HEAVEN — CHAPTER ONE OF THE GREAT STORY!

(The last “Message of the Month” dealt with the subject of Hell. This month’s message deals with Heaven. Although it is a somewhat lengthy message, it will be well worth your time to go to our website at TRIDM.org and read it in its entirety. Better still go there and print it out, make copies and share it with family and friends!)

 Introduction — To understand the title of this teaching we read from the Last Battle, which is the final book in the series of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis: “There was a real railway accident,’ said Aslan softly. ‘Your father and mother and all of you are — as you used to call it in the Shadowlands — dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before. This is the Great Story going on forever, each chapter being better than the one before.”

How do you think of the closing of your part in the final chapter of the Great Story earth? Do you see only the words – THE END, or the opening of chapter one of the Great Story of God’s Unfolding Drama of Redemption?

Recent polls suggest that nearly 80% of all Americans believe there is a place called Heaven. Seventy percent of them believe that they will go to heaven when they die, but the same percentage doubts seriously if their friends and neighbors will make it!

 Best selling author John Eldredge candidly states that “most people don’t even think about heaven. Most churches don’t preach about it, except to warn you about making sure you get there. But what is “there,” and how does it relate to our search for life? Those believers who have given a thought associate heaven with some sort of religious experience. “We shall worship God for ever and ever,” is the typical reply. And something in my heart says, “That’s it? Heaven is an unending church service? That sounds like hell to me.” I mean, church is fine, but it doesn’t exactly take your breath away. Ecstasy. Intimacy. Adventure. Those aren’t words most of us associate with what we experience on Sunday mornings.”

Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft writes, “Our pictures of heaven simply do not move us; they are not moving pictures. It is this aesthetic failure rather than intellectual or moral failures in our pictures of heaven and of God that threatens faith most potently today. Our pictures of heaven are dull, platitudinous and syrupy; therefore, so is our faith, our hope and our love of heaven … It doesn’t matter whether it’s a dull lie or a dull truth. Dullness, not doubt, is the strongest enemy of faith.”

 The majority of Americans want to go to heaven, but not today! They are like the two guys who were dying to know if there would be baseball in heaven. They made a pact with each other. The first one to die would try to come back and communicate to the other person whether or not there was baseball in heaven. Well, one of them dies; and sure enough the remaining friend one night hears a familiar voice, “Jim! It’s Fred! I’ve come back to tell you whether or not there is baseball in heaven. I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news, there is baseball in heaven. The bad news, you are the starting pitcher tomorrow night.”

In spite of what is probably over optimism, and a lot of joking about the life to come, I find it very encouraging that even in this rational, postmodern, skeptical age there is something deep inside the human heart that cries out, “There must be something more to my existence than being born without being asked if I wanted to be born; something more that living for 70 or 80 years of a little fun, and a lot of toil, sweat and tears, then dying and being buried in the ground.” I believe there is not only a God-shaped vacuum in the human heart, but also a “heaven-shaped vacuum”; a sense that we were made to live forever in a new heaven and on a new earth, where we experience uninterrupted enjoyment of God, and unrestricted employment with God in the Family Firm of Almighty and Sons.

 Unfortunately far too many professing Christians have an outlook toward heaven like they do toward the place, Timbuktu – everyone has heard of it, but very few have a clear idea of where it is, how you get there or what it would be like to live there.

Suppose an unbelieving friend came to you and said, “Describe your understanding of what the Bible teaches about life after death”, or “describe heaven to me so I’ll want to go.” How would you respond? Would you describe people with haloes around their heads, wings on their backs, harps in their hands, strumming hallelujah choruses while standing knee deep in clouds? Although not a whole lot is told us about the new heavens and the new earth, all that is revealed could be summarized as the beginning of Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

For the Believer, the End of Life on Earth Marks the Beginning of the Great Story that no One Down here has Ever Read and that has No Ending!

The word for heaven in the Hebrew is “shamayim” and the Greek word is “ouranos”. They make this one word cover both the visible sky over us and the invisible realm of God invading us.

 Heaven is referred to in the Bible as God’s dwelling place (Ps 33:13); a kingdom to be inherited – Mt 25:34; where Christ is today (Acts 1:11); where Christians go when they die (Phil 1:21-23); the Father’s house (Jn 14:2); a city designed and built by God (Hebs11:10); a better country (Hebs 11:16); Paradise (Lk 23:43). The concept that Heaven is somewhere out there fails to be true to the biblical understanding that heaven is close at hand and interacts with the earth now.

