That ˗ Any of the problems associated with this life will be eliminated.
That ˗ All occupations and leisures associated with this life will be eliminated. That ˗ Intellectual knowledge will increase exponentially. That ˗ Whatever distinguishes us as Persons will remain. That ˗ No sin will be possible. That ˗ No praise or applause will be given to any mortal, but only to God in Christ. That ˗ Each glorified Forgiven person will be superior to the angels. That ˗ Each person will have authority of some kind to achieve whatever service rendered. That ˗ Memory of loved one NOT there will be obliterated. That ˗ Everyone in Heaven will agree with God that only those there should be. That ˗ Memory of our earthly walk with God will be perfect, minus any negative. That ˗ All experiences we now consider burdensome will have been Heaven on earth. That ˗ We’ll experience REST as the achievement of any service rendered to God. All of this is the least we can expect, with infinitely more than we can imagine. Our everlasting life with God provides courage, confidence and a powerful witness for Jesus NOW. We KNOW God’s will is presently being fulfilled in society, however unlikely it seems. Heaven will be populated by those who believe that truth:
0 Comments
Just thinking…God promises for this life all we need; and for the next more than we can imagine:
This partial list of features is:
Consider what could be characteristic of our imperishable life with God. That ˗ personal acquaintance begins with God and extends to all in Heaven with us. That ˗ God in Christ will be the entire focus of attention and the subject and embodiment of that experience. That ˗ Time and Space will be eliminated. That ˗ Any number of activities will exist to occupy the interest, giftedness and curiosity of every person. That ˗ Every benefit EDEN promised will be enlarged until it SO FAR surpasses it that EDEN will be forgotten, even by Adam and Eve, its only inhabitants. That ˗ Each person will be permanently at his best, whatever age God chooses is right for him. That ˗ We will each be either MALE of FEMALE, without sexuality as we know it. That ˗ All the colors of skin now in humanity will be retained. That ˗ No differences in doctrine, issues or perspectives will exist. End Part I If these are not enough, more tomorrow to encourage us to anticipate Heaven. Ivan Pavlov turned from studying for the priesthood to science. While studying heart and blood circulation in animals, he developed his famous “dog-bell-food” routine that animals have natural and conditional reflexes. Our Century, 1900-1910, p 47
Valid science. He went beyond his depth, however, when extending the theory to humans. As rational, not instinctive beings, thinking rather than reacting, we live at a higher level than beasts. We do have natural responses, according to what we confront: fear, joy, surprise, shock, etc. And, as we know all too well, a fleshly nature that proves unconverted at the age of accountability by making wrong rational choices Ephesians 2:1-3. That’s why God demands the death of that nature by:
With every desire to submit when temptation calls, the Holy Spirit encourages us: “Jesus has made you NEW. You’re to be resistant to temptation until you conquer it, not until you submit to it.” Therefore, when resisting with Scripture, RESIST!; until temptation lessens:
Each time we hear its echo, RESIST with Scripture. The former result accrues. The more we resist with God’s Word at each echo, the less it grows into an alluring whisper. With enough practice, when the same temptation appears, beguiling us with, “It is I”, we’ll be empowered to say, “I know, but it is not I”. (With apologies to the likely fictitious story from Augustine’s life.) Throughout the Bible God warns of punishment for those still in unforgiven sin when they die. See Matthew 22:1-14, Ephesians 2:1-3, II Thessalonians 1:5-10, Revelation 21:8 for a few references.
Several scriptures suggest, without implying or demanding it, that the body of the one condemned is also resurrected. Ezekiel 37:1-14, Daniel 12:21, John 5:28-29, II Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 20:11-15. Ezekiel’s reference applied to ancient Israel restored to her Promised Land, but still spiritually dead. However, it could apply to the unsaved dead at God’s Judgment Day. John 5:28-29 clearly says, “all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out.” The dead person’s spirit isn’t in the grave with the dead, but wherever the spirits of the dead are. Therefore, to “hear” Christ’s voice implies a return of the spirit to a body. In reality, while we tread lightly on this subject, the return of the unsaved to their resurrected bodies would be divine justice. For they claimed no need of God while on earth—the classic sinful man Romans 8:7—only to find their old, worn, weak, powerless hands, brains and bodies useless when God withdraws himself from them. HELL is the complete absence of God from the human being. Suddenly, what distinguished the potentially-imperishable human from the mortal animal is gone. The once possibly imperishable human being is suddenly and forever:
And those troubles only hint at greater ones to always come, on and on and on, without end. When God withdraws himself completely. Fini Jesus proved that it didn’t take a degree in theology to be a:
The above being scriptural truth, what hope is there that NOW, in this WORLD:
NONE. ZERO. NATTA. That kind of success in humanity isn’t going to be achieved NOW. There’s no need to:
When the angelic host joined Gabriel in extolling the Christ child God sent, the host agreed that it meant “peace on earth to men on whom his favor rests” Luke 2:14. Understand that the host meant what God said through them: those accepting his Son had peace with God through Christ’s forgiveness—and ONLY they! God didn’t issue a general PAX to all humanity in the proclamation. Only those in Christ’s forgiveness receive PEACE with God—which translates into peace among men with the same promise. Which means that:
Coming in the Finale: the fate of all the unsaved when resurrected John 5:28-29. Those who have read Ernest Gordon’s book Through the Valley of the Kwai, and Corrie ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place, thrill at the Christian heroism expressed by believers in WWII death camps. Whether on the River Kwai, or in Ravensbruck, believers lived on two levels, replicating Paul’s teaching in II Corinthians 4:16-18. Veterans of the Viet Nam conflict tell similar stories, less powerful by being isolated from other believers, not those shared by the believing community.
