Home is Where the Heart Is

Chapter 8 addresses a common thought- this world is not my home. While it felt like a bit of review, Alcorn takes time to stress again that Heaven is a physical place. The language used by Jesus of a house with many rooms is a good indication that Heaven is physical. But what are we to do with the sinful, ruined world that we wake up to each day? There is a tendency to ignore everything around us and "focus" on the eternal home. What a sad way to wait out the Christian life! Without a doubt, the sin that surrounds us should cause us to look Heavenward. We should not be in love with the passing pleasures of this world. But we should never disconnect ourselves from this world. Jesus commands us to go and make disciples. Where? IN THE WORLD (Matt. 28:19-20). God gave Adam dominion over the earth and that responsibility remains after the Fall (Gen. 3:17-19). It is evident that we have stewardship in this world, both spiritually and physically. Now I am not a tree hugger by any definition, but I do see in this chapter a call to evaluate how we view the world around us. It is so easy to get discouraged with the filth and ungodliness around us. If we are honest with ourselves, it is easy to get drawn into the same. We must first repent of our wayward hearts and respond properly. The world needs Christians who understand correctly the state of the earth, where it originated and where it is going. We need to keep a proper view of God's plan for the earth in order to guard from watching everything unfold aloof and disconnected. Yes, the world is a sinful place, but that is one reason we are still here. May God guide and protect us in our own relationship with the world.

They are watching us!

Chapter 7 begins with a list of observations from Revelation 6:9-11. I found this helpful because it reminds me that I should be examining scripture like this-not just reading a passage, but ENGAGING it.

Just a few things I want to mention that had specific impact on me.

First of all, praise God that we don't have to worry about all the wrong done to us and whether it will be dealt with. Hurt is such a powerful emotion-let alone persecution. I know that I deal with hurt more than persecution on a daily basis. Primarily, I must pray that God helps me to be merciful to others who hurt me. I can take refuge in Him who makes all things right. I think that there are two reasons that I don't experience persecution. First, I don't put myself out there as a follower of Christ as often as I should. I should plan to witness each day, finding places to build relationships and opportunities to share the gospel. To help direct me, I am reading The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever. I would encourage you to read it. Hard-hitting, but very necessary for every believer who wants to be faithful to Christ's command to take His message to the ends of the earth. Second, maybe I am not mature enough. Now, understand that this is not an excuse. I understand that I need to put off the many excuses for witnessing and put on the Lord's strength. Rather, what I am driving at is whether hanging onto hurt feelings is hindering my potential for the kingdom. I truly believe that I am not a bitter person or prone to hang onto things long (if anyone thinks otherwise, please speak with me). But if I am honest with myself, I know there are so many times that circumstances affect my joy. Something insensitive said, purposely or inadvertently, and I can let my mind flow with thoughts unbecoming of a sanctified believer. "How dare they say that!" "I can't wait til I see them again so I can give them a piece of my mind!" "I'll set them straight and put them in their place!" If I can't properly handle something as insignificant as hurt feelings, I am not ready for persecution. I pray that God will help me to grow in properly handling hurt feelings and give me opportunities for persecution. After all, I should rejoice in my persecution, for those who endure bad things on Earth are comforted (Luke 16:25). Hard to do if it is non-existent.

Also, it was a incredible reminder that we will give an account. What struck me when reading this was that my specific actions and words will be accounted for. What a sobering thought. I am confident that my sins are forgiven, but what about the numerous missed opportunities. Am I being faithful to what God has given me today? Heavy stuff! I know that grace abounds, but I don't want to sit in that comfort. I want this responsibility and accountability to grip me and thrust me into His Word. I want to be pushed out of the comfortable and easy into the difficult and disciplined work of faithfulness.

Without a doubt, again, a heavenly mindset will cause us to have a proper viewpoint of our temporal life.

Resolved to Read (and POST)

Chapter 6 addresses whether our temporal waiting place is physical. While many of the passages discussed can be argued figurative versus literal, Hebrews helps us direct our thoughts to a physical intermediate Heaven. One of the things that stood out to me was New Jerusalem being brought down to the New Earth. Since we know that the New Jerusalem is physical and we know that it is waiting in the Intermediate Heaven, wouldn't it seem obvious that the Intermediate Heaven is physical?

Another item that stood out to me was the backward thinking that often takes place- I know it does for me. Alcorn encourages us to "reason down", meaning start with Heaven as the source and end with earth as the derivative. I am not sure whether it is pride or "small thoughts" that cause this. Probably a little of both. Pride in the sense that we are so "spiritual" and the world is so awful around us that Heaven can't possibly be physical. "Small thoughts" in the sense that we don't naturally think of Heaven and consequently our thoughts are misguided and we don't think twice.

The whole section on Eden was interesting to me, again because I don't think about it. He reminds us that Eden was not destroyed, but our ability to access it was removed. One day we will be able to eat from the Tree of Life (Rev. 2:7). This reminder gives a new outlook when you read Genesis.

While there is so much in this chapter to discuss, I want to leave plenty for everyone to mention. I am glad that we are doing this. I was reading Tabletalk last night (thank you again Dave and Elisha!) and I came across a C.S. Lewis quote that I thought fit well with the New Year and our goal with this book. I will end with it.

