Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Bedtime: A Window into the Soul

The human heart often seems to hide in a cloud of ambiguity. Jeremiah 17:9 famously declares that the heart “is deceitful above all things and desperate sick.” It appears to be beyond human comprehension, and yet Christians must still try to understand it. Proverbs 4:23 reminds believers to

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

The heart determines the destination of your soul. As your heart goes, you go.

The complexities of the heart can only be untangled with divine help. One of those divine helps are our bedtime thoughts. The Psalmist reports that the sinner “plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil (Ps 36:4).” Those with sick hearts spend their night dreaming of revenge, theft, and murder (Ps 104:21-22). The have to toss and turn all night because they do not trust the ruler of heaven and earth. The Reformer and pastor, John Calvin, noted,

So long as we fail to acknowledge the One who sustains us, we will always fear that the earth will fail us.

On the other hand, those who trust the Lord smile for joy as they break into their REM sleep cycle for they know that God loves them and has redeemed them (Ps. 149:1-6). Instead of trying to root out all the ‘inadequacies,” in their life through cunning schemes, they entrust themselves to loving, kind, and merciful hands of God’s providence. As the eyes the faithful close for the night, the enter “into peace; they rest in their beds (Is 57:2).” Nighttime thoughts reveal the health of the Christian’s soul. The healthy soul sleeps in peace.


Night time thoughts not only reveal the heart, they also predict the future. The dreams of yesterday inform the actions of today (Micah 2:1). The mind that spends the night plotting revenge against an old boyfriend, a disagreeable boss, or an unkind church member will produce slanderous phone calls, Facebook rants, and slashed tires. Conversely, the heart that spends the night reflecting on the salvation of the Lord gives birth to charitable donations, notes of encouragement, and focused work. The meditations of the night turn the believers life either to harm or good.


The ancient world understood this reality. The night watchmen of old used to cite Scriptures and prayers when crying the time. One old northern England chant proclaimed:

Ho, watchman, ho!
Twelve is the clock!
God keep our town
From fire and brand
And hostile hand,
Twelve is the clock!”

When Christians stop trusting the Lord, evil enters in. Even in the middle of the night, the believers should keep their hearts with vigilance, remembering the God who saved them.


To determine state if their heart, Christians do not have to run a million experiments. They need to examine this divine control group, their bedtime thoughts.

Thoughts filled with bitterness, anger, and vengeance reveal a fallen and desperately sick and in need of repentance. Pillow thoughts of brotherly love, salvific praise, and godly contentment reveal a heart resting in the arms of the Lord.


How is your heart? What will you be thinking about tonight?

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

To Find Heaven Look In The Bible

More than one Christian desperately wants to peak over the edge death into eternity. The Scriptures offer a few glimpses into the next world noting streets of gold, water like glass and the elimination of sickness and sorrow. But the average evangelical desires more, hoping for touch a feel, and even a vision of what comes next.

This desire redirects the Christian’s gaze from the Scriptures to secondary sources, books filled with first hand accounts of Christians who supposedly died, walked in heaven with Jesus, and then came back home to provide people like you and me with a guidebook to the afterlife.

But when Christians grab their 200 page book of odd spiritual facts, they do not close in on the mysteries of heaven. They move further away from Jesus’s eternal throne. To experience heaven, Christians do not to listen to mystical six-year-olds. They need to dive into the Word of God, the Bible. The more they know the Scriptures, the more they will experience heaven.

To experience heaven, Christians do not to listen to mystical six-year-olds. They need to dive into the Word of God, the Bible. The more they know the Scriptures, the more they will experience heaven.

In Micah 4:1-5, the prophet makes this connection for his readers. He describes the latter days, the day when Christ returns to make all things new, as being when “the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted above the hills.” God will reign perfectly over the universe. 

What does this mean for our world of smart phones, social media, and self-driving cars?

It means that heaven will be the actualization of God’s law. People will not be mostly good or somewhat good. They will obey all of God’s love perfectly. Micah notes that all the nations of the world come to the mountain of God “that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths (Micah 4:2).”

Heaven represents the fulfillment of God’s Word. It is the perfect manifestation of God’s will for humanity in every human heart. In short, all will obey God the Father as Jesus obeyed God the Father. God will desire goodness and all the people will desire goodness, walking in his paths.

Why the Law?

God gave humanity the law because he wanted men and women to return to the perfection that Adam and Eve had flippantly tossed aside when they decided following a talking snake was more sensical than following the God who created them. At that moment, humanity fell from paradise. For then on, Adam and Eve and all their kids lacked purity and perfection, perverting truth, peace, and justice. To guide humanity back to truth, love, and justice, God revealed his law, the standard of perfection.

But as the failures of the Israelite patriarchs, judges and kings made clear, no human being could achieve and maintain the perfection of the law. Regardless of their efforts, all the heroes of the Bible became associated with sin as they lied, committed adultery, and murdered. A new and better prophet, priest, and king was needed.  

Jesus came to do what Moses, Samson, and David could not do. He perfectly obeyed God in all things, picturing what paradise had been and what the new heavens and the new earth would be.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).”

Thankfully Jesus did not only model the perfection of the law, he made a way for men and women to achieve the perfection he had exemplified. He died on the cross for the sins of the world and then rose again conquering the power of sin and death, offering to resurrect every man, woman, and child who repented of their sins and trusted in God’s work for salvation (Rom 6:5-6).  When men and women believe, God rewires their internal circuitry, enabling them to obey and live out the law. God says, “I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds (Heb 10:16).” Though imperfections remain, the climb towards paradise begins at conversion. Men and women start to obey God’s law.

