Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 26

Photo: some tokens of my past: my baby book

and infant dress, father's Bible, and century-old pitcher.



FAMILY TREASURES“But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” –Matthew 6:21
Maybe it’s an old rocker, quilt, set of dishes, a piece of jewelry, artwork, or wedding veil—but most families have some sort of “treasure” passed down through the generations. Sometimes we display our “family treasures”; sometimes we carefully pack them away, telling our children, “This is old and special and you’ll inherit it.” As such, family treasures become a sort of time capsule—reminders of life in our families in years past.

Few of us, however, go as far as folks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in “preserving” a generation’s treasures. In 1957, Tulsans buried a new gold-and-white Plymouth Belvedere automobile in a vault at the courthouse. The plan was to unearth it in fifty years, at which time some believed we wouldn’t even use cars any more. In 2007, about seven thousand people (who, despite the 1957 prediction, still drove cars) watched workmen pull out the rusty relic. It had flat tires, a corroded radiator, and disintegrating upholstery. The engine that one writer described as “a very large paperweight” wouldn’t start. (1)

Tulsa’s folly brings to mind Jesus’ teaching that earth’s treasures are vulnerable to rust (like this once-new car), moths and thieves (Matt. 6:19-21). Someday the end will come for that heirloom vase, two-hundred-year-old quilt, antique car, trophy case, stuffed moose head, Oscar or Super Bowl ring, or even a building named in your honor. We take none of it to Heaven.

Yet Heaven does have room for intangible “treasures” connected with our lives on earth. The apostle Peter said they’re a spiritual inheritance that will never perish, spoil or fade, and they’re kept in Heaven for those who trust in Jesus as their Savior (1 Pet. 1:3-5). This promise meant a lot to people of Bible times who faced personal losses because of their faith in Christ. They endured public insult, persecution, confiscation of their property, and even imprisonment. Yet the Bible says these believers were able to weather hardship and loss with joy because they believed they had “better and lasting possessions” in eternity (Heb.10:34).

But what of the other side of the coin: devout people who’ve been blessed with wealth and advantage and who can store and enjoy those “family treasures”? The Bible advises them to “pay forward” to spiritual treasures--“do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share” (1 Tim. 6:17-19). In our times, an example of that was Dr. Ken Taylor, best known for the paraphrased The Living Bible and several children’s books, and for founding a successful Christian publishing house. His vision brought financial success, but he directed his worldly wealth to foundations to further the publication of the Bible throughout the world. Many accolades came Taylor’s way, including four honorary doctorates, but he continued to live humbly into old age. At 87, asked to reflect on his life, he didn’t talk about worldly success but rather a spiritual inheritance and knowing God better. “I want to see my stumbling prayer life grow strong,” he said, adding he’d once again begun a prayer notebook. He wanted to continue reading the Bible daily--Genesis to Revelation—as he’d often urged others to practice. “I will be His servant to the end,” Taylor added, “and then suddenly be transformed from a servant into a son!” (2) He died about a year later, just weeks after turning 88. He left behind the earthly ledger books and awards. He entered Heaven to claim treasures that the Bible calls “crowns.”

Many people mistakenly think that the Bible’s crowns imply Heavenly royalty. Instead, the word the Bible uses for these Heavenly rewards is the same as that for circlets of vines or leaves used to “crown” skilled athletes. Commending individual success in athletic games, these crowns eventually wilted and dried up. But Heaven’s commendation “crowns” will last forever (1 Cor. 9:25). The Bible named some. The “crown of life” is for those who persevered in faith, some to martyrdom (James 1:12. Rev. 2:10). The “crown of righteousness” recognizes performing with integrity the ministry God entrusts to you (2 Tim. 4:8). The “crown of rejoicing” commends those who lead others to faith in Christ (1 Thess. 2:19). The “crown of glory” is for sacrificial pastoral ministry (1 Pet. 5:2-4).

What will we do with these crowns? Be assured: they won’t go in a vault or time capsule for safekeeping. In his vision of Heaven, John saw saints laying their crowns before God’s throne as they worshipped Him as “worthy…to receive glory and honor and power” (Rev. 4:11).Being a part of God’s family is the treasure!

Prayer: God, help me to keep the perspective of Heavenly treasures when I fuss too much about leaving behind earthly “stuff.” Amen.
 (1) Randy Krehbiel, “Tarnished Gold,” Tulsa World, June 16, 2007, http://www.tulsaworld.com/common/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleID=070616_238_A1_spanc28602, accessed November 9, 2008.
(2) Kenneth Taylor, “On Aging,” Wheaton Magazine (Autumn 2004), p. 14.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 25

THE MUSIC ROOM
“And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne….” –Revelation 14:2, 3a

“Heavenly music” to my husband means Southern Gospel songs, including “It’s Your First Day in Heaven.” One of my top picks (besides the hymn “Be Thou My Vision”) is Handel’s Messiah. As an amateur violinist, stumbling through my part for that work in worship concerts, I sometimes wonder how it would be to play it perfectly in a heavenly orchestra. Then there’s my son, with a basement music studio where he “jams” with friends playing an array of guitars, electronic keyboards, and drums. He wouldn’t mind picking an electric guitar for heaven’s worship band--with as many amplifiers and sound effect pedals as possible! My daughter, a violinist, would sign up for sacred string quartets. Mitch from my church would wail a soulful praise harmonica.

If the music and instruments we know on earth existed in heaven, its “Music Room” would be enormous beyond understanding. We don’t know just what God plans musically for Heaven, but we know it’s an important part. It’s been significant on earth from the beginning. Widespread tradition claims music was the first language that God spoke to create the universe. Poet Christina Rossetti remarked that Heaven is revealed to earth as the homeland of music. (1)

The Bible says on the day the earth’s foundations were set, “the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy”(Job 38:7). Jubal, the seventh generation from Adam, was called “the father of all who play the harp and flute”(Gen. 4:22). Thousands of years of music later, Solomon’s temple had a staff of 288 priestly musicians just for worship music (1 Chron. 25:7). Imagine that for your church! Truly, God valued music in worship.

The Bible says Heaven’s worship music will be musically exciting and loud. John’s vision included loud thunder peals, roars like rushing waters, trumpets, and harps, along with innumerable believers and angelic beings praising God. “Then I heard every creature in Heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea,” John wrote, “and all that is in him, singing, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’”(Rev. 5:13). The last book of the Bible calls this “a new song” (Rev. 14:3). Whatever their lyrics and music lines, Heaven’s songs will never grow old. That’s great news for those who mentally disconnect while singing the same old choruses and hymns at church. In Heaven, too, we’ll finally put to rest those church divisions over whether we should have traditional hymns or contemporary choruses.

One Bible teacher noted that some who claim to have had visions of Heaven while “dead” (they were later revived) described its music as entirely different from earthly music. They said it was “like comparing a toddler’s banging on a toy xylophone with a symphony orchestra.” (2)

Could some of earth’s inspired worship music be a part of Heaven’s worship? We don’t know, but we do know that some great Christian music has bridged diverse cultures. The late J. Oswald Sanders, a well-loved Bible teacher, told of traveling three days through China’s mountains by horseback to a primitive village where a conference drew a thousand people. To his surprise, the program included a performance of “The Hallelujah Chorus” (from Handel’s Messiah) sung in Chinese along with other praise songs. (3)

Even more profound, has Heaven’s music, hidden in our hearts, become expressed through earthly songs? Years after spearing five missionaries attempting a friendly contact, Waodoni Indians of Ecuador, now Christians, recalled hearing strange music in the treetops as the missionaries died. One Waodoni woman said she heard the same “strange music” when she listened to her missionary-friend’s record of Christian choir music. Decades later, a still-living warrior from the time of the murders heard a recording of a music arrangement based on the hymn “Every Tribe, Every Nation.” In his native tongue, he declared, “manami ihindabopa” [“just as I heard it”]—meaning it matched the tree-top angel choir he heard that fateful day. (4)

As you anticipate the Music Room, recall these lines from the hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”: “Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise./Teach me some melodious sonnet,/Sung by flaming tongues above.” In your spirit, clear your throat, wet your reed, warm up your horn, tune that stringed instrument. Get ready for the matchless Heavenly praise concert that will release unfettered joy in worship.

Prayer: Dear God, even if my “joyful noise” of praise to you on earth left a lot to be desired, I can’t wait to do it the right way in Heaven! Amen.

