What I Love About Heaven

Whenever I gather with fellow believers in Christ, it is a small foretaste of heaven.  The kingdom Jesus rules that is not of this world and is eternal, and Jesus connected His kingdom with paradise in His statement to the thief on the cross:  heaven is a place that is perfect as God, where nothing can enter that defiles, where there is no sadness, sickness, crying or death.  While the Bible does not go into great detail about heaven--likely because we lack the capacity to comprehend the glory of it--we are comforted, encouraged and inspired by considering what has been revealed.

Many Christians look forward to going to heaven to finally be free of the struggles, conditions and pains of our lives on earth.  Others eagerly await the prospect of uniting in fellowship and worship of God with saints we have never met in person and to reunite with loved ones who preceded us into glory.  These reasons, while perfectly good and reasonable, I do not believe can move the needle compared to being in the glorious presence of God in person.  In our human bodies corrupted by sin we cannot even look at God's face and live, and to see our Creator before our eyes, to sit as His table, to join with the angels in worship and to be embraced by Jesus Christ Himself is awesome beyond reckoning.

There are things I love about heaven that far exceed the beauty of united believers who gather in Christ's name.  In heaven we will have no need to ask, "How has work been going?" or "How has the week gone?"  It will always be present day in heaven, and there will not be anything to catch up on.  While people have different motivations for going to a church service or Bible study, everyone who will be in heaven will want to be there (rather than anywhere else) and we can know God has joined us together.  Another thing I love is that there will not be anywhere we need to go that severs times of personal fellowship--like lunch plans, needing to run to the shops or go to the gym, or needing to leave because you are weary from a packed schedule.  A lot of our conversations at church involve what has happened or we are planning for outside of church fellowship.  What I love about heaven is the perfect, complete union we will experience in mind, heart and love with Christ at the centre while retaining our individuality and intimate friendship with one another that includes everyone all the time.

When we are enjoying ourselves we wish the moment would never end; when we have an incredible experience we would prefer to never need to leave:  the presence of God in heaven will satisfy these fleeting desires of our hearts beyond our comprehension.  On earth all good times must come to an end, but what I love about heaven is it will be a perfect place for us to experience the rest God has promised to give our souls forever.  By the grace of God we can experience peace that passes understanding and fulness of joy in this life, but due to our forgetfulness and weakness it is only in fits and starts.  God grants us a foretaste of heaven with His presence in our hearts and in fellowship with one another in the church, and may this inspire us with the glorious future together God has in store for all who love Him.

Sovereign Redemption

Those who believe the LORD is sovereign over all do not believe in coincidences that fall outside God's knowledge or power.  Everything that seems incidental can be employed for God's good purposes.  He can use things that seem even pointless and annoying--like being tired and being unable to sleep--to humble the proud and exalt the lowly.

Haman the Agagite was a proud, arrogant fellow who held a privileged position of wealth and influence as a nobleman in Persia.  Other nobles and common people bowed before him--with the exception of Mordecai the Jew.  This greatly annoyed Haman, to the point he schemed to exterminate all the Jews because of honour Mordecai denied him.  Over the course of time, Mordecai foiled two eunuchs who plotted against the king, and the king's life was spared.  Mordecai honoured the God of the Israel and the king of Persia, but declined to honour a descendant of Amalek who hated the Jews and sought their destruction.

After a banquet of wine, Haman's happiness quickly evaporated when he saw Mordecai ignore him.  He complained to his family who suggested he build a tall gallows to hang Mordecai and ask the king for permission to hang him.  Esther 6:1-4 says, "That night the king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. ² And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. ³ Then the king said, "What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?" And the king's servants who attended him said, "Nothing has been done for him." ⁴ So the king said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him."

It just so happened that night the king could not sleep, and it just so happened they read through the chronicles (reading that can put one to sleep), and just so happened to read of Mordecai the Jew who helped the king.  The king perked up at this point, wondering what honour had been bestowed upon the one who saved his life--and nothing had been done.  Just then, Haman entered the court to suggest Haman kill Mordecai the king desired to honour.  This was the beginning of the end for Haman, and it was the beginning of the exaltation of Mordecai who ultimately assumed Haman's privileged role.  We can see with eyes of faith the sleepless night of Ahasuerus and the choice of reading material was no accident.  This is encouraging to us that when we struggle with insomnia, God does not struggle to enact His redemptive purposes.

