"Will you go to heaven or hell when you die?" This is the title of an article raised by an unsolicited author which popped onto my screen. It is a sobering question. Immediately upon my eyes seeing that title and my brain receiving its message, I had this thought: Will you live in heaven or in hell while you live?
Our goal of going to heaven may have honorable meaning; yet if that's one's only goal it short-sheets the one God intended. His plan is---according to Jesus' words---for us to experience life and to experience it abundantly. The Word verifies we have eternal life now.
I see too many who believe they will really and only live past physical death....later...when reaching heaven. God clearly calls us to die to ourselves now and experience brand new---created new---walks for the present. This is why some who claim to be the NT church are far from it. They aren't alive at the moment; but rather are hanging on by a thread of hope that He will save them in that Day.
Jesus awakens us to live from heaven now...our citizenship is there says Paul. His will is found on earth as it is in heaven just as Jesus taught the men to pray. Heaven is later, certainly, but it is also right now. So the question to me is not will you go to heaven when you die. But rather, will you die to yourself in order to experience heaven while you live the new life now?
2 comments:
I've come to believe bringing Heaven to Earth is what kingdom-people should be all about.
I'm reading a great book right now called The Kingdom Focused Church by Gene Mims - this post echoes what I've been reading.
Good stuff :)
"Amen!" again, Terry (and westcoastwitness).
In the Lord's prayer is a parallelism that brought me to the thinking that we're so focused on our salvation (perhaps even selfishly, to an extent) that we miss our current mission completely.
Jesus prayed, "Thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..." His kingdom coming IS His will being done--that's the parallelism, and where did Jesus pray it would happen? Right here, right now. Ours is to leave the place better than we found it, by the grace of God.
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