Heaven on Earth

I’ve been thinking a lot about heaven. When I go to the Campus Crusade meeting next month at Widener University, I’m going to discuss it. Here it is: when you ask folks to describe heaven what will they talk about? Pearly gates? Streets of gold? Mansions? Now what if that is a perfect description of both heaven and hell? What really makes heaven, heaven? Isn’t it the presence of God? And wouldn’t hell be hell if no matter what it was like physically, there was the absence of God, all the goodness associated with Him, and you knew you were utterly, hopelessly separated?

God has not called us to a place but to a likeness and a relation, to be conformed to the image of his Son. Heaven is not a where but a who and our relationship with that Infinite Who. Jesus even said that eternal life was not forever in some blissful other place, but eternal life is found in knowing God and in knowing him (John17:3). We know God now. He resides in us. Heaven begins now. Eternity has started. In fact, as we carry God with us by his Spirit, everywhere we go we bring heaven with us.

Remember Moses before the burning bush? God told him it was holy ground that Moses was standing on. Why was it holy? Because God’s presence was there. Now since his presence is in us, wherever we go is holy ground. Think about that as you go to work. You are taking heaven with you. Your presence makes that work place holy because you bring God to work with you. That kinda changes our definition of ministry too, doesn’t it? We are “ministering” wherever we go, whatever we do, because we bring the holiness of God, the presence of God, heaven with us. We really can make a little bit of heaven on earth. That is how powerful we are. We can walk into the room of our unsaved friends and bring heaven to them by our presence. We can walk into the work place, the hospital, the dysfunctional home – and bring heaven to it. We invade enemy occupied territory everywhere we go, so let your life and your words declare freedom in Christ and bring heaven to bear in every situation.

Back to the Commune

The more I study the more I find out that God does a lot more communal stuff then He does personal stuff. There is a bigger aspect to our living as Jesus followers than our personal relationship with God through Christ. If I can go back to Joshua, just look at all they did together in order to achieve their inheritance:

1. They let Egypt as a group
2. They revolted as a group (with the exception of Josh and Caleb)
3. They wandered and camped together
4. They crossed the Jordan as a group (even the fighting men from the tribes that were settling west of the Jordan)
5. All the men were circumcised at the same time
6. They rested, healed, they partied together before they went out to war as one unified army

Even Jesus had a group that ate, slept and served together as they learned his ways. My point is that community, relationship, living together is important in our development as Christians. We need each other. That brings me to the second part of my vision statement: “We seek to help people with life’s journey by creating a community of faith, hope, and love in Jesus, restoring right relationship with God, fellow brothers and sisters, and the world. (Acts 2: 42 – 47).” We get to know Jesus best when we do it together. We can best show and tell about the restoration Christ has done in our lives when we come together. As a body we can serve God better. What’s that saying about a 3 strand cord not being broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12), or 2 putting 10,000 to flight (Deuteronomy 32:30)? So relationship with God as a body of believers is important.

Relationship means openness. We need to be able to talk to each other and help each other overcome our addictions, our fears, our doubts. Christians help each other dig deeper. If we cannot share our struggles with our brothers and sisters, let’s give up! We need to love, encourage, strengthen, and correct each other. And I think that goes for practical things too. Shouldn’t the mechanic in our midst help those who cannot afford car care? And the Doctor heal the poorer brothers for free? And the carpenter fix up the widow’s house as an offering to God? No one in the body of believers should be without the basic necessities. Can’t pay the heating bill? Take up a collection. Love for the family should be practical as well as spiritual.

Our love for God and each other should lead us to displaying that in the world. And because we are so centered on relationship, we can be accepting of the inquirer (without condoning the sin) and give them a safe environment to seek out God with us. We don’t have to water down the Gospel or tread softly. In relationships you are free to speak the truth in love, even when it is hard. Christians help the searching by modeling and sharing their journey and struggles. We serve God by serving the world. How about adopting an African village? We build a church, a hospital, a school? We give them the tools and teach them how to create a better life for themselves. We are the light and the salt. The world needs Jesus and if we rub should with culture enough, we will change it.

All of this is community. We serve God together. We learn of him together. We share him with others together (one plants, another waters). When will the church return to being a family like Abraham’s children or the church in Acts? Who would not want to be a part of that community?

Dream Bigger

Go read Ephesians 3:20. Go on, I’ll wait. OK, I’ll just print it here: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us….” Now, write down your dream as if there are no obstacles and you are guaranteed success. “Who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.” Wow. Look at what you wrote down as your dream. Now scratch it out because YOU ARE THINKING TOO SMALL!

I believe God is calling us to live beyond our own dreams & aspirations. I believe God is calling us to live beyond every earthly goal and means—good though they may be. I believe we all get stuck in the mundane comfort and safety of just existing because we fail to answer the question, “What is God calling me to?”

I believe we mess up by prodding kids w/ “What do you want to be when you grow up?” so much so that we push them into college and career attempting to do what they want to do. I believe we all ultimately realize that the world we are creating for ourselves isn’t all it is cracked up to be and we are left wondering if there is more.

Have we asked, “What does God want me to do? What kind of man does He want me to be?” Do we teach kids to search out God’s will for them now as well as when they grow up? Do we find a way to survive or find a way to fulfill his calling? Do we know his calling? Do we know how to determine his calling? Do we want to know his calling?

The story of Joshua is the story of how God brings us out of this world and into his will for who we should be and how we should live.
1) God has to deliver us out of our Egypt of sin
2) God has to deliver us out of the wilderness of directionless, pointless, safe, comfortable yet dull as a desert living.
3) God is calling us to walk on the wild side with him, to walk in his dangerous, adventurous yet fulfilling will. Obtaining our Promised Land Inheritance is a struggle, it is not safe, but it is good. It is finding our place in his will for what we should be and what we should do.
4) Now, for us to entering into God’s perfect will and to lead others there (as you are called) it will take courage (Joshua 1).
· Strength and courage comes from studying the Word, meditating on it, praying thru it, and obeying it
5) Second, for us to enter God’s perfect will for us, we need life-changing faith (Joshua 2).
· For faith to grow we need to hear the story of God
· For faith to grow we need to act on what we hear about God
· For faith to grow we need to confess, verbalize what we believe about God
· For faith to grow we will face trials
· For faith to grow we must be willing to share it
6) Third, for us to enter God’s perfect will, we need to consecrate, sanctify, purify, prepare, & dedicate ourselves to him (Joshua 3)
· We do this thru practicing disciplines such as prayer, study, fasting, etc as a way to create space for God to work on us, to prepare us for his will and purpose to be accomplished in and thru us.
7) Fourth, for us to enter God’s perfect will, we need to learn to honor God (Joshua 4).
8) Then, as we begin our journey of discovery and conquest, there are further things to learn in Joshua 5 and forward. More on that later.