Heaven - Don’t Miss It For the World!

 Robert M. Edsel published a very interesting book in 2009 entitled “The Monuments Men.” The book tells about a group of men in World War II who traipsed through bombed-out Europe tracking down and recovering valuable paintings, statues and other cultural treasures filched by Adolph Hitler and his high-powered Nazi thieves during the war. “Monument man” Walter Hancock was with the U. S. army as it moved quickly cross Germany toward a rendezvous with Russian troops at Dresden (yes, we were allied with Russia against Hitler at that time!). Hancock wrote his wife a letter that told her his 16-hour days were spent, “half in the pain at seeing beauty needlessly destroyed by those we might have hoped would show more signs of being civilized, and half in the joy of seeing spring days returning to rural Germany.” The letter continued: “How can I describe the strange, strange combination of experiences each day here in this beautiful place brings?! ... Flowering trees everywhere and the charm of the romantic little towns and the fairy tale countryside is enhanced by all this freshness. And in the midst of it all – thousands of homeless foreigners wandering about in pathetic droves. Germans in uniforms, mostly with arms and legs – or more – missing. Children who are friendly, older ones who hate you, crimes continually in the foreground of life. Plenty, misery, recriminations, sympathy. Such an exaggerated picture of the man-made way of life in a God-made world. If it doesn’t prove the necessity of Heaven, I don’t know what it all means. I believe that all this loveliness showing through the rubble and wreck are just foreshadowings of the joys we were made for.” Hancock’s words described both hurt and hope, beauty and brutishness – all mingled together as the world sought to right itself after a terrible, horrible World War II.”

 Consider this – in the world as God originally made it, Adam and Eve had access to a beautiful place the only true Paradise that ever existed on earth. There was no sin, sickness, sorrow, suffering, or death; no war, want, hunger, hatred; no prejudice, poverty, perversion, and no pandemic viruses! They lived in the presence of God who sometimes walked in the garden (Genesis 3:8). The only time when all was right with the world was before mankind, with the devil’s help, created a man-made way of life on God’s earth –  a world now marred by all the sin and misery and sadness we sometimes see and hear and / or experience. The simple if sobering fact of the matter is that if there is ever to be a place of true, ultimate beauty and blessing, a place free of sin, stress, suffering and death, a place where God is ever-present and where we live forever in peace, harmony and eternal happiness – Heaven is a necessity! And according to the Bible, Heaven is a reality! Hours before His death on the cross, Jesus assured His troubled, worried disciples: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3). We live in a fallen, devil-dominated world where sin makes for a lot of man-made misery. But another God-made world awaits those who are faithful to God and His Son, Jesus Christ – a place of              eternal beauty and bliss beyond description, a place where the soul is at home with God, forever. Read about it in Revelation 21-22 – it’s out of this world!  It will be an eternal God-made world, unmarred by the miseries man’s sin has made in this one. Don’t miss it for the world (1 John2:15-17). Think about it. 

    Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Your Faith – Firm or Fragile?

 A  number of years ago I was challenged by the following words from an anonymous preacher: “Wherever the apostle Paul went, there was a riot [after he preached]. Wherever I go, they serve tea.” On a more personal note, when I preach, there is sometimes a potluck afterwards. My aim is not to put-down tea or potlucks. My aim is to point out Paul’s faith was firm and durable, not fragile and easily broken. The gospel Paul preached promised a crown in the hereafter, but the path to that crown called for taking up a cross of self-denial and possible suffering in the here-and-now. Late in Paul’s career, after years of self-denial and suffering, he urges Timothy, his partner in the gospel, on with these words in 2 Timothy:8-10 – “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” Preaching Christ brought Paul as much trouble as it did triumph, more loss than gain (materially), and as much suffering as personal satisfaction. So how was he able to prove tougher than anything the devil and demons in hell could brew up and throw at him? The key words of the text quoted above reveal the secret to his “stick-to-it, see-it-through, finish-the-race” at all costs mentality – “Jesus Christ ... raised from the dead ... the word of God is not chained ... obtain the salvation in Christ Jesus ... eternal glory.” Paul believed what he preached! His soul was soaked in convictions about Jesus Christ and the reality of Christ’s triumph over death and the tomb; convictions about, heaven, hell and the salvation of souls in eternity. Convictions so dyed into the fabric of his soul      they couldn’t be beaten out of him. Convictions so powerful that prisons and unpopularity and suffering couldn’t lessen or eliminate them or make him quit his faith or his ministry. Paul’s faith was a force in his life. It proved stronger and more firm than any foe he ever faced or suffering he ever endured.

 John Piper, an American Reformed Baptist preacher and author, gave a speech in 1989 at a conference to an assortment of denominational preachers. The speech was entitled, “Brothers, We Must Not Mind a Little Suffering.” He stated, “One of the pervasive marks of our time is emotional fragility. I feel as though it is hung in the air we breathe. We are easily hurt. We pout and mope easily. We break easily. Our marriages break easily. Our happiness breaks easily. And our commitment to the church breaks easily. We are easily disheartened, and it seems we have little capacity for surviving and thriving in the face of criticism and opposition ... We need help here. We are surrounded by a society of emotionally fragile quitters ...” Those words jar me and compel me to ask questions about my own faith (will you ask them, too?): Is my own faith firm and durable, like a piece of tough leather? Or is it fragile and flimsy, as easily broken as a thin piece of peanut brittle? How “emotionally fragile” am I? Are my feelings easily hurt? How much time do I spend pouting and moping? How easily is my commitment to the church broken? Do I not only survive but thrive in the face of criticism and opposition? Jesus Christ was not an emotionally fragile Savior. Paul was not an emotionally fragile Christian. The question here is not is your faith too fragile to die for Jesus. The question is, is your faith too fragile to live for Him? What are you willing to endure now in order to secure eternal glory in eternity? Is your faith fragile, or firm? Just asking.

   Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN