Heaven Is For Real

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea” (Revelation 21:1).

Too many of us do not realize that Heaven is God’s idea and not ours. We base so much from our humanness instead of God’s reasonableness. Satan has come to blaspheme God’s name and His dwelling place and those who live there (Rev. 13:6). He wants to skew God’s reality of a place called Heaven.

Do not allow Satan to cause you to think less than God desires for you. Heaven is God’s idea for you and for me. It is the place we should long for and desire more than anything. Really, we do desire this place called Heaven. Every desire to be fulfilled and satisfied is based on the desire to go to this place and dwell there.

Cyprian, the third century church father, said, “Let us greet the day which assigns each of us to his own home, which snatches us from this place and sets us free from the snares of the world, and restores us to paradise and the kingdom. Anyone who has been in foreign lands longs to return to his own native land…We regard paradise as our native land.”

God’s people are going to a tangible place, a real place, that is designed on God’s geographical map. It is not a place of disembodied spirits, for human beings are not suited for such a realm. What we are suited for–what we’ve been specifically designed for–it is a place like the one God made for us: Earth. God has never given up on his original plan for human beings to dwell on Earth. The climax of history will be the creation of new heavens and a New Earth, a resurrected universe inhabited by resurrected people living with the resurrected Jesus (Revelation 21:1-4).

Similar Posts

  • A Father Who Owns A Bakery

     
    “But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you”  (Matthew 6:33). 

     

    How many truly believe that if we seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness that He will give us all that we need? This is His promise to a people who know how to maneuver and who naturally lean upon their own strength, who do not call upon their God.
    Our God has promised to meet our financial needs, health issues, that which is needed to wear for the body, and our future concerns. But do we believe Him? Why should we when we can ask others (banks, parents, churches, organizations individuals), and we can travel to a place where groceries are available, medical coverage that is given, and other helps from so many places and people? Why do we need God?
    In many ways we have not depended upon the Lord and His kingdom. We keep living the  same way as we always have, deciding not to pour our lives out to Him, but to live for what is in sight and available. Yes! There’s pain, and problems, and great needs that abound. But we either think we can help ourselves or someone else can provide the need for us. Let’s choose the Father.
    As the Lord Jesus depended upon His Father in Heaven, we are to depend upon our Lord Jesus for all. Someone has well said, “God has something up His sleeves besides His everlasting arms.” When we realize we do not belong on earth and we are headed to glory, then we can and will turn to our Father who provides every good and perfect gift.
    It is better to have a Father who owns a bakery than to have a warehouse full of bread!
    “The cords that bound my heart to earth were loosed by Jesus’ hand; Before His cross I found myself a stranger in the land.”

     

  • We’ve Got A Song: Is it worth listening?

    “How happy is the man who has put his trust in the Lord” (Psalm 40:4).

    If you have not met Satan face to face, it’s because you are running in the same direction. So many of us are asking for trouble, so why are we not happy when we get it? We are so smart about so many matters, we might have a smart head, but our brains run ahead of good sense.

    Tragically, there are literally millions of people who know the NAME of Jesus Christ, but who know nothing of the LOVE and SAVING GRACE of Christ as Lord and Savior. Many people think of Christ as the Savior who takes instead of the Lord who Gave His life to give us our lives.

    The Lord Jesus came to earth prepared to FORGIVE us for our sins and mistakes, asking only that we TRUST Him, BELIEVE into Him, and ASK for that forgiveness. Then He not only forgives, He FORGETS.

    That’s the Jesus we should love. Can’t you sing? Surely we got a song in the heart! That song is a gift from God. We don’t earn it for He gave it. We get to sing THAT song to a world that is living in minor key. Use that song or it will be gone. Lots of people out there who need to hear the SONG of God. Happiness in the Lord overflows when we place our trust in the Lord.

  • Became A Human Being

    “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way: When, as his mother, Mary, was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:12).

     

     Isaiah tells us, “For unto us a child is born” (Isaiah 9:6a), not just a child of human conception, but a child of divine representation. God who created all things created and condescended Himself into the span of a young woman’s womb. God took up residence, Himself, in the womb of a woman.

     

     Who would have thought of such a thing? One question would be, “Why”? Another question to ask is “How low can you go?”

