Tag: Heaven

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The scripture for today, February 19, is Ephesians 2:19 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Campbell-Cover-KIMBLE“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.”

Let us pretend there is a nation called Occland and we want to become a citizen of that nation. Of course citizenship would not be automatic. And in the same way, citizenship in the Kingdom of God (being a Christian) is not automatic.

Just living in a Christian nation does not automatically make us a Christian any more than just living in Occland would automatically make us a citizen.

Owning a Bible does not automatically make us a Christian any more than owning a copy of Occland’s constitution would automatically make us a citizen.

Going to church meetings every Sunday does not automatically make us a Christian any more than going to Occland’s meetings of parliament or the senate would automatically make us a citizen.

It just is not automatic. We would need to be invited into Occland, and then do things to accept Occland’s invitation. God invites us into his kingdom, but we must do things to accept his invitation. Romans 6, Acts 2 and 1st Peter 3 in the New Testament are good places to check it out. Do so.

God has already done the hard part. Our part is easy ~ our part in accepting his invitation to be citizens in his kingdom.

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The scripture for today, February 9, is I Corinthians 2:9 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

REV-Cover-Kindle“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”

This amazing promise applies to us today. It also applies to eternity. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive heaven. That is why so much of Revelation is symbolic. The symbols are beautiful, so try going one step beyond reading how Revelation describes heaven, and make a drawing of what you think it looks like. Then colorize it all those beautiful colors.

Revelation 21:12,13,21: Each of the 12 GATES is named after one of the Tribes of Israel, and has an angel guarding it. Make the gates pearl. Make the angel over the gate white or yellow.

Revelation 21:17, 18a: Make the WALL jasper, which is a light see-through green.

Revelation 21:16, 18b: Heaven is full of many MANSIONS (John 14:2). Make them a translucent (see-through) gold.

Revelation 21:21: The STREETS of the city are like crystal and gold. Make them a translucent (see-through) gold also.

Revelation 22:1: The RIVER OF LIFE runs through heaven coming out from the throne of God. Make it blue.

Revelation 4:6a: The CHRYSTAL SEA is in front of God’s throne. Make it blue.

Revelation 22:2: The TREE OF LIFE grows on both sides of the River of Life. Make it green and brown.

Revelation 22:2: The ALTER OF INCENSE from Christians’ prayers is in front of the throne. Make it gold

Revelation 21:23: God’s THRONE is jasper and the glory of God is so brilliant, there is no need of a sun. Make the area of the throne silver/white.

Revelation 4:5: Around the throne of God are the seven SPIRITS of God, symbolized by seven lights. Make them yellow.

Revelation 4:3a: Near the Spirits there is a ruby red GLOW around the throne of God. Make this inner arch red.

Revelation 4:3b: There is a RAINBOW over God’s throne. Make the arch at the very top over the throne emerald green.

Although this is all symbolic, doesn’t drawing and coloring in the symbols help to put across just how beautiful heaven will be!

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The scripture for today, January 13, is Habakkuk 1:13 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.”

This pretty much explains why none of us deserves heaven. Only sinless people can be in heaven. Of course, we cannot be sinless. For thousands of years, God let mankind try any way we could to be perfect. Some people he gave the Law of Moses to, and some people he continued to let try on their own. Neither worked. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t get it right.

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). So God gave us a temporary fix: We could kill an animal to die in our place, and offer it as a sacrifice, to take onto itself God’s rage at destructive sin.

But Galatians 4:4 says, “When the time was come, God sent his son.” Finally, when mankind understood we needed outside help, God sent Jesus. Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus lived the perfect life that was impossible for us to live; he was completely free of sin. Then God offered his son as the final sacrifice to die in our place ~ to be “falsely” accused of all the sins that WE had committed, to take onto himself God’s anger, rage, and fury at OUR sins, to pay the death penalty for OUR sins.

That done, God ~ who can only dwell with sinlessness ~ is able to allow obedient, faithful people into his home, heaven.

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The scripture for today, January 11, is 2nd Peter 1:11 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK EIGHT-COME FLY WITH ME-Cover“And you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

How often do we forget that earth is not our home? As an old gospel song says, “We’re just traveling through.” Do we really believe that? If someone told us tomorrow that we were going to die, would we go into a panic? Would we beg God to let us live another ten or twenty years? Would we feel this was the beginning of the end?

To a Christian, our dying is the end of the beginning. We have a whole “life” ahead of us in heaven. A never-ending life. Do we live like we believe it? Will we die looking forward to it?

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The scripture for today, December 31, is Luke 12:31 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Cover-Kindle-small“But seek his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well.”

Do we actively seek God’s kingdom? Or do we drift and feel like God should feel obligated to take us into his kingdom and into his heaven? Do we feel like we’re “not so bad”, so God would be bad to not take us into his kingdom and into his heaven?

