Heaven - "A Living Hope" - Part 1

20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Phil.3:20-21)

Our sermon today started off, well, grimly...the bumper sticker read, "Life sucks, then you die.." Yep, lasting happiness seems to elude us. We think this is it, but no, that soon dissipates. Lottery winners after 6 months have said that their lives are not happier than 6 months ago. We yearn for happiness, to be satisfied. Mark Buchanan said in his book Things Unseen, "...He made us to yearn--to always be hungry for something we can't get, to always be missing something we can't find, to always be disappointed with what we receive, to always have an insatiable emptiness that no thing can fill and an untamable restlessness that no discovery can still. Yearning itself is healthy--a kind of compass inside us pointing you to true North..."

Recently, Elaine spoke about looking forward to our Promised Land here, and I have been pondering this as I also heard in the same week a radio sermon that spoke about the span of our life as a blip in the line of eternity. Yet we as Christians spend so much of our time and energy investing in this life here on earth. In fact many Christians seem marked by the frustration of unrealized happiness than by the joy of the living hope spoken of in 1 Peter 1:3-6 (3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.)

Then today as my pastor started his 3-part series on Heaven, I began to think that our view of heaven may affect our 'looking forward'.

How do you picture heaven? Maria Shriver in her popular childrens' book pictured heaven as sitting on clouds next to the stars, talking with each other. A survey of Christians showed a picture of a never-ending church service, one big hymn-sing, one after the other. My teenage son next to me said. "that would suck.." Sunder said that people are less than enthusiastic about heaven because:

-they think it will be boring

-heaven is childish

-heaven is inhabited by disembodied souls

As a couple of disciples were walking on the road to Emmaus talking about the events that had transpired, they said about Jesus,"...we had hoped he was the One to redeem Israel..." They were saying this to Jesus in His resurrected body, which as Scripture says above, our bodies will be transformed into. Can you imagine after having walked with Jesus for 3 years, having one-on-one sacred moments, having Him look into your soul and knowing you were loved most perfectly, recognizing the power behind this Man they hoped would redeem them, can you imagine the depth of hopelessness into which they were plunged? However, upon discovering that it was Jesus who was now resurrected from the dead, they were filled with joy, hope was restored.

Imagine heaven:

--Beauty

--Heightened physical senses

--A radiant community

Have you ever met anyone who lights up a room when they walk in? I can think of 2 ladies who do that for me. They are women whose faces radiate joy, warmth, peace, compassion, everytime I see them, yet they are women who have gone through raging fires, suffering that makes me gasp, and one of them, Charlene, still is undergoing a trial.

Charlene shared Part 1 of her story today. She had everything going for her, a wonderful husband, a daughter and son. When her son was 7, her cousin and wife were killed and and they brought their children, another boy and girl, to live with them. Her life was still under her control. No problem really. Then when her son turned 14, after a great football game in which he led his team to victory as quarterback, he fell ill. That night he was diagnosed with meningitis. By morning he was dead. She said, there is no grief like the grief of losing one's child. She discovered for the first time that her life could not be controlled by herself. It was then she started on a journey to knowing God as Christians came to her and shared. Come back next week for Part 2 of this wonderful testimony.

She said "God's goal is not to make us happy in this life, it is to make us HIS."

Please check here to hear the full sermon and testimony later this week.