No, I haven't.
I believe now that we just "get out of one car and into another" like the late, great John Lennon.
I believe in heaven and spirit souls. I am also coming to look at the "new heavens and a new earth" promise of the scriptures. So that perhaps heaven is a place you go until the new earth is established.
And I believe all will have opportunity to be there. Only people who flatly refuse it (the offer to live in the new heavens and earth) and/or refuse to get rid of stinkiness, such as the desire to commit genocide and the like, won't be there. (I think they'll go somewhere else and be together, without God interfering in their lives. Whoa to them. They'll be at the mercy of themselves and each other.)
I don't believe it's necessary for you to believe in this now, in this life to take part. I don't believe God demands you accept his son as your savior, now, in this life. He knows of all the things that put doubt in our minds and hearts. He knows of the conflicting religious teachings and all the horrors committed by humans and attributed to God. He's no dummy. He loves us and wants us to live. It's not his desire to destroy people. We're his children after all. He feels like we do about our own children, only in a far more knowledgeable and superior way.
It's man who has designed a vengeful, cruel and impossible to please god. God is aware of this.
If we do find him now, this god of unmatchable, unstoppable love, then we are one of the few on the narrow road. Most people prefer to walk that wide road where people preach of an angry god who cannot wait to burn their a$$es in hell. God loves those people, too. He knows they'd be happier if they'd find out he really is LOVE. They'll find out on the other side. And what a pleasant suprise for most people.
Yes, I have hope.
