A while ago I blogged about my dread of heaven and after a coupld of months of panic attacks and despair as I tried to fathom eternity my whole perspective has changed.
I knew that I was thinking about things backward when I realized that I wasn't trusting God and must think in my heart of hearts that heaven couldn't compare with earth. How silly is that! I believe in a literal 7 day creation but Jesus said that he was "going to prepair a place for us" over 2 thousand years ago ... that's going to be some "place"! Also if heaven is HIS throne and the earth is His footstool ... where would you rather be?
This past Sunday in church Pastor Steve preached on "Living the Future Now". Of course, this being Thursday, I have forgotten most of the wonderful points he made but I was left with a revelation. What if we have the whole thing backwards? What if we are ghosts now, and will later become "real"? What if death is the believers gift, that releases us from our decay and allows us to fully realize what we were meant to be. (Not that I'm advocating death, I think Paul found himself in the same position when he said, "To live is Christ, to die is gain")
So many people say that when they get to heaven they will have so many questions to ask God. I wonder ... what if when we get to heaven we realize how trivial and irrellavent our trials were compared to the "realness" of heaven.
Romans 8:17-25
Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Matthew 6:25-34
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34
2 comments:
that's actually a really cool idea that death may be the believer's gift. i love how beth moore puts it as well, that death will be like a shedding of a coat and then we continue on, not even like a waking up. thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Finally got you linked cousin!
Have you ever read Randy Alcorn's book, "Heaven?"
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