Heaven!

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” (John 17:24)

It is the desire of our Savior to be in communion and fellowship with His followers throughout all eternity. He comforts us with these words earlier in John as well. He wants us to be with Him, sharing in His glory:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)

We are eternal beings though our natural body is perishing and our mortal frames will one day expire. Whether we choose to believe this fact or not does not negate its truth. Our physical bodies are mortal, but we have immortal souls. One day, depending on our response to Jesus Christ, each one of us will either be with the Lord Jesus throughout eternity or be separated from Him in a place our Lord repeatedly described as a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Those of us who cling to the truth of Christianity–that apart from belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and His redeeming work for us on the cross we remain eternally damned–should certainly be motivated to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. The apostle Paul was a master at tirelessly presenting the Gospel. He took seriously the ministry of reconciliation that all believers have been entrusted with:

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)

Take It to Heart

“Most of us find it very difficult to want ‘Heaven’ at all–except in so far as ‘Heaven’ means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.” (C.S. Lewis)

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