(1) J. Oswald Sanders, Heaven: Better by Far (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Discovery House Publishers, 1993), p. 106.
(2) Peter Kreeft, “What Will Heaven Be Like?”, Christianity Today, http://ctlibrary.com/print.html?id=7409, accessed June 27, 2006.
(3) Sanders, pp. 106, 7
(4) Stephen Saint, “Angels, Yes, I Think It Was Angels,” January 30, 2002, from http://www.itecusa.org/itec_024.htm, accessed July 3, 2008.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 24

THE LIBRARY
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may…grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”--Ephesians 3:17b-19

Grand homes, in contrast to ordinary homes with a bookcase or two, boast vast home libraries. You probably remember old movies that showed a silver-haired scholar browsing his floor-to-ceiling bookshelves via a rolling ladder, dusty light pouring through leaded windows between velvet curtains. Some may think that if (and that’s a big “if”) Heaven has a library, it might be like those portrayed in film. If so, it will also exist on a scale so grand as to make the Library of Congress look like the paperback rack at the convenience store. Others say Heaven couldn’t have a library because books are an invention of our earthly life. The Bible provides no answer for that. But remember that God chose to communicate to us through a book called the Bible.

Maybe the better issue to address in considering Heaven’s “library” is the acquisition of knowledge. Sometimes people say, “When I get to Heaven, I’ll understand everything.” The apostle Paul seemed to suggest that when he said that when “perfection” (Heaven) comes, “Then I shall know fully” (1 Cor. 15:12). But Paul didn’t mean that he’d have instant, entirely-complete knowledge. We won’t know everything because only God is all-knowing. Only an omniscient God can carry the burden of infinite knowledge. But Heaven will open our eyes in ways we cannot imagine.

I think that the God who created us to have curiosity, imagination and understanding will certainly allow us to continue learning without boredom. Mysteries will be explained: creation, Black Holes and the extent of all the universe, why God permitted evil, how the sun temporarily stopped for Joshua’s troops (Joshua 10:13), how a little bread multiplied for Jesus to feed five thousand—and on and on. God might even have us teach one another. Think of it: Adam teaching botany, Christ-honoring musicians like Bach explaining classical composition, and Calvin and Wesley finally reconciling their theologies in public forum. Maybe our “learning” will be the never-ending discovery of what the apostle Paul called “the incomparable riches of His grace” (Ephesians 2:6). We’ll fill innumerable pages with discoveries about God’s character. We’ll understand the prediction of an old, well-known hymn—that even if the seas were an ink well and the skies a parchment on which to write, we couldn’t write enough about the love and mercy of God. (1)

Another part of Heaven’s library strikes fear in many hearts. It’s what might be called a combination biography and reference section. Among its billions of volumes, there’s one with your name on it. “God has planned that the records of all our lives be preserved,” wrote Wesley Duewel. Your book has “all the facts of your thought life—your ambitions, your hopes, your prayers, your intentions, your motives, your efforts, your carefulness, and your carelessness. All your words, all your deeds, all your prayers, all your love or the opposite—all have been recorded.” (2) Jesus said our secret lives--those words and actions that we don’t want others to know about--will be public record (Luke 12:2,3). Every condemning thought, word, or action will be there, blatant evidence that you don’t belong in God’s perfect, holy Heaven.

There’s only one way to change the parts that bar you from Heaven. You must have your name written in another book, called the Book of Life. That’s the list of those who believe that Jesus died for every sin, including theirs, and who ask God to come into their lives. As for the other book, those forgiven sins will be blotted out, washed clean, as it were, by the blood of Christ. Peter, one of Jesus’ closest followers, preached of that image: “Repent, then, and turn to God, that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19). There will still be record of your faithfulness to God, to determine your rewards in Heaven. But the damning entries will be gone. You need not fear the “Records Room” of Heaven.

Instead, Heaven will release you to learn what is most important. The Bible puts it this way: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Prov. 9:10). Your earthly education, or lack of it, will no longer impair you. When we delight in God, He delights in revealing Himself. That includes understanding His handiwork and eternal plan. Don’t worry about not having enough time to learn in Heaven. If Heaven has a library, it will never close. God will lift any veil of confusion as you delve into the subjects that capture your heart. Best of all, no “overdues.” Remember, it will operate on eternity-time!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for wiping my sins off Heaven’s record books, and for inviting me to learn more about You for all eternity. Amen.

(1) The 1917 hymn, “The Love of God” by Frederick Lehman
(2) Wesley Duewel, “Your Biography in Heaven,” Women Alive! (May-June 2003), p. 11. Article taken from his book God’s Power Is For You, © 1999.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 23

THE HOME OFFICE
“His servants will serve Him.”--Revelation 22:3

Heaven will be the ultimate home-based business. Although we won’t need to “tele-commute” as we know it, with computers, FAX machines, phones and other electronic marvels, Heaven will be home, and we will work. Our “work,” however, will differ from today’s tiring deadlines, pressure to excel, knotty relationships, and legal complications. We won’t end our day of Heavenly work exhausted.

God’s first perfect work environment was the Garden of Eden. Adam was his chief employee before Eve joined the “work force.” Only when Adam and Eve sinned did “work” turn into “toil” (Gen. 3:17). With no sin in Heaven, we can look forward to regaining the perfect work environment. In his vision of Heaven, John said that God’s servants will serve Him. What does “serve” really mean? The Amplified Bible, a translation that attempts to reflect original Greek word meanings, says: “His servants shall worship Him--pay divine honors to Him and do Him holy service” (Rev. 22:3).

The Bible tells little of our “work” in Heaven aside from worship. But we have the example of Eden before sin. Even though perfect, it occupied Adam and Eve as caretakers. That should be enough right there! But the Bible also suggests we’ll have Heavenly administrative duties in proportion to our faithfulness on earth. Jesus told two parables about servants who were faithful with investments when their master went away. In one parable the master entrusted the servants with different amounts of “talents” (one talent equaling about $1,000), each according to ability. One got five talents, another two, and a third just one (Matt. 25:14-30). In the other parable, each got just one “minah,” equal to about three months’ wages (Luke 19:11-26). In both parables, two faithful servants had huge returns on investing the master’s money. He was thrilled, calling them “good and faithful,” and increased their responsibilities. In one version of the parable, he gave them charge over multiple cities. In each parable, a servant who despised his master hid the money. At the end, he was criticized and sent away to “the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 25:30). That’s one way the Bible describes hell.

These parables teach us to serve our Master, God, with all our hearts and minds and strength. We may have differing abilities (the proportional talents) but we have equal opportunity (the equal minas). Doing nothing grieves God. While the parables point to answers, they also raise questions. What of having charge over ten and five cities? Could this refer to more faithful believers becoming mayors over many Heavenly cities? Or will their proportional faithfulness translate to celestial leadership in their chosen vocation? When we get our new resurrection bodies, will we return to the new earth to pick up when Eden ended? With no sin to complicate production and relationships, can we anticipate bosses who administer with pure love and understanding? If we’re not tapped for celestial government, will we have jobs similar to those we held on earth?

Will we be able to work at something we dreamed of, but had no opportunity or training? Will those who died before maturity, or who were mentally and physically disabled, discover their true, God-designed vocation? Will there be steady job openings in gardening and exploration? More chances for artists and musicians to release those gifts in pure worship? What about transportation jobs—both building and operating vehicles for the earth, water and sky? Remember, after His resurrection, Jesus didn’t need earthly transportation to return to Heaven. Before He returned to God in Heaven, His Heaven-ready body made sudden appearances from one place to another. He bodily went up in clouds and will return in grandeur the same way.

What jobs won’t be in a sinless Heaven? Will we need policemen, firemen, waste management experts, environmental whistle-blowers, or even medical professionals? Because Heaven won’t have unemployment, we must assume that they’ll serve God in a new way that’s exactly right for them. Even more thought-provoking, will angels, whom God created long ago for Heavenly service, be some of our co-workers?

We don’t know the answers to these questions. But we do know that God’s servants will serve and worship Him. They will be utterly happy. They won’t be bored. They may have “home offices” in the place Jesus has prepared just for them. Or their “office” may be in another work assignment area. Best of all, “work” won’t be “work.” It’s never “work” when you love what you’re doing and have the best Boss ever!

