Heaven, Series to change our thoughts
I will be honest. I am tired of this world and I long for a perfect place. I will do a many part series on the topic of heaven according to the Bible.
Maybe you feel as if you're passed your peak, physically or emotionally and that your best opportunities are behind you. Perhaps you're burdened, discouraged, depressed or even traumatized. Perhaps your dreams-your marriage, career or ambitions-have crumbled. Perhaps you're become cynical or have lost hope.
An understanding of the true Christian teaching about Heaven (not the popular caricatures of Heaven) can change all that.
God's people in ages past had a source of strength and perspective largely unknown to us today: Heaven. It was their central reference point, the North Star by which they could navigate their lives. But in contemporary culture, Heaven has fallen off our radar screens.
"Whenever I think about Heaven," a man said to me, "it makes me depressed. I'd rather just not cease to exist when I die."
"Why?" I asked.
The man said, "I can't stand the thought of the endless tedium. To float around in the clouds with a harp.. it's all so boring. Heaven doesn't sound much better than hell. I'd rather be annihilated than spend forever there."
Where did this man got that view point. Certainly not from the Bible, where the apostle Paul says that to depart and be with Christ is far better than staying on the Earth (Philippians 1:23).
My friend was more honest than most people. The funny thing is that many Christians may have this thought.
The unbiblical assumption that Heaven won't be a real, earthly place blinds many followers of Jesus to what the Bible says. Rarely do we hear descriptions that lay out what the Word of God paints as a New Earth with a great capital city made with precious stones; a New Earth that contains trees and rivers, and where resurrected people come in and out of the gates, engaged in meaningful relationships and productive activity.
J.C. Ryle, a 19th Century theologian said, "I pity the man who never thinks about heaven." We could say, "I pity the man who never thinks accurately about Heaven."
It's our inaccurate thinking, I believe, that motivates us to think so little about heaven.
As you will find out, the problem is not that the Bible does not tell us much about Heaven. It's that we do not pay attention to what it tells us.
Maybe you feel as if you're passed your peak, physically or emotionally and that your best opportunities are behind you. Perhaps you're burdened, discouraged, depressed or even traumatized. Perhaps your dreams-your marriage, career or ambitions-have crumbled. Perhaps you're become cynical or have lost hope.
An understanding of the true Christian teaching about Heaven (not the popular caricatures of Heaven) can change all that.
God's people in ages past had a source of strength and perspective largely unknown to us today: Heaven. It was their central reference point, the North Star by which they could navigate their lives. But in contemporary culture, Heaven has fallen off our radar screens.
"Whenever I think about Heaven," a man said to me, "it makes me depressed. I'd rather just not cease to exist when I die."
"Why?" I asked.
The man said, "I can't stand the thought of the endless tedium. To float around in the clouds with a harp.. it's all so boring. Heaven doesn't sound much better than hell. I'd rather be annihilated than spend forever there."
Where did this man got that view point. Certainly not from the Bible, where the apostle Paul says that to depart and be with Christ is far better than staying on the Earth (Philippians 1:23).
My friend was more honest than most people. The funny thing is that many Christians may have this thought.
The unbiblical assumption that Heaven won't be a real, earthly place blinds many followers of Jesus to what the Bible says. Rarely do we hear descriptions that lay out what the Word of God paints as a New Earth with a great capital city made with precious stones; a New Earth that contains trees and rivers, and where resurrected people come in and out of the gates, engaged in meaningful relationships and productive activity.
J.C. Ryle, a 19th Century theologian said, "I pity the man who never thinks about heaven." We could say, "I pity the man who never thinks accurately about Heaven."
It's our inaccurate thinking, I believe, that motivates us to think so little about heaven.
As you will find out, the problem is not that the Bible does not tell us much about Heaven. It's that we do not pay attention to what it tells us.
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