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The Destiny of Choice: Heaven!

Eternal life,as described  in the Bible, is described  as “entering into God’s rest.”  God created  the  earth in six  days,and  the  seventh day He rested--not because He was tired,  but  to show us that the end of  life is not  continual hard  labor, but it is discovering and enjoying the wonderful REST God has in store  for all  who love Him.  Not  one person alive does not know the value of a good night’s  sleep!  How about the pleasure of a hard-won vacation?  You’ve finished your projects, met deadlines, made your goals!  Yes!  So your down time, your walk in the park, or your party, your road trip, your family vacation,all  seem sweet, the just end of all your labors, right?  This is actually how God made us, for genuine, sweet rest in body, soul,and spirit.  This is why He gave us the Sabbath--one day a week to just REST, and in which, Jesus showed us, we should worship,  hear His Word, and even accomplish the good works we encounter along life’s way.

As Moses led the children of Israel across the wilderness, heading for the Promised Land--the land flowing with milk and honey, the inheritance God promised Abraham and his descendents--over and over again they rebelled against God.  Finally God declared, “They will never enter My rest, for they rebel in their hearts continually!”  As a result, what should have only taken 11 days to accomplish--crossing the wilderness to the Land of Canaan--ended up taking 40 years!  That whole generation of rebels had to die in the wilderness before God would take the children into the Promised Land! 

When the next generation went into the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua (Moses’ protege), what did God give them?  He first gave them Blessings and Curses to proclaim before they entered in to take the land for themselves.  In every practical way, God promised to bless their obedience to His commands as they did life His way.  He blessed their bread basket, their child-bearing, their crops, and herds. . . everything!  But the Curses they proclaimed also covered every area of life; if the children of Israel forgot God and started ignoring His commands, they  would eat the fruit of their disobedience. They would even lose the good land God had purposed to give them!

It was God’s to give, and God’s to take away.  He created it all, He oversees the rise and fall of nations, and He chose to bless the children of Israel with the Promised Land.  They would reap the fruit of farms they did not toil over, live in homes they did not build, drink from wells they did not dig.  This was the REST that God had promised to give the children as they entered the Promised Land.  This is, also,  a picture of what the Bible calls GRACE--undeserved favor.  And ultimately, HEAVEN is the ultimate REST and GRACE that God is bestowing on all whose hearts are His.  And so, let’s consider what  the Bible tells us of Heaven.

Heaven is a Place of Beauty

You’ve heard of the pearly gates, and the streets of gold!  There will, also, be the wall around the heavenly city built on the foundation of 12 different precious stones--sardys, amethyst, ruby, diamonds, amber. . . 

There won’t be disease and suffering.

There won’t be tears and sorrow.

There won’t be sinners and evil.

There won’t be death and darkness.  Christ will emanate the light of that city, so no more moon and stars or sunshine.

There will be singing of praises to God and King Jesus--the Lamb of God who gave His life for the sins of the world! 

There will be a New Earth, with the New Heaven coming down to Earth at the place which we now call Jerusalem.  Fruit from the nations of God’s people will be traded in the New Heaven on Earth.

Your home and situation there in Heaven will be better than anything you can imagine here on Earth.  But it will be oh so GOOD!  It’ll have your name written all over it, and God’s love exuding from it.  For the Bible is very clear that our heavenly rewards are being prepared while we live in this life.  Doing good works does NOT get us to Heaven; but God’s Word tells us that  we “must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has  done, whether good or bad.”  We will “each one receive his own reward according to his own labor.”  In Revelation, Jesus says, “I am the one who searches the hearts and minds, and will give to everyone according to your works;” He is coming quickly and “bringing His rewards with Him, to give to everyone according to his work.”  Have you heard the old saying, “‘Tis but one life, ‘will soon be past.  Only what’s done for Christ will last!”?  The Bible tells us that everything we do will go through God’s judgment fire; those things we’ve done without Him will become embers, but the things done for Christ and by His grace will survive as gold or silver.  So it is clear that what we do in this life DOES matter in eternity.  So long as we have breath, it’s never too late to begin living for Christ and His glory.  His love is an everlasting love which will never pass away, and it is the Father’s good pleasure to rain down blessings on all who love Him.

The Bible is an amazing book, which gives a very clear picture of what we can expect in the future.  There will be work to do when Christ returns, as He promised!  As the old song says, "O Lord, I want to be in that number, when the Saints go marching in!"  We'll take a closer look at that next.