Prayer: God, this is something to look forward: starting a new job without those “first day jitters.” I know you have the perfect Heavenly job for me. Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 22

THE BANQUET HALL
“Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”
—Revelation 19:9

How would you imagine a banquet in Heaven? One artist (whose poster we keep on our refrigerator) painted a long, lavishly appointed banquet table on what appeared to be a beach, the chairs stretching far into the sunset horizon. The plates resembled the circular stained glass windows of a grand cathedral. Exquisite gold flatware and etched crystal completed each place setting. Candles sat on pooled linens. When published, the photo’s caption was simply Jesus’ invitation in the parable of The Great Banquet: “Come, for all things are now ready.” (1)

But this painting showed no guests, unlike Jesus’ parable in Matthew 22, which told of a king wanting to honor his son with a big banquet. One by one, the invited guests turned down the invitation. One said he had to check out a field he had just bought. Another was trying out his oxen. A third just got married. To put these excuses in today’s settings, one put the love of material things ahead of the king’s invitation. The second put his job or business ahead of the king’s call. The third put family ties and social relationships before his allegiance to his king. Angered by their snubs, the king ordered the servant to go to the city’s streets and alleys and bring in the poor, crippled, blind and lame plus any others along the country lanes. Thus, common folk feasted and enjoyed the king’s party. Those least expected to come to a king’s feast were there because they responded to His invitation.

In Heaven’s banquet hall, the people who were too busy or preoccupied for God will miss out. But even paupers will be there if they believed in Jesus. Our Lord remarked, “Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 8:11, also Luke 13:29). Imagine! Passing the rolls to famous people of the Bible who lived thousands of years ago, or somebody from halfway around the world! And speaking of rolls, what will be served at such a banquet? Could God come up with a menu that eclipses the finest restaurant on earth? Of course. Will we finally understand how Jesus is “The Bread of Life” (John 6:35) and how we will never go hungry because we believe in Him? Will there be something like the manna, the Heaven-sent food that sustained the Hebrews in the wilderness? If so, the Host will most certainly be glad to tell us how He did it! Or will we feast on something else, maybe soul food (and I don’t mean Southern cookin’)? David wrote that an encounter with God’s power and glory was as satisfying to his soul as “the richest of food” (Psalm 63:5).

On the other hand, will we eat in Heaven? One answer: why not? In His resurrection body, Jesus ate fish and bread before ascending to Heaven. He even cooked the fish over a fire on the beach! Will we need to eat? We don’t know, because we don’t know how our resurrection bodies will work. There will be no more death and decay, so the normal processes of digestion that we know on earth may not be necessary. What will mark table conversation? Will it be the next playoff game or clothing sale or grandkid antics? Hardly. Perhaps it will be wonder that we are actually sitting at Heaven’s wedding feast, actually a member of God’s kingdom (Col. 1:13) and possessing every possible spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3). What about the cooks and servers? Will they be angels? Or will God give us the joy of serving one another as well as Himself? Remembering Jesus’ example of washing feet (John 13), I favor helping serve.

And don’t forget about the guest of honor, Christ, the Bridegroom. In contrast to earthly bridegrooms, eager for the honeymoon to start, this Bridegroom cares deeply about each guest. We’ll have quality time with Him as well as with guests from all of history. Don’t try to figure out how this will happen. It will. It’s Heaven.

There’s an old sermon illustration about the elderly saint who told her family that she wanted to be buried with a Bible in one hand and a fork in the other. She explained, “All these years I’ve gone to church potlucks and when they’re almost over, somebody says, ‘Keep your fork.’ That meant the dessert was ready. The best was yet to come.”

Is your appetite whetted for Heaven’s grand wedding feast? Got your fork ready? The best is yet to come!

Prayer: Lord, I like that phrase, “The best is yet to come.” I’m saving my fork! Amen.

(1) Now out of print, the 1967 art by Bud Meyer depicting Luke 14:17 can be seen online at http://christcenteredmall.com/stores/art/anonymous/the-feast.htm

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 21

PORTRAIT GALLERY
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” –Hebrews 12:1

Most of us like to display family photos on a shelf or our home’s walls. But for a real “portrait gallery,” we need to go back a few hundred years to the palatial manors of aristocrats. They had entire halls lined with larger-than-life formal portraits of family members. In England in the 1700s, many such portraits came from the brushes of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was especially skilled at making unattractive clients look good, despite the grotesque hats, bonnets, and wigs they wore for sittings. Asked how he endured painting such ugliness, he replied, “They all have light and shadow.”

There’s also “light and shadow” in the Bible’s portrait hall, located in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Instead of paints, sin and redemption provide the contrasts of dark and light. Abel is there for his “better sacrifice,” Enoch for pleasing God, Noah for ark-building, and Abraham for trusting God in many moves and for a miracle son. Then come the Jewish patriarchs; Moses, chosen to lead the Exodus; the prostitute Rahab, who in faith hid the Israelite spies; and various judges and kings.The list ends with unnamed people who endured homelessness and cruel methods of persecution, torture, and execution. That left many with bodies we’d consider ugly. But God saw them as beautiful. He honored them by saying “the world was not worthy of them” (Heb. 11:38).

A few verses later, these devout and persecuted believers are called a “great cloud of witnesses” surrounding us (Heb. 12:1). The next verses urge us to live for Christ with the same focus as runners in a race. Some have taken this passage to mean that the “cloud of witnesses” (deceased believers) occupy a celestial grandstand, from which they cheer those on earth still running life’s race. That interpretation prompts some people to say, “Dad’s looking down on me from Heaven,” or “I think Grandma knows that I turned out okay.” But there is no Biblical evidence that saints in Heaven see our ongoing lives on earth. We can only be sure of this: “There is more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7). When people turn to God, that news gets through to Heaven.

Instead, the “cloud of witnesses” represents those whose faith and endurance set for us a high standard for living. We have their biographies and testimonies as inspiration to keep running the race. And we’re reminded who inspired them: “Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). Jesus voluntarily put aside His original glory as God’s Son, lived simply on earth to teach people about God, and submitted to an excruciating death—all in the eternal plan of God the Father. Because of that, someday we will be able to mingle with the vast Heavenly “great cloud of witnesses.”

Who knows what famous and unknown people you’ll see in Heaven? Aristocracy will mean nothing in Heaven. Heaven is based on holiness, not wealth. If they believed in Jesus, the professor will be there by the pauper, the legless beggar by the legislator, the historical figure by the housekeeper. Earth’s methods of preserving human likeness—line drawings, grand portraits, photographs—won’t be necessary. If we didn’t know them before, we’ll get to know them in Heaven.

A local newspaper gave front-page coverage to the funeral service for a community leader and vibrant Christian who died in an auto accident. The photo with the story showed her husband standing before a large photo of her, his hands raised in praise as the mourners sang a Gospel chorus affirming her faith in Jesus Christ. “Farewell to a faithful friend,” said the headline. But the rest of the story is this: someday there will be “Hello to a faithful friend.” In time, her Christ-believing friends (including those she led to faith in Christ) will join her in the halls of Heaven. She will no longer be a memory or a photo, but eternally alive. And that’s just a start. The grand halls of Heaven won’t have portraits, but this: “thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” plus all those “whose names are written in Heaven” (Heb. 12:22-23a). Imagine the size of it!

Even more, imagine the vibrancy in their countenances that even the best artist or photographer on earth couldn’t convey. There will be more than “light and shadow.” The joy of Heaven will dance off their faces, reflecting their thrill of roaming Heaven’s halls and of seeing God, the greatest Artist of all.

Prayer: Almighty God, I look forward to meeting the wonderful people in your Heavenly portrait gallery. Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 20

LIGHTS
“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its light.” –Revelation 21:23

If the sun suddenly stopped shining, scientists predict life on earth would cease in about eight minutes. Yet the Bible says Heaven’s holy city will need neither the sun nor the sun-reflecting moon. This leads us to believe it won’t need energy sources, like hydroelectric dams, solar panels, steam, coal, or nuclear plants. We may not need ceiling lights, track lighting, table and desk lamps, porch lights, street lights, search lights, flashlights, tiki torches, or camping lanterns.

Instead, said John in his vision of Heaven, there will be the dazzling glory of God the Father and God the Son (Rev. 21:23). The Old Testament prophet Isaiah predicted it: “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory”(Isaiah 60:19). At the very beginning of time, God said, “Let there be light”(Gen. 1:3). He set in place our sun and untold millions of other stars. In eternity, He will be the light.

The Bible associates God with “light” more than two hundred times. Think of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God on top of Mount Sinai. When Moses came back from the blazing light of God’s presence, his own face shone so brightly that he had to veil it in public (Exodus 34:29-34). God also lent His light to a huge cloud to guide the Israelites day and night through the wilderness en route to Canaan. Later, this became the glowing “shekinah glory” over the sacred Ark of the Covenant in the Jerusalem temple. David declared, “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 27:1). Another psalm calls God “the light of life” (Psalm 56:13).

