The Heaton File

“Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? (Jeremiah 23:29)

The Fire And Hammer

When God spoke, the universe came into being. No words in the human language can explain the power of the word of God. Everything in creation was established through the spoken word of “God said!” Human wisdom can never match or come within a glimpse of the power of God to establish the world by the word. The revelation of the word of God has the power of dynamite to change the hearts of sinful, corrupt, and evil men. Jeremiah describes the word of God like as a fire and a hammer. God created fire for good and to destroy. A hammer can create masterpieces or tear them into pieces with its fierce blows. Jeremiah shows the power of God as something for good and a force to destroy those who trifle with its content. Like a hammer, the word of God can create a new heart from corruption, and it will destroy anything that resists it.

Fire has great value in warming a home, cooking food, and creating metal strengthened by the flame. The same flame can burn a house down, destroy lives, and devastate the land. When fire is controlled, it serves the purpose of a blessing but let a flame escape uncontrolled, and the results can be catastrophic. God’s word is given to show the heart of man God’s love, mercy, and grace. The character of man is strengthened by the flame of truth that burns from the word of God. When the heart is filled with the word of God, the soul solidifies into the mold of strength, courage, hope, and peace. Someone rightfully said the word of God is given to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Great peace comes from spending time in the word, but there can be greater conflict when the heart of man seeks to rebel against God’s will.

A hammer is a tool designed to build and create. It is a simple design that is easy to use and effectively constructs what it is purposed to build. In the hands of a craftsman, a hammer can create great edifices that will last for many centuries. A hammer is also used to tear things down. It can be used as a tool to destroy. The word of God is a tool designed to build trust in God in the heart of man. It will create a soul confident in the grace of God to save. The same hammer will also resist those who try to change the word of God. As the anvil of truth, the Bible has stood the test of time against a world bent on its destruction. All arguments against the word of God have been destroyed by the hammer of God, which is truth.

The Bible is a book of controversy. One of the reasons most people reject the Bible is because it exposes their sinful life. God’s word reveals the conscience of evil that men enjoy. As Creator, God condemns all those who challenge His authority, declaring penalties for those who refuse to obey Him. Like a fire and hammer, the word of God convicts the soul of sin, crushing everything that is evil. Human wisdom cannot change the revelation of the mind of God because it is settled in heaven. False religions have created false doctrines to their own destruction, but the word of God remains the same. The Bible was first written down by Moses 3,500 years ago and has remained unchanged as it developed over the centuries. Only the power of the spoken word of God could produce the universal message of hope and salvation. Read the Bible to be wise, but do not challenge its content. The fire and hammer of God endure until the end.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

One Life, Live It

The philosophy of life is to live it with all the gusto possible. Everything a man has in this life should focus on getting all that can be drained from the life experience before death. The world believes there is one life to live. Death is the final act in the drama of life. With this in mind, the purpose of life is to have as much fun, gain all the pleasures, and slide into death like a homerun king. The man with the most toys wins. Popularity and fame will secure a man’s place in history. Books will be written, statues commissioned, and streets named after the movers and shakers of the world for those who succeed. The great human tragedy is thinking there is one life. Because of this, no preparation is made for a greater reality – the second life.

Everyone is born the same way, and everyone dies the same way. From the birth of Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve, every human being is born of a woman. There is no other avenue of life as God has given man and woman the creative power to bring life into the world. Only God creates life. By the same creation of life, the Lord God has determined the days of man are like the grass of the field. They blossom one day and then are cut down. Cain was the first child born into the world, and his brother, Abel, was the first to experience death (killed by Cain). The two children of Adam and Eve are the story of life that has continued for thousands of years. This reality will continue until the coming of Jesus Christ.

There is a divine appointment for everyone, and that is death. While death is a reality, that is the minor player in the divine story. Every human is an eternal creature. This is the one story that most people in the world deny and never accept. When a man believes death is final and nothing beyond, he becomes like an animal. An animal is not an eternal creature, which separates man from animal. God created the human form in His divine image of eternity. When an animal dies, it ceases to exist, but when a man dies, there is another life. A man can deny that he is an eternal creature and that he lives like an animal, but this does not change; after death, there is another life. When a man closes his eyes in death, he may think he is finished, and there is no more. As his eyes open in eternity, he realizes there is life after death, and unprepared, he finds himself standing before the judgment bar of the Lord God Almighty. It’s too late to admit there is a second life.

God created the world and everything in it. He formed man and woman as eternal creatures for His glory. Billions of people have died since Abel, and the majority of those billions never believed in life after death. God sent His son to open the vistas of eternity, warning those who trifle with the word of God that there is life after death. All men die. It is a divine appointment and decree. Nothing man can do will change that. All men face life after death. That is a divine appointment and decree. Nothing man can do will change that. There will come a day when no one will die, but all men will cease to exist in their human form: the day Jesus Christ returns. Then, life after death will happen to everyone. No one escapes. The few who believed in life after death and prepared themselves in the grace of God will rejoice. Those who lived life thinking there was one life will not rejoice. Do you believe in life after death?