On the physical level they dealt with sickness, disease, brutality. On the spiritual, their spirit SOARED as their bodies SLOWED. All suffered; many died. Neither mattered. The Holy Spirit encouraged LAY Christians to rise above the terror and GRACE the name of Jesus. Betsy ten Boom died of typhus. That didn’t matter either. We all die of something! Death took her, but didn’t conquer her. God simply transferred her from HERE to HIM! Let us learn from these blogs: Right here. Right now. As we experience life with its sickness, disease, aging, loneliness and despair—all the corruptions a dying world can impose—GOD is a Greater Power than our burden is Heavy. He always equips us with POWER to carry our LOAD. Power equal to, and far beyond, any problem faced, sickness experienced or weakness felt. We bear it all by being at REST now in God’s Overcoming Grace. Even now Romans 8:31-39 empowers us. What becomes of us in life has been eclipsed by what has already COME to us in Christ. May these examples of REST, now symbolized, suffuse our spirits, raise our expectations and, surface the PROMISE of what’s AHEAD for God’s people in Heaven. For that, dear Christians, begins the REST that never ends. Fini The apostle Paul experienced the earthly counterpart of his eternal rest. While a prisoner in Rome, he urged Christians to:
He found personal rest earlier in ministry when God:
What issue do we have that:
Never despair. The Grace God gave Paul he gives us when he refuses to grant a request we make. Do not miss the blessing God’s Grace grants in place of answers we think we need. Our greatest need as Christians is to “wait for the Lord in TRUST”. End Part IV Christians CAN REST when adversity strikes:
It’s a comforting, and challenging, theology that knows God won’t burden us beyond our capacity to carry the load I Corinthians 10:13. It’s a far greater, and empowering, theology to know God uses every weakness we have, or trouble endured, to express HIS GRACE through us II Corinthians 12:7-10. Consider the apostles:
Could the apostles, whenever afflicted with scourgings, have the same blessings as the American POW in Viet Nam and Richard Wurmbrand in Romania? No Christian is anxious to personally discover it. BUT opposed as we are today—and consider that the worst is yet to come—maybe Christians should rejoice in being:
REJOICE instead of MOANING. Instead of wondering WHY we’re despised, KNOW it’s because we’re hurting Satan’s cause, and he’s taking revenge. Knowing also that God trusts us to understand AND to persevere:
To be in such company inspires and emboldens. Let us not be weary from living in a fallen culture. Let us take courage and evangelize the seeker, admonish the critic and uplift the doubter. End Part III God offered Israel conditional REST when occupying Canaan. They needed only remain faithful to his Law. Except for rare occasions, Israel didn’t, resulting in a loss of his REST. Christ embodied Truth in Grace John 1:14. He offered REST to everyone accepting him as Savior and Lord. He perfectly possessed that REST during a very demanding ministry Matthew 11:28-30.
A REST he also experienced when arrested in Gethsemane. He knew, and predicted, the desertion of every disciple John 16:31-32. Which didn’t:
For even as he spoke of their desertion, he had a rock-bound assurance that “…I am not alone, for my Father is with me.” Teaching us an essential truth:
Instead, throughout the entire Passion narrative, Jesus experienced God’s Presence as he silently endured shocking punishment at his trials and on the Cross I Peter 2:21-25. Only in the six-hour period on the cross, 9 AM to 3 PM, and finally, between noon and 3 PM, and near the end of that horrendous period he paid the sin-debt owed:
Which quoted Psalm 22, a victory Psalm. Which means: Jesus knew his abandonment by God had perfectly finished his Father’s work. And that his Father would welcome him home when he died Luke 23:46. End Part II Genesis 2:2-3 records God’s Rest from his creative activity of forming the universe out of nothing, Hebrews 11:3. Then, by Christ’s authority, John 1:3, the Holy Spirit created order, beauty, regularity, creatures and humanity from a formless, empty deep Genesis 1:2.
Have we considered that our Biblical experience has been, and is even now, symbolized in history? Ancient Israel’s entrance into Canaan symbolized it. When at great cost of a long 25-year effort, time, energy and battles their REST included:
True, while some TV preachers falsely claim that Christians now experience financial and health benefits God granted Hebrews, immediate prosperity of every physical kind did come to them in obedience. The kind that Christians found in Christ was, and is, different and superior. End Part I |
Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|