Daniel had a vision of “The Ancient of Days” with clothing “as white as snow” and hair “white like wool,” sitting on a “throne…flaming with fire” (Dan. 7:9). God arranged for a Heavenly light to herald Jesus’ birth. Toward the end of Jesus’ ministry, He took his closest disciples to a high mountain where He was transfigured into a Being of light: “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light” as He talked with two men in “glorious splendor,” identified as long-dead Moses and Elijah (Luke 9:29-35). At Jesus’ death, there was no light. Even at mid-day, the skies grew as dark as night (Mark 15:33). Gospel-writer Luke said, “The sun stopped shining” (Luke 23:45).

The apostle John interchangeably used the terms “life” and “light” for Jesus (John 1:4-5). “God is light,” John wrote, “in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). After Christ returned to Heaven, a Pharisee named Saul went on a rampage against Christians. En route to Damascus, Saul was blinded by an intense light from Heaven. Jesus spoke through it, and Saul (who became Paul) was converted on the spot (Acts 9:3). In the apostle John’s vision of Heaven, he saw lamp stands whose illumination paled next to someone whose “face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Rev. 1:17), much like the day John saw Christ transfigured on earth. The book of Revelation shimmers with mysteries about God as His people’s light forever. “They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun,” says its concluding chapter, “for the Lord God will give them light” (Rev. 22:5).

God, who lives what the Bible calls “unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16), is purity and holiness in unfathomable intensity. We won’t need dark glasses or to seek shelter from it. It will seem right for it will be home. It will be all we longed for as we suffered in the dark days of earth. World War 2 was one such time of intense darkness and discouragement. Seeking to encourage his nation to persevere against the Nazis, King George VI of Britain delivered a memorable address that included this profound quote from an obscure London lecturer: I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he said to me, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way. (1)

God still bids us take His hand, for He is better than any light we now know. He is safer than any other way as He leads us through death to the place of everlasting light.

Prayer: Dear God of glory and light, some of my days feel dark in my soul. Thank you for the promise that You are the Light that will never be extinguished. Amen.

(1) Quoted by Hudson T. Armerding in “The Hand of God,” Wheaton Magazine (Winter 2005), p. 59.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 19

DÉCOR
“The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone.” –Revelation 21:19

Popular artwork about Heaven often portrays it as white-robed beings floating among fluffy white clouds. As though God’s creativity ended with vanilla! The truth is that the Bible speaks of Heaven as a place of brilliant color. Descriptions of the New Jerusalem—God’s specially-made Heavenly city—nearly explode with extravagant color. The old apostle John, accustomed to gray rocks of his island prison, grabbed gemstone names to try to describe the colors he saw in his vision of Heaven.

When his vision took him to God’s Throne Room, he said the One sitting there “had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne” (Rev. 4:3). Scholars still puzzle about “jasper,” but think it was green or yellow. Carnelians (sardine) are deep red. Emeralds are a rich, pure green. The Heavenly city’s foundations are decorated with precious stones: jasper (greenish or yellow), sapphire (azure), chalcedony (unknown, perhaps green and blue), emerald (green), sardonyx (red and white), sardius (red), carnelian (red), chrysolite (yellow), beryl (sea-green), topaz (yellow), chrysoprase (golden green), jacinth (violet), and amethyst (rose-red). Not to forget gates of pearl and streets of transparent gold (Rev. 21:18-21). Every hue of the rainbow is there.

John’s vision doesn’t necessarily mean that Heaven is actually studded with precious stones. Yes, God could reach into earth’s grimy mines and dig out precious stones, then cut and polish them, and finally mount them on Heaven’s city. He could also simply create new gems to make His Heavenly home beautiful beyond description. Or, without using gemstones, He could make Heaven a never-ending rainbow.

Even earthly rainbows draw our hearts inexplicably upward. A storm rushes through, the sun glistens through the racing clouds, and we look in the sky for that colored arch from refracted light. Always, the underside is purple, then come indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Sometimes there are two rainbows.

For thousands of years, that transitory arch has reminded us of God’s faithfulness. He chose a man of the soil and of faith to preach about purity amidst moral blackness. From the unlikely pulpit of an enormous boat construction project, Noah urged repentance for 120 years. Then the skies blackened, boiling with furious storms until the entire earth flooded. Its living colors were destroyed. For over a year, Noah floated in a dim and stinky zoo. When the waters receded enough for land to emerge, and for Noah to make a fresh start, God sent color. The rainbow. And with it, His promise to never again flood the earth (Gen. 9:12-17).

What else, but colors pulled from the millions of hues embedded in rainbows, would do for Heaven? Heaven will be so full of delicious, delightful, and desirous colors that no artist’s palette could hold even a tiny fraction of them. If the colors of Heaven were printed on the color cards of a paint store, they’d fill the world—and more. If Heaven had a box of crayons, we’d be naming the colors for millennia.

Artists understand the amazing world of color. Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic and mouth artist, called her much-acclaimed efforts only feeble attempts to mirror what she sees. “I imitate with a gray pencil,” she said, “what God has painted with an infinite array of colors. My drawings, bounded by the edges of a sketch pad, can never fully portray God’s boundless nature above, beneath, and around us.” (1)

Heaven’s not a gauze of clouds or a mist machine set on high. It is exploding colors in unimaginable brilliance. One man who believes he had a vision of Heaven during his ninety minutes of being “dead” reported sensing a “bright iridescence.”(2) Something “iridescent” is constantly changing colors. The light breaks in countless hues—reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, indigos, violets—dancing and sparkling and almost putting senses on overload. Will all these colors mean a confused circus of Heavenly décor? Not at all. God has always been a God of order. But He’s also a God of creativity.

If the walls of your earthly home are nondescript ivory or tan, hang on. Could God, who knows the colors you truly love, be planning periwinkle for your special place? Or hydrangea? Or even daffodil, alpine lake blue, or the neon green of a jungle frog? Will the rainbow stripe the walls of your Heavenly place? Remember, to see a rainbow, we always look up in hope. Whatever the décor, it will be beautiful. After all, God designed it!

Prayer: Creator God, when I stop to think that You created colors that delight the eye, my vision of Heaven really brightens up! Amen.

(1) Joni Eareckson and Steve Estes, A Step Further (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), pp. 176-77.
(2) Don Piper with Cecil Murphey, 90 Minutes in Heaven (Grand Rapids: Revell, 2004), p. 33.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 18

DRESSING ROOM
“As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.” –Isaiah 62:5b

Some call it “the most important room in the house,” referring to one with a tub or shower, sink and toilet. But will there be bathrooms in Heaven? In our new bodies, will we need a place to wash and take care of body functions? Will God allow nice, long soaks in a tub? We don’t know. But if we expand the idea of “bathroom” to the greater role of a “room of preparation,” we may come closer to a Heavenly equivalent. Think of the room that many larger churches set apart for a bride and her attendants to dress for the wedding ceremony. Many are tastefully decorated with couches and mirrors to honor this very special occasion.

Some people may insist her dressing room is a boudoir, meaning “private dressing room or sitting room.” However, this French word, loaned to our English language, literally means “a place to sulk.” Perhaps in earlier times it described young ladies who were less than thrilled with the men seeking their affections. But when it’s a private dressing room for a wedding, the bride can hardly wait to exchange vows and rings with her beloved. You can be sure that the bride will spend extra time dressing and preparing her hair and makeup. This is her day! She is getting married to a wonderful man who has captured her heart. The clock ticks down, and soon she’s at the doors entering the church. She wears the most beautiful dress she has ever owned of glistening white satin and lace. Her veil is like a halo around her face. Her eyes gleam in anticipation. The soft prelude music crescendos to a royal processional, and she enters, her focus on her waiting bridegroom.

Heaven’s dressing room won’t be a “place to sulk” either. Who would pout and complain when you will be joined to the perfect Bridegroom, the One who laid down His life for you! No matter our gender, male or female, as believers we are the bride. That is why, though it may seem an odd connection, but when a person dies, a wedding’s ahead.

At age 78, Louise was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Told she had just a few months to live, she wrote “final letters” to her children and grandchildren. She also got busy planning her own funeral. After her death, she wanted to be cremated in a dress she wore to a recent family wedding. She wanted two memorial services, one at her home church and another at the church where she was married. She listed what she wanted said and sung. She also planned a “reception” (not a “funeral dinner”) after her memorial and told what she wanted served there. Her family had to have this feast catered! “She wasn’t planning a funeral,” her son John said. “She was having a wedding celebration.” Her last words included “Jay,” the name of her late husband. We can only guess her first words in Heaven. Could they have been “Jesus”? Her eternal Bridegroom had called her.

The apostle John captured that in this vision of Heaven: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The “new Jerusalem” is God’s chosen--believers. We are the bride! Let that sink in, and then put it in the context of a story told in a famous old devotional book, Streams in the Desert. An accident blinded a ten-year-old boy from a well-to-do family. Despite his handicap, he graduated with university honors. He also won the love of a young woman, even though he had never seen her, only felt her face. Shortly before their marriage, he underwent treatments that doctors said might restore his vision. He came to the church on his wedding day with his eyes swathed in bandages. Distinguished guests packed the church as he, his father, and a doctor moved to the front for the bride’s procession. As the bride came near, a doctor cut away the last bandage on his eyes. The bridegroom blinked in astonishment over seeing his bride, then walked toward her with extraordinary joy over her beauty. (1)

In Heaven’s wedding, the Groom, Jesus Christ, sees just fine. The bride (the church, including us) comes blinded by earth’s troubles and trials. When death removes the bandages, we will see our Groom face to face. Oh, the joy of that day! Start the wedding march!

Prayer: “The Bride of Christ”—I can hardly wrap my mind around that symbol, but it’s so wonderful. Thank you for loving me so completely, Jesus. Amen.

(1) Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, compiler, Streams in the Desert, entry for March 27 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1925, 1953, 1965).

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 17

THE NURSERY
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”—Matthew 19:14

It’s hard to walk among cemetery grave markers for babies and small children. Parents dream big with each pregnancy and birth. When a little life is cut short, we have many questions. Why did this little one have to die? Why is the pain so deep? Will I recognize them in heaven? Some people wonder if babies and children become little angels in heaven, something like the chunky, rose-cheeked “cherubs” on Valentine’s Day cards. But that’s not a teaching of the Bible. Yes, God created angels, but for special sacred jobs in heaven. Babies are not pre-angels.

But God does use little ones to draw us to greater awe of His creative power. You’ve probably watched a little hand curl around your finger, and marveled how this life started mere months earlier as an egg and sperm. Children teach us about our weaknesses and need for God’s help as we struggle to care for them and train them.

Make no mistake: God loves children in a very special way. We see that in how Jesus reacted with children. One of the most poignant scenes of His earthly ministry involved the common people bringing their children to Him for blessing. Jesus’ disciples tried to stop the crush of parents, but Jesus urged them not to interfere. “Let the little children come to me,” He said. Stop and think about that. He wanted them to come! These weren’t influential people or religious leaders—just children. Yet about them, He added, “Do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matt. 9:14). Envision Jesus nuzzling a newborn and touching its cheek to encourage a smile. Stroking the downy head of an older baby, transfixed by His eyes. Hugging a toddler to His chest as He spoke quietly of His Father’s love. Scooping older siblings to His side, maybe laughing with them.

Earlier, His disciples had asked who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. No doubt they hoped to know who was His favorite follower. Instead, he called a little child out of the crowd. “Unless you change and become like little children,” He said, “you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). After commending child-like faith, He revealed something else: “For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (Matt. 18:11). Children are so special to God that they have assigned angels!

This side of heaven, we’ll never understand fully why children die. Some people worry that babies and children, who never got a chance to understand truths of salvation, will be left out of heaven. But the Bible says God is merciful and knows those who are His (2 Tim. 1:19). The Judge of all the earth will do right (Gen. 18:25). Like a shepherd who went to great pains to find his lost sheep, Jesus said God the Father “is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” (Matt. 18:14). So, expect to see the children, including those who died before birth. Will they “grow up” in heaven? The Bible is silent on that, but we’re assured that in heaven we’ll recognize one another.

Ely Swanson, a mechanic and inventor, believed that. His son Norm says his father often told this story as an encouragement about heaven. The second of seven children, Ely was in his seventies when his sister Lillian, a retired missionary, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. A few weeks before she died, Ely had a vivid dream. In recounting the dream to family members, Ely said he couldn’t find words to describe what he saw, and thought it must have been heaven. Some sort of being guided him around this place where he saw four family members, all appearing to be in their early twenties. These included his godly father and mother, plus his brother Philip. Philip had rejected his Christian upbringing from an early age and lived a difficult life, but became a Christian at a Billy Graham crusade shortly before his death. Ely also thought he saw his sister Lillian, but because Lillian had not yet died, he was confused and asked why she was here. The guide in his dream responded, “That is not Lillian. It’s Marie.” Ely had forgotten his parents had a baby girl, Marie, who lived only four hours.

A life too short for heaven? Not at all. The song is right. Jesus loves the little children….they are precious in His sight.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the assurance that Heaven will include the little ones who died so young. Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 16

THE BEDROOM
“They will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.” –Revelation 14:13

“He has entered into rest.” “She is at rest.” Those phrases bring comfort to those who watched a loved one suffer on the way to death. They also raise a question. In heaven, will we have a place to rest, like a bedroom?

To get an answer, we need to examine how people in Bible-times used “sleep” when they really meant “death.” The best-known example is the death of Lazarus, Jesus’ friend. Lazarus was desperately ill when his sisters sent for Jesus, hoping He would heal their brother. While Jesus was on the way there, Lazarus died anyway. Though Jesus’ followers didn’t know that, Jesus did. “He’s asleep,” Jesus told them. Their response was basically this: “Sleep’s good. He should get well now.” Then Jesus corrected them, saying plainly, “Lazarus has died” (John 11:11-14).

It’s true that a person who has died may appear to be asleep. But he doesn’t breathe and his heart doesn’t beat. The earthly body has quit working. It’s “at rest” from the task of living, and has started to decay. The Old Testament’s Job said of death, “There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest” (Job 3:17). Or as the prophet Isaiah wrote, “Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death” (Isaiah 57:2).

But the spirits of the dead don’t sleep. The Bible says a person’s spirit leaves the body to go to the presence of God—“away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). Eventually, when Christ returns to earth, our spirits will be re-joined to our old bodies, reconstructed into heaven-ready “glorified” bodies. Our new bodies won’t become exhausted or fatigued.” Our “labor” in heaven will be refreshing and productive, like Adam and Eve’s in Eden before sin banned them from God’s perfect environment. Our “rest” will be a rest from “want.” We’ll lack nothing. We’ll be fully satisfied.

For Kyle, that rest was a long time coming. In his eighties, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and lung cancer, he had to be moved out of his large bed at home to a narrow hospital bed. One night as his wife Shirley was getting ready to leave, he asked, “Why don’t you spend the night with me? I know the bed is narrow, but we could manage.” Shirley responded, “I don’t think the nursing home would approve.” “What kind of a dumb rule is that?” he complained. A month later he didn’t need a bed any more. On Christmas Day, he “entered into rest.”

Thought of earthly bedrooms raises another issue. In heaven, will there be a “marriage bed”? In Jesus’ time, that was a hot question. Sadducees (who didn’t believe in the resurrection—no wonder their name started with “sad”!) tried to trick him by setting up a what-if situation. Their reasoning went like this: Suppose a woman’s husband dies, leaving her childless. Moses’ law says she needs to marry his brother to keep the family line going and inheritance safe. So she marries him, and he dies. One at a time, she marries the rest of his brothers and they die. Eventually, she’s gone through seven husbands. Who gets her as his wife in heaven?

Jesus answered them that on earth, marriage is a major preoccupation. In heaven, people will “neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels” (Luke 20:35-36). It doesn’t say we become angels (they’re separately-created beings), but we’ll be like them in the sense of no longer desiring to pair off in marriage. We won’t be “neutered” or sexless. We’ll still retain our essence of female or male, part of God’s amazing plan in designing humanity. But we won’t need marital relations that result in bearing children. So, no marriage bed. No need for mood-enhancing candles or locked doors. For those who never married, no pressure to “find the right one.” Jesus is the right one. With Him will be all ecstasies and intimacies.

Will we see a dearly-loved husband or wife who went to heaven? Why not? After Jesus’ resurrection, His followers recognized him. Scottish author George MacDonald quipped: “Will we be greater fools there than here?” (1) The joy of reunion is part of the joy of heaven.

If your earthly bed is a place of pain and sorrow, remember that will be forgotten in Heaven. If it is a lonesome place, be assured that God is ready to wrap you up completely in the comforter called Divine Love.

Prayer: Dear God, knowing there’s no weariness or loneliness in Heaven helps me look forward to being Home there. Amen.