"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this".

I pray that we may do most in this world!

happy new year!

I am finding that this book is slowly forcing me to think about things that I had, up until now, made a point not to think about. After I read the title of Chapter 6 I knew that the subject would accompany my thoughts for the rest of the day. My first inclination when reading about all that will happen after we pass away, is fear. Very soon fear leads to anxiety. However, I'd say what I have started to take away from this book, more than anything, is the ability to stand strong in who I am and where I am going. After just accepting the fact that Heaven is a physical place I find myself actually looking forward to it. I pray that these truths we are learning encourage us to act out of faith alone with an eagerness to see our new home. It seems silly to me now that I would worry when thinking about death. I am encouraged and relieved that I am a creation both spiritual and physical. The idea that I would be floating around in some twilight zone spiritual nothing doesn't make sense to me, it has never made sense. Heaven will be tangible, touchable reality and I pray that we can approach the Lord keeping that in mind, and expressing our gratitude. He makes it so easy! Goodnight friends.

A Physical Place

I thought the first section was a good treatment of what he calls Christoplatonism.  He begins by addressing the contention that of physical heaven would be less excellent than a purely spiritual heaven.  It reminded me of C.S. Lewis' quote (from I don't know where)... "God likes matter.  He invented it."

He also makes an interesting point about deriving our inferences not from the nature of God, but from the nature of humanity.  The idea is that God (being almighty and all) could dwell just about anywhere.  As humans, we aren't promised all of God's infinite attributes.  Therefore, he reasons, we should think about the possibilities of heaven in the likely limitations of humans rather than the awesome capability of God.  Interesting.

The thought from the second section that jumped out at me was this:  "We should stop thinking of Heaven and Earth as opposites and instead view them as overlapping circles that share certain commonalities."  While Earth is certainly under the curse, it's wrong to think of it as more like Hell than Heaven.  God created Earth as a good dwelling for man.  Despite the pains brought on by sin, it still bears much of its grand qualities.  Similarly, though we are fallen we still bear the image of God.

I'll skip ahead to the section dealing with the rich man and Lazarus.  While I think he ends up at a pretty balanced position, some of his argumentation is bothersome.  Specifically, he supports his point by saying, "Jesus could easily have portrayed the rich man and Lazarus in other ways.  He could have said..."  To claim that your interpretation retains validity because Jesus didn't state things in a fashion that would have contradicted your interpretation isn't utterly convincing.

Our Layover in the Intermediate Heaven (Chapter 5)

Chapter 5 really just introduced the idea of the intermediate Heaven. So many things stuck out to me in this chapter. I have found that more questions arise as I read this book, but I trust that Randy will get to the answers in later chapters. For example, the New Earth will be a "completely renovated" picture of what we see around us. So, will our same condo be "without sin" and not have a noisy dishwasher? I know that is trivial, but you get the idea.

I was reminded of the instant nature of death. When a person dies, (BOOM!), they are right there, standing before the judgment seat. What a sobering thought. Encouraging for us that Christ is with believers in the "transitional" Heaven - 'to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord'.

More mind-blowing to me, is the reminder that I will give an account of ALL my actions at the Final Judgment. It really puts things into perspective. But praise God! That is what we all need, a heavenly perspective. Even at a young age for some of us, present company excluded, we should be putting a higher price tag on our time. I don't know where to draw the line between study, prayer, service, and leisure. I know that God is pleased when I honor Him, no matter what I am doing. But what about watching the game or a DVD, reading Time mag, playing risk online? I know it is an issue of priorities and what comes first should be my relationship with the Lord, fleshed out by study, meditation, prayer, and good deeds. I think I will continue to redraw the line as I grow in my faith. Any convictions from you guys?

He doesn't go into detail about rewards but I like that he footnotes some books on the topic. I want to be more familiar with his rewards for believers because He tells us to believe in His promises.

wow chapter 5

First of all, it's wonderful to finally be blogging with you. God makes life so easy. It's amazing how often I forget this. All of the wonderful truths that sounded intimidating but still entangled me with excitment in chapter 5 were all promises given to us by our Lord, taken from His Word. I am so thankful for Randy Alcorn and his faith in this endeavor because just contemplating the idea of a seperate intermediate state of Heaven and a New Earth is incredibly daunting for me. I am also thankful for the oppurtunity that the Lord has graciously given me in this book study to learn about our future home. So, we WILL (this is guaranteed, promised by our GOD) live on a New Earth where Heaven and Earth come together as one, where we are free from the burden of this world, and where we not only live with our Creator but we actually do things like EAT and WORK and HANG OUT.....that's AWESOME! It is things such as these that can truly ease the worried mind of a 22 year old, single, newly Christian man. This book is amazing because it helps me to understand the promises that God has laid out for me in scripture that I can glance over sometimes without giving them the attention they deserve. This for example,"the meek shall inherit the earth." THINK ABOUT THAT! What does inheritance mean? It will be ours because God has made it for us, and He will live with us! After reading this chapter I am the most convicted when I think about how analytical I can be. This book is helping me to live in light of the Resurrection and to put down my magnifying glass and just praise God. I am sincerely looking forward to the weeks to come.