     

     Would you be willing to become a cockroach to save the world of cockroaches from their filthiness? NO! We would not even think of it. But God became a baby, a child, and for this reason to die upon a cross to save us from our sins! To save us from our sins is to save us from physical, spiritual, and eternal death. To save us from our sins is to allow God back into you to be God in you.

     

    “Great is the mystery of godliness,” Paul tells Timothy. God became a man so that you can become a son or daughter of God. God was born of a virgin so that you and I can become born again. Are you consciously, conspicuously, continually found with the child of the Holy Spirit within you? If not, why not?

     

  • What is Happening in Our Country?

    “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:24).

    How do we explain…

    1.   The massacre in a Florida High School.
    2.   A barrage of sex scandals from Hollywood to Congress to our Seminaries.
    3.   Continued attacks on Christianity.
    4.   The willing slaughter of our nation’s unborn children.
    5.   Growing distrust.  Violence.  Confusion.  Turmoil.

    Nothing that is happening in our world today — not one act of perversion or evil — is an anomaly or an accident. What we see today are symptoms of an accelerating moral and spiritual unraveling of our country and world — the natural result of a nation that has turned away from the absolute truths found in the Bible.

    The only way for change in the direction of America is the change that happens through hearts of human beings, and that catalyst is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  That change must first happen to God’s people.  W.A. Criswell said it this way, “The nation cannot turn to God if I do not turn to God.  The nation cannot repent, if I do not repent.  God doesn’t win nations or companies or crowds or throngs.   He wins souls one by one.  And the only way we can lift our nation Godward is if I am moved Godward.”

    The true church can never rest and a faithful pastor’s work is never done.  We need to constantly preach to the world and to ourselves the true gospel, and strive for greater clarity and precision — not less.  By so doing, we cultivate our own spiritual growth, we protect the health of the church, and we strengthen our witness.  Salt and light is what we are to be and that is what will retard the leaven of sin.

  • Amusement, Children, and Prayerless Disciples

    “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).

    Our children are bombarded with “fun and done.”  After one event of fun then we go on to the next.  Water rides, the pool, cookouts, trips, videos, gaming, eating out, and taking off from church ministry are the norm today.  America’s Christian Culture is entertaining our kids and ourselves to spiritual and emotional death.  It is not healthy.  We teach them inadvertently how to whisk their days away instead of numbering their days.

    While we teach our children how to live by “do your work and then we play” attitude, adults are living continually on spiritual autopilot.  In our highly educated, technologically-hyped and prosperous society, and within our theologically almost astute Christian culture, we tend to settle for “zipper prayers” to open or close our days and gatherings.  Prayerlessness has become the attire of our independence from God.

    Vance Havner said, “Few people would want to live where there are no churches but millions live as though there were no churches.” Church attendance is taken lightly today.  Hearing the Word of God cost aplenty in days gone by.  Where much is given, much shall be required.  Today’s land sees a famine of the hearing of God’s Word, not because we cannot hear it, but because we do not listen to it.  Moreover, as the text declares, there is the duty of doing it when we hear it.

    Some things are inevitable, the status quo is here, but we do not have to be a part of this.  We should raise our heads and say, “Thy will be done.” I’m going for God and I’ll do my part and see that it is done. “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord“, Joshua of old said to the people of Israel.

  • Deep Living

    “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful” (Psalm 1:1).

    Discouragement is the temporary loss of perspective. So many men for the sake of getting a living forget to live. Each day is to be significant as we seek those things which are deeper and not so much as wider.

    Each day must be seized with a renewal that maintains our perspective and minimizes the distractions that afflict us. When we lack direction and are bombarded by distractions we become discouraged.

    Shallow living leads to distractions that causes decay. Without proper care of the body we become ill. A marriage can become troubled after just a few episodes of unresolved anger and misunderstanding. An automobile can break down without proper maintenance. Without daily guidance and renewal in God’s presence we live in distracted modes.

    Don’t allow the busyness to the daily demands and orders of a noisy world, cause you to forget that God has a plan for you and for me. We are to win the battle which is so daily. Allow your roots to sink deep into the soil of God’s promises and allow His truth to be absorbed into the core of our soul.