Seeking Heaven
Dear Friend,
How often do you think about heaven? If you’re like me, the honest answer is “not much.” And what is your idea of heaven: white robes, clouds, and harps? A never ending worship service? A garden paradise? Heaven might be a place you want to be — it sure beats the alternative — but are you really looking forward to going? As a bluegrass song says, “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.”
I’ve recently started reading a book on the subject, Heaven by Randy Alcorn. I didn’t get very far into it before realizing anew that heaven isn’t just the happy ending of our Christian faith, it’s the whole point! And what we believe about heaven greatly influences our life on earth. C. S. Lewis said that, “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were those who thought most of the next.”
The majority of people in the world believe in an afterlife. In our western culture, a person’s concept of heaven and hell often blends together multiple religious beliefs, cultural influences, and wishful thinking. The Bible shares some incredibly detailed glimpses of heaven, but many modern Christians tend to embrace non-Biblical views. And those that study what God says about our future seem to focus more on the rapture and tribulation than the promise of a new heaven and earth.
Rather than trying to convince us heaven doesn’t exist, Alcorn says, Satan tries to deceive us about what it’s like. Alcorn continues, “If we believe that lie, we’ll be robbed of our joy and anticipation, we’ll set our minds on this life and not the next, and we won’t be motivated to share our faith. Why should we share the ‘good news’ that people can spend eternity in a boring, ghostly place that even we’re not looking forward to?”
Our focus on the reality of heaven is essential to live as Jesus Christ teaches us through his word and the Spirit. Paul writes in Colossians 3:1-2, “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.”
But what is heaven like? Throughout his earthly ministry Jesus talked about the “Kingdom of Heaven.” He used many illustrations to help us grasp what life is like where He comes from — what it meant to be a citizen of His hometown. Through faith in Christ, we experience this reality spiritually in this world; in the next world, we will experience it both spiritually and physically. Heaven is the restoration of the human race to it’s original design: living in personal fellowship with God as we enjoy the unadulterated glory of His new creation.
I believe a citizen of heaven must live with an urgency that comes from understanding what happens to people who don’ trust Christ. The existence of Hell is something that Christians discuss either too much or too little. “You’re going to hell!” is not the best way to start a spiritual conversation with someone. But it’s also tragic to minimize what happens to people who enter eternity without Christ.
An estimated 155,000 people die each day around the world; to few have ever been given an opportunity to trust Christ. The question facing every believer is, “What am I doing about this?”
Yours in Christ,
