his tombstone: 
 
When he came there was no light.
 
When he left there was no darkness." 

May that be the legacy of every born-again Christian! 
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Don't miss Anita's story!

4/18/2017

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"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) 

If you've been looking for more proof that this verse is indeed true, here it is! 

Trapped in Hitler’s Hell is a first-person account of a young German Jewish girl’s trials, tragedies and triumphs in the years before, during and after World War II – a wonderful book on so many levels, appealing to every aspect of soul and spirit.
 
First, it’s a cliff-hanging adventure story to rival the finest I’ve ever read. I found it nearly impossible to put down. 
 
Second, it’s intellectually satisfying for anyone who’s fascinated by modern European history, by a world that allowed Hitler to put his demonic plans into motion, and especially by what it must have been like to live through such terrible times. 
 
Third, it’s a love story that captures, in well-chosen and well-told vignettes, a daughter’s devotion to her mother. 
 
Fourth, it’s a story of a rock-solid belief in happy endings, a belief that may appear baseless but seems to be its own reward through unimaginable ordeals.      
 
Finally, and most importantly, it’s a story of complete faith in the Lord Jesus Christ – in the childlike trust He wants us all to have as we labor through earthly lives that are plagued by loss. It is in fact a story that shows us precisely what it means to live for the Lord … and to take Him at His word when He promises, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 
 
My only criticism is that Trapped in Hitler’s Hell is too short. The author has done a magnificent job of giving readers just enough detail to feed our imaginations, without bogging us down. But as quickly as I raced through its pages, desperate to find out what happened to this daughter and her mother, I was very sad to turn the last page. I did not want this girl’s story to end. 
 
Come to think of it, thanks to her relationship with the Messiah Himself, her story never will end. 
 
Many thanks to Anita Dittman and her talented memoirist Jan Markell for an unforgettable book!  For details about the book and its new companion DVD, visit the Hitler's Hell website. 
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Will you spend eternity together?

4/10/2017

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Is there any human bond more significant than the mother-child relationship? I don’t believe so, and I’ll bet most people would agree.  
 
If you’re among them, here’s the big question: will you enjoy that relationship for all eternity?
 
There’s only one way to be sure, whatever our culture may be trying to teach us.  And that’s repenting and trusting in Jesus Christ’s full payment for our sins on the cross.
 
I have no doubt that this is true. Back in 2000, faced with the death of my own Christian mother, I investigated the two most important questions a human being can ask: Is there a God? And if so, which one’s the real deal?
 
The first one turned out to be easy. Anyone who questions the existence of God is either not paying attention, or is as “willfully ignorant” as I was for most of my adult life. In either case, he or she is more interested in his or her own thinking than in overarching truth.
 
The second question – which God? – was tougher. I did not head straight for Christianity, figuring that it was too restrictive, too intolerant, too blasé for my exotic tastes. So I looked into every other major religion first, searching for the “everyone’s welcome” truth that would put me on a path to joining my mother forever.
 
Except that I came up empty. I found no evidence of truth in the world’s “anything but Christianity” religions – not in Islam, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or the Baha’i faith, or the New Age, or any of the major offshoots of these worldviews.
 
So at last I turned to Christianity. Since I was looking for proof, and had nothing but books to guide my search, I naturally turned to the Bible.

​And was blown away by what I discovered in its pages.
 
My memoir Heaven Without Her details this journey in what author Mark Buchanan called “a wonder of storytelling and a testament of grace.” There are a number of excellent Christian apologetics books available today (some described in my bibliography). But if you are not absolutely sure of your eternal destination, or your mother’s or child's, Heaven Without Her may be the perfect book for you to read and share this Mother’s Day. I hope you’ll check it out soon.

2 Comments

Where's your treasure?

4/3/2017

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“And He said to them, ‘Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.’”  -- Luke 12:15

I’ve just been rereading Luke’s gospel, blown away by the incredible wisdom contained in every line. This verse really jumped out at me recently, probably because I was in the midst of planning additions to my spring garden when Jesus reminded me, for the thousandth time, that there are more important things in life than what I can pack into my garden. 

“One’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

For proof, imagine yourself in a nursing home -- you, who once lived in 2000- or 3000 or 4000-square-foot splendor, reduced to sharing a 15x20-foot room, your wardrobe pruned back to fit into a single dresser and armoire, your library decimated to whatever you can squeeze into an apartment-sized nightstand, your Christmas Wish List limited to tiny gift suggestions like postage stamps and a few blank birthday cards.  

There’s not much room for pursuing covetousness in such an environment – at least not if it’s directed at material goods.

Fortunately, in sayings such as the one quoted above, Jesus destroyed the notion that possessions define our lives. And He followed it up with the parable of the rich man who needed more barns to store his crops – a stern warning against accumulating more and more possessions along the road to a life of ease (verses 16-21).  

You probably know people who spent their lives acquiring everything that appeals to them, working overtime to satisfy “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,” as John described it in chapter 2 of his first epistle. They stuffed their closets with clothing and their pantries with food and their garages with cars and recreational equipment, and when they ran out of room, if they could swing it, they moved on to bigger and better quarters. 

This sort of covetousness certainly dominated my life before I met the Lord Jesus Christ, and discovered that true satisfaction comes not from possessing but from being forgiven, that the only thing worth acquiring in this life is knowledge of my Creator and the assurance of spending all eternity with Him.  

But I wonder: what if I’d stayed lost? What if I still thought my happiness would be found “in the abundance of the things” possessed?  How would I have handled the prospect of squeezing 2000 square feet of abundance into a 150-square-foot half-room, and calling it a life?

I thank God that He does whatever is necessary to change the hearts and minds of anyone who is willing – and that, for those who are, He made the key to everlasting joy abundantly clear.

“Do not fear, little flock,” He said in Luke 12:32,34, “for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. 

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” 
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    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including Heaven Without Her. 

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