Yesterday Anita and I attended the funeral of an old friend, Rev. Jimmie Olinske. Pastor Olinske used to pastor in Ray, Indiana, right on the Indiana/Michigan border, and then in Marion, Indiana. He once told me there were three spellings for the European surname ‘Olinske’. Germans/Autrians spell it -ski, Russians spell it -sky, and Polish spell it -ske. Pastor Jim was Polish and he loved to tell Pollack jokes. As a matter of fact, he loved to tell any kind of joke. He just made life fun. As we passed the casket to pay our final respects, my wife commented, “Good-bye, my jolly friend”. He was always jolly.

Now, the Bible is silent on whether there is laughter and fun in heaven. Most of what we read about heaven is pretty serious stuff. But laughter and fun are a quality of the soul, and the soul is distinct from the body. Since Pastor Jim’s soul is in heaven with Jesus, I’m convinced there will be laughter in heaven with Pastor Jim there.

What do you think about it? Do you think there will be laughter in heaven? Why or why not?

Tags: death, heaven, laughter

The story is told of the missionary couple returning to the States after years of overseas service. As fortune would have it, they were sailing on the same ship on which President Teddy Roosevelt was returning. The President had just completed another of his big-game expeditions.

The missionary couple watched as people clamored to see the President and to welcome him home, but there was no such welcome for them. Despondent, the husband said to his wife, “Something is wrong. Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here this man comes back from a hunting trip, and everybody makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us.”

That night the man grew angrier and said to his wife, “I can’t take this. God is not treating us fairly!”

She replied, “Tell God about it in prayer,” and he did. He went into the bedroom to pray, and a short time later he came out of the bedroom with his spirit obviously lifted.

“Dear, what happened?” she inquired.

He replied, “The Lord settled it with me. I told him how bitter I was that the President should receive this tremendous homecoming when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, the Lord simply said, ‘But you are not home yet’!”

When this missionary really gets “home”, he will hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Just remember, you’re not home yet.

Tags: heaven, missionary, Roosevelt, word

Anita and I decided we wanted our honeymoon to be a trip to Canada. Her car was newer than mine, so we took hers and drove off. She let me determine the route, so off we went toward Detroit, Michigan. As we neared Detroit, it was already later than we planned, so we decided to spend our honeymoon night in a motel. We stopped at a convenient one and were told there was no room in the Inn. We stopped at several more and were told there was a special flower celebration on and we probably would have to drive another 100 miles to find a motel room.

It was midnight by then and we decided to head back the other direction and keep looking (worst case scenario was we had a bed waiting for us back in Indiana). We stopped every now and then and got the same closed door. Finally, about 2:00 AM, in Angola, we found a vacancy sign and spent the night.

I learned a valuable lesson about calling ahead for a reservation. That is somewhat similar to gaining admission into heaven. You may have a plan in your head that you’re going there, but no reservation. No one gets into heaven without a reservation. Jesus came to this earth to help us call for a reservation. Better make that call before its too late.

Tags: heaven, honeymoon, salvation

Christine Fodera attends a Catholic Church in Louisville, Kentucky. She told the following true story: “Our priest had asked my husband, Sam, to do some rewiring in the confessionals.

“The only way to reach the wiring was to enter the attic above the altar and crawl over the ceiling by balancing on the rafters. Concerned for my husband’s safety, I waited in a pew.

“Unknown to me, some other parishioners were congregating in the vestibule. They paid little attention to me, probably assuming I was praying. Worried about my husband, I looked up toward the ceiling and yelled, “Sam, Sam – are you up there? Did you make it okay?”

There was quite an outburst from the vestibule when Sam’s hearty voice echoed down, “Yes, I made it up here just fine!”

Tags: Catholic, heaven, humor, prayer

A sailor was shipwrecked on one of the south sea islands. He was seized by the natives, hoisted to their shoulders, carried to the village, and set on a rude throne. Little by little, he learned that it was their custom once each year to make some man a king, king for a year. He liked it until he began to wonder what happened to all the former kings. Soon he discovered that every year when his kingship was ended, the king was banished to an island, where he starved to death.

The sailor did not like that, but he was smart and he was king, king for a year. So he put his carpenters to work making boats, his farmers to work transplanting fruit trees to the island, farmers growing crops, masons building houses. So when his kingship was over, he was banished, not to a barren island, but to an island of abundance.

It is a good parable of life: we’re all kings here, kings for a little while, able to choose what we shall do with the stuff of life.

Jesus said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20).

Tags: heaven

Monday was a family reunion day at our house. We met with our kids for lunch at Red Robin restaurant, then went to Picture People for a family photo with the grand-kids. After giving them a ride on the carousel, we drove back to our house and fixed a bonfire in the fire-pit.  When it was dark enough, Lauren chased lightning bugs (she says they don’t have as many in Tennessee), and Reuben went in to play with his toy cars again. Anita and I are worn out with all the excitement, but they’re all back home now.

Can you imagine what it will be like when we all get to heaven and get to experience the real Reunion? I’d like to ask my ancestors some questions about the family tree, and I’d really like to know what happened to some of my childhood friends and Army buddies.

However, I think we’ll be so caught up in being with Jesus that those other questions will just vanish away. Are you having a family reunion this summer? What are you most looking forward to about it?

Tags: family, heaven, reunion