Always remember: Jesus rose from the dead to prove his personal conquest of death. Then ascended into Heaven, from which he will one day return to earth TO MAKE his believers HEIRS of his victory.
Therefore, our life will be:
Where we live forever
In perfect bodies
Wearing white robes
Where we:
in an ecstasy that SOARS! It’s a life:
And SO MUCH MORE than tongue can say, pen can write or mind can fathom. We’ll have to be there. We’ll want to be there. We don’t want to MISS a single experience it offers. And we must PREPARE for Heaven by accepting Jesus Christ as Savior from our sins and Lord of our lives. Fini
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In this world, we:
“Man born of woman” is indeed of few days and full of trouble” Job 14:1. Nevertheless, we have within us what’s denied every other form of life:
That’s why, though we historically, and presently, see that humanity dies while:
Christians hope in confidence that:
Friends, I don’t believe the words in this series of blogs have ever seen the light of day. They’re from a message I wrote years ago and filed for future use. I found it while looking for something else. Hooray for serendipity!
Please read Job 14:1-2, 10, 14 and Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 as introduction to this blog. Then be thankful that the book Revelation, not Ecclesiastes, is the last book of the Bible. As Billy Graham said the day a Senator asked him if he were an Optimist or a Pessimistic. He was an Optimist because “he believed the last chapter of Revelation.” Job spoke from pain that tormented his brain. Solomon from a lifetime of at least tasting every desire, only to discover they left his life full of gravel, grinding his soul away. All the while unsuccessfully longing for the spiritual values he had once known as essential to him. At least Job, some 1200 years before Solomon, declared his intention to “wait for renewal”, while Solomon lost his former faith in God. Both men carefully surveyed their historic life and contemplated a future life. And decided: since this life had often been problematical, and as often disappointing, would the NEXT be an improvement? End Part I The late humorist Art Buchwald professed ignorance of what happens after death. Yet, during his hospice stay, he continued to speak of heaven as the place where he would continue after death. That’s a problem in our culture: we exaggerate irrelevancies such as politics and trivialize Heaven—you live, you die, you go to Heaven. When Phil Rizzuto, the great New York Yankee shortstop died, George Steinbrenner said: Heaven must have needed a shortstop.
As if Heaven:
And, most importantly, AS IF Heaven is easy to find and easier to enter. But no…Heaven is hard to find unless we know the One who knows the way there. And it’s impossible to enter unless the One who KNOWS the WAY grants us entry—and Saint Peter isn’t the One! If we accept and serve Jesus, however, we know the way to Heaven. HE knows the way there because HE IS THE WAY. 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:
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. 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 |
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