 Tom Wright says, “Heaven is God’s dimension of present reality. It’s not a place far remote from this present world, but a dimension normally kept secret of present reality.”

 In the book of Revelation the beloved disciple John is given a multidimensional view of God’s Great Story from the last chapter of the old earth and old heaven, to Chapter One of the never ending great story of the new heavens and the new earth.  Someone said, “On a clear day you can see forever.” For John this was truly a very clear day. If we had been with John on the isle of Patmos at the time of his vision, we would have shouted from down below to him on the lonely pinnacle of his vision, “John, what can you see from there?”

 And to borrow the answer in the words of Philip Greenslade, John would shout down to us,

 “I can see a sparkling new world; a whole new creation! What does it all look like? It looks like a city but stretched out in all directions. It’s like a new Jerusalem, teeming with people from every nation, as if up for an international festival, enjoying the presence of God.”

 What else can you see?

 “I can see that no one is crying, there are no cemeteries, no prisons; I can see no one is suffering any disease; and I see… I think I can see… I can’t believe it… I feel sure I can see God! I can see God’s face! And yet everything is radiating such a glorious light that I’m not sure what I see: Yet when I stare at the face of God, more often than not I see a face I know so well, the human face of Jesus!”

Since what John saw concerning Heaven will take us forever to experience and express, I don’t think you’ll appreciate my trying to compact eternity into this one sermon. So I’ll give a quick summary of what John says about the new heavens and the new earth by prefacing all his revelations with the word perfect. John writes that the new heavens and the new earth are places of:

 (1) Perfect Restoration –  21:1 – There is a new creation with the curse of sin removed and paradise regained. One commentator remarks: “As the world of nations is to be pervaded by divine influence in the millennium, so the world of nature shall be, not annihilated, but transfigured universally in the eternal state which follows it. The earth was cursed for man’s sake; but is redeemed by the second Adam. Man’s soul is redeemed by regeneration through the Holy Spirit now; man’s body shall be redeemed at the resurrection; man’s dwelling-place, His inheritance, the earth, shall be redeemed perfectly at the creation of the new heaven and earth, which shall exceed in glory the first Paradise, as much as the second Adam exceeds in glory the first Adam before the fall, and as man regenerated in body and soul shall exceed man as he was at creation”

The Jews say that the holy blessed God will make ten things new in the future state, or world to come; the first is, he will enlighten the world (See Rev_21:11); the second is, he will bring living water out of Jerusalem; (see Rev_21:6); the third is, he will make trees to bring forth their fruit every month (see Rev_22:2), and the fourth is, all the waste places shall be built, even Sodom and Gomorrah; the fifth is, Jerusalem shall be built with sapphire stone (see Rev_21:19); the sixth is, the cow and the bear shall feed; the seventh is, a covenant shall be made between Israel, and the beasts, fowls, and creeping things; the eighth is, there shall be no more weeping and howling in the world; the ninth is, there shall be no more death in the world; the tenth is, there shall no more be sighing, and groaning, and sorrow in the world;

(2) Perfect Association – 21:2-3, 9-10 – That which makes Heaven truly meaningful to the believer is that “the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

Matthew Henry affirms the perfect relational intimacy with God that Heaven brings: “The covenant, interest, and relation, that there are now between God and his people, will be filled up and perfected in heaven. They shall be his people; their souls shall be assimilated to him, filled with all the love, honor, and delight in God which their relation to him requires, and this will constitute their perfect holiness; and he will be their God: God himself will be their God; his immediate presence with them, his love fully manifested to them, and his glory put upon them, will be their perfect happiness; then he will fully answer the character of the relation on his part, as they shall do on their part.”

Jonathan Edwards, commenting on the intimate fellowship of heaven writes: “It seems to be God’s design to admit the church into the divine family as His Son’s wife. The atonement is the supreme bond of intimacy for Christ will surely give Himself as much to His saints as He has given Himself for them. He whose arms were opened to suffer to be nailed to the cross will doubtless be opened as wide to embrace those for whom He suffered.”

