Saturday, July 30, 2011

Mr. Jones Goes To Heaven

Mr. Jones dies and goes to heaven.


Peter is waiting at the gates to give him tour. Amid the splendor of golden street, beautiful mansions, and chairs of angels that peter shows him, Mr. Jones Notice an odd-looking building. He thinks it looks like an enormous warehouse it has no windows and only one door. but when he asks to see inside, Peter hesitates.


 "You really don't want to see what's in there," he tells the new arrival.


Why would there be any secrets in heaven? Jones wonders. What incredible surprise could be waiting for me in there? When the official tour is over he's still wondering, so he asks again to see inside the structure.


Finally Peter relents. When the apostle opens the door, Mr. Jones almost knocks him over in his haste to enter. it turns out that the enormous building is filled with row after row of shelves , floor to ceiling, each stacked neatly with white boxes tied in red ribbons. 


"These boxes all have names on them." Mr. Jones muses a loud. 


Then turning to peter he asks," Do i have one?" 


"Yes, you do." peter tries to guide Mr. Jones back outside. "frankly", peter says.


"If i were you ..." But Mr. Jones is already dashing towards the "J"aisle to find his box.


Peter follows, shaking his head. He catches up with Mr. Jones just as he is slipping the red ribbon off his box and popping the lid. Looking inside, Jones has a moment of instant recognition, and he lets out a deep sign like ones Peter has heard so many times before. Because there in Mr. Jones' White box are all the blessings that God wanted to give to him while he was on earth...but Mr. Jones had never asked.


"Ask", promised Jesus, and it will be given to you" (Matt. 7:7)


"You do not have because you do not ask", said James in 4:2


Eventhough there is no limit to God's goodness, if you didn't ask him for a blessing yesterday, you didn't get all that you were supposed to have.   


- from the book of Prayer of Jabez

2 comments:

  1. I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of a bottle. There is an inward fermentation, and there must be a vent. ~Henry Ward Beecher


    God punishes us mildly by ignoring our prayers and severely by answering them. ~Richard J. Needham


    When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing - nothing. ~Saint Francis of Assisi

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  2. Prayer is not merely an occasional impulse to which we respond when we are in trouble: prayer is a life attitude. ~Walter A. Mueller

    ReplyDelete