A Most Wonderful Imagining…

Yesterday I noticed this verse: “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 65:25) and commented to hubby that it looks like there will be animals in the hereafter.

Children want their pets to be there. I hope for color and creativity. We all look forward to seeing those who have gone before us. This morning I read Phil Callaway’s devotional and he wondered if there would be golf courses there. Maybe every shot a hole-in-one?

The apostle Paul said, “I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” (Philippians 1:23) He knew that God “has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and that, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Yet there are clues, like the verses about lions and lambs and the promise of being with Jesus forever. And at times the longing for such perfections is great. Callaway rightly says that only Jesus Christ can truly satisfy our thirst. He quotes C.S. Lewis: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Along with these writers, I also wonder how God feels when He sees us hanging on so tightly to this life with its short-lived pleasures. Callaway calls them “a gopher-infested golf course with sand greens like the ones I played on as a kid” and how some seem to dread the home Jesus  has been creating and how it is “a little like trying to explain the pleasures of driving a Ferrari to a two-year-old who would rather play with a cardboard box.”

I don’t care much if there is golf in heaven. I know there is food and likely that includes chocolate? Maybe pizza? Maybe colors I’ve never seen yet? Will I quilt or draw there? I don’t know. 

But I do know this: all that I’ve enjoyed here will not be on my mind when I see Jesus with His arms outstretched to welcome me home. Life with Him will satisfy every desire — forever.

PRAY: Thoughts of heaven are like mental trips to the mountains, or the seashore, or watching a stupendous sunset, or riding an Arab stallion, or painting a masterpiece, or winning a Pulitzer, or watching children at play, or seeing my entire family worshiping You — and You tell me that my heart has not imagined what You have prepared for me. Life here is often an incredible lovely surprise. Heaven will be better? You said it and the joy of knowing that holds me until that day. . . .  Amen.

This seems to last forever . . .

 

 

We are in a cold snap. This morning it is -23F or -31C with a wind that makes the air feel like -38. What is it about days like this that make summer sunshine feel so far away? Almost to the point of forgetting what it feels like? Winter gives a sense of eternal, even though I know better. While I use the words eternal or forever to describe things that only seem to go on and on and on, the Bible speaks more literally of the eternal.

The OT word actually means “ancient, forever, everlasting.” It can be used to describe days long past, or the future. When applied to God, it could mean “always” for our God is ETERNAL. In that sense, this OT word is about His faithfulness, trustworthiness, and goodness. It also means that He always is.

1 Chronicles 16:34. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”

Psalm 90:2. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

Isaiah 60:19. “The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”

There is more, but most interesting is Ecclesiastes 3:11: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” I know that eternity is a reality, yet I cannot quite figure it out. How can there be no beginning or end? How can God always exist? What is life like beyond the grave, outside of or without time?

The NT word for eternal is an adjective that defines the everlasting God and His realm; the blessings of salvation; and everlasting conditions that have neither beginning nor end. In more than half the times this word is used, it is linked with “life” creating more questions. How can I be given something that has no beginning? The NT has the answer.

This word is used to describe God, His glory and Spirit, and that He is immortal and the source of our eternal salvation and eternal life. He also delivers us from eternal judgment.

1 Timothy 6:14–16. “Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

Hebrews 5:9. “And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”

This eternal life is a gift from God to all who believe in Jesus. It is His life that I am given.

John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

1 John 5:11–12. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

1 Timothy 1:16. “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”

Receiving this gift through faith puts us in a different realm that has neither beginning nor end. Colossians 1:13–14. “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

His kingdom is eternal and the life we are given is eternal. 2 Corinthians 5:1 says I “know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” yet while I know it, full understanding eludes me for I still walk in the realm of time with beginnings and endings. In that dual existence, God tells me to “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” I’m to look forward to that day when my “resurrected body will also be eternal, dwelling forever in heaven” because my eternal Savior has so “richly provided for me an entrance” into His eternal kingdom. I don’t understand it, but I can believe it — because my Eternal God said it!

 

Filling that void . . .

When I took Church History at a nearby seminary, I became convinced that every Christian should do the same. Luke recorded about 30 years of it in the book of Acts, but there are nearly 2000 more years. The events in those years helped me understand why there are so many denominations, isms, and chasms. Through that, God gave me a better attitude toward others. Understanding their background is a good first step.

It is also helpful to realize that people are religious apart from belonging to a church or any sort of cult or group of worshipers, whether it be God who is honored or idols. The Bible refers often to pagans who included prostitutes in their places of worship and practices such as cutting themselves and putting food out for their gods.

Idolatry is common, yet I wonder why anyone would worship the sun, or wooden statues, or metal carvings. A few passages explain a little about the root of this:

(God) has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

God created the world and all that is in it, including humanity. He put the concept of eternity in us so we know that there is more to life than this, but we are blind to what God has done and will do. The writer of Ecclesiastes does not explain, but the rest of the Bible says that our sin is like a blindfold, hiding spiritual and eternal realities. Even so, we can sense that God exists even though He is denied . . .

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:19–23)

In our hearts, we know there is a God but refusing to honor and thank Him for what He clearly reveals gives rise to a twisted spirituality and strange religious ideas. Our understanding takes a turn away from God from light into fuzzy and all sorts of ideas and practices — our efforts to satisfy the longing in our hearts for eternity.

I know this longing. This week I was looking at shelves of notes and books from Bible school and seminary, and a pile of tear sheets of my published articles. I never read them and should purge those shelves, yet they represent accomplishments. Throwing them away is like robbing me of my worth — but keeping them challenges my faith. Who and what am I trusting for my worth? Will keeping stuff I don’t need or use enrich my life more than Jesus does?

Any human longing that refuses to honor God or give thanks to Him results in futile thinking and a host of religious replacements. Instead of honoring the Creator, that decision results in honoring creation. This world is more concerned about baby seals, global warming, air quality, forests and the production of plastics than about our standing before Almighty God. Not that we should ignore environmental problems, pollution and waste, yet the Bible teaches a new way to live. It is not too big a stretch to recognize that if everyone obeyed God, most of those problems would not exist, even the desire to keep stuff that is no longer needed!

The reality is, we do not obey God perfectly, even those of us who profess faith in Him through Jesus Christ. I mess up. However, my Christian longing for eternity does give a different focus — hope! Someday I will be there, and it is a perfect place. I will not need anything from this imperfect world.

John was given a vision that showed him just a little of what we are promised:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1–4)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, church history began in the book of Acts, but the need for transformed lives began much longer ago, in Eden when human beings said NO to You and YES to sin. Jesus, You had to come. We could not fix ourselves and the mess we made — and we still cannot do it apart from Your grace. I do long for eternity. In the meantime, I want to always remember that You are the only One who can fill that God-shaped void in our hearts and keep our priorities lined up with eternal values.