
I’m Alesia and I am a home schooled Christian teen trying to adapt to today’s crazy society.
Welcome to my blog!
My blog name means several things: By Reaching Higher I am challenging myself to Do and Be better in all that I am.
Instead of settling for the normal, I’ll Reach Higher by setting goals to grow strong in both my personal life and my spiritual life with God.
In this blog, I will post about My Spiritual Journey and the discoveries I make as I learn more about God and all the amazing things He's done!
"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12
I'm pretty sure that no one wants to die, I know I don’t, not yet anyways, but I do look forward to life after death.
As a Christian, I know I am going to be in heaven with God and Jesus, so I have no reason to fear dying.
When I was about twelve, I had to memorize this scripture for my Sunday school, it was long and I was the only one to memorize the whole thing, but ever since then I've loved this verse and I can never forget it.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
16: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17: After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
That is my all time favorite verse.
Sometimes it begins to feel like Heaven is too good to be true, and I have to read this verse over and over again to realize that Heaven is real!
Unfortunately, those who have not accepted Christ into their hearts, will go to a much different place.
It saddens me very much to think of anyone going to hell, but I know that it's what God has planned, even though He too does not want anyone to suffer in hell.
I find this an awful, but true verse, and when I read it, I wish I could go into all the world and bring everyone to Christ.
Revelation 20:9-15"And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
In my life I have brought three people to Christ, and I am very proud of that, but I want to bring more people to Him.
I want more people to have the comfort of knowing they will be going to Heaven and not Hell.
Two books I read once really opened my eyes to how amazing heaven is, and how awful hell is.
90 Minutes in Heaven is about a man who is in a car accident and spends 90 minutes in heaven.
23 Minutes in Hell is about a man, who one night in his sleep, is taken to hell by God. God lets him experience all the pain and torment of hell, but after 23 minutes, he is pulled out of hell and taken up high with Christ. Christ tells him how He doesn't want anyone to go through what that man went through. The man then begins to preach and share his story, bringing thousands of people to Christ.
This next verse describes heaven, and each time I read it, I get more and more excited.
It's long, but definitely worth it!
Revelation 1-27
The New Jerusalem
1: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
2: I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
4: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
5: He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
6: He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.
7: He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
8: But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
9: One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."
10: And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
11: It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
12: It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.
13: There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west.
14: The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15: The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls.
16: The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long.
17: He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using.
18: The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.
19: The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,
20: the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.
21: The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
22: I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
23: The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
24: The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
25: On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.
26: The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
27: Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
If you are a non-Christian, reading this, I hope this post speaks to you.
If you are interested in becoming a Christian, PLEASE talk to a minister or someone you know that is a Christian.
Read the Bible and ask Christ to come into your heart, you WON'T regret it!