Apr 9, 2020
Good Morning Fellow Travelers,
Read: Revelation 21, 22
“Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 11 Peter 3:13
As we get older, we anticipate heaven more. When we think of a place where sin has never entered, and where sorrow, death, pain, and tears have no place, our desire to experience it grows.
Many ideas are afloat about what we will be like in heaven and what heaven itself will be like. The Bible speaks much about this, and it is best to be scriptural. Let’s not be afraid to also be literal. The Bible is a literal book, and what it clearly states should be received as such.
Revelation 21:1 says John saw a new heaven and a new earth. Isaiah tells us that the former heaven and earth shall not be remembered (Isaiah 65:17). The glory of the new will be so much more glorious that the old will not compare.
John also saw the holy city coming down out of heaven. This is the literal dwelling place of God, the place prepared as a tabernacle where God will dwell with us forever. John goes on to describe the size and grandeur of this city.
Heaven holds no specific place of worship, for the entire place is for worship. The nations which are saved will be there. The gates of the city will never close. The city and the new earth and heavens are one glorious whole. We err in trying to separate them. Think of them as a place, for that is what they are.
We seem to feel that heaven, to be heaven, must be mystical, vaporous, and ethereal. No, let’s just believe it is real. This shadow land we live in now with all its darkness and spiritual wickedness numbs our spiritual senses. You will never have been more alive than when you awake on the other side. Never will your perception have been keener. Nothing will be more tangible, nothing more real than heaven.
Anticipate it.
~ James Baer