Heaven in His Eyes – Rich Mullins with Zion

A friend and fellow blogger posted a Rich Mullins video today that was timely for me and made me a bit nostalgic so I decided to post one of my favorites. This song is from Rich’s earliest LP done with a group called Zion. It was always one of my favorites and every time Rich came out with a new album I kept hoping it would be on it. Just nine days before his unexpected death Rich recorded a demo of this song to be on his upcoming album. The demo version is rustic and the final cut on “The Jesus Record” features Michael W. Smith. I still prefer this version from his first LP.

P.S. – I still have the original LP and have it transferred into mp3 format for my iPod.

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© Richard Alvey and iLife Journey, 2013. All rights reserved.

Live in the moment

“Live like you’ll die tomorrow, die knowing you’ll live forever.”
~ Rich Mullins

If you only had one month to live, you’d want to make the most of it. To laugh and fully engage with the people you love. To appreciate the little things, the ones that might seem silly to others but that delight your soul, and to give God thanks for allowing you to experience them. Whether it’s the smell of buttered popcorn at the theater or the view from a beautiful mountaintop, the taste of our mothers’ fried chicken or the way a child’s hand feels clinging to ours, we are all blessed with rich moments. When we thank those around us, it only increases the love between us. When we express our gratitude to God, it increases our capacity to experience a full life without regrets.
~ Excerpted from One Month to Live by Author

How would you show your appreciation to God and those around you if you only had one month to live? Why not do it anyway?

Only the Father knows!

If you’re reading this then I guess he was wrong. Who? Harold Camping. He’s the guy who predicted that May 21st, 2011 would be our doomsday, the day that life comes crashing to a halt.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Camping 89, is basing his  prediction on a  mathematical system to interpret prophecies hidden within the bible. But he’s done this before. Camping first predicted that doomsday would be on September 6,  1994, and there is apparently a video of it on YouTube.

I’m guessing that in all his study of Scripture for so-called hidden mathematical systems he missed the very straight-forward statement that Jesus made.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” ~ Matthew 24:36-37

He’s not the first to make such predictions and he certainly won’t be the last. But it is bothersome and very frustrating because of the negative effect this will have on people.

For some, these false predictions simply serve to discredit God and Scripture, causing them to move farther away from ever knowing Him. For others, it may not lessen their faith in God but may cause them to live too casually.

Jesus told us to be prepared and alert at all times because we don’t know the day or the hour of His return. Living with the awareness of how fragile life is and that none of us knows when we will draw our last breath tends to give us a clarity about those things in life that matter most.

To quote a line from an early Rich Mullins song: “Live like you’ll die tomorrow, die knowing you’ll live forever!”

What would you do differently if you knew you only had 24 hours to live?