GLEANINGS — January 6, A.D. 2013                                                                                                               "Imagine"

In the 1971st year of our Lord, a song by that title, written by entertainer John Lennon, was realeased. Its lyrics ask us to consider how wonderful it would be if there were no religion...no heaven above or hell below... to imagine just how peachy keen a godless world would be.
Blasphemous. An invitation from a fool to millions, asking them follow him in evil rebellion against their Creator. Utterly vain sophistry. Spiritually criminal suggestion.

On 8 December A.D. 1980,  another wicked and foolish crime was committed in New York City. A deranged coward  named Mark David Chapman senselessly shot Lennon in the back four times . The victim cried out, "O my God I've been shot!" 
Wait a minute. Oh my WHO? Did he say God? Hmm...IMAGINE that!
It has been said that there are no a-Theists in foxholes. When beings created in God's image (that's us) get down to the "nitty gritty," we are inevitably faced with basic Bible truth. The Bible teaches that those who deny or doubt God's existence are actually self-deceived and without excuse. 
His testimony to Himself through His creation (anemically called "nature") is brighter than the sun which is a part of it. Jesus proclaims that one is either for Him or against Him, Luke 11:23. Neutrality about the so called "question of God" is a house of cards which tumbles down at the moment of death, if it has not been destroyed previously by the power of the Gospel. 

The Bible says that "...it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27) Shortly after he was shot, Lennon entered into that realm where eternal reality eclipses all foolish, earthly, anti-God philosophies and the natural enmity of the human heart which begets them. Mark David Chapman, now in prison, will also enter that realm when God so ordains. May God grant him repentance before he departs this life. Christ died and rose again to save sinners...
The day after the murder, Lennon's widow issued a statement which included the words "John loved and prayed for the human race. Please pray the same for him." 
To whom did Lennon pray? To whom did his widow ask us to pray? Why does she believe that prayer can benefit her husband after his death? We can only IMAGINE.