Tag Archives: Matthew 22

Thinking about heaven

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What comes to mind when you think about heaven? Do you see a long line of people waiting to pass through the pearly gates? Maybe there’s someone at heaven’s concierge desk checking for ‘reservations’? Or maybe you see fluffy clouds with white-robed people with wings playing harps all day? That’s how cartoons often portray heaven. Do you see literal mansions lining the streets of gold or maybe overlooking the river of life? Maybe you’ve imagined what your mansion might look like, whether it will have an elegant banquet room, an atrium, and beautiful gardens. I’ve known some folks who’d like a shed for their fishing boat and a golf course next door.

 

Or maybe you think not so much of what you see, but what you feel: love, joy, acceptance, and peace. Maybe you imagine how vibrant and strong your heavenly body will be, not limited by pain, sorrow, addictions, and sorrow.

 

Maybe you look forward to reuniting with loved ones who’ve left this earth. And what a great reunion that will be! The Sadducees didn’t even believe in the resurrection. But in attempt to trick Jesus, they asked Him what marriage would look like in heaven. Maybe you’ve wondered that same thing. Jesus replied: “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”  (Matthew 22:29-30,32)

 

We have so many questions about heaven! But the message of Jesus is that more important than guessing at what heaven might be like, our focus is better placed on the power of God.  Many of our images of heaven are influenced by our imaginations and earthly desires. But if we “do not know the Scriptures or the power of God,” our speculation is pointless. Heaven is bound to be so very much more than we can imagine in human terms!

 

Let’s turn our focus on our relationship with God who is now and forever. Let’s focus:

  • Less on our worldly possessions and accomplishments and more on deepening our relationship with God right now, today.
  • Less on our fears and more on His resurrection power.
  • Less on confessed sins that we still dwell on and more on His forgiveness.
  • Less on trying to be good and more on His goodness.
  • Less on our problems and more on His sustaining and amazing and grace.
  • Less on our worries and more on His promises.
  • Less on what culture says and more on His constant truth.
  • Less on our weakness and more on His strengthening Spirit.

 

Focusing less on our relationship with the world and more on our relationship with the living God will benefit our life now AND prepare us for an unimaginable life in heaven!

 

Is heaven a bunch of malarkey?

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Alex Malarkey, the guy who wrote “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven” has confessed. He didn’t die and he didn’t go to heaven. It was in fact a bunch of… well, malarkey. The repentant Alex said he wrote the book with his dad to get attention, and now admits that people should rely on the bible, not grandiose claims, as the source of truth about heaven.

 

I’m glad he repented and came clean about the hoax. And I’m glad he is advising others to read what the bible actually says about heaven to learn about the subject. I wonder how many will take him up on the offer.

 

I remember talking with one friend who said she didn’t want to be bothered with reading the bible; she just wanted to make up her own mind about things. She was in fact, one to judge a book by its cover, not its contents. I wonder if we too sometimes go on with assumptions about something without considering what God actually has to say.

 

When I was growing up, The Family Circle cartoon always portrayed relatives who died as becoming angels who watched over us. Movies like It’s A Wonderful Life portray angels like Clarence Odbody who needed to do a good deed to earn their wings or to pass through the Pearly Gates. Cartoons portray heavenly angels sitting on fluffy clouds strumming their harps and hell as a place where it is all Oreos and no milk.

 

Some have concluded that heaven will be boring, perhaps because they find church to be so. But God describes heaven as being like the great parties thrown when the woman found her lost coin, when the prodigal son returned home, and when the wedding feast was celebrated! (See Matthew 22)

 

Some people don’t think much about heaven at all, thinking they have plenty of time to get ready. In the parable about the wedding feast, Jesus describes three groups of people: those who refused to come to the banquet, those who ignored or put off the invitation because they had too many ‘more important’ things to do, and those who willingly came to the party.

 

Some put off thinking about heaven because they don’t consider themselves “good enough.” But the parable says that the invitation went out to everyone, “the good and the bad.” Though we like to think of ourselves as good people, the bible reminds us that only God is good. That is precisely why he sent us a Savior who died for us…”while we were STILL sinners.”

 

Some don’t think they need to consider heaven, believing that everyone goes to heaven. But the bible warns that some go to the wedding feast and others go “into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

 

I suppose there are many other myths about heaven, made up just like Alex Malarkey’s story. And there is much we still don’t know about the truth of heaven. As Pastor David Jeremiah said about the subject, what we need most is:

1. To be ready

2. To help others get ready.