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:3)

Love And Commandment Keeping

God has never asked man to do anything that he was unable to perform. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, the only restrictive law was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They could eat of every tree but not the one forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve understood the commandment of the Lord. There was nothing difficult in keeping the commandments of God. The Lord provided everything for life and happiness in the garden because God loved His creation. Satan attacked the word of God immediately, questioning whether the commandment was too harsh and unfair. He suggested if the woman ate the forbidden fruit, she could be like God. Sin entered the world when Eve took of the forbidden fruit.

Satan’s most successful tool to claim the hearts of men is to convince them of the unfairness of the Lord God. There is no need to keep the commandments of the Lord. Freedom is doing whatever a person desires without any consequences. If God said that something is a sin, that is unfair and unjust and too harsh. Seeing the tree in the midst of the garden and not being able to take of its fruit was such a burden. Why would God be so unfair? It was such a grievous law to restrict the freedom of the human spirit. God was cruel to expect man not to enjoy the forbidden fruit.

The philosophies of human wisdom try to devalue the need for commandment keeping. This falls in line with the same tactic used by Satan in the garden and his continual attempts to convince the world that God is a cruel, unloving, uncaring, and brutal ruler who demands too much. Satan has repurposed the Lord God into a loving, caring, benevolent ruler who expects no one to keep commandments but only to love one another and love God because God loves everyone, and no one will ever anger God. Jesus said the devil is the father of lies, and the influence of the evil one proves this every day. There is no greater lie perpetuated by the adversary of righteousness than convincing people to love God and not worry about keeping His commandments. Jesus asked why people called Him Lord and did not do what He commanded. The world has bought into the lie of the devil to love God and love who God is and bask in the love of God, and that is all a man needs to do.

Commandment keeping is an expression of love. Refusing to keep the commandments of God is a show of defiance rooted in hatred. The bottom line becomes very simple. If a man refuses to do the will of the Father, he hates God. There is no other way to look at the rebellion of the human heart, refusing to abide by the precepts, commandments, laws, and covenants of Jesus Christ, than to see a spirit that hates Jesus Christ. What is the love of God according to John the apostle (inspired by the Holy Spirit)? The love of God is keeping His commandments. If you do not keep the commandments of God – you hate God, you hate Jesus Christ, and you hate the Holy Spirit.

Face the truth. None of the commands of God are difficult to follow. You can complain and whine about what God tells you to do all your life and die, and then you will no longer whine and complain about what God told you to do. The reality of Hell is there are no complainers and whiners. Everyone there realizes two things: first, they recognize the commandments of God are not burdensome. Second, they wished they had made a greater effort to keep the commandments. But it is too late. God loves you. He does not want any to perish in eternal perdition. Jesus died to save you from your sins. If you refuse to keep the commandments of God, you will die in your sins. It will not be a pretty picture. What can you do? Keep the commandments of God. Then, and only then, can you show how much you love God. If you love God, you will keep His commandments.

And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (Luke 12:15)

Life Has Problems

Everyone experiences problems. Norman Vincent Peale tells of a time he was walking down the street in New York City when he ran into an old friend, George. “Norman, I’m fed up,” George announced. “I have nothing but problems, problems, problems. I’d give you $5,000 right now if you could get rid of all my problems.” Norman ruminated for a minute and then replied, “Just yesterday, I was in a place where there were a lot of people with no problems. Would you like to go?” George pounced on the offer. “Good,” Peale answered. “Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll take you to the Westchester cemetery. The only people who don’t have problems are dead.”

Life can be challenging because it is filled with problems. There are bills to pay and never enough money. Things constantly break down or fail to function as they are designed. People disappoint. Promises made are not kept. Age and health make it hard to enjoy life. If it’s not one thing, it will be something else. Murphy seems to be in charge of running the world, as Murphy’s Law is everywhere. Sometimes, it feels as if the only people without problems are the ones in the cemetery. That’s not quite the answer, but it raises an interesting question.

Job opined, “Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble” (Job 14:1). How true. Life can be a lot of trouble and problems. For those who are of the living, life is a challenge with all the problems that rule the day, but God has not left His creation without hope. It must be understood that the source of problems inherently comes from the consequence of sin. A woman enduring pain in childbirth can go back to the Garden of Eden for the cause. God cursed the ground on behalf of the man and stated that he would work by the sweat of his brow. Disease, natural disasters, and death came as a result of man losing the Garden of Eden. Life has problems because man disobeyed God.

The hope in life is not to remove the problems but to understand how to cope with life’s challenges. God has never promised life to be a bed of roses and comfort. Through the knowledge of God’s word, life’s problems can be understood in the light of God’s grace. Pain and suffering fill the world, but God helps the grieving heart live. Many of life’s problems (debt, for example) come from mistakes made by covetous hearts drowning them in the crushing burden of financial worries.