(1) MacDonald quoted in Peter Kreeft, “What Will Heaven Be Like?”, Christianity Today, accessed at http;//ctlibrary.com/print.html?idi=7409 on June 27, 2006.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 15

THE PARLOR“You fill me with joy in your presence.” –Psalm 16:11
The world’s leaders use throne rooms, executive offices and legislative halls to conduct state business. But they also use the more informal setting of a small meeting room for honest negotiations with other decision makers. In Heaven, we’ll expect our King of Kings and Lord of Lords to have a Throne Room. But could we also enjoy time with the One who called us “friends” (John 15:15) in a friendlier gathering room, like an old-fashioned parlor? I’d like to think so.
Even though Jesus sits in honor at the right hand of the Father in the Throne Room, He remembers earth’s humbler ways. He was born in the filth of a stable, wore simple, home-made sandals and clothes, and never had a home of His own. He wasn’t too important to kick back and relax with His followers. He will understand our comfort level for meeting together as “just friends.” In fact, we’re already having “parlor times” with Christ every time we read our Bibles and pray. He is there, though He cannot be seen.
Admittedly, “parlor” is an old-fashioned word. For me, it brings up memories of the 1950s and my Uncle Pete and Aunt Lauretta’s humble home on an isolated eastern Montana farm. The home had three bedrooms but no inside plumbing. They pumped their water from a well. There was a huge kitchen and a small “root cellar” with walls lined with home-canned food. Poor by many standards, Pete and Lauretta were rich toward God. That’s because of their daily visits with Jesus in the small “parlor” just off the kitchen. Pete kept his well-worn Bible next to his armchair with its sunken leather seat. Lauretta, her Bible also well-used, talked often of God’s promises and answers to prayer.
It’s not hard for me to transition from their earthly “parlor” visits with Jesus to imagining their first “just friends” meeting with the Savior. Was there a long, grateful hug? What did they talk about? Perhaps Pete told Jesus, “Remember that wheat field that I said was my tithe to You? I’ll never forget how You spared that field when hail destroyed crops all around. I still got enough from the rest of the harvest to live on. Thanks, Jesus. I knew it was You.”
How will we know it’s Jesus that we’re meeting in Heaven? Isaiah prophesied that Jesus’ human form wasn’t movie-star quality: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2). Indeed, people found it hard to believe that the carpenter Joseph’s son could be the Messiah. Isaiah also predicted Christ’s flogging and crucifixion, hundreds of years before executioners nailed the condemned to crosses: “His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness” (52:14). Yet I believe we’ll recognize Jesus, and see the scars remaining on His resurrection body. I’ll know Him by the face that says, “I love you. I gladly died for you.” I’ll realize it’s truly Him by the way He says, “Welcome to the home I prepared for you.”
Will we be frightened, feeling unworthy in His presence? No. His death for our sins means we’re presented “holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Col. 1:22). That was true of the moment on earth you accepted Christ’s gift of salvation, and remained true as you stayed “unmoved from the hope held out in the gospel” (Col. 1:23).
When He enters the parlor, He will remind you that you are friends. As a worship chorus says, we will glory in His embrace. Or as Charles Gabriel put it in his old hymn, “Yet, just a smile from my Savior, I know, will through the ages be glory for me.” Friends hug, talk, laugh, rejoice, and connect. He will tell you, “Come and share your master’s happiness” (Matt. 25:23).
What a joy to anticipate: being with Jesus again. Maybe it will be in the intimacy of Heaven’s version of a parlor, maybe in the midst of a Heavenly work assignment. No longer will we have to meet with Him without seeing Him, as we did on earth in that quiet seat in a parlor or some other spot with a Bible and a prayerful heart.
Throughout Heaven, genuine, heartfelt, and clear communication will take place. We’ll know the intimacy expressed in Isaiah 64:1: “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” In His presence, as Psalm 16:11 says, we will be filled with joy!

Prayer: Jesus, thank You for being both my Savior and my Friend. Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 14

THE THRONE ROOM
“Day and night they never stop saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.’” –Revelation 4:8

How would you meet the King of Kings? One of Wheaton College’s great presidents, Dr. Raymond Edman, was trying to explain that one day in chapel. He wanted students to take worship seriously, so told about his visit to Haile Selassie, former emperor of Ethiopia. Before seeing the monarch, Edman was briefed about royal protocol and told how to bow with respect as he entered the king’s presence. “In the same way,” Edman said, “we must prepare ourselves to meet God.” At that moment, Edman slumped onto the pulpit, fell to the floor, and died. Just like that, he entered the presence of the King of Kings. In the context of his message, his death stunned the Christian community. Many said Edman in dying that way “had the easiest transition to heaven of anybody they’ve ever known, that he lived so much of his life in the presence of God down here that he simply changed venues.” (David Jeremiah, Prayer: The Great Adventure, Multnomah, 1997, p. 98).

The Bible says Heaven is God’s throne and earth is his footstool (Isaiah 66:1, Matt. 5:34). That’s beyond our understanding, along with the unfathomable truth that the all-knowing, all-present, all-seeing, and timeless One created the world and each of us. When the prophet Isaiah had a vision of God’s throne room, he struggled to express God’s greatness: “I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1). He wrote of six-winged creatures flying about the throne, continually calling out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The doorposts and thresholds shook and smoke filled the temple (6:2-4). Experiencing all this, Isaiah could only cry out, “Woe is me.”

Eight hundred years later, after Christ’s time on earth, His disciple John had another vision of God’s throne room. By now, John was the last surviving disciple, an old man of ninety imprisoned on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. One day, as John was what he called “in the spirit”—perhaps in prayerful communication with God--he had that memorable vision. What he saw put him at a loss for words. He could only say the Person on the throne “had the appearance of” precious stones (Rev. 4:3). He also saw:

Brilliance: A rainbow “resembling an emerald” (does this stretch your imagination?) encircled the throne (4:3)
Assistants: The thrones of twenty-four “elders” who fell before the One on the throne and offered him their crowns as they praised Him (4:4, 9-10).
Mighty noise: “Flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder” (4:5).
Blinding light: “Before the throne seven lamps were blazing” (4:5).
Amazing flooring: “Before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.” (4:6).
Countless heaven-creatures: “I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand” (5:11)
Incredible praise creatures. Like Isaiah, John saw six-winged creatures, but got a closer look at four. Full of eyes, one was similar to a lion, another to an ox, a third to a man, and the fourth to an eagle. They never stopped saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (4:6b-8). One author remarked he always wondered why these magnificent creatures said the same thing over and over. “The answer was an epiphany,” he said. “The wonder of being in God’s presence never wore off.” (Dan Schaeffer, “Paradise Found,” Discipleship Journal, Issue 136, July/August 2003, p. 39).

Have you considered what you’ll do when ushered into God’s throne room? Will you curl up, face covered, because of His blazing holiness? Or will you dance in purest joy that you’re finally there? Will you be aware of others worshiping as well? In John’s vision there “was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9).

What will be the most astounding aspect of the throne room? Perhaps King David anticipated it: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). The old apostle John also anticipated gazing on the beauty of the Lord: “We shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:3). “They shall see His face” (Rev. 22:4).

What will be the most wonderful part of Heaven? No question: the Throne Room, where we shall see the King of Kings in all His glorious splendor.

Prayer: Great God of all, help me to worship You now as I anticipate seeing You on your Heavenly throne. Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 13

CEILINGS
“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third Heaven…to Paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.” –2 Corinthians 12:2, 4

Ceilings in the Sistine Chapel in Rome display some of the most famous paintings in the world, stroked five hundred years ago by Michelangelo. Painstakingly brushed into fresh lime plaster as he lay on his back on scaffolding, the frescoes depict Creation, the fall of Adam and Eve, and Noah and the flood. To see them, people must look up, just as we instinctively look skyward when thoughts turn to Heaven. Why up? Perhaps because we consider Heaven the “ceiling” of all creation. Though its location and nature are wrapped in mystery, Heaven is beyond our understanding of time and space. But it’s real.

Jesus said He came “down” from Heaven (John 6:33). When He ascended after His resurrection, His body rose steadily upward from land until clouds obscured his passage (Acts 1:2). His followers would have stared at the sky all day if two white-garbed beings hadn’t told them, “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into Heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into Heaven” (Acts 1:11).

To avoid any misunderstanding about what we call “outer space” and true Heaven, it’s helpful to realize that the Bible refers to three “heavens.” The first Heaven is the firmament and atmosphere, what we call “sky.” It is space where manned and unmanned rockets have flown. But it’s not God’s home. Soviet cosmonaut and atheist Yuri Gargarin, the first man in space in 1961, revealed his ignorance of the spiritual realm when he scoffed, “I saw no God.” He died in a plane crash in 1968, the same year that an American astronaut reminded the world of God’s indescribable creative greatness. Aboard Apollo 8 in a lunar orbit, Frank Borman beamed back to earth stunning photos of his home planet in a black vastness, plus read the creation account from Genesis 1: “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth….”

