personallife

No death, no suffering. No funeral homes, abortion clinics or psychiatric wards. No rape, missing children or drug rehabilitation centers. No bigotry, no mugging or killings. No worry or depression or economic downturns. No war, no unemployment. No anguish over failure and miscommunication. No con man. No lock. No death. No mourning. No pain. No boredom. No arthritis, no handicaps, no cancer, no taxes, no bills, no computer crashes, no weeds, no bombs, no drunkenness, no traffic jams and accidents, no septic-tank backups. No mental illness. No hate mail from social media. Close friendships but no cliques, laughter but no put-downs. Intimacy but no temptation to immorality. No hidden agendas, no backroom deals, no betrayals. Imagine mealtimes full of stories, laughter and joy, without fear of insecurity, inappropriate behavior, anger, gossip, lust, jealousy, hurt feelings or anything that eclipses joy. That will be Heaven. There won't be churches or temples in the new universe,

Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many rooms.. I am there to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2). The word place in singular, but rooms is plural. This suggests that Jesus has in mind for each of us an individual dwelling that is a smaller part of the larger place. The word room is cozy and intimate. The terms house or estate suggest spaciousness. That is heaven: a place both spacious and intimate. Some of us enjoy coziness, being in a private space. Some of us enjoy largeness, a wide-open space. Most of us enjoy both. The New Earth will offer both. Heaven isn't likely to have identical residences. God loves diversity. When we see the particular place he has prepared for us-not just for mankind in general nut for us in particular-we will rejoice. We will realize it is truly the perfect home, tailor-made for us. After speaking of the shrewd servant's desire to use earthly resources so that "people will welcome me into their houses" (Luke 16:4), Je

Animals were part of God's perfect original design for Earth and mankind. "God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1:25). Because animals were a significant part of life on the original Earth and the Bible makes it clear that God will remake the earth just as he will remake mankind, it stands to reason that animals will be part of the New Earth. (Why wouldn't they be?) We're told that animals, along with all creation, long for the deliverance that will be theirs at the time of the redemption of our bodies, at the resurrection (Romans 8:19,23). They await and long for it, because they will be part of it. As the entire creation, including animals, plants, and nature itself, fell on humanity's coattails, so shall the entire creation rise on our coattails, as beneficiaries of Christ's redemptiv

If you picture the eternal Heaven as a disembodied state, you have reason to fear boredom-because God didn't make us for such a world. But when you understand the meaning of our bodily resurrection and the new universe, all thought of boredom will disappear. The New Earth will be a place where the impulses to come home and to launch out into a new adventure will both be fully satisfied. It'll be a place where we're constantly discovering- where everything is always fresh and possession of a thing is as good as the pursuit of it. Yet it's the place where we'll be fully at home-where everything is ought to be and where we find, undiminished, that mysterious something we never fully found in this life. We will no longer be homesick for Eden. We will experience at last all that God intends for us. Because the joys of Heaven will overflow from the multifaceted wonders of God, Heaven will be endlessly fascinating, just as God is infinitely fascinating. Will we ever tir