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life.

 

Did I just describe you, fellow pilgrim?  Have you tasted the bitterness and misery of this fallen world so that you look forward to the “rolling cloud” where all the evil and pain and misfortune is completely and forever banished?

 

Perhaps we speak of heaven too little.  Perhaps it is not enough just to use the word ‘heaven’ in one little sentence and just to make a minor point in a series of other points.  Perhaps it is time for us to put the word ‘heaven’ on a gigantic banner to wave above our heads like the American flag waves above Perkins!

 

Think of how the lives of Christians would change if we could drink deeply of the meaning of heaven... if we could focus well upon the things unseen, rather than

giving so much attention to what is seen!

 

Now I grant that it’s natural–no, even divine–to love and care for family and friends.  St. Paul, when he considered whether or not he would be killed, said that he would rather die and go to the Lord, but better if he lived for the sake of those he had come to serve. 

 

So we also, when we consider our death or the death of someone close to us, can grieve the temporary loss of relationships or that we no longer will be able to serve and assist those we love in this world.

 

Though we may grieve some practical problems that our death may cause for those whom we love, think of how our lives would change if we drank deeply of the

certainty of heaven!

 

Fear of our greatest enemies–be they people, problems or diseases–would melt away.  What could they do to us?  Let our enemies do the worst to us, and all that would happen is that they would also force open a doorway into something so

wonderful that it’s impossible for human language to express.

 

Although the Scriptures do suggest some things about heaven--and we shall look at these--it must not be assumed that there is any real correspondence between our present circumstances and heaven.  To be sure we shall have bodies, but the place into which the glorified body shall be placed will be so beyond what we can see within the dark glass, that human language will and must fail at any attempt to capture the greatness of the glory to be revealed.

 

John says it like this in his first epistle: “Dear friends, now we are children of God,

 

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