The second Heaven is the matchless celestial universe. The psalmist wrote, “The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1). When my family slept in the backyard on sultry summer nights, we lay amazed by the display of the moon and innumerable stars. It’s said that President Teddy Roosevelt and American naturalist William Beebe had a nighttime ritual when they were together. They’d find the constellation Pegasus in the night sky, then look for a speck of light nearby. Then they’d chant: “That is the Spiral Galaxy of Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun.” Then Roosevelt would conclude, “Now I think we are small enough. Let’s go to bed.” A hundred more years of scientific discovery would shrink them even more. Now scientists claim they undercounted the number of stars in our galaxy by billions. That’s just our galaxy.

The Bible’s third Heaven is the dwelling place of God. The Bible talks of God looking down from Heaven and from his lofty, holy and glorious throne (Isaiah 63:15). God said that Heaven is His throne and earth is His footstool (Isaiah 66:1). We struggle to understand this because God is a spirit. How can a spirit “dwell”? Yet we know that Heaven is a realm that can accommodate the special body Jesus had after His resurrection. Paul referred to this Heaven in his report of a heavenly vision of “inexpressible things” (2 Cor. 12:1-4). The aging apostle John, given a vision of Heaven, had the same problem. He had only earth-bound words and symbols to try to describe God’s dwelling place.

Our finite minds simply cannot envision the dwelling place of an infinite God. But He permits us to lift our hearts upward, however that comes about—even if just a ceiling in a home. One woman told how the glitter-embedded textured ceiling in her bedroom drew her heart toward Heaven during a time of sickness. “As I lay in bed, sun from the window made that ceiling glisten like the stars,” she said. “It made me homesick for Heaven, even though I knew my ceiling wasn’t the sky, and even outer space isn’t Heaven.”

That being the case, how will we ever find the way to Heaven? Jesus already answered the question: “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:3). We do not need a map. He knows the way, and that is enough.

Prayer: God, that part of your creation I can see is amazing. It reminds me of your vastness and power, so far beyond what I can understand now. Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 12

THE WARDROBE
“Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our Heavenly dwelling.”
–2 Corinthians 5:2

“Is this really it?” I whispered to the librarian who checked me through “security” to the C.S. Lewis collection in the Wheaton College library. Before me stood an ornate dark brown wardrobe. Carved by his grandfather more than a century ago, it was a prized piece in the 1973 auction of Lewis’s estate.

This might have been just another old, bulky piece of furniture if Lewis had not written his famed Chronicles of Narnia. In the first book of the fantasy fiction, four children were staying at the country home of a bachelor professor to escape London’s wartime bombing. One boring, rainy day, the children decided to play “hide-and-seek” and the youngest climbed inside the wardrobe. The back of it led her to the frozen land of Narnia.

Was this the wardrobe that inspired Lewis’s imagination? His late brother Warren said it was. Seeing it sparked my imagination about Heaven having a wardrobe, located just inside the entry hall for the coats of invited guests. I thought of the verse, “For this mortal must put on immortality”(1 Cor. 15:53 KJV). In death, we shed our “mortal coats.” We cast off the bodies ruined by disease or injury and immediately go into the presence of the Lord. This is usually called the “intermediate state,” because we won’t get our resurrection bodies until Christ returns to earth.

But being “body-less” won’t impair our joy of Heaven. Besides being with Christ, the Bible says we’ll be among “thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” (Heb. 12:22). Can you imagine the dynamism amidst so many joyful beings? The closest we can come on earth might be opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympic games. But those earthly events, despite all the hoopla, are just dots in the infinity of eternity. This is Heaven!

We’ll be with believers of all ages (Heb. 12:23). Maybe, in wonder, we’ll say, “Look, over there--Martin Luther, the Wesley brothers, John Calvin—and D.L. Moody and Augustine and John Wycliffe and Bill Bright and early Christians that Nero threw to the lions--and great-grandma and that older lady from church who poured her love of Jesus into me and….” I think the discoveries will go on and on. We’ll be perfectly conformed to Christ in our spirits (also v. 23). No shame or regrets, just fellowship. No wonder Paul declared that departing to be with Christ “is better by far”(Phil. 1:23).

Then someday, in the glorious climax of history, we’ll get our new “coats”—our new bodies. It will happen in the “twinkling of an eye”(1 Cor. 15:52)--faster than you can blink. Jesus will descend from Heaven “with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God.” It will be sudden and loud and royal! “The dead in Christ will rise first.”(1 Thess. 4:16). The same God who supervised how molecules became the earthly “you” will re-gather those disintegrated components. It doesn’t matter to Him whether you were buried in a coffin or your body destroyed by fire, an explosion, or lost at sea. He will reassemble the new, Heaven-ready “you.” After the dead are raised and given new Heaven-worthy bodies, then the still-living believers will be called up: “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”(v. 17).

Imagine. Someday, life is going on as usual, except the world has gotten unbearably wicked. We’re doing our best to live for Christ. Then suddenly, faster than you can blink, “new” bodies jet out of the earth and sea, and we follow right behind—right into Heaven. No wonder the Bible says, “Encourage each other with these words” (v. 18). This new body will be “us” but it will be something entirely new. It’s like a seed on earth. When we press a pumpkin seed into the soil, it’s just a dried oval of cellulose. It doesn’t produce more dried cellulose ovals. It sends out stout vines and leaves. Then golden blossoms come, wither, and start growing green globes. After several months, these are bright orange pumpkins. So with our earthly bodies:
Sown perishable, raised imperishable.
Sown in dishonor, raised in glory.
Sown in weakness, raised in power.
Sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. (1 Cor. 15:42-44)
Hard to wrap your mind around that? Don’t worry. It’s God’s doing. The “new you” He designs will be perfectly equipped for Heaven and, best of all, never die. Maybe we’ll stop, pat this new body all over, and say, “Is this really it?” And it will be.

Prayer: Lord, the promise of “new bodies” helps me look beyond my pain to the wonders of Heaven. Thank You! And, amen!

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 11

THE CLOCK
“For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.” –Acts 13:36

Foyers of classic old homes often had a place for a tall, stately cabinet clock properly called a “longcase clock.” But we have come to know them as “Grandfather’s Clocks” because of a story told of two brothers who operated an English travelers’ inn. The clock in their lobby kept perfect time until one brother died. Then, despite repair efforts by local clock makers, it started losing time until it absolutely quit the day the second brother died.

Poet Henry Clay Work took that story and in 1875 turned it into the well-known poem and song “My Grandfather’s Clock.” Most can remember the tune with its steady tick-tock in the background and lyrics about the clock bought on the day the owner was born. The famed final lines say, “But it stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died.”

Clocks make us think of our own “time.” The chiming of a classic clock gently reminds us that time is passing. If it chimed the hour and half-hour, over a typical human lifetime of 75 to 80 years it would have sounded nearly 1.4 million times. That seems like a lot of time, but to God, it’s a blip on the screen of eternity. Even the remarkable life of King David, Israel’s shepherd-turned-warrior-king, was a “blip” in time. After forty years as king, one day at age 70 he took his last breath. He touched history, and went on. God considered David’s work ended—or as Acts 13:36 says, he lived until he served God’s purpose in his generation.

We, too, live for God’s purpose in our generation. But that’s not the end of the story. Something wonderful happens with “time” when we die. The Grandfather’s Clock song failed to tell it. Even writers of hymns have a hard time expressing our “after-time” life. Think of “Amazing Grace”: “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we’ve first begun.” Some people quip that’s an awfully long choir rehearsal! But remember: death takes us from earth-time to heaven-time.

Heaven won’t be “endless time” or “timelessness.” Time is a way to measure things happening, and things will truly happen in heaven. People will speak. They’ll fall down in worship, casting their crowns before the throne. Music inherently has beat—another “time” element. The Bible describes a “tree of life” in Heaven that bears twelve crops of fruit, one each month (Rev. 22:2). Does this mean we’ll have “time” as we now define by it by a solar orbit? We don’t know. Perhaps God used an earthly term to let us know this miraculous tree will provide on a regular basis.

People who couldn’t live without their pocket or desk planners, watches, or alarm clocks will be able to relax in “heaven time.” There will be plenty of time for everything that’s important—which is, of course, everything in heaven. I believe that time in heaven will most likely mean activity without physical or mental weariness. It will not tick down, like a timer. It will go on for infinity. We’ll never have to say, “I wish I had more time.”

