Receiving Heaven

March 20, 2008

Greetings, Prayer Team!

Tis the season for mission trips, the time of year when young and old alike embark upon great adventures in the cause of God. Patsy and I are thinking especially of students this spring break, who venture abroad to use and discover the potential our Creator has given them. They need our prayers over the next few weeks—for safety, for health, for joy in triumph and tribulation.

I myself was several times among the throngs that filled the airports, waiting to fly over hills and seas, desiring to spread God’s love to those in need of it. I gave away my precious pink Bible to a man who had never owned a Bible before. I visited hospitals and remote mountain villages only accessible by foot and small aircraft. I knelt in the streets with gangs, criminals who took a few minutes away from re-making their stolen cars to pray with us. I told waiting crowds about the dangers of diarrhea and that contrary to popular opinion, boiling their drinking water would not cause cancer.

I know not whether these actions and experiences profoundly touched any other human being; I know they profoundly touched me and have reacted upon me in countless ways ever since.

As God’s messenger said so well, “The law of love calls for the devotion of body, mind, and soul to the service of God and our fellow men. And this service, while making us a blessing to others, brings the greatest blessing to ourselves. Unselfishness underlies all true development. Through unselfish service we receive the highest culture of every faculty. More and more fully do we become partakers of the divine nature. We are fitted for heaven, for we receive heaven into our hearts.” Education, p. 16

Would I venture to say that my service was wholly unselfish and unblemished by motives of my own? Probably not. I wanted it to be, though, and the more heaven that enters my heart, the more of it I want to welcome there.

On behalf of Patsy Wagner,

Heidi C. Corder
Assistant, Office of Philanthropy