PARADISE FOUND

What is Paradise? Where is it? There are several conflicting beliefs from different groups of people on this subject. All I need to know is, “What does God’s word say about it?”

The word Paradise only appears three times in the Bible. The Apostle Paul mentioned it once in 2 Corinthians 12:4, and Jesus mentions it the other two times, in Luke 23:43, and again in Revelation 2:7. Let’s start with the last one first.

Revelation 2:7
7 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches; To him that overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the middle of the PARADISE of God. 

There’s our first clue. Wherever PARADISE is, The Tree Of Life is there, also. Does the Bible tell us where the Tree Of Life is? Let’s see.

In Revelation 21:10, John saw a vision of the great city, holy Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. He spends the rest of the chapter describing the city. Then in chapter 22, he says the tree of life is there in the city.

Revelation 22:1-2
1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 
2 In the middle of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bare twelve kinds of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 

So, according to Revelation 21 and 22, the Tree of Life is in the holy city, New Jerusalem and so is the throne of God. The next two verses tie it all together.

Ecclesiastes 5:2b
2 …for God is in heaven, and you are on earth…

1 Kings 8:39a
39 Then hear in heaven your dwelling place…

So, according to the Bible, God is in heaven. Heaven is where he lives. That’s where his throne is. The Tree of Life is in the same place where God’s throne is, which is heaven, where he lives. The Bible tells us that the Tree of Life is in Paradise. So, Paradise is just another name for heaven.

Paul said the same thing in 2 Corinthians 12:2 and 4.

2 Corinthians 12:2,4
2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows;) such a one caught up to the third heaven.
4 ….he was caught up to paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

So, again, Paradise and heaven is the same place. Paradise is just another word for Heaven.

This is a good example of how to study God’s word. We have to search the Bible (Acts 17:11) and compare scripture with scripture (Isaiah 28:10) to see what the whole Bible says about any certain subject. Of course, we need the Holy Spirit to help us understand (1 Corinthians 2:14). So pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and serve God without hesitation. As we read and study the Bible, God will show us the truth (John 16:13) and he'll give us better understanding (Proverbs 4:5-7). He'll lead us into a close, personal relationship with himself, and someday we'll go to live in Paradise with our Creator who loves us with a love beyond anything our human minds can comprehend right now. That will definitely be Paradise.

———————————————–
My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2018 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6

THANK YOU FOR 200,000 VIEWS

                              

I want to thank everyone who has subscribed and visited my blog. As you may or may not know, I have two hosts for this blog. I have the same content on both sites. Between the BLOGGER.COM site and the WORDPRESS.COM site, there are now over 200,000 views. Praise the Lord.

Many posts have been viewed over 100 times each. Some over 200, 300, 400, 500, 700, 800 and 900 times. Two have over 1,000 views each. Thank you Jesus. There are readers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Iran, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States.

Thank you all for reading, and sharing my posts with others. Thank you for all the encouraging words. Thank you, especially for your prayers. Please keep those coming, for my blog, my ministry, and for me and my family as well. The last few years have been challenging for our family, but God has been so good to us. Thank you all for being so gracious when I’ve made spelling and grammar errors.

Thank you for sticking with me through all the different incarnations of the blog while it took a different direction from what I had first imagined. I don’t know how many times I changed the name, and I can’t promise I won’t change it again. Some of the content here is from my first two published books; THE JOURNEY TO HEAVEN, and INSPIRATION FOR THE JOURNEY. You can find them on Amazon.

I started this blog, to share what the Bible really says on topics of controversy, such as the Worldwide Flood, The Trinity, and The 6 Literal Days of Creation versus 6,000 Years. Eventually, I posted all the studies that I had completed at the time. I was working on more Bible studies and some other ideas, but to thoroughly study these subjects takes time, and I needed to post something for my readers while I was working on the next Bible study.

I had lots of other material completed. I’ve been writing in some form or another most of my life. I’ve written songs, poems, short stories, stories of fiction, true stories, and even comedy skits. I was working on several books at that time, but this was a blog for presenting Bible studies, I kept telling myself.

So I decided to start another blog to present other things I was interested in and other topics that may not deal directly with Bible subjects. I later scrapped that idea for something different. After much prayer, I changed the name of the blog, and started posting some other stuff I had written, including my Sermons. I would post more Bible studies as I completed them, and that’s been the format since.

