Tag Archives: Heaven

Close Encounter

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When it comes to alien space creatures landing on earth, Steven Spielberg does it the best.  Compared to the jittery, puppet-like, bubble-eyed “aliens” in the sci-fi films of my youth, lurching about in with ray guns and saying “Greetings, Earth people,” Spielberg knocks it out of the park.  Go YouTubing and check out the end of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”  The response of the clueless government officials and scientific experts (with their skinny black ties and pocket protectors) is hilarious.  In contrast, Richard Dreyfuss and the little kid are swept up in a rapturous sense of amazement and awe.  Spielberg makes us want to be there, and gives us the sense that we would “get it,” we would not be blinded by the computers and oscilloscopes.  We’d be like the little kid, gazing in wonder and awe but taking it in with openness and acceptance.

But Spielberg doesn’t know the half of it.  The scenes he has imagined will look stilted and silly compared to the glorious, mind-blowing return of Christ!

“For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.” (Matthew 16:27)

Try to imagine what “His Father’s glory” means.  “The Father” is the One Who created the blaze of a supernova, the brilliance of a desert sunset, and the sparkle in a drop of dew.  When His “glory” is revealed, it’s going to be astonishing.  Jesus gave a brief preview to a few of His disciples (see: Matthew 16:28 – 17:9) and it terrified them.  Talk about “close encounters…”

But as powerful as that will be, you don’t need to be terrified by what Jesus said next: “…and then He will reward each person according to what he has done.”  Jesus wasn’t saying He will get out the heavenly yardstick to see if you measure up, to see if you have done enough.  The words “what he has done” literally mean your “practice,” the essence and sum of your life as a whole.

But the idea of being judged by what we have done caused the people to ask Jesus,

“…“What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”” (John 6:28b-29)

When Jesus returns in His Father’s glory and with angels, He will reward those whose life and practice were marked by a wholehearted belief in Him.  He will welcome them into His eternal kingdom.  And what will that be like?  Spielberg, himself, couldn’t imagine it.  But when that day comes, you will want to be there.  Some will miss it, blinded by their religious presuppositions.  But if you put your faith in Jesus, you will be one of those who “get it.”

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Priceless

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How much would you pay for your soul?  How much would it be worth to you to know that your soul, the essence of who you are, would come into its full potential and live forever?  How much?  If something is rare, it costs more.  Someone bought a 1962 Ferrari for $35 million!  Presumably, it was pretty rare.  How much would the Ferrari guy pay for his soul?  Souls are priceless, so rare a value cannot be determined.  How rare is your soul?  It is one of a kind.  Jesus said:

“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

Why is any payment necessary?  Don’t we already have our souls?  Yes, but our souls are dead – separated from the Spirit of God with which they were designed to be filled and brought to life.  This separation came about as a consequence of not trusting God and turning away from Him.  Adam and Eve initiated that “death” or separation.  We continue their pattern of rebellion in each of our lives.  If you don’t pay your phone bill and they shut off your connection, your phone dies.  You can pay the bill to restore your phone to “life.”  How much would you have to pay to restore the life of God’s Spirit to your soul?  The life of your soul is priceless.  Not even the Ferrari guy would have enough to pay to restore your soul.

“No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him—” (Psalm 49:7)

No one who has ever turned from God – ever – could pay for your soul.  The only one who could ever pay enough would be someone who led a perfect life and did not owe a payment for his own soul.

Consider these words of Jesus:

“…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:10b-11)

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Nobody’s Perfect, But…

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Kim Jong-un cannot qualify for Heaven. But then, neither could Mother Teresa – not on her own steam. Nobody can live up to Heaven’s standard for entry. The bar is set way too high. Jesus made that clear:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

If golf was how you got into Heaven, Tiger wouldn’t. You must be perfect. How perfect? As perfect as the Heavenly Father. Sounds harsh, but when you think it over, if any imperfection was allowed in Heaven, pretty soon it wouldn’t be Heaven. In time, it would become Detroit. That is why Jesus told the people that their righteousness would have to be much better than the Pharisees, whose sole focus in life was to obey all the commands of Scripture. You have to be perfect.

Reflect for a moment on the fact that we live with standards for perfection all the time. If you dial even one wrong number out of ten, your call cannot be connected to the right phone. If you mess up just one letter or number of a password, you cannot get on to a secure WiFi. You must be perfect, or you cannot get in. Same thing with Heaven. Jesus said so.

But Paul Harvey had something to say, too: “You need to know the rest of the story.” The “rest of the story” about the word, perfect, is that, in the original language of Matthew, it also meant “complete.” Jesus came to “complete” us by giving us His Spirit. We were created by God and designed by Him to have the Spirit within us, guiding us. Without that Spirit, there is no way for any human to be perfect. Jesus was saying, in order to enter Heaven, you must have the Spirit of God living in you. How does one get the Spirit? Jesus said, “Trust Me, … and I will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, The Spirit of Truth.”

