Thank you for your prayers.

We have reached the end of the Apostles' Creed.

I wish I could give you a cookie.

I am somewhat embarrassed to say,

that as a child I watched a lot of television.

I watched old movies

and lots and lots of cartoons.

In many cartoons, 

after seven minutes of violence,

a cat or a dog

rises up in a shadowy form 

as a sort of angel and goes to heaven.

And for many people

that is their idea of eternal life.

You are a gauzy spirit

sitting on a cloud

playing a harp

and eating bon-bons forever.

Satan loves this lie, because it makes sin look great.

If you are a Christian,

the plan is

for you to live forever

in a body that can never decay or die.

You will receive a resurrection body--

and you will continue the journey

of endless becoming

you began in this life.

You will also be rewarded for what you do in this life.

This is a kingdom--

an everlasting kingdom

and you are an eternal being.

You were created to become more and more 

you.

You were designed to be

more and more,

every increasingly,

the fullness of everything that God put in you.

Eye has not seen

nor ear heard,

what God has in store

for those who love him.

We are back to the Kingdom,

and back to the important place

artists and creative people

have in that Kingdom.

Your work here is not the end,

and for many of you

the doorway to eternity 

is where your greatest work is going to happen.

Don't stop growing.

Don't stop turning to Jesus.

Don't stop learning

and hungering after all that God wants for you.

Even if you live a hundred years,

this is just the beginning.

Christ John Otto is the director of Belonging House, an international community called to raise up an army of artists who will build Jesus a throne in the earth.

For more information, please go to Belonging.House