We may not see a connection between our sleepless night and salvation of others from death; we do not often recognise God's impeccable timing between us reading a Bible passage and others receiving honour, yet God is able to do all this and much more.  Knowing God is sovereign does not mean we can avoid sleeplessness but enables us to find rest for our souls--even if we toss and turn.  The king's sleeplessness resulted not only in Mordecai saving his neck but helped lead to the salvation of the Jews from Haman's wicked scheme.  Isn't it awesome what God does and the remarkable way He employs to do it?  When we can't even fall asleep, He is able to save.

Serve God with Gladness

While Nehemiah served as cupbearer to the king, Artaxerxes astutely recognised Nehemiah was sad and that it was due to grief of heart.  This was the first time Nehemiah had been sad in the presence of the king, and there were potentially serious consequences for Nehemiah as this was forbidden.  Yet the king's expression of concern was genuine for Nehemiah's welfare, and the LORD gave him favour in the eyes of the king, queen and his brethren in Israel he sought to assist in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem to bring an end to their reproach.

Artaxerxes desired Nehemiah to serve with gladness, and this is true concerning the God of Israel.  As our Creator, He has provided all things for us to thrive in this life and in the eternal state by His love, grace and goodness.  David sang to God with confidence in Psalm 16:11:  "You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."  We have joy in the presence of those who delight us, and in God we have a Saviour who loves us and helps us by giving us the indwelling Spirit who makes us joyful.  Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit along with love, peace,  patience, goodness and countless other good things.

God's people did not always serve Him with joy and gladness (despite the kindness God showed them), and this resulted in severe consequences as Moses said in Deuteronomy 28:47-48:  "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you."  God gave His people great abundance of all things, yet they did not serve God joyfully.  Serving God was burdensome as they murmured, complained and grumbled.  They sought to find satisfaction and fulfillment by what was not God and could never please them.  Because they did not serve God joyfully and gladly with the abundance God gave them, He would see to it they served oppressive enemies while being in need of everything.

Isn't it better to serve God with joy and gladness than die under the oppression of our enemies, seeing everything we have as gifts from God who loves us?  Serving God is a great privilege and not a burden, for He helps us every day and is the lifter of our heads.  Trials and struggles do depress us at times, but at the mention of our LORD Jesus our spirits rise up with sure expectancy of help and deliverance.  Should we serve depression and sorrow when in God's presence is fullness of joy?  Every trouble and tribulation will pass, and all that will be left is our glorious God and a life to be joyfully spent with Him.  God has taken off the yoke we wore that chained us to sin, self and Satan, and how glad we ought to be to be free of bondage, out of darkness and to walk joyfully in the light of life.  Let us serve the LORD our God with joy and gladness, for He is our all in all.

Love From the Heart

Because the end of all things is at hand, 1 Peter 4:8 tells believers to be sober, watchful in prayer and have fervent love among ourselves because "love covers the multitude of sins."  Love keeps no record of wrongs and thus does not view others through the lens of prior offence, even when someone has done or said offensive things.  The love of God guides us to forgive one another without keeping track of all the times we have forgiven them.  We are enabled to love one another because God's love is abundantly provided by the Holy Spirit God has given us.  Christians are to be known for their love for one another that is demonstrated by more than words or feelings.

Recently we had a built in closet installed in our house, and having observed builders over the years I have arrived at a maxim that is similar to what Peter said in his epistle:  "Builder's bog and caulk covers a multitude of flaws."  I would even say butchery, but I do not want to malign that honourable profession that supplies quality meat for consumption.  I also do not want to paint a bad picture of hard-working tradies either, but the reliance upon covering up problems rather than doing things right has been a common observation of mine.  When the work is completed at first glance everything seems fine, but upon closer inspection the defects seem to multiply.

For instance, I discovered a bit of skirting that had been cut out had been caulked back into position--after neglecting to remove the nail!  Apparently there are those who use painter's caulk as glue, and the unsightly problem created was worse than doing the job correctly from the start.  Attached are a couple of pictures to illustrate what the caulk concealed.  What I overlooked because it was inside the closet looked ugly when I took a closer look, and it looked even uglier when brought into the light.

When the prophet Samuel was quite taken with the regal appearance of Eliab, God explained a truth we can relate to the concealed skirting in 1 Samuel 16:7:  "But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."  We look on the outside, but God looks at the heart.  We can cover over bitterness, grudges and unforgiveness with polite manners and smiles, yet we cannot ever fool God (or even people at times!).  Moses told God's people when they sinned against the LORD they could be sure their sin would find them out (Numbers 32:23), and our attempts to conceal our sin of refusal to love and our lack of grace will fail.  Praise the LORD He can create in us a clean heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, for Jesus works in us to make all things new.