Heaven: The Place You’ve Always Longed For

Heaven. What are we to make of it? What is it like? Who will go there? Am I really moved by it? These are all good questions and I think they need answering. Here is why. I don’t think most people are moved by, shaped by, look forward to it. I also don’t think that that has historically been the case at all. I think that our view of heaven is so bad that for the most part it doesn’t figure into our thinking that much. I also think that I know why. Peter Kreeft said it like this in his book, Everything you ever wanted to know about heaven, but never dreamed of asking, “The glory has departed. We moderns have lost much of medieval Christendom’s faith in heaven because we have lost its hope of heaven, and we have lost its hope of heaven because we have lost its love of heaven. And we have lost its love of heaven because we have lost its sense of heavenly glory - in other words, as a real place that we long for.”My contention is we have such bad images of heaven that the idea of heaven is not something that shapes our view of life right now. I was talking to Josh Smith, the minister at Grace Crossing Church (great guy and super smart), yesterday and told him I was preaching on heaven on Sunday and that I was telling our folk that “heaven is not what you think.” And he agreed with me and we talked about the images of heaven that make us cringe and he said this, “A bucket list assumes heaven will be a let down.” I thought about that a minute and said, “You are right, that is so true.”This Sunday we are going to look at what the Bible tells us of heaven and I hope it will be so good that it will heal your heart a bit and because it is so good, it will reorder you life and priorities right now. How would it do that you ask? Well, you will have to come on Sunday and we will talk about it!Blessings,Jim