Do you ever find yourself thinking about what Heaven will be like? If you're like me then you defintely answered yes. When I was a kid, I had this image of Heaven that was something like Cloud City in Star Wars: a big gate sitting on top of a white fluffy cloud, golden streets and angels swooping around, harps playing in the distance, etc. As I got older I started to think of Heaven as a private fantasy island, where I would have a big house on a lake that I could jet-ski in all the time. (Oddly Jesus never seemed to be at the forefront of these dream scenarios, but they were still fun to think about.
Today for me, Jesus is really what Heaven is all about. Finally getting to meet Him. Even in that scenario though, plenty of questions still arise. Will we get to talk with him? Grill him about all the wonders of the universe and why this is like this and that is like that? Or will we simply spend eternity in a heavenly choir singing His praises along with the angels for time unending? A friend of mine recently asked if we would really see anyone else there, or if we would only have eyes for Jesus in all of His glory. This raises a really good question, who will be there? I don't know about you but I know plenty of Christians who, nice as they are, I'm not sure I want to be hanging out with for eternity. So will we see everyone there, or just the people we want to, if anyone?
Lastly, I want to jump back to my second scenario, is Heaven really one physical place where we will all be, or will my Heaven be different from yours? Will Dan get to cruise around in his red Ferrari while I'm off sky-diving or just cozying up with a good book? What do you think?
By Aaron Blackwell
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4 comments:
There's supposed to be a new heaven and new earth! I'm sure there are some logistics (scripturaly) I might have skewed...but...
I'm puting in my request to be a man again. Flesh and blood with- out sin! Heaven to me would be, getting to be what he originally had going in Eden, a man and his family on this wonder we call earth. Being a shaft of light is just somehow not so appealing. This is all assuming I have a choice. But really, as long as I get to be there....works for me!
I always felt that when we get to heaven we would have new "Super" knowledge! All our questions would be answered instantly when we arive like a flash of light! We would know why God allows bad things to happen and why He waited so long to come back. We would also not have to feel sad about things like why certain people could not get to be in heaven. God would reveal the purpose for everything like that to us. We would be able to understand Him completely. That is heaven!
Some things I know:
-There will be varying degrees of reward in some fashion or another. Throughout scripture we see that our reward is in heaven, or that some will be the least in heaven. Clearly, there will be different rewards (perhaps levels) than for others (Matt 5:12, 5:19, 6:20 etc.).
-That not everyone who thinks they are going to heaven will, but its not for us to say who will and won't (Matt7:21, etc.)
-I know that we will see the prophets of old (which would lead me to believe that we will be able to see everyone who is in heaven). (Matt 8:11)
-I know that Christians are given special knowledge of Heaven that non-believers are not privy to.(Matt 13:11)
-I know that Heaven is something we should desire and seek with all of our hearts (if putting pictures to it helps desire, why not picture it?) (Matt 13 parabales)
-I know that God, Jesus, and Angels reside in heaven. (numerous scriptures)
-I know I will continue to worship God only in perfection (see revelations)
These are the things I believe:
-Heaven is a physical place where we reside. I believe we are physical beings that house a spirit for a reason and we will continue to interact with God's creation physically in perfection once we are taken to heaven. (Rev 4:1 there is a door to heaven, 4:2 there is a throne, etc. all physical descriptions) - There is a temple in heaven (see Revelation) which seems physical
Beyond this I have wild speculations. I believe we were made to worship God (our primary role) and once were made to do it perfectly before corruption. I beleive we will return to this state of perfection with physical bodies that are free from the limits of sin. I believe this will put us in perfect harmony with creation which will be renewed. I believe this is beyond our comprehension but I imagine we will be able to say to the mountain "move" and it will by the power of our voice. I don't care if heaven is a new earth, or if it is some unimaginable far away place because i know it will be perfect no matter what. I believe we will be free from grief or sadness but still will fully retain the knowledge and lessons from earth. I believe we will remember our trespasses but be in full love with God for saving us. I believe we will know why we are least of these, or exalted highly in heaven because of what we do on earth. We will all be blessed by our reward. Cheers!!
I really don't have scripture to back me up here, and to be honest I'm to lazy to find it right now, so take what I say as just a matter of opinion and top of the head fact-remembering rather than anything clearly set in stone.
I believe heaven will be a sort of combination of a personal place and a grand community center. It's quite clear heaven will be entirely perfect and without distaste. It seems, to me, that since people of all types have different tastes, likes, dislikes, opinions, and joys in life, there will be personal pieces of perfection for us all. On the contrary, you could definitely argue that worldly desires will be no more and therefore personal likes, dislikes, and tastes would be entirely irrelevant.
The choiral worship description I remember of heaven seems to point to a giant community of love, joy, and worship. If we all join in heaven to sing "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord almighty", should we all do it together? I think there will be mass-worship in heaven, and at the same time a personal perfection for the individual. That personal perfection could be driven by worldly likes, or simply by intimate conversation with Jesus. Who am I to guess?
In order for this to happen, there needs to be some sort of warping of time. Rather than having a scheduled worship, I'd think that it would just be worship, and then it would just be Jesus talk, sort of as a natural instinct? There wouldn't be a sense of time I don't think. I can't really know, though, what God has in store.
To be honest, I have no real clue or idea what heaven will be like. I know I will not be able to imagine it, and I really won't try. All of that I just typed is really just a top-of-the-head answering of a couple of the questions the blog asked. There could be infinite worship, there could be a sense of time, there could be major catering to the individual, it could be pure 24/7 (or nosenseoftime/nosenseoftime) God conversation. Whatever it is, it is something worth looking forward to.
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