 (3) Perfect Satisfaction – 21:4 — God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

This new and blessed state will be free from all trouble and sorrow for all the effects of former trouble shall be done away. They have been often before in tears, by reason of sin, of affliction, of the calamities of the church; but now all tears shall be wiped away; no signs, no remembrance of former sorrows shall remain, any further than to make their present felicity the greater. God himself, as their tender Father, with his own kind hand, shall wipe away the tears of his children; and they would not have been without those tears when God shall come and wipe them away. All the causes of future sorrow shall be for ever removed: There shall be neither death nor pain; and therefore no sorrow nor crying; these are things incident to that state in which they were before, but now all former things have passed away.

 (4) Perfect Administration – 21:5-6 – “And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” The very throne of God and the Lamb are there and the prayers of the saints for millenniums are answered in that the kingdom of God has fully, finally and forever come and His will is done on earth just as it is done in Heaven.

 Spurgeon, in a sermon from these verses, declares: “The day shall come when this world shall be as fair as it was at the primeval Sabbath; when there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness. The ancient prophecy shall be fulfilled to the letter. God shall dwell among men, peace shall be domiciled on earth, and glory shall be ascribed to God in the highest. This great work of Christ, this grand design of making this old world into a new one, shall be carried into effect.”

 (5) Perfect Cooperation – 22:3 – “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. His servants will worship, adore, and serve in perfect union, communion and cooperation with one another, their Lord forever. Jonathan Edwards writes: “Much of the perfect happiness of heaven is the fellowship of the saints there. They shall have great delight in the society and enjoyment of one another… The saints in heaven shall all be one society, they shall be united together without any division – there shall be sweet harmony and a perfect union.”

(6) Perfect Transformation – 22:4 –“They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” The redeemed of the Lord will see His face and they shall be like Him. (1 John 3:2, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”)

We shall not be disembodied ghosts. Remember how Jesus invited his disciples to “touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). Neither will we be angels. One man was bragging about his successful marriage to his buddy. “My wife’s a perfect angel,” he concluded. To which his friend replied, “I should be so lucky. Mine’s still living.” We can understand the man’s problem, but his theology is defective. We don’t become angels when we die, though we do become like them in that we don’t marry and raise families (Matthew 22:30).

 (7) Perfect Identification – 22:4 — His Name on our foreheads implies confirmation of identity, eternal security and intimacy.

 (8) Perfect Illumination – 22:5 – “And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light…”  The glory of the Lord provides the personal and perfect illumination.

 (9) Perfect Exaltation – 22:5b – “and they will reign forever and ever.”  The kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ and we as co-heirs and co-partners in the Family Firm of Almighty and Sons shall reign forever and ever.

 (10) Perfect Affection – 21:3,9-10 – “And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” The greatest story ever told is also the oldest story on earth – boy meets girl; boy falls in love with girl; boy loses girl; boy sacrifices and wins girl and then takes her home to Father!

John Eldredge writes, “Before the Modern Era turned Christian faith into a program of tips and techniques (three steps for a good quiet time; four ways to better share your faith), the soul’s journey into the heart of God was thought to be the greatest romance of all. God’s invitation to us through Christ is not primarily an invitation to become a moral person, but an invitation to intimacy, an invitation into the heart of things, a sacred romance that culminates in the beauty, mystery, adventure and love of heaven.

Our most urgent question is not “how can I be a better person,” but “will I find love and will it last?” Somehow as Christians we’ve forgotten that and traded the thirst of our souls for a program of duty and morality. But as Chesterton said, “Romance is the deepest thing in life; it is deeper even than reality.”

For the Believer, Chapter One of the Great Story Begins with a Transformation that is Completed and Needs not to be Repeated!

Philippians  3:20-21, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

 Adam Clarke in commenting on these verses writes: “We have a heavenly city, the New Jerusalem; we have rights and privileges which are heavenly and eternal; and our society or fellowship is with God the Father, Son, and Spirit, the spirits of just men made perfect, and the whole Church of the first-born. We have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts; and regard not the body, which we know must perish, but which we confidently expect shall be raised from death and corruption into a state of immortal glory.”

All the redeemed of the Lord are pregnant with the life of the world to come and await the rebirth of a transformed and glorified body that will be capable of experiencing and expressing the full import of this “out of this world”, from another country type of life – eternal life in a glorified body! We are destined for an incredible change.

Imagine the following conversation between a worm and a caterpillar:

“So are you gettin’ ready?” asks the worm.

“For what?” replies the caterpillar.

“You know!”

“What?”

“Sheesh! Yeah, right, like you don’t know!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” insists the caterpillar.

