The hope of this world has a place for me in HEAVEN.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." - - - John 14:1-3

Yeah. Cool. This place is totally not my home. This earth... this trouble-filled, self-centered, joy-ride-seeking world is not where I belong. No. Because I am God's child through my belief in His Son Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross for my sin, my home is in heaven with Him. And that excites me greatly! I honestly can't wait for the day I see my God face to face! And hear His voice! Ohhhhh. I wanna be there with Him. Yes. I'm also real excited because God has made a special place for me in heaven. Just for me. Not for anyone else. Only. For. Me. And when the Lord takes me up there, He will show me this awesome room that He has prepared for me. And I will live there in contentment just always being in the presence of the God I so love and desire.

And you what else??!! MY LORD IS GONNA GIVE ME A NEW AND BETTER NAME IN HEAVEN!!!!

"To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it." Revelation 2:17b

WHOA. I get a new name given to me by God. I wonder what it is! Is it gonna be some foreign name? Or some long name in my language? Is it even going to be a name I can pronounce or even comprehend?! Will I even care? I don't know, but just knowing that God has a sweet crazy awesome stellar name written on a white stone for me in heaven makes me wanna praise Him all the more for loving me so much to give me all that He has already given me and has promised to give me in the future!!!!

But I live here. In this world that seems to have no hope. I smile though! Do you know why?! Because I have the hope of the world inside my heart!!! JESUS CHRIST. Yeah. HE is the hope of the world. He has ALWAYS been that hope. And He will forever be that hope as long as this world exists. So as long as I hold the hope of Christ inside of me, I will tell others of this hope! So anyone who reads this, know that Jesus Christ is the ONLY Savior, and He can change who you are and make you better! He can take away your tears. He can see through your mistakes and mess-ups, and He loves you more than you can ever know and wants you to live with Him in heaven one day!!! That is my Jesus. That is the Lord I choose to serve. Why would I choose another? :D

Where are you staying, Lord?

"The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, 'Look, the Lamb of God!' When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, 'What do you want?' They said, 'Rabbi' (which means Teacher), 'where are you staying?' 'Come,' he replied, 'and you will see.' So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour." John 1:35-39 NIV

I absolutely LOVE this passage of scripture, thanks to the national missions conference Urbana who opened my eyes to the true calling and purpose of Christians - followship.

I still can't believe these disciples; after what, minutes of meeting Jesus?, they asked to be with Him wherever He was. Yeah....what makes me smile is their simple answer to Jesus' question, "What do you want?". Knowing He was the Lamb of God, they could have answered Him with, "We want to see miracles", or "We want you to fix our problems!". But no, they answered simply - - -

We want to Be. With. You.

All they wanted was to be with Jesus; to be in His presence, to be at His feet. To look upon His glory, to learn from Him, to love Him, to cherish Him simply by - - -

Dwelling. With. Him.

That's ALL they desired. And that's all that WE should desire as true Christians. As much as we praise and love Jesus for His ability and willingness to heal our broken, mend our sick, repair our mistakes, and piece our lives back together, we should should truly LOVE Him and desire to follow Him because He is God, the ruler of the universe, the establisher of our faith because of the Cross, the eternal creator of all living things, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!!!! The beginning and the end, Alpha - Omega! Just knowing THAT about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ should create this longing inside of us to ONLY to be in His presence incessantly!

And of course I do not in any way dismiss His unbelievable and awesome power to do whatever He wills in our own lives; I truly thank Him for His everyday intervention in my life and in other's! And ESPECIALLY for His WONDERFUL work at Calvary! : )

So I guess I got a little off track maybe? I don't even know, but I totally wanna be like one of those disciples who only wanted to be with Jesus, and did not think about what He could do for them. Haha, and the awesome thing about all of this?! Jesus turned to the meek disciples, and I'm sure smiled as He said, "Come, and you will see".

So what do YOU want?

Where are you staying, Lord?

Come, and you will see.