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Tag: heaven

Heaven is imagined to be many different things by many different people, yet scripture guarantees the glory of heaven is worship of the LORD forever. Scripture also describes heaven as Holy. Christ Jesus IS the only way we will live to worship God in heaven forever.

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 13

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 13

    “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…” echoed the near-silent words of the graveside.

    I thought of the stark contrast of the graveside scene to the love and glory of the depiction of Heaven in the little girl’s picture.  I smiled with joy.

    “Amen,” the words of the graveside service confirmed in my heart.

    They now seemed to be speaking to my soul, rather than to the clutter of noise in my ears and my thoughts.

    Everyone left the graveside. I watched as the casket was lowered… and then I left.

    +++

    It had always seems too difficult to glorify God on earth. We really do love our sin and hate God.

    Yet that day and one picture had changed everything.

    Jesus was now real. Jesus was now: God in the flesh — flesh and blood, broken and shed for me. His love even for a sinner like me.

    I thought of the picture of Jesus carrying a lamb.

    I thought again of the weightier significance of a childhood song:

    Jesus loves me

    This I know

    For the Bible

    Tells me so.

     I am weak

    But He is strong

    It’s for His love

    That I now long.

    I think the kid’s verse is different, but this is what I was thinking.  It’s what I was singing in my heart.  And I had His joy – like a lamb warmly held in His arms.  I was safe from the world now.

    Jesus loves me, this I know… and I had a little girl to thank… a little girl with a picture of heaven.

    +++

    Conclusion to follow tomorrow; but in case you missed any chapters or want to SHARE: 

    A Picture of Heaven – prologue.

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 12

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 12

    A moment of silence…

    We were asked to stand as the music began once more in our surroundings of the darkened church. It seemed sadder than before.

    I looked toward a glimmer of sun breaking through a window and reflecting off the brass cross on the altar.

    I looked down at a hymnal … to a somber lyric, crying out to me:

    Let all mortal flesh keep silence,

    And with fear and trembling stand;

    Ponder nothing earthly minded, 

    For with blessing in His hand,

    Christ our God to earth descendeth
    Our full homage to demand…

    Lord of lords, in human vesture,
    In the body and the blood;
    He will give to all the faithful
    His own self for heavenly food…

    As the Light of light descendeth
    From the realms of endless day…

    ‘Is Heaven really endless day?’ I thought, as my mind wandered upward.

    That the powers of hell may vanish
    As the darkness clears away…

    —

    At sometime during the hymn I had sunk into the pew and hung my head in shame.

    My eyes flooded with tears.

    I recalled from somewhere in my past, my hearing of Reverend Birney’s booming voice from the back of the church to begin our worship service. (I think it was from one of the Prophets.)

    THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE.

    LET ALL THE EARTH KEEP SILENCE BEFORE HIM! [Habakkuk 2:20]

    At His feet …with ceaseless voice they cry:
    Al-le-lu-u-ia–,

    Al-le-e-e-lu-ia—
    Alleluia, Lord- Most- High!

    —

    I saw it suddenly – in a little girl’s Picture of Heaven.

    All of the hidden glory of the cross, glorified in Heaven!

    Then I realized that I was the only one brought to my knees – the only one not standing.

    I sheepishly stood once more, as eight men dressed in black began to roll the casket down the aisle beside me toward the doors at the rear of the church.

    —

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 11

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 11

    (For those of you who missed our last episode, these are the roaming thoughts of a man at a funeral.)

    QUOTES from: “Ten Shekels and a Shirt,” Paris Reidhead, (1919-1992) Sermon on Judges 17, c.1945-47

    For a long time, I had thought about the missionary’s words, yet hadn’t thought of it again until now.  I had decided that I guess everybody knows about heaven, but I didn’t know if I really wanted to go there either.

    It’s not that I loved my sin… well, some of it… but heaven and hell didn’t seem real enough.

    I didn’t really get the picture of Heaven and I could not bear to even imagine any vision of hell.

    Then I thought about the corpse of my friend in the casket and had some comfort about the upcoming burial, instead of a cremation.

    And something else that missionary had said captured my mind, as I once again stared out on the cross and took in the sad music.

    * “Yes, will not the judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost and they are going to go to hell not because they haven’t heard the gospel.

    *They are going to go to hell because they are sinners who love their sin and because they deserve hell… I didn’t send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen.”

    *“I sent you to Africa for my sake. They deserved hell, but I love them…

    And I endured the agonies of hell for them. I didn’t send you out there for them. I sent you out there for me.

    Do I not deserve the reward of my sufferings? Don’t I deserve those for whom I died?”

    —

     I thought about “Amazing Grace.”

    Hadn’t I heard that he was once captain of a slave ship?

    “A wretch like me,” “a wretch like me,” kept ringing in my head.

    I once was lost

    But now am found

    Was blind,

    But now I see.

    —