“You’re gonna leave, forget about me, and go soaring off on those great big wings! You’re gonna change!”

“Leave? Change? Why? I like it here! What am I gonna change into?”

“You mean you really don’t know?”

“Know what? Look, you’ve been watching too much of the X-Files or something! I don’t like you pulling my legs!”

“You’re in what they call the larva stage.”

 “Don’t you talk like that!”

“Look, it’s a fact of life. You’re going into a chrysalis, and your body will change.”

“But I like my body! It can do all these curving things. And my legs … have you ever seen such synchronization of movement in your life? Man, it’s beautiful. I can walk straight up a stem, hang upside down … what could he better?”

“Flying,” says the worm.

“Flying!” exclaims the caterpillar. “But I’m scared of heights!”

“I have a feeling you’ll forget about all that. (Specially when you’re sipping nectar from the flowers.”

“But I hate flowers! I just like these leaves.”

 “Man, if you knew what’s coming . . .” “

 Hmmm, that’s weird. . . .”

 “What is?” asks the worm.

 “I just feel like curling up and going to sleep. I think I’ll start making that blanket. Now . . . don’t you go anywhere . .     ,” says the caterpillar with a yawn, his voice trailing off in sleep.

“Oh, don’t fret. I won’t leave. But you will … and are you ever gonna be amazed!”

The worm gets it, but the caterpillar just can’t imagine what he’s in for. I would like to ask you: What do you think you’re in for? Do you have a sense that you will undergo a major change in the next life? Even as the caterpillar cannot fathom the radical transformation that awaits him, neither can any of us! Life with God in heaven is the believer’s highest hope. It is our greatest comfort. It is a primary motivation in life for faith and obedience. But most of us really don’t get it. We can’t imagine a heavenly life any more than the caterpillar in the story could.

Here is joy without sorrow, blessedness without misery, health without sickness, light without darkness, abundance without want, beauty without deformity, honor without disgrace, ease without labor, and peace without interruption or perturbation. Here shall be eyes without tears, hearts without fears, and souls without sin. Here shall he no evil to molest the soul; here shall be all good to cheer the soul, and all happiness to satisfy the soul;

 For the Believer, Chapter One of the Great Story begins with a Satisfaction that Fulfills our Deepest Needs and Desires!

In the new heaven and the new earth, there will be no sin, suffering, sorrow, or pain. We will never do anything to displease God. There will be no persecution, division, disunity, or hate. In heaven there will be no quarrels or disagreements. There will be no disappointments. There will be no weeping because there will be nothing to make us sad. We will then know perfect pleasure, but forever room for increase in pleasure. Psalm 16:11 says, “In Thy presence is fullness of joy; in Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.” Everything that now makes us groan will finally be done away with, and we will find ourselves in the very presence of God, where the purest and truest kind of pleasure is possible.

In heaven we will also have perfect knowledge, but forever increasing capacity for learning. Paul writes, “Then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12). We will have no more unanswered questions, no confusion, no ignorance, and no more need to walk by faith rather than by sight. We will live in perfect comfort. We will never experience one uncomfortable moment. We will finally know perfect love. We will love God perfectly and will be loved perfectly by Him for all eternity. His love will engulf us forever. We could summarize by saying that heaven is a place of perfect joy. Think of it: we will finally be perfectly free from evil forever. We will never again have a selfish desire or utter useless words. We will never perform another unkind deed or think a sinful thought. We will be perfectly liberated from our captivity to sin, and finally able to do that which is absolutely righteous, holy, and perfect before God. With sin and its effects erased forever, it will be a life of unimaginable blessing!

For the Believer, Chapter One of the Great Story Unfolds in Successive Chapters of an Unending Love Relationship in a Unrestricted Working Partnership in a New Heaven and a New Earth!

Probably some of the women reading this message can identify with the following lady’s epitaph.

Here lies a poor woman who always was tired,

She lived in a house where no help was hired.

The last words she said were ‘Dear friends, I am going,

Where washing ain’t wanted, nor mending, nor sewing;

Where all things is done just exact to my wishes,

For where folks don’t eat there’s no washing of dishes.

In heaven loud anthems for ever are ringing,

But having no voice, I’ll keep clear of the singing.

Don’t mourn for me now; don’t mourn for me never;

I’m going to do nothing for ever and ever.

But that was a poorly taught Christian woman. Heaven is not an eternal sleep late weekend affair!

What Will Heaven Be Like?