Of course, I’ve been praying since day one for God to bless my blog and bring people to it who would be blessed by it, and for him to lead me in what I should post. I set out to finish one of the books I had started writing but hadn’t done anything to in quite a while. It was about some of my experiences growing up in church, and some of the struggles and blessings I experienced after becoming a Christian.

I started thinking that these could be the kind of stories I could write to fill in when I didn’t have a Bible study completed. I could write about things that happened while I was growing up and the lessons I learned. I prayed about it, and that’s the direction I took. I have several other things I would like to add to the blog, and different kinds of content, including my Christian song lyrics, some poems I’ve written, and some drawings and other art that I’ve done. I’m working on a Podcast for these posts now as well. I just need to find the time in my busy schedule. I want everything I do to glorify God, not me, so I’ll keep praying, and I ask you to do the same.

There’s one more thing I want to mention while I have your ear, or in this case, your eye. If you’re not already subscribed to the blog, I want to ask you to do that right now. On BLOGGER, just click the link below. On the page you're taken to, go over to the right, and scroll down until you see a box that says "Subscribe by Email." Put in your email address, and click Submit. You’ll receive an email when I post a new article. You can unsubscribe at any time in the future by simply clicking the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email. Here’s the link to my Blogger.com site.
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com/

If you prefer using WordPress, you can easily find it by clicking on this link and hit the Follow This Blog button on the right.
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com/ 

It has an archive list that contains most of the past articles in alphabetical order.

I’ve tried to make it possible for everyone to have easy access to the blog, so I have it on the two most popular blog host sights. I like them both, but my favorite is the one on Blogger. I’ve had it longer, and in my opinion, it’s the best-looking one, it’s the easiest to read, and it's the easiest to post to, and edit. It has an archive list going back to my first post and a list of some of the most popular articles as well. There’s a simple search bar to make it easy to find articles on any subject. You can use the one you like the best.

Thank you again for reading and sharing my thoughts, and studies. I enjoy sharing them with you. Thank you for your love, and your prayers, and thank you for sticking with me on this journey. God bless you and your families on your journey.

———————————————–
My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2017 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6

FORGIVE YOURSELF

About a year ago, I posted a story about learning to forgive. It was called “I Forgive You, Mr. Richmond.” I’ll put a link to it at the end of this post. Many people misunderstand forgiveness, and what it really involves, and I was no different. I had to truly understand forgiveness before I could give it.

We know we must forgive others for God to forgive us, but sometimes it’s not that easy. What’s even harder, is forgiving yourself. We know ourselves better than any other person on earth knows us. We know all our thoughts and all our secrets. We know what kind of person we really are under all the smiles, and masks we sometimes wear.

When we do something that hurts others, or God, we’re ashamed, because we know we shouldn’t have done such a thing, but we also know that sometimes, deep down inside, we really wanted to do it. Whether it’s something mean we said to someone, or something God says to do, or don’t do, and we disobeyed. It might be anger we’re holding on to because we don’t want to forgive just yet. Sometimes we hold on to that anger like a child with a favorite toy, or like it’s a vital piece of merchandise or our most prized possession we can’t bear to part with.

It’s even worse when we’re angry, or disappointed with ourselves. When we become the focus of our own anger we are in a bad place indeed. If we could only see through our anger and shame, we would realize that we are only hurting ourselves more by holding on to those things. In Mark chapter eleven, Jesus had this to say.

Mark 11: 25-26

25 And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Jesus said forgive if you have anything against anyone. That would include yourself. We are God’s children just like anyone else, and we should try and see ourselves through his eyes. We know he wants us to forgive his children for wrongs they have done to us, and we ask them to forgive us for things we have done to them. We need to forgive ourselves as well when we’ve done things that we shouldn’t have. It’s important to do so in order to clear our minds and start fresh, with a clean conscience.

We may know ourselves better than any other person on earth knows us, but God knows us even better than we know ourselves. We often forget that. If he can forgive us, surely we can find it in our hearts to forgive ourselves.

———————————————–

For more about forgiveness, read “I Forgive You Mr. Richmond.”

———————————————–
My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2015 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6