Maybe you are thinking, “But I have already trusted Jesus, and already have His Spirit, but still I am imperfect. What now?” Don’t panic, perfection is coming. Not here, not now, but guaranteed. Jesus said:

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40)

No Lie

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Jesus knew He would be tortured to death within the next several hours. He knew the men around Him had left everything behind to follow Him, that soon they would be consumed by a tsunami of terror and grief. He had one last chance to speak with them. It was time for straight talk. Here’s what He began with:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-4a)

In effect, He said:
A. No matter what happens, don’t panic; God is trustworthy and so am I
B. I am going to fix it so that we can live together with God forever.
C. It really is true that God’s “house” has “rooms” (literally, places for people to move in and live forever).
D. There is no way I would lie to you about this at a time like this.
E. I’ve got to leave you, but I will come back for you.

All of that is comforting. It sounds like what a loving father might say to his family just before he leaves to immigrate to a new country where they will be safe, and where he will bring them as soon as he has a job and a place to live. “Don’t worry! I will come back for you!” Comforting.

But then Jesus said:

“You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:4b)

You can imagine how that comment raised anxious questions:

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:5-6 )

Jesus wasn’t lying about any of that, either.

Good Enough?

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How good do you have to be to get to heaven?  For most people, the answer is, “As good as me…  I hope…”. In Jesus’ day the Pharisees thought the bar was set very high and literally spent their every waking hour trying to follow God’s commands.  Then along comes Jesus, teaching that it isn’t the self-righteous who get to heaven, but the people who know they are unrighteous, the spiritually bankrupt.  (See the previous posts .).

Imagine being one of those Pharisees, working hard to be good enough for God, and then hearing some guy from Nazareth suggest that the spiritual losers were doing better than they were! 

Then Jesus made 4 radically confusing statements:
1 – He said He wasn’t abolishing the scriptures, but fulfilling them. (Matthew 5:17)
2 – He said all of scripture would remain intact, even down to the tiniest punctuation marks, until “all things are accomplished.”
3 – He said “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven…’ (and vice versa – Matthew 5:19)

And then, when he had them really scratching their heads, He really made them furious:
4 – “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”. (Matthew 5:20)

Huh?  All the commands are essential, right down to the tiniest marks, but in order to get into heaven, you have to do much, much better than the guys who specialized in strict obedience to the laws?   If you are confused, good, because that is what Jesus was trying to do.  He knew that righteousness had very little to do with strict obedience and more to do with what was going on inside our hearts. 

In the next section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains true righteousness, giving several challenging examples.

Stay tuned…

Little Word; Big Difference

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JFK will be remembered for saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you…”  FDR is remembered in the words, “… a date that will live in infamy.”   For Ronald Reagan, it was, “…tear down this wall!”   For Bill Clinton: “It depends on what the meaning of the word, is, is.”   Doesn’t quite rise to the same level of dignity and inspiration, but Bill was on to something.  There are times when a tiny word makes a huge difference.  Like the word, “is” in this quote from Jesus:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 5:3)

In the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus holds out eight promises.  Mourners will be comforted, the merciful will be shown mercy, etc.  But the first and last promises aren’t “will be” promises, they are “is” promises.  Which means, at least in some measure, they matter right now!  

The first promise is for those who are “poor in spirit” (For more about what that means, see: Winning in Last Place).  Those who are spiritually bankrupt and who know it, who come to Jesus with nothing to offer, are promised the kingdom of heaven now.  In the present tense.

Which means, most of what people know about heaven is wrong.

1.   Heaven is not merely that “better place” Aunt Sally went to be after her terrible accident at the car wash.  The kingdom of heaven is available now.

2.   Entrance to heaven is not determined by how good you have been.  The kingdom of heaven is open to those who are “poor in spirit.”

Here’s the not-so-fine print:  By definition, a kingdom has a king.  People in kingdoms have submitted to the king.  In this case, the King is Jesus.  Once you understand that Jesus is Almighty God, that He loved you so much, He lowered Himself to come for you in human form and die to pay for your sin – once you really grasp that reality – it is logical to acknowledge that He is your King.

People who think they can join the kingdom because they have been good, are not “poor in spirit,” and don’t understand that a kingdom only has one king.

However, those who enter the kingdom of heaven now have not yet experienced the full measure of how wonderful it will be one day.  People who surrender to King Jesus, are blessed now in His kingdom, and receive the Holy Spirit, living eternally in their souls – all right now.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  (John 14:16-17)

But they still live in this darkened, corrupted world where they will have trouble.

