I have been reading a new book by Randy Alcorn called “Heaven”. I don’t know about you but I wonder what heaven will be like. For some reason, my impression has been floating around on a cloud, playing a harp, and bowing down to God.
I would tell myself it would be something I must enjoy and hope when I got to heaven, God would change me, and I would enjoy playing the harp, floating on a cloud, and praising God. But somehow in the back of my mind, it just did not sound enjoyable to me and I felt guilty. What is your image of heaven?
When you go to the rodeo, the announcer says a prayer before the rodeo begins. He prays of making that last ride, “…up there; where the grass is green and lush and stirrup-high and the water runs clean and clear…” Now I like the sound of that kind of heaven, but I just could not visualize grass growing on those clouds.
It’s funny, when you ask a child what heaven will be like they think in terms of things they enjoy here on earth. Why do I have to complicate things?
Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians that to die would be good but to live would be good for those he was ministering to. He writes, “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Philippians 1:21-26). It sounds like Paul was eager to depart this life. I have always clung to the fifth commandment found in Exodus 20:12 which says, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” I always emphasized the word “LONG”.
But Randy’s book on heaven has changed my mind and got me all excited about going to heaven. So I will share a thought or two with you in hopes that you also will become excited about heaven. He claims that if you want to know about heaven, start by reading the first two and last two chapters of the bible. The first two tell of creation, and the last two speak of re-newel.
The story of creation is one that I have read many times but never stopped to think about. Almighty God was creating His very best. At the end of creating, on the sixth day, He created man (in His own image) and put him in a garden planted by God just for man, and God walked in the garden with him. God gave man plants and animals, fish and birds to rule over, and a woman to be his perfect soul mate and a job…to take care of the garden.
When God finished with creation, Genesis 1:31 records, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” Read the first two chapters of Genesis slowly and think about what God created just for man and see if you don’t get just a little excited. This is how God intended man to live. Man was to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth, subdue it and rule over all creation.
Man messed up, sinned, and lost it all, for a while. The rest of the bible tells of man’s many mistakes and God’s desire to restore their relationship. It also tells how God makes it possible through His Son. But we have not returned to the garden…yet. In the last two chapters of Revelation we find the words, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God…I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:3-5)
Are you excited? Are you going?
Read John 3:16
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