What makes the new heavens and the new earth unbelievably and wonderfully good is that the unrestricted presence of God enables the people of God to perfectly understand and follow his law. The embrace of his revealed law leads to justice which produces peace.  All the confusion about baptism will be gone. All the twisting of the Scriptures to support murder, adultery, and fornication will disappear. In the new heavens and the new earth, God’s Word will reign in truth unstained by error or deception. We will all resemble Christ perfectly. God’s Word will go from being an ideal occasionally experienced to being reality lived every moment.

To taste this reality, Christians need to read, study, memorize, meditate on, and talk about the Scriptures. As the Word of God begins to pervade our lives, we will grow closer to Jesus and closer to the realities of heaven. As Christians come together, they picture the community of heaven, creating a unity around their shared commitment to the Word of God. Theologian Kevin Vanhoozer correctly said, “the local church is an earthly embassy of Christ’s heavenly rule.”

What About The Books on Heaven?

The supposed guidebooks to heaven that fill up our bookshelves are fraudulent and ultimately unnecessary. Jesus alone claims the right to explain what heaven is like (Jn 3:13). He alone came down from heaven and saved humanity. And he left behind his story, his testimonies of heavenly realities so that others “will believe in me through their word.” He gave us 66 books full of instruction. The apostle Peter writes, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:3)” If we want to see heaven come to life, we need to read, understand, and obey the Scriptures. All other heavenly guide books belong in the waste bin underneath our desks.

The latter days will be the days when God’s Word is full actualized. Let’s get ready. Let’s read the Bible. What are you waiting for?

Peter Witkowski Apologetics

Micah, America, and the Importance of Taking Sin Seriously

American Christians should not approach the sins of their nation with a disinterested or cavalier disposition. Even if things like racism, abortion, and government corruption never touch our souls or never reach our block, we should still take an interest in the issues that have corrupted our churches, communities, and governments. We should actively mourn sin and call for repentance on a national scale.

Though patient, God never overlooks a nation’s sin. He never writes off evil as being inconsequential. According to Micah 1:12, disaster, judgement, will “come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.” God will deal with the sins of the nations.

Even ancient Judah which could make the case for Christian exceptionalism without having to perform any hermeneutical gymnastics was at risk. God had promised to bless this nation. David’s heir sat upon their throne. The temple resided in their capital city. To reach the citadel of Jewish culture, opposing armies had to crash through an ancient line of fortresses set upon the mountains and had to defeat Israel large chariot force. By all accounts, Judah was God’s favorite nation, the city set upon the hill – a hill fortified by wealth and military ingenuity.

And yet the nation was not immune from judgement. Because they turned their back on God and worshipped idols, abused the poor, and bribed prophets, God erased their kingdom from the geopolitical landscape.

Like Micah’s original audience, some Americans pivot and discount these predictions of national doom because they don’t believe they could ever apply to the United States. They know this country was founded upon Christian principles. After all, the Declaration of Independence appeals to both “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” While the depth of the Christian influence remains debated, its presence in the original thirteen colonies and our nation’s government cannot be credibly denied. For all of their faults, America’s founding fathers bequeathed their nation a host of well-crafted documents which had been shaped by the biblical view of humanity. But such successes or “smiles of divine providence” will not save the United States from its sin. It did not save Judah.

Judah’s possessed the right heritage, a god ordained government, healthy financial institutions, and an advance military. Still, they could not stop God’s justice. God melted the nation’s wealth into nakedness (1:1). He rode roughshod over nation’s chariots and its network of forts (1:13). All that had been Judah’s confidence become the dowry of its conquerors (1:14). God dealt with Judah’s sin.

Even the divinely established throne of David failed to stay God’s hand. God declares, “the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam (1:15).” David hide from Saul in the caves of Adullam (1 Sam. 22:1). The rulers of Judah would flee the throne room for the safety of the caves. Like Adam, the heirs of David would go to the dust from which they had ascended (Gen 3:19). The destruction of Israel would be complete and final. Even the nation’s children would be marched off into captivity. All that would be left in Judah was bald men, mourning the grandeur of the past.

If the nation with the best pedigree failed to sidestep the crushing blow of God’s judgement, can the United States hope to do any better? America’s Christian heritage will not stay God’s hand, its founding documents will not stay God’s hand, and its military technology will not stay God’s hand. The nation that does not repent of it’s sins will be crushed in time.

Instead of trying a blind eye to the sins of this world, Christians need to wrestle with their own sins and with the sins that dominate their nation’s political and social landscape. Like Micah, they need to weep and wail because lawlessness ends in either repentance or death. The nation that refuses to repent of its sexual immorality, covetousness, hate, or murder will be destroyed by God. He is just.

And when the nation does fall, believers and unbelievers will both be taken captive. When wickedness goes unchecked, the righteous will suffer.

Christians cannot excuse America’s faults because the nation has known success in years gone by. Though God is patient, he is not blind nor uncaring. He will deal with sin; nations will fall because of the evil that its citizens have carried out within its borders. Only the holiness found at the foot of the cross will save us and our nation from the pending the judgement.

Let’s champion the call for repentance, trusting in saving power of Jesus. Nothing else will save. Chariots, forts, wealth, technology, wealth, and influence will fail us. Repent.

What is your confidence in?