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33)

The “poor in spirit,” who submit to King Jesus, have the kingdom of heaven “already but not yet.”   The full experience and glory of the Kingdom of Heaven will not be realized until Jesus is universally accepted as the King.  We yearn for that day but cannot begin to fully imagine what it will be like.  We are like children born in refugee camps who have no way to imagine life on a cruise ship.  We have no capacity to imagine the full experience of heaven.  Not yet.

However, right now,  Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Better Than Perfect

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“Big Mistake; that’s going to really cost him!”  The Olympic sports commentator sounded  like he was going to blow a gasket.  I hit the “go back” button on my remote and slow-mo’d through the “big mistake.”  The runners on the bobsled had wobbled slightly, coming out of turn 5.  They are hurtling down the ice at better than 80 mph and one little wobble takes the whole team out of medal contention – by a few hundredths of a second!  “Sorry…  no medal for you.”  If you want to get onto the Olympic medal platform, you have to be nearly perfect.

Same thing with getting into heaven, according to Jesus.  In His day, the Pharisees were nearly perfect in following all the religious rules.  For example, when it came to figuring up their ten percent tithe, these guys actually counted the number of cumin seeds in their spice rack!  On the Pharisee bobsled team, there was hardly ever a wobble.  And yet, Jesus said:

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

That’s a quote from the Sermon on the Mount.  If that freaks you out, you might be interested to know that Jesus began that sermon by telling who can get in to the Kingdom of Heaven.  It’s not the ones most people expect…

Let’s cut a few slices off the Sermon on the Mount and munch on them for a few days.  Up for that?  It’s good bread, I promise.  If you want to read ahead, it’s in Matthew 5.

Stay tuned, I’ll pull it out of the oven…

Accepting the Gift

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Unemployed, you have missed the last several mortgage payments on a house worth less than you paid.  You are about to be foreclosed.  A registered letter comes to the door.  You sign for it and tear it open:  “This is to inform you that someone, who would like to remain anonymous, has offered to pay off your mortgage obligations.  If you choose to accept this gift, the bank has agreed to suspend all foreclosure proceedings.”  Nice letter, eh?  Nice gift.

God’s gift to us wipes out the obligations we owe for sin – completely – if we accept it.  His Son, Jesus, Who never sinned and therefore had no personal punishment due, willingly died a brutal and tortuous death to cover what I owed.  And you.  If you accept His gift, God suspends His foreclosure on your life.  God told Isaiah He would do this and told him to write it down:

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  (Isaiah 53:4-5)

If someone offers to pay off your mortgage, your first response might be something like, “What? Does he think I’m in poverty?  Does he think I can’t do this on my own?  Give me a bit more time and I will get this fixed…”  But if you hang on to that attitude, you won’t accept the offer.   In a sense, accepting his offer involves a willingness to acknowledge that you really do need his help.   In the same way, accepting the gift of Someone Who went to His death on your behalf requires a change in attitude, acknowledging that such a gift is absolutely necessary.  Most of us would rather hold to the notion that, “I got this; I’m doing pretty well on my own; I’m a good person.”   But if you do continue to believe those things, you cannot accept the gift. Do you remember how Isaiah responded when he caught a glimpse of God’s glory?

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”  Isaiah 6:5

Isaiah knew a humbling truth:  compared to God’s perfection, he was just as sinful as his neighbors.  We humans are all in the same boat of sinful imperfection.  We all deserve the same punishment.  We tend to compare ourselves with others and think, “At least I am not as messed up as that guy…”   Somebody illustrated the fallacy of such comparisons like this: “If the requirement to get to Heaven was jumping up and touching the moon, there would be no significant difference between the contestants for ‘Biggest Loser’ and a member of the Celtics.”   The requirement for going to Heaven isn’t touching the moon, it’s having spiritual life.  And everyone who has ever sinned – that’s you and me – is spiritually dead.

God is willing to correct that condition, to give us His life, His Holy Spirit to live in our souls.  But first, because He is perfectly just, He must require that your punishment for sin be paid.  Because you cannot pay, because, even if you could pay you would sin again the next day, He paid.  He allowed His Son, Jesus, to pay your sin mortgage in full – forever – if you accept.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the (punishment for the) iniquity (sin) of us all.  (Isaiah 53:6 – my explanations in parentheses)

Accepting this gift begins with understanding the words, we all.  It requires acknowledging your own personal sinfulness and complete helplessness to fix your own spiritual deadness.  That’s what being “lowly and contrite” means in Isaiah 57:15 (See “In a Nutshell”). God said He will revive (bring back to life) the soul of the lowly and contrite. He will forgive and restore a person who is lowly and contrite.   That is, He will do so once the bill is paid.  And He offers to pay the bill.  Accepting this gift is like what you would do with the mortgage letter example we began with: – you say, “Yes.”   If you understand that there is no way you can fix yourself to become perfect, no way you can pay what you owe for being imperfect; if you understand that you really need God’s forgiveness, then say “yes” to Jesus.  Probably want to say, “Thank You,” also…