Tag: Waiting

Heaven Today

I was taken aback a bit this morning in my study of Heaven. I am 54 years old and I guess I have not studied Heaven as I should. I have accepted that as a Christian Heaven is my final destination. I have accepted that it will be glorious and wonderful. But I have not really dug into that there is a Heaven today and a Heaven tomorrow.

In my study in MasterLife with Randy Alcorn’s writing, I am taken to dig into the “present Heaven” as he describes. That place where Christians go when they die, until the second coming of Christ. Yes, you read that right, we go to a sort of waiting room until the time when Christ comes again and we join the battle.

“1Then 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.” – Revelation 21:1 (ESV)

John describes the “New Heaven”. The New Heaven comes later, after the coming of Christ, not in today. The New Heaven will come after the battle has been won. Notice the first word of the verse above, “then”. This indicates that that events come before. Now, yes in Revelation, John is describing things in an order that he sees them, yet, that order is important. The New Heaven is described after the battle is won and after he has seen the and describes the throne of judgment. So, the New Heaven comes after and is not for the now or today.

Now, I know, as did for me, that this brings up a lot of questions around the what exactly is the Heaven Today. Well, I, at this point am not able to give the full answer to that, only to say that we won’t be there long. Yes, some passed from this world years, decades, or centuries ago. So, when I say we won’t be there long, it is hard to understand. But we also have to remember that God’s Time is vastly different than our concept of time.

In the real life account book/movie “Heaven is for Real”, Colton Burpo was very near death in this world for a short time and saw Heaven. Now what he saw is not the purpose of my reference, but the time is where I am looking as it did help me to better understand God’s Time a bit. What Colton describes is interactions and events that took well more than the short time accounted for in this world. Yet, he met and interacted with many and those would have certainly taken more time. The time we experience in this world is nothing compared to time in the world of our LORD.

“17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (ESV)

Paul uses the same word as John to describe what happens next, “then”. He writes that after the bodies of the dead have gone up, those left will meet them to join the battle. That “then” is virtually instantaneous, but just after. So Paul is telling us that those who have passed from this world are waiting to be reunited with their bodies and then with those of us still in this world. Then we will join the battle in the defeat of Satan and will then enter into the New Heaven as John describes in Revelation.

There is so much more to know and understand, but I know this, those who have died in this world are waiting to join up again with those of us still here when Christ comes again. We will all fight, and win over Satan, and leave today’s Heaven and enter the New Heaven.

What is your thought on Heaven today? Were you of the thought that when passing from this world, we move right into the glory that is the New Heaven? What if you were to think of Heaven today as the before the battle and defeat of Satan and afterward, we enter the New Heaven?

We are Still Here

The world is in full disarray at the moment. There is continued trouble in the middle east and frankly even in the United States there is a lot of trouble and division where it seems as though the evil one is winning. Social aspects of world are winning out over Christian aspects and there is to the eye, the attempt to make Christians out to be the perpetrators of this discord.

“4But what is God’s reply to him? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ 5So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.” — Romans 11:4-5 (ESV)

No matter how bad it seems to be getting or actually is in this world, we are still here. There are still warriors in this world for Christ. There are those of us still fighting. The evil one will not win. I have to remember that the ending has already been written and not matter the current situation, God will prevail. I have to know that where it seems as though all may be lost, there are still those who stand up and fight.

God promised the Israelite’s they would inherit the land, although He did not tell them when. They waited and fought and waited some more, until it was time. I know that I am in the same position here in the world today. I am waiting and fighting and waiting some more, until it is time. I may, as with the Israelite people, not get to experience the promised land in this world, but I will certainly be there for the already written ending to the suffering that is in this world. I will have my chance to be called on as one of the “seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal”. I will fight in the final battle. I am still here.

I am here thanks to the grace of God and not the works that I may have performed to this point. I am doing my part thanks to the grace of God. I am here fighting the fight before me each day. It may seem to me that I am having little to no impact, and that is only due to the sheer size of the war being waged. I am here doing my part in my little corner of the battlefield. When the time is right, God will call me from the corner and into the middle of it all. Until that time, I must continue to fight the battle before me and know that I am still here, ready when called.

What is your status in the war? Are you down and out waiting for someone or some kind of rescue? What if as a follower of Christ, you were to accept that you are still here fighting the battle before you waiting to be called up to the greater war?