A True Passion:

            In the morning, Joshua awaited Kylie on the mountain’s Baptism Beach. Kylie had walked the long, narrow uphill climb that had now become as routine as her workouts in the city. Her heart sang some of the Psalms that she read in the Bible as she ascended the mountain. The time ascending to Joshua’s Mountain was a joy for Kylie, remembering what Joshua said about not being intimate until the wedding. Strange, she thought, I was always so attentive to my studies that I was never intimate with anyone else. Now, the one I love most said we wouldn’t be intimate until our wedding. That will be a special night when we consummate our love! Joshua had always spoken of children; I wonder about our children. I saw a child who called me ‘Mother’ when I visited my parents.

            When she reached the top of the mountain, she found the crevice and crawled between the rocks. She stood at the top of the stairs and stared at the room. The worship area was filled with a gleaming, lustrous, kaleidoscopic light. Inside the center of the light, Joshua was kneeling in prayer. He spoke words she didn’t recognize, but the sounds were rhythmic, enthralling, and soothing. He was facing away from her and wore his tallit over his head, and she could tell that Joshua was absorbed in the prayer. She stood quietly, respecting his communication and privacy. After a few minutes, he rose from the prayer and lowered his tallit.

            Kylie then ran to embrace the man she had grown to love so much. He kissed her forehead, and they walked hand in hand through the rooms to Baptism Beach.

            Sitting on Baptism Beach, she asked Joshua if she could take off the scratchy Sanctuary clothes and bathe in the waters.

            “You are always safe here. Stan can’t enter here and can’t see you. You are welcome to swim and play in peace. This is your Haven. No harm will come to you, and I will always protect you. Remember, I love you.”

            She removed her scratchy clothes and looked at Joshua, who had tactfully turned his back to her. Joshua said, “I have turned my back on you for modesty, but I made every part of you perfect. So, I’ve seen every part of you before you were born.”^[1]

            “Honestly, Joshua, sometimes you confuse me. But I love and trust you, so watch your wife and be happy with the beauty you see in me.”

            She swam in the pool’s clear, comfortable waters and thought about how much her life had changed in the past months. She now knew love, peace, and the joyful companionship of her long-lost relatives. She had seen Heaven’s beauty, been with both pairs of parents, and learned how much they loved her. She knew relatives she hadn’t known existed and understood that she would meet them in eternity. She knew love from a man who was more righteous than anyone she had ever known, and yet she didn’t understand him any more than some of the people she worked with in the city. She understood they would be married but had no real idea what that meant in Sanctuary. Would this be their home after their wedding ceremony?

            When tired of swimming, she returned to where Joshua lay on a large towel on the rocks. Joshua had been watching carefully over her but had respected her modesty by leaving the area before she left the water. She lay on the soft sand, felt the sun’s rays cleansing her from past sins and purifying her for her future.

            “Will this be our home after our ceremony?” 

            “No, I’m preparing another home for us.”

            Kylie was confused, “How could you be preparing another home for us when we’re doing all this work here?”

            “My home is far more resplendent than this home. This home is for people who will be enduring a terrible test. There will be a time of testing which comes upon the Earth to help people learn to trust The Father and still go to Heaven.”

            Joshua instructed her during the day, explaining why The Father would test people, “Kylie, when you took tests in the city, were the tests simply designed to torture you?”

            “Sometimes it felt that way!”

            Joshua laughed, “But what was the goal of the test, really?”

            “I guess it was to see if I knew the information, if I were prepared to advance to the next level, or if I responded with carelessness.”

            “That’s the same purpose for the time of testing that will come upon the Earth. God doesn’t want anyone to perish. Each person was created in His image with the ability to choose, think, and understand things around them in a way that animals can’t decide. Animals act on instinct and on knowledge of people and situations around them. They have bodies and souls which connect them together and to humans. From their souls, they can learn to have trust or suspicion about the world around them. However, people must choose to act as moral or immoral and have spirits, souls, and bodies. That spirit connects them intimately to God. People were created on the sixth day.”^[2]

            Joshua said, “Kylie, there will be a set time of testing that will come to test everyone’s spirit or more accurately their spiritual connection to God. If a person endures to the end of the test, they may pass the test but only through the struggle. It is not God’s fault if a person doesn’t pass that test. God gives everyone the same opportunity.

