(heat it up and add some vanilla ice cream on the side)

You will see on the Bloomberg Business section of the website that we followed the story of the Japanese hostages pretty closely. It was something that I found really troubling. The Muslim religion says that when you die, if you died in the service of Allah, you go to Paradise and in Paradise is every form of physical and carnal pleasure.

The Heaven alluded to in the Old Testament is very sketchy but the Heaven alluded to in the New Testament is much more graphic. It is a place where God is at the center, not our appetites. It is a place where we will be judged for how we treated the least of others, not how many people we murdered in our God’s name. It is a place for those who have washed their clothes in the blood of the Lamb, not for those who have washed in the blood of journalists, or hospital workers or their innocent brother and sister Muslims. The Heaven that the Jewish Jesus described is a place where are we are still physical beings but so much much more. It is not a place where we glory in our physical desires but where we reflect the glory of God completely in everything.

The Islamic State’s goal is to create sex slaves and murder in the name of a religion. Their God is themselves. I pray that the Japanese hostages and the Jordanian pilot knew that. I hope and pray that they knew that the Islamic terrorists were not representatives of any true God.

Many people think that if you dwell on this wonderful Heaven described by God’s Word, you will not be effective in this world They think you will be going around with your head in the clouds and some people of Judeo-Christian beliefs might be guilty of that. I guess those that pushed supposed witches off cliffs to see if they would fly away during the Middle Ages might be guilty of that. Again, this has not generally been the case. If this was the case, then huge scientific discoveries would not have been made by Gregor Mendel (genetics), Georges Lemaître (the big bang theory), Copernicus, Newton, Francis Collins, and so many many others. Look around you, look at the names of hospitals and universities and other institutions made for improving LIFE. So many of them were formed due to people of faith getting involved in the world. The promise of Heaven and faith and hope in it should fill you with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, and self-control for God and for your fellow man!

What is Heaven like? Let me tell you a Zen proverb. A Buddhist monk was walking down a road and he encountered a Samurai warrior. The Samurai warrior had a question for the monk. He asked, “What are Heaven and Hell like?” The monk thought for a moment and said, “ Why should I tell you? You are an ignorant pig! “ Naturally the Samurai was incensed and started to draw his sword to cut the monk down in anger because of the insult. “That is what Hell is like”. The Samurai was shocked and in awe of the monk’s wisdom. He stopped drawing his sword. “Thank you for your teaching you are so wise” he said. “And that…is what Heaven is like”, the monk said.

——-W.