But until we’re there, we live in earth time until we die. The Bible says, “No man knows when his hour will come”(Eccl. 9:12). This uncertainty bothers many people who fear death or feel unready to die. One respected Bible teacher admitted that when he started preaching across the country and needed to fly to his engagements, he feared the plane would crash and end his life. Then one day a friend counseled him: “Remember this…God’s man, living in the center of God’s will, is immortal until God is through with him” (David Jeremiah, Prayer: The Great Adventure, Multnomah, 1997, p. 216). Jesus modeled that principle for us. In spite of many threats on His life, Jesus didn’t go to the cross until He finished His work on earth.

The psalmist declared his trust in God’s timing: “My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:15) Charles Spurgeon, a great preacher of the 19th century, called this a “golden sentence.” Because our times are in God’s hands, he said, all is well because God never changes. “Things will happen which you cannot foresee,” he commented, “but your Lord has foreseen all, and provided for all. Nothing can happen without His divine allowance” (Quoted in Ellen Vaughn, Time Peace: Living Here and Now with a Timeless God, Zondervan, 2007, p. 210).

Tick, tick, tick…those sounds remind us of God’s gift of time. Let them also assure you that His timing to come to Heaven is exactly right.

Prayer: God, comfort me and remove my fears about not having enough time. Your timing is perfect. Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 10

THE FOYER
“I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God.” –Psalm 84:10b

Who doesn’t love a surprise party? Imagine your friends hiding behind the door, tingling with excitement. “Shh!” they remind each other as you come near. You open the door and hear, “Surprise!” The fun begins—all because of you.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a party’s waiting on the other side of death’s door, too. If Heaven has an entrance hall, your welcome party will begin there. In English, it’s often called the “foyer,” a word derived from Latin for “hearth” or “fireplace.” Long ago, if it was stormy outside, people looked forward to stepping inside the door and getting near the fire.

So, envision leaving earth’s physical and emotional storms behind. Your Heaven-homecoming party’s starting, and you’re giddy with anticipation. Perhaps this verse will describe your mood: “Then you will look and be radiant, you heart will throb and swell with joy” (Isaiah 60:5). You won’t have to worry about the excitement sending your blood pressure too high or feeling pain in your heart’s clogged arteries. You left that sick earthly body behind. This is Heaven, the home you’ve longed for. Maybe your reaction will be like that of the talking unicorn in C.S. Lewis’s story, The Last Battle: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now” (Collier Books, 1956, p. 171).

Yes, you’re finally, truly home.

Sadly, some religious traditions stall your progress into Heaven’s grand entryway. They say you must go into a holding room of sorts to be “purged” of past sins until you’re “good enough” for Heaven. The Bible says nothing of the sort. You can forget, too, the cartoons of St. Peter standing behind a podium with a big list, checking if you “measured up” to Heaven’s standards before you are let in. There’s not a shred of Biblical evidence for that. You make your reservations for Heaven the moment you believed that Christ died for your sins.

Who will greet you at Heaven’s door? The Bible is silent on this, but why not people you expected to see, and some you didn’t? Loved ones who shared a faith in Christ. People whose lives you impacted for Christ, whether or not you realized it. Maybe dozens of them, perhaps hundreds. Ancestors you knew only from names in the family history book may welcome you as a fellow citizen of Heaven.

Are you wondering how all these people will know you since you came as a “spirit,” not with your old, sick, or mortally wounded body? God’s big enough to have that one figured out. Somehow, the essence of you will be there. People will just know. For a glimpse of how that’s possible, remember the time Jesus took His closest disciples to a high mountain. There, His body underwent a special change. His body shone like the sun and His clothing like blazing light. Suddenly, two figures of ancient Jewish history, long dead, stood with him. Jesus’ disciples could not have known the identity of these people. Back then, no film or artists recorded history. But Peter knew—just knew—the figures were Moses and Elijah. Typical for his impulsive personality, he was so excited he suggested putting up a museum to that moment. Then a cloud obscured the setting and it was over (Matt. 17:1-8). Like Peter just knew these men, it’s probable that we’ll just know people when we get to Heaven.

Back to that party: don’t worry about forgetting peoples’ names. Because memory loss belongs to the fallen condition of our earth-lives, there shouldn’t be “senior moments.” Perhaps we’ll have the reunion to end all reunions. We won’t struggle to keep the conversations going. The main topic of conversation will be Jesus and the joy of being in Heaven. I’m guessing we’ll finally understand why King David sang out, “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere” (Psalm 84:10). Despite all the lavish privileges he enjoyed as king of Israel, nothing compared to the presence of God. He declared he’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God. That’s where the action was!

To carry on the comparison, who else might be in the foyer greeting you? God’s angelic messengers, perhaps ones dispatched to help and protect you on earth? And why not the Lord Jesus Himself, welcoming His loved one Home? Remember, He loved parties on earth. He even made a stature-challenged tax collector named Zaccheus climb down out of a tree and put one on for Him (Luke 19:1-10)!

Close the door. Let the party begin. The honored guest is here.

Prayer: Lord, I love the thought of a welcome party when I arrive in Heaven. Thank you for loving me so much! Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 9

THE DOOR
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
–Matthew 11:28

Picture someone at Heaven’s door. Maybe they’re surprised to be here. They expected more years of life, but an accident or sudden, fatal illness propelled them here. Maybe death came after a long, painful and discouraging illness. They may hesitate, fully aware that they have never been here before. Yet, at some point they made a commitment to live forever on the other side.

They step back just a bit, enough to see that the door is held together by cross-shaped timbers. The only way to Heaven is through that cross. They remember what was said of this: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). They know there’s no turning back, only going forward. What would they tell those they will leave behind? Here are some famous dying words:
*“Into Thy hands I commend my spirit! Thou hast redeemed me, O God of Truth.” –15th century German reformer Martin Luther, who repeated the prayer thrice.
*“The best of it is, God is with us.”--the great British preacher John Wesley, 1791.
* “Earth recedes, Heaven opens before me. If this is death, it is sweet! There is no valley here. God is calling me and I must go.”--Evangelist D.L. Moody, 1899.
*“The Lord is coming for me today. He’s at the foot of my bed now.” --Audrey Wetherall Johnson, founder of Bible Study Fellowship, 1984.
*“Rejoice with me because I am no longer in this earthly tent. I am in the presence of the living God, satisfied at the deepest core of my being.”--Campus Crusade founder Bill Bright, 2003.

Whether we’re famous or unknown, at death’s door only Jesus matters. Janet recalls of her mother Doris: “The presence of the Lord was so apparent the last few days of her life. She kept saying, ‘Alleluia, praise Jesus,’ as though she had constant communion with her Lord.”

We’re also equal at that door, marked by a Cross. Jesus’ call is the same. “Jesus is calling, ‘Come unto me,’” Georgia kept telling her dying friend Eleanor. “And I will give you rest,” the weakening woman would reply. “Are you ready?” Georgia asked, knowing Eleanor’s earthly life would soon end. “Oh, yes!” Eleanor answered. Georgia noticed that a wall near Eleanor’s bed had a print of Salmon’s famous brown-tone painting of the head of Christ. Georgia decided to bring another famous print, Reed’s depiction of the hands of Jesus, known by the title “Come unto Me.” “See Jesus’ hands?” Georgia asked Eleanor, pointing to the artwork she’d brought. “He’s saying, ‘Come unto me. Are you ready?” And Eleanor, despite being so ill, managed a confident reply: “Oh, yes!”

When Eleanor lapsed into a coma, her daughter began a death vigil. Georgia came to give the daughter a break and began reading Bible passages aloud to Eleanor. “I knew she was in a coma,” Georgia said, “but I also know that hearing is one of the last senses lost. I decided to read from John 14—‘Let not your heart be troubled. In my Father’s house are many rooms.’” A nurse came in, checked Eleanor and told Georgia, “She’s really failing.” Georgia kept reading aloud. About five minutes later, the nurse checked again and said, “She’s gone.”As the nurse went to call Eleanor’s daughter, Georgia felt compelled to keep reading aloud, this time from Revelation 21 about Heaven meaning no more death, pain, or sorrow. From the other side of death’s door, Georgia believed, that would be Eleanor’s message to her loved ones.

Someday, each of us will hear the same invitation: “Come unto me.” Philip Keller, author of A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, said, that for a child of God, death is not an end but a “door into a higher and more exalted life of intimate contact with God.” (Zondervan, 1970, p. 84).

When Heaven’s door opens, where will you look? Down—at the nail prints in His hands? Then up—at His wonderful look of love? His voice will melt all doubts as you step over the threshold.

Prayer: Jesus, I love You and I want to come unto You, through the door marked by a cross. Amen.