 What is your perception of Heaven? Some say it’s a place of an endless afternoon nap. Others say it is a place of floating on clouds, or a place where one polishes streets of gold. Some may even say it’s nothing more than a place where one wanders around aimlessly. Yet, none of these things are true. Remember, it is a new heavens and a new earth that will be the abode of the redeemed forever. Heaven and earth are going to be closely and inseparable connected so that finally the will of God is done on earth even as it is done in heaven.

Bishop Tom Wright asserts: “New, bodily human beings will need a new world in which to live. In this transformed world order, the veil will be lifted for all time. The realities of the heavenly world will be visibly united with the realities of earth.” There will no longer be a sense of distance from an “up there” heaven; no longer a struggle to “break through” to God in prayer and praise. God’s heavenly dwelling will be among his people. The life of heaven will suffuse life on earth, and all that exists on earth will be touched by its immanent presence.

 W. Graham Scroggie refreshingly writes, “First, there is no reason to suppose that the perfection of the new earth excludes development. Christian hope is holy expectation, and there will never come a time when that hope will die, for were that possible, much of “heaven” would go. But in our progress there, new vistas of wonder will be ever opening up, new glories of our inheritance will for ever be revealed, new heights of attainment ever be disclosed.”

 Michael Wilcock sums up this hope well when he says, “All that is truly good and beautiful in this world will reappear there [in the age to come], purified and enhanced in the perfect setting its Maker intended for it; nothing of real value is lost.” Hallelujah!

 We will worship, but without self-consciousness or interruption.

 Our worship will not be forced. All pretense will be lost in true and pure praise to God (Revelation 5:11-14). The singing there will ring forth in love for God (Revelation 7:9-12). We will all be a part of this unhampered worship.

The God of Christianity during the modern era is sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient … and distant. God may be the source of absolute truth and moral law … but not the lover of your soul. And while we may fear and worship such a God, we do not fall in love with Him, we don’t see Him as the essence of our heart’s desires. As Melville said, “The reason that most men fear God and at bottom dislike Him is that they rather distrust His heart, and fancy Him all brain, like a watch.”

Who wants to spend eternity with a watch? 

We will worship God in heaven, but not as the church service with no end. Long ago, wedding vows used to contain this phrase: “With my body, I thee worship.” Sexual intimacy was considered the closest parallel to actual worship. Wow. The intimacy the soul experiences with God in heaven is not sing-a-long, but something closer to sexual union – a vulnerability, an unreserved giving and receiving, a knowing of each other. And the intimacy that begins with God flows outward to all the partakers of the Grand Affair. Scottish poet George MacDonald wrote that “I think then we shall be able to pass into and through each other’s very souls as we please, knowing each other’s thought and being … and so being like God.” The intimacy that we long for, the connection that eludes us here even in the best relationships, it will be ours in heaven.

We will work, but without frustration and exhaustion.

We will be co-partners with God in the new heaven and on the new earth. We will never be unemployed. God created man in a way so that we would want to be creative, so that we would be satisfied by being productive. Serving God, working with God in glorified bodies and sin-free environments in the new heaven and earth will thrill the soul beyond measure. Time will not limit us in this service and our bodies will never grow tired or old.

 David Lawrence, in his insightful book entitled, “Heaven: It’s not the End of the World”, writes, “It may well be that, like Adam and Eve, we are commissioned to steward and develop the new earth. A new world of resources to discover and harness. New vistas of beauty to capture in paintings, poetry and song. Every new discovery the occasion of a great outburst of praise and worship to the one who revealed it and created it. This kind of new earth is exciting and far from traditional views of ‘heaven’ that have led many Christians to wonder whether they will enjoy eternity once the first flush of relief at getting there has passed!”

  J B Priestley comments, “People who do think they are going there often wonder what they will do with themselves in heaven. They make the mistake of assuming that the place will be all complete, finished to the last bit of gilding when they get there. But of course it won’t!”

 To be sure, there will have to be redeployment on a massive scale. Policemen, doctors and nurses, evangelists, undertakers, locksmiths, burglar-alarm salesmen, bank managers and debt-collectors (along with many others) will all need retraining for gainful employment on the new earth! But everyone will have a role in stewarding the re-creation and everyone will be perfectly suited to that role, finding complete and utter fulfillment in their labors. No longer will work be under a curse so that we have to work hard and sweat to produce anything of worth. The results of the Fall will be remembered no more! Work itself will have been redeemed!

