A Letter from Heaven

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The following is a fictional letter that gives a perspective of how heaven could be. This letter was inspired by a picture I had in my head of standing in front of the gates of heaven and seeing hell through the expression of someone’s face who was entering it.

Dear Human Race,

Nothing that is written about heaven can ever fully describe what I see before my eyes. It’s greatness is beyond the understanding of the human mind. The beauty is never ending. Oh how joyful it is to praise God for how great He is. I could never imagine spending eternity anywhere else. I often wondered what heaven would be like, but this, I could not of ever thought it, I could never have dreamt it.

I will warn you, however, of that other place. I am blessed to say I never saw it, seeing the expression on their faces as they went into it was too much for me. You thought you knew suffering now! What about that man who was sweating blood at the sight of the place, he hadn’t even entered it yet. He clenched his jaw so hard some of his teeth dropped out of his mouth and fell into what I guess was the lake of fire below him. I saw a ripple of fire in the lake through the reflection of his eyes. But then I hear you joke about this place, I have heard those of you who call yourselves Christians instruct others to go there, joking or not I can already see them following your instructions. Afraid, I stand close to the gate of heaven as it is opened for me for I can’t bear to see them suffer. For I know that you were too entrenched with the world to care about them, that you would put money, cars, clothing, girls, jobs, and your favorite tv show before them.

But don’t be afraid, God wrote instructions. Read them, follow them, it even works as a light to find your way. I can look down now and see the lights shinning, oh how few there are. Find other lights around you and be with them so you can better see where you are going. Don’t ever ignore anyone around, or their light may grow dimmer.

Now as I write this Jesus is preparing a place for some of you. Oh, how great it is here. His love shows through everywhere and everyone here. I pray that I see you here.

All Glory to God,
A Child of God

We are not perfect so come to God broken, asking for forgiveness so you get to experience how awesome heaven will be. If you are already saved, share this with others, helps others get the opportunity to be with God in heaven.

Thanks for reading,

Brandon Maddux, Author of AmbassadorForGod.com

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Please take the time to comment. I love to hear comments, questions or suggestions.
Also feel free to email me at: magicbymaddux@gmail.com

EVENTS: Coming soon… The Facebook Fast (Stop “poking” and start seeking God) and 2nd 3 Minutes of Prayer Event

Forgotten Commitment

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America is forgetting how to be committed. There is a steady increase
in divorces and so many American people jumping from job to job. Even some ministries have a hard time finding volunteers who are willing to stay committed for long lengths of time.

So what is a commitment? For the purpose of this post and the in this posts context commitment will be defined as:
Commitment: Pledging or promising involvement in an organization or relationship for a specified length of time or eternity.

Whether having to do with relationships or commitment to an organization we often do not think enough. For example, I participated on a forum in the creation of a website called teensforsave.com (Student Advocates for Vindicating Education). A leadership position for this group was offered to me and I accepted it without thinking it through much. Now I have not been able to spend a considerable amount of time working on any of our projects for months. Because I did not think enough before I made my commitment I have now abandoned them. When I made the spur of the moment decision I was sure I would have time to commit to this and that it was something that I wanted to be part of, but in truth God has other things for me to be spending my time on. I was not able to fully commit to it.

In Deuteronomy when talking about commitment it gives us an idea of how fully we should commit ourselves to things, if it is truly Gods desire for us to commit to them. It says to commit yourself wholeheartedly (Deut. 6:6), completely (Deut. 11:18, and without reservation (Deut. 26:16).

But this is so far from how my commitments look. I decide to do something and partly participate. Isn’t this what all of our commitments look like? Do you wholeheartedly commit to things? Do you think it through before committing yourself? Do you ONLY commit to the things God tells you to commit to? Do you go to God in prayer before making a commitment… any commitment? No wonder we are not able to carry through with what we commit to. So many of our commitments are not things we want to spend our time on and not things God wants us spending our time on.

Maybe marriages would not fall apart if every couple came before God and made the commitment ONLY with God’s affirmation. Maybe employees would not be hopping from job to job if they were to commit to their job wholeheartedly. Lets commit ourselves to a few specific things and stay headed in God’s direction, following God’s directions. Lets keep ourselves so committed to God that we push aside the distractions Satan tries to confuse us with.

I got the opportunity to talk to a customer at Dickey’s Barbecue Pit for a long time. This man, a friendly customer who came at least once a week, would always complain about the amount he had to work and how he worked so much he didn’t get to spend much time with his family. He seemed to love his family, but I realized he wasn’t as committed to them as he sounded. He would come by the restaurant as he was headed home for work, he never came in to eat with his family. He would spend normally at least 45 min. eating and reading a magazine, often he was there for two hours. If he truly was committed to his family, if he wanted to see them wouldn’t he of headed home as soon as possible?

This situation is a great example of how we often commit to things with our mouth, he said he wanted to spend time with his family. But when it comes down to it our hearts are not in it, he stayed in the restaurant for hours, instead of spending that time with his family. He spoke what he knew was best to be committed to, but he didn’t actually commit.

If you are going to commit to something, desire it in your heart, proclaim it with your mouth, and then act it out. DESIRE, PROCLAIM, AND ACT. If either of these are missing you will quickly slip away from that commitment.

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Stay Committed,
Brandon Maddux

I want to hear your FEEDBACK, comment or email me at magicbymaddux@gmail.com

The Post-Loving Church

I started writing a post for this blog about transparency and our relationships, but I had to stop. I realized I can’t ask for you to be open and transparent. Every post I put on this blog I am afraid of negative and judgmental responses that I might receive. I listened to a fellow teenager talk and watched him cry about how when you are open in the church about your brokeness you are looked down upon. So I stopped and wrote the following. Some of this you may not agree with and none of it is meant as a blanket statement. Please read the following as I write from my heart on this subject.

