Heaven & Earth
Heaven will be where there's no more sickness, death, pain, or suffering. There will be no sin there, everyone will treat each other with kindness, gentleness, and love. No more separation and loneliness. The way God meant it to be in the beginning.Earth has disease and death, hate and strife, selfishness, pain, and sufferering. I hurt you & you hurt me, whether intentionally or not.
I long to be home in heaven. Sometimes I ask God to take me home. This life is so hard and it hurts so much. I hope and believe for the heaven I described above because that's God's promise for those who believe in His son, Jesus Christ. I have trouble with what to hope and believe for here. God's promises aren't as clear here and God warns us that we'll have trouble, that we'll suffer and have hardships. I asked God to help me here this morning.
He brought to mind some people I know and myself. He gave me three examples - sports, math, and art.
Exercise:
A person out of shape has no real interest in exercising & sports- it's too hard and painful. It's a lot of work. The thing is though, that if that person perserveres and doesn't give up, it will get easier and easier - even to the point where that person will begin to enjoy it and want to participate in sports.
Math:
Same thing. A person who has difficulty understanding math will want to quit, give up, and just not do it. If that person keeps trying and perservering, eventually he/she will understand and have victory over it. The fear will disappear and it'll be no problem after that.
Art:
A person who's no good at art, has an idea of what he/she wants in his/her head but just can't get the hands to obey, has no interest in making works of art. (Me) But...if I keep trying, keep working at it, eventually my hands will be trained to where they'll obey my mind and I'd enjoy making works of art.
What does all this have to do with heaven and earth? We are sinful now and it's just easier to follow the flesh and give in to temptation. Being all God asks us to be is hard and can be painful, especially since we are in a world with other sinful people who have free will, just like us. In heaven we're called to be loving and kind. I thought that why not go to heaven now since God's going to instantaniously change me? It's about attitudes. God will instantaniously change me to be a sinless being. But think about it - at one time Satan was a sinless being, as was Adam and Eve. Attitude. This living out on earth will train us to want and enjoy the sinless life. If we didn't live out the difficulties, when we're made sinless, would we want to act as God desires us to? Would it seem easier to just do what we want?
Trials/tests:
Back to sports, math, and art. In sports, there's trials. I'm not referring to the trials that say whether you're "in" or not but the trials for those who are already "in". What are they meant to do? Not to boot you out but to see how you're doing and where you need improvement. Math tests? Same thing - how are you doing? where do you need more work? Art? Ditto. Then where we didn't do so well, we get more exercises, more problems, more practice. Then guess what? Test again. Even after we pass the test, we may be retested to see what we've retained, like a midterm exam and final exam. The best way to keep on top is to continue to practice and USE what we've learned regularly.
Back to heaven and earth. If we practice on earth what we'll be doing in heaven, we will have an attitude when we get to heaven that'll keep us close to God.
posted by Colleen @ 6:17 AM
2 Comments:
i think college really helps with this perspectives. good thoughts and examples here colleen.
Hard work, faith, and trust in God. I think we will all be amazed when we get to heaven and see the truth. I'm gonna kick myself for all the times I should have hung on a little longer or worked a little harder because God's blessing was right in front of me and I gave up seconds too soon.
He must get a good chuckle out of us.
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