            “But, Joshua, what about the people who never heard of God or never read the whole Bible?”

            Joshua gently said, “God has many ways of speaking to people who will listen. He comes to some people in dreams and others through logic and science, music, the sky, and nature. God would never judge someone who has never been able to prepare.”

            “Like babies or children, would God judge them?”

            “God is Love, and He loves innocent babies and children the most. God made children from the same soil as Adam. So, they are created from the seed of the sin of Adam115, even if their parents followed every commandment. Yet His judgment of all children is justly not guilty because they cannot choose. If someone can’t choose, God can’t righteously judge them as guilty if they haven’t chosen to sin.

             “God, The Father, has chosen to love all humanity and has offered His complete forgiveness of all sins through Salvation. He has made the complete payment freely for everyone, applying the reparation against the sin debt. But God Himself has an enemy. His enemy wants nothing but the devastation of everything God loves so dearly.”

            “So, when the time of testing comes on the Earth, who will be living here?”

            Staring into the future, Joshua commented that people must choose whether to serve God, the Righteous Judge, or the enemy. What is most important for everyone is that they don’t identify themselves with the enemy, or they will be forever lost. Nobody who becomes a slave of the enemy can pass through the Star or ever enter this place of safety.

            Kylie asked, “But Joshua, how will people really know if they are the enemy’s servant?”

            He responded, “If they take the enemy’s mark, they’ve made the choice forever. God respects the right of people to make a free choice, and if the people freely choose the enemy—then they belong to the enemy and have freely taken his mark as a sign of his ownership. People mark animals to show possession, and God’s enemy will do the same. He will mark his property, and they will then belong to him for eternity.

            “Some people will choose to flee to the mountains and will be able to survive the time of testing using the trees and vegetables we’ve planted, and the sheep and rams will survive on the grass we’ve planted on the fourth terrace. Other people will witness to Sanctuary and the world.”

             “Kylie, you made the choice in the carriage to believe in me and allow my power to cover your sins. So, your choice will mean you will spend your life in Heaven as my Bride and wife. I will never leave you or forsake you.^[3]You will spend time with your parents, family, and children. You will be forever loved as the eternal Bride of the Son of God. Your place is secure from when you asked me to cover your sins and repented from the past.”

            The Creator and creation lounged next to each other on the beach, relaxing in each other’s presence and in the warm peace of their small, intimate world. As the sun’s rays glowed on the love between the Son and His Bride, a unique communion existed between two such unlike beings, man and woman, creator and creation, and beloved and devotee.

            “Why did you leave Heaven for a dirty place like Sanctuary?”

            Joshua looked at the bright, innocent girl beside him, “There is only one way that people can enter Heaven. Their sins must be killed without killing them. When someone is dead, there is no access to Heaven; their choice has been made and respected. However, the price for sin is death, so a sacrifice must be made for the sins of mankind. That sacrifice was made on the cross thousands of years ago. The price was paid, and the only question is if someone will accept the payment.”

            Kylie, how would you defend someone who clearly was guilty of first-degree, grand larceny of billions of dollars without any doubt of their guilt?”

            Kylie looked at Joshua, “Well, the obvious way is to look for either something that the police did that was wrong, some law that was inadequate, or some extenuating circumstance.”

            Joshua asked, “If the law was clear, the police were completely right and there were no extenuating circumstances; how would you defend someone righteously charged with a crime?”

            Kylie thought and finally said, “I don’t know if there are many other ways.”

            “Kylie, if someone with more money paid the full penalty and restored the stolen money in the place of the one who couldn’t afford the price, would there be a case?”

            Kylie said, “If someone wealthier paid the court costs and restored the money, I guess no crime would be able to be charged.”

            “So, Kylie, I paid that price for all of humanity’s sins. When I rose bodily, for those who believe, it is the price for all the sins, and no further crime can be charged by the Court of Justice. I paid the price for all sins when I said, ‘It is finished.’^[4] The payment was credited to the account of man’s debt when I rose from the dead.”