We are the Church (Yep you are the Church)! What have we done? Instead of creating a community where people are encouraged to do better and to be open, we have created a community where people are judged for their brokeness.

Are you any better then the person you pray for? No! I have sinned! You have sinned! We are all broken. So stop judging Church. Someone told me about a friend of theirs who would not come to our youth group because they are afraid of us judging them, they are afraid we would look down on them.

Well congratulations Church (all of Gods people), look at what WE have done! We have made a judgmental community prone to rejecting the broken and we even have a reputation for it. When are we going to wake up and realize that we are all broken, that none of us is better then the other, and that our job is to love the broken. You are not better then the drunk man who just walked into the back doors of your church. You are not better then the teen whose arms are full of scares. You are not better then the man in the parking lot screaming at his wife. You are not better then the two men who walked in holding hands, the two woman kissing. You are just better at hiding your brokeness. Yes, you may be healed by God, but you still fall daily. When will you open your eyes and see your own faults?

No wonder America has been called a post-Christian nation! We have a post-loving Church. Yes there are those of you who are not judgmental, but too many of US are.

So I cry, Wake up Church! WAKE UP! I see your influence fading. When are you going to start loving others again? When are you going to realize that God loves everyone of these individuals despite their problems. When will you begin to love every one of them. Church you are not fulfilling your purpose by judging others, let God do the judging.

EDIT 4/1/09 12:02pm: Changed This: Church, you will go extinct, if you stop loving, if you keep judging. To This: Church you are not fulfilling your purpose by judging others, let God do the judging.
Reason For Edit: I incorrectly worded what I was thinking and overstated it, in an attempt to make a powerful statement, but ended up creating a sentence that was incorrect.

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Love Everyone,
Brandon Maddux

Related Post: Love Everyone Even If They Don’t Love You Back

Purify Infections

A while back I saw the movie, The Dark Knight. The online Christian reviews of the movie talked about how the movie was too dark, however everyone I have talked with thought it was great. I walked out of the movie saying that it was ok, but I knew in my heart that for some reason I didn’t like the movie.

During the movie whenever the character two-face came on the screen I would look down at these two straws in a cup in front of me. I couldn’t get myself to look at two-face, with half his face destroyed. At first I just pushed it off on that the special effects were really good and they made him look disgusting and still realistic. However I have watched more disgusting creatures in movies before and have been able to look at them.

I realized why I couldn’t get myself to look at two-face, it was that I was looking at myself. I couldn’t look him in the eye’s because it was reminding me of how my life was.

I have been so use to asking for healing and prayer for my one side of my face (life) that looks ok. However, I have hidden the other side from even many of my friends. This side of my face is full of bleeding infected wounds, scars and scabs (sins). Now I have turned this side of my face (life) to God and His healing is working incredibly. He is forgiving me for all these sins on my face, or in my life, that I have hidden for so long and in His incredible grace, despite my sin, He still accepts me as His child and loves me unconditionally even though I had hidden one side of my face, or life from Him.

This character in this movie showed me that I was not letting God heal many of my wounds (sins) and I was even picking at some of them. You are already thinking about those sins that cover the other side of you face. I pray that you show God your wounded side of your face and ask for healing. Like me, you may be shamed of this side, but the wounds will just continue to get infected and take over your body if you don’t ask God to heal them. I kept pushing my sins off as small compared to other people, but God doesn’t compare us to other people he compares us to His perfect law. Open up to God and let him heal you. Start asking God to heal the part of you that is truly broken. Stop hiding!

God is waiting to fully heal you. He is waiting to purify your infected blood. Turn your face and show Him your wounds, confess to Him your sins. Stop hiding from Healing. Start running to His love.

I understand that I am only a teenager, so I want to learn from your life experience. Please comment and share about turning your wounded half of your face to God.

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Invite His Healing,

Brandon Maddux

Why Can’t You Love My Generation?

The following is something that I wrote in my Journal (yes guys can have journals) that I think adults need to hear. I am not trying to be disrespectful. I want adults to realize that this generation needs their friendship and love, and without their friendship this generation is lost.

I wrote this on 2-17-09

“Why can’t adults stop faking like they don’t know what teens are going through? Time and again I hear adults say, “I was a teen once.” Then why can’t adults try to remember what it was like to be a teen and lovingly understand that we are messed up? I hear adults complain about teens using drugs, they act like teens are so much worse then them. Don’t adults sin? So what if you don’t do drugs, do you get drunk? Do you swear? Do you watch junk on the internet? Do you steal? Are you perfect? What gives you the right to look down on this generation for their sins? Maybe instead of looking down on this generation you could come beside us and helps us walk out of sin. Why can’t you love my generation? If you would only stop for a second and realize that behind the graffiti there is a heart searching for your love. Yet you adults simply reject us again and again. You yell at a teen for not wearing a helmet, but ignore the cuts on his arms. You ignore the very fact that without your love my generation will continue to kill itself. I have heard from teens the way you speak to us. Don’t you realize how much I love this generation? Do you not hear them crying? Do you not see the blood dripping? Do you not feel their hearts breaking? How long will you continue to be an adult and scorn this generation? Why do you want to add to their depression? Couldn’t you stop for a moment and be this generations friend?”

I understand that this post is probably controversial and some may see it as disrespectful. So please tell me what you think and comment. Don’t rub this post off, if you thought this is disrespectful, rude, or depressing, then this post was for you. What will you do with it?

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Hear Us Cry For You,

Brandon Maddux