Jesus told the disciples in the mountain sermon to put God first and not worry so much about food and clothing. Those things should not be primary in life. They are a part of life, but God must be the greater part in finding joy and happiness. So much of our unhappiness is self-induced. Life may have problems, but the answer to our problems is what God has given us in His Word. He made us, and He knows what we need. If we trust Him for our answers, our problems may not disappear, but we can endure the trials of life with a better spirit. God has promised to give us all we need. We need to believe He is able and willing to fulfill His promise. Live for Jesus. Trust in God.

Remember how short my time is; for what futility have You created all the children of men? What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his life from the power of the grave? (Psalm 89:47-48)

Death Is Reversible?

In a recent news article from Gray News (April 1, 2025), Amanda Alvarado reports death appears to be “reversible” with proper treatment, according to Dr. Sam Parnia, an associate professor at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. Parnia said that the idea that death is final is “simply a social convention that does not conform with scientific realities.” Science has now discovered a way to circumvent the natural order of what God has established in creation. The Tree of Life was in the Garden of Eden and taken away from man when he rebelled against the word of the Lord. Now science has rediscovered the Tree of Life, suggesting death is no longer a viable reality. This discovery goes along with the science showing that men can give birth to children, and there is no biological difference between men and women.

The psalmist pined that the fool had said in his heart that there was no God. There continues to be a plethora of fools who take the beauty of science given by God to show His glory to conclude the most outlandish and foolish doctrines in the history of the world. In a perverse generation, the world struggles to define what a woman is. Transgenderism is viewed as a normal aggregation of natural processes towards determining the true meaning of a person’s identity. Sexual immorality fuels the discussions that it is normal for men to be with men and women to be with women. The conclusions of the homosexual agenda come from individuals who were born from heterosexual couples who are capable of conceiving and giving birth to children. A woman cannot conceive in another woman, and a man cannot conceive in another man because God has designed the bodies of each to function in one way.

Believing that science has found a way to make death irrelevant is the highest form of how man’s wisdom has become the greater folly of human foolishness. Death is certain, and everyone will certainly die. Science cannot change the will of God. Human foolishness continues to compound itself against the habitations established by God. The apostle Paul told the Athenian scholars that human wisdom and reasoning is a fool’s errand. Only the one true God has established the order of the world and the sanctity of life. God made the world and everything in it because He is Lord of heaven and earth. It is appointed for all men to die, no matter what science does. Science proves that death is necessary, not the other way around. The Lord God has created all men of every nation and determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.

Death is the consequence of sin. If death can be reversed, man believes he can reverse sin. Where does the wisdom of men begin to believe it has the power to reverse sin? The conclusion is the foolish attempt of man to become his own god. What a fool man continues to be. The dust has become its own god of dust. God told Adam he would return to the ground from whence he came. He was created from the dust; he is dust, and to dust, he would return. Apparently, the intellectuals of today have not gotten that memo. Can a man deliver his life from the power of the grave? The answer is found in God’s word.

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).

Conformed To His Image

What do people see when they look at my life? One of the distinctions of the Christian is the need to reflect the image of Jesus Christ. What the world needs to see in the lives of God’s people is not the same image as what they see in the world. If the Christian looks no different than the world around him, he has become like the world. The challenge of walking a righteous life is paving a path through an unrighteous world. The Christian must conform to the image of Jesus Christ.

Edward Payson said, “Paint Jesus Christ upon your canvas, and then hold Him up to the people; but hold Him up so that not even your little finger can be seen.” As the Christian grows in knowledge of the character of God, he begins to reflect the image of the Son of God. A transformation takes place where the old man of the world becomes the new man of the spirit. The goal is to change the image of our lives to that of Jesus Christ. God wants His children to look like His Son because His Son reflects the image of the Father. A transformation occurs as the spirit grows in the heart of the child of God. The more time spent in fellowship with a godly character, the less the world sees the image of man and sees more the image of God.

Reflecting the image of God is conforming life to the principles of godliness. Truth is the foundation of everything a Christian does in life. Their speech is godly, their mannerisms are reflective of Christ, and the mind dwells on the things above. God desires His children to continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of His Son so that they will become more and more like Him. That perfection shows that when people see our lives in Christ, they see the canvas of God’s love and nothing else.

Living godly in an ungodly world is difficult. Jesus told His disciples in the mountain sermon to be lights in the world. Sometimes, that light is all the world can see. The more lights in the world, the more people can see Christ. I may not be a beacon of light changing the world from darkness, but I can be a glowing light for Christ where I am. When I go to work, I can let my light shine. As a spouse or parent, my light must show the glory of God. What I want the world to see is God. Hopefully, the more I grow in Christ, the less people see of me (including my fingers holding the canvas). Let’s reflect on the image of God.