            Kylie looked at this peaceful, loving, graceful man who loved everyone enough to give them a choice to be free and live, not without sin, but to live above their sins.

            “Now people have two choices. They may choose to live in Heaven if they agree that the price was paid, and they must accept the freedom within that law. They will either live under the law of love or live under the law of sin.”

            “Kylie, would you like to eat lunch?” 

            “Yes, I am hungry.”

            “Will you say a prayer over the food?” 

            “I’ll try, but please don’t laugh.”

            They both lowered their heads, and Kylie said the ancient prayers over the food. In the end, Joshua looked at her and said, “You are quite the quick learner and said the blessing perfectly. You said it with all the thanks and praise in your heart. More than words, the prayer is your spirit connecting to God and thanking Him for everything. He examines the heart, not the words.”

            After lunch, they both lay on the warm sand and spoke of Heaven, where Kylie experienced a brief preview of Heaven. Joshua said that life in Heaven would be her final home, the home he had been preparing for thousands of years.

            He continued pensively, “The universe and world were created in 6 days.^[5] Heaven has been progressing for thousands of years. There will be vast gifts for everyone in Heaven. This place was created to provide an immense, joyful home for every created, living thing to worship God. However, the person must choose to live in the Kingdom of God. The Father won’t force Himself or His rules on any rebellious heart. Like any human kingdom, the person must be subject to the laws of sovereignty to live peacefully in a kingdom.

            “People used to worship God by offering animals to show their gratitude. Then, they worshiped God by killing infants in sacrifice. Recently, people “put in the time” to worship God. None of this is real worship. A spirit remembering the freedom given through the Eternal Love of the Father, forgiving others, and making choices that glorify God is worship.

            In Heaven, all the activities will worship God in love and peace. The past will be washed away, and the beings in Heaven will be surrounded by praise, love, completeness, and joy in God’s perfection.

            “You saw parts of Heaven, but you don’t understand the immensity of it. One city, New Jerusalem, will be more than half the size of the United States.^[6] That doesn’t include other cities or countries. A human father likes to hear and see his children having fun, discovering who they are and their talents, and loving Him. Our Father in Heaven treasures the joys of His children. Think about a loving, doting, and attentive father on earth who sees his child bringing a painting drawn in love. That father doesn’t see all the individual brushstrokes that are out of place. He sees a gift given by a child who loves him enough to spend time and energy expressing that true soul’s delight. Our Heavenly Father loves His children much more than any human father.

            “Your Heavenly home is exactly that—a home God designed specifically for you, fashioned for you before you were born. You were created to live perfectly in a perfect world. However, when sin entered the world, it corrupted the perfect world. That sin doesn’t exist in Heaven. “Kylie, your heavenly home is exactly that—YOUR Heavenly home, designed by God for you specifically. He put everything in your home that He knew you would like. In the realm of the Kingdom of God, everything would be considered fun on Earth. That’s Heaven.

            “There is no rich section or poor section in Heaven. The asphalt is pure gold, ^[7] building blocks are incomparable gems,  ^[8]  homes are immeasurable, pleasures are unimaginable, and art is limitless. Treasures on earth are Heavenly absurdities.

            “Heaven was created to be an ever-expansive place with pleasures unknown to mankind now. In Heaven, scientists can discover by using their minds and are never limited to using instruments. Artists can paint worlds that become and never need to use a brush. Inventors can create without any limitations on the equipment. Musicians will create impossible music here on Earth because the notes don’t exist here. Without any death, sickness, weakness, limitation, or restrictions, human creativity can exponentially expand. All of that is worshiping Our Father by using the abilities He gave each of us to explore boundless true abilities.

            “Your home in Heaven, Kylie, is exactly that. It is YOUR Heavenly home.”

            As the day started to close, Kylie and Joshua felt that usual sadness when they had to part. “Remember, there will be a time when there is no parting, sadness, pain, suffering or sorrow. ^[9] That day is coming soon. We will be united forever in a way you can’t imagine.”

            As Kylie walked down the path, she thought about the busy activities of Heaven without any limitations.