Heaven is God’s home, not ours. God has a door into his home, just like we have a door into our home. God is not required to open that door to just anyone, just like we are not required to open our door to just anyone.  We cannot just show up at the door and smile and assume he will let us in, any more than people who knock on our door and smile can assume we will let them in.

We let people into our home who we have gotten to know and whose motives we trust. Have you given God a chance to get to know you and trust your motives? Are your motives to enter heaven, God’s home? Do you even like God?

This life we live on earth is not our permanent life or residence. This is just the foyer to our eternal home. Do we live like the earth is all there is? 

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The scripture for today, December 29, is Deuteronomy 12:29 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

REV-Cover-Kindle“The Lord your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess.”

Why would a good God drive people (the Amorite nations) from their own land so that other people (the Jews) could live there? Way back in Genesis 15, God promised Abraham that his descendants would possess the land he lived in as a wanderer, but first they would be enslaved in a foreign country some 400 years. During that time they would multiply. Indeed, they did grow from 70 of Abraham’s grandchildren to over three million.

Then it would be time for his descendants to possess the land. Why so long in the future? Verse 16 explains it: “For the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” God always gives people plenty of time to repent and change.

The Jews did finally possess the Promised Land, but God warned them, “If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you” (Leviticus 18:28). Indeed, they did eventually defile the land with their own sins, so several centuries later, they were dispossessed and forced to go to Assyria and Babylon by their conquerors.

Yes, God keeps his promises ~ to both good and bad. Today, regardless of the condition of the nation we live in on earth, let us look ahead to that even better promise of an even better land ~ that spiritual Promised Land ~ heaven. And it will be forever good.

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The scripture for today, November 25, is John 11:25 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

REV-Cover-Kindle“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.’ “

This has always been puzzling: People who have been Christians all their lives find out from their doctor that they are going to die, and they weep and beg God to keep them alive. Why? Heaven is our final destination, not earth. We claim we want to go to heaven, but we do not want to do what is necessary to get there. Death is the door to heaven. Death is not the end, but the beginning!

Let us be willing to look death in the eye and say, “Jesus has conquered you! I will close my eyes in death and then open them again to behold my Creator and my Savior!”

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The scripture for today, October 3, is John 10:3ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK EIGHT-COME FLY WITH ME-Cover“The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out….I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”

First of all, we use the term saved/salvation so loosely, we tend to forget what we are being saved from. We are being saved from hell! This is not a minuscule matter.

Second, how do we avoid hell? Through Jesus. This is the only way!

How many of us have been to funerals where the deceased was preached into heaven? So many people believe they are “good enough” or “not too bad” and so God would be horrible to not let them into heaven. Such people will climb in through windows so to speak into enter heaven as the “thieves and robbers” Jesus referred to.

But heaven is God’s home, not ours. He has a gate into it, just like we have doors on our houses. Just like we are not obligated to open the door into our home to just anyone, God is not obligated to open his gate to just anyone. Our door and God’s gate are there for a reason.

Let us enter heaven through the gate ~ Jesus. Then God will smile and say, “Welcome home.”

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The scripture for today, September 28, is Hebrews 9:28 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK EIGHT-COME FLY WITH ME-Cover“So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

Waiting is hard to do. We wait for relatives to arrive at our house for a visit. We wait for our next promotion. We wait for babies to be born. We wait for enough money to buy new clothes.

But what about waiting for something that we have never seen? Waiting for something we believe in by faith? Waiting an entire lifetime?

All the more reason to keep our eyes on the Word, our activities in good works, and our hearts on our Creator and Savior. It’s a long spiritual walk. But just keep walking, and keep walking, and keep walking until some day in the distant future you walk right through the gates of heaven.

Then, when you look back from eternity, you will say, “The wait wasn’t so long after all.”

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The scripture for today, September 4, is Daniel 9:4 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK EIGHT-COME FLY WITH ME-Cover“I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: ‘O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands….’ “

A lot of people in the world think that God should feel obligated to take them to heaven. After all, they were fairly good, and better than some. God couldn’t possibly in all good conscience turn them away.

Yet, their entire life they resent God. Mostly they don’t like his commands; they don’t want anyone telling them what to do or not do. Or they claim to love God, but create their own commands that just aren’t in the Bible, making themselves God.

Ultimately, heaven is God’s home, not ours. He is not obligated to invite anyone into His home. Besides, only perfection can live with God who is perfect. It only takes one sin to make us an imperfect sinner.

So how do we become perfect? That’s where God’s awesomeness is demonstrated. By following Jesus who was perfect and never sinned, and obeying Jesus’ few commands, God considers us perfect by proxy.

But God never forces anyone to agree with him or spend time with him here on earth so they can live with him in his heaven.