 We will be in co-partnership, but without fear of job loss or failure.

The redeemed of God are destined to reign with Christ (2 Timothy 2:11,12; Revelation 2:5). We will not fail because those who overcome will be able to sit with Christ and reign on His throne (Revelation 3:21; Matthew 5:21). We will rule with no degree of failure.

 Once more to quote John Eldredge: “But there is more. We long for adventure as well. And we will not be disappointed. In the parables of the minas and the talents, Jesus alludes to a day where the gifts He has been developing in us will be given full expression in the kingdom of God. He calls it “entering into the joy of your master.” What is that joy? The creative exhilaration that God enjoys every day as He unfolds the universe. Remember, we will “reign with Him,” meaning we will share in His creative work as glorified men and women. Heaven is not the end of the action, it is the beginning of real life.”

 We will have fellowship, but without conflict or cessation. The population of the new heaven and earth will be wonderful. The saved will be able to speak with the patriarchs of old (Matthew 8:11). We will be welcomed by the angelic host of God. We will be with the redeemed of the Christian age – the apostles and the faithful Christians who lived during the time of the early church.

 We will have rest, but without boredom. Whereas in Hell, there will be no rest (Revelation 14:10,11,13), a grand promise to us is that of rest in the new heaven and the new earth (Hebrews 4:9). This rest will actually be a refreshing rest – a renewing rest. It will bring total and complete comfort. In this life we rest, but we soon become tired even of that. This rest will be continual, and yet will never grow old.

 In his book on Heaven, Randy Alcorn writes, “I believe on the “new earth” there will be natural wonders, animals, trees, rivers, cities, houses and architecture. We will laugh and eat and drink and tell stories, make crafts, build, garden, care for animals, play, enjoy sports and physically demanding activities, tend and manage and rule the Earth.

 We will collaborate, research, invent, read books and write them, create and perform dramas, compose music and perform it, all to God’s glory. Why? Because we will still be physical beings created in God’s image, which means we are creative and intelligent. And we will be restored to a “new earth” without sin and death, to fulfill God’s original plan of stewarding the material universe to His eternal glory.”

 C.S. Lewis observed: “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.”

Which Way is Heaven?

A truck driver picked up an old farmer, who was hitch?hiking, just outside of Washington, D. C.  After allowing the farmer to get settled in his seat, he inquired, “Where are you going?”  “Son,” answered the old man in a pious tone, “I’m on my way to Heaven, and I have been going in that direction for 35 years.”  “Well,” replied the trucker, “if you’ve been going for 35 years and haven’t gotten any closer than Washington, D. C., I’m not interested.” 

Where are you going when you die? Are you in the way that leads to heaven? How do the road signs of scripture read?

They begin by telling us that the way to Heaven is an appointed way. God the Father appointed, approved, and provided the means whereby man might become rightly related to Him through Christ and thus be with Him forever in Heaven when he dies.

The second sign states that the way to Heaven is a perfect way. You have no roads to build yourself.  Jesus says, “I AM THE WAY” ? not part of the way but all of it.  He provides a true highway from the sinner to God in Heaven. 

The third sign declares that the way to Heaven is a free?way. There are no exacting toll?roads.  Masses of people think the way to Heaven requires great, expensive personal contribution.  Many pay money for a priest to say masses to extricate loved ones from purgatory and pay the sin?value added cost of securing their entrance into Heaven.  Some throw babies to the crocodiles in the Ganges River in an effort to buy their way into favor with the gods.  Others traverse burning deserts to bow at Mecca; others try to pay their way by good deeds, philanthropy, or the observance of religious rituals.  All of this to no avail, because Jesus paid it all!

The fourth sign on the route to Heaven reveals that it is an open way.  If you will, you are welcome!  If you are lost, Christ is the Way.  If you are thirsty, Christ is the Water of Life.  If you have been groping along in darkness, Christ is the Light of the World.

Someone has said that, “. . . although the way is narrow at the beginning and narrow along the way, yet it creates a wideness in the soul that gets wider and fuller until it consummates in fullness of life in a glorified body safe in the harbor of Heaven!”

Are you sure that you are in the way that will take you to Heaven?

The hymn writer captured the way to Heaven clearly when he wrote: “I must needs go home by the way of the cross, there is no other way but this.  I shall never get sight of the gates of life if the Way of the cross I miss!”