For Fellow Aliens: Our Hope is in Heaven

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Our Hope is in Heaven

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. Revelations 21:1,2 and 5

In 2001, my parents built a beautiful new home, with every detail to their specifications. I remember walking through that home in awe of the sparkling marble countertops, the pristine cabinets and the perfectly polished wood floors. It was hard to imagine a time when this house would be anything but spectacular. My parents diligently continue to take great pride and effort in keeping it in top condition, and yet, in fifty years, this house will show signs of wear and tear, depending on the level of attention it is given by its caretaker.

Just think of this: HEAVEN WILL NEVER WEAR DOWN. Everything there will ALWAYS be new, always be clean, always sparkle like a bride prepared for her groom. In times when there are many people who are discouraged and disillusioned, we all need to rememberthat our hope is not here on this earth. God tells us that: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Just imagine…NO ONE has even thought of the things that God has prepared for you in heaven! No one! Be encouraged to endure to the end, dear Christian!

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“There are many who speak only of the forgiveness of sin, but who say little or nothing about repentance. If there is nevertheless no forgiveness of sins without repentance, so also forgiveness of sins cannot be understood without repentance. Therefore, if forgiveness of sins is preached without repentance, it follows that the people imagine they have already received the forgiveness of sins, and thereby they become cocksure and fearless, which is then greater error and sin than all the error that preceded our time.” MELANCHTHON

“Satan tempts us at the point of our physical needs, not that we might gratify them to excess, but that we might think of nothing else and gratify them at the expense of our usefulness in this world. Satan tempts us at the point of our ambitions, not that we might engage in positive evil, but simply accept the fact of evil, learn to live with it, come to terms with it, and maintain a discreet silence in the presence of it. Satan tempts us at the point of our religion, not that we might disbelieve in God, but that we might demand certainty; -- that kind of certainty of God that leaves nothing to faith, nothing to God himself. These are the moral struggles that have reality for people such as we are; the subtle temptation to renounce our duty in favor of what is attractive, that insidious allurement to a kind of a half-goodness which is the essence of everything bad and which is more productive of suffering and hatred, war and misery in this world, than all the designs of wicked and greedy people combined.”

Arthur Leonard Griffith (God's Time and Ours)

My research suggested that people are simply not being pastored. Often ministers are out of touch with what's happening on the ground, as they are surrounded by a wall of secretaries and voice mail. Congregants have to wait up to a month for an appointment, if they can get in at all. Once-a-week home Bible study groups lack depth and theological know-how for help with the serious problems many of us face. Many churches refer people to professional counseling that costs at least seventy-five dollars an hour. Those lucky enough to have a health plan that pays for counseling usually find the only counselors on approved HMO lists have no concept of a Christian worldview.
Julia Duin from the book "Quitting Church"

I cannot believe in the spirituality of any Christian man who keeps an eye open for the approval of others, whoever they may be. The man after God’s own heart must be dead to the opinion of his friends as well as his enemies. He must be willing to cross important persons as obscure ones.
He must be ready to rebuke his superior as quickly as those who may be beneath him on the ecclesiastical ladder. To reprove one man in order to gain the favor of another is no evidence of moral courage. It is done in the world all the time. We’ll never be where we should be in our spiritual lives until we are so devoted to Christ that we ask no other approbation than His smile.
A.W. Tozer

I may . . . pass for being a relatively successful man. People occasionally stare at me in the streets—that’s fame. I can fairly easily earn enough to qualify for admission to the higher slopes of the Inland Revenue—that’s success. Furnished with money and a little fame . . . [I] may partake of trendy diversions—that’s pleasure. It might happen once in a while that something I said or wrote . . . represented a serious impact on our time—that’s fulfillment. Yet I say to you, and beg you to believe me, multiply those tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together, and they are nothing—less than nothing, a positive impediment—measured against one draught of that living water Christ offers to the spiritually thirsty.

—Malcolm Muggeridge, quoted in Richard D. Phillips, Jesus the Evangelist (Reformation Trust Publishing, 2007), 127

For Fellow Aliens

Statement of Purpose

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Our Hope is in Heaven

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