What do you think of Heaven? Do you think of Heaven? Are you longing to go to Heaven? These are very interesting questions for a Christian because Heaven is both a place that we believe in and have confidence will be our eternal residence, but is also a concept that is hard to get our minds around and seems so foreign to us as we reside here on earth. There may be, however, some very good reasons for all of this. So to begin the new year I would like us to consider, both in this article and in the preaching themes for January and February, our forever home, our eternal residence that God is holding for us (1 Peter 1:3-5), Jesus is preparing for us (John 14:1-3) and the Holy Spirit guarantees (Ephesians 1:13-14).

            HEAVEN! We all imagine what it is like, and what it will be like for us to be there. But it is interesting that with all our interest in Heaven, it is a place about which the Bible says very little. Yes we have images of the celestial city, God’s throne, angels and cherubim, streets of gold, the river and tree of life. The scriptures speak of a new heaven and new earth where all will live in perfect harmony and peace. And yet, that is really all we have--images, word pictures, descriptions of what Heaven is LIKE, not what Heaven IS. I think the reason for this is simple and important. First, all things eternal are so beyond our experience and frame of reference that anything we are told would be hard for us to fully comprehend. That is why God has revealed in His Word just enough of the beauty and majesty of the after-life for us to want to be there, but nothing too specific so we will not be distracted from the work we are to do here on earth until that time when we are called “home.” As believers in Jesus, who has purchased and provided for us the only way to get to Heaven, we are to serve His cause here to prepare ourselves for and invite others to spend eternity with God.

            Secondly, it is in this world where the battle is fought, where every human must decide whether to follow the Lord of Heaven, or reject Him as their king. That is why I think it significant that the Bible speaks mostly of how we are to live for God, not on what life after death will be like, and why Jesus talks more about money, the Kingdom of God (the Church) and sin, than He does about Paradise. And yet we are given plenty of glimpses of an eternal reality beyond this physical existence so that we will realize that Heaven, not earth, is our real home. We also need to guard ourselves from becoming either too content with the things of this world, or confused by the false teaching that (almost) everybody will end up spending eternity with God.

            So as we begin 2006 let us consider the following questions:

·        Is Heaven Real?

·        Who Goes to Heaven?

·          What Will Heaven Be Like?

·          What Will We Be Like in Heaven?

·       What Will We Do In Heaven?

·        How Do We Prepare for Heaven?

               What I hope we will discover together is that even though the Bible may not give us very much information, enough details are revealed to validate our belief in Him, and that through trusting in Christ, we will reside in His Heaven forever. This confidence should in turn do three things for our Christian Faith. First, by having a better understanding of Heaven we can distinguish between what the Bible really says, and what ideas we all have that are not necessarily founded in scripture. Second, this knowledge should reinforce our commitment to our Lord and give us courage while facing life’s struggles and obstacles so that we finish the course and keep the faith until the end. Third, by having a vision of what God has in store for His people we also have a message to share with others so that they will know the truth about Heaven and about how to get there themselves.

            C.S.Lewis once described our earthly life as living in “the shadowlands” and that Heaven is our real home, our “real country.” Going to Heaven, he imagined, is only the beginning of the real story. All our life in this world is only the cover and the title page. Then we will begin Chapter One of the Great Story which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before! Now that’s a story worth paying attention to and getting ready for don’t you think?

Denis Whittet