"Homed-In" On Heaven!
Sometimes we
get so distracted we make secondary things primary and primary things
secondary. In the context of trusting God and praying in faith, the Bible warns
about a “double-minded man” in James 1:6-8 – “But let him ask in faith, with no
doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the
wind.” James goes on to warn, “Let not that man suppose he will receive
anything from the Lord; he is a double
minded man, unstable in all his ways.” It is easy to be double, and even triple
and quadruple-minded in a world that esteems multitasking. We focus on doing
many good and even urgent things but forget important things.
Victor Borge told
a story that illustrates the point. A couple going on vacation waited in line
to check their bags at the airline counter. The husband said to the wife, “I
wish we had brought the piano with us.” The wife asked, “Why? We’ve got sixteen
bags already!” The husband said, “Yeah, I know – but our tickets are on the
piano!” Oops! In a rush to get urgent things done – pack and get to the airport
on time – he forgot the most important thing needed to get where he wanted to
be!
We are all on a
trip that sooner or later takes us out of time into eternity. The apostle Paul
spoke about this very thing in 2 Corinthians 4:18-5:9. After challenging
Christians to “not look at things which are seen” (because they are temporary)
“but at things which are not seen” (because they are eternal), he addressed the sobering and
inescapable fact that our bodies are but an “earthly house, this tent,” and
that sooner or later the house is “destroyed” and the tent taken down and done
away with. But, praise be to God, he went on to talk about “a building from
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” That “house,” of
course, is God’s house, the spiritual dwelling the Bible describes as heaven,
the eventual home of the soul for faithful Christians. He is single minded
about going there, and refuses to allow other things, even good and urgent
things, to take his mind off heaven! With raw honesty, he admits there are
times when life in our “tent” here on earth sometimes causes us to “groan.”
Paul has no death wish – but he admits to “earnestly desiring to be clothed
with our habitation which is from heaven.” Heaven is on his mind, in his heart,
and always in his field of vision! The strong longing to go there and be with
Christ motivated him to “walk by faith, not by sight,”
and to “make it our aim . . . to be well-pleasing to
God,” no matter what life threw at him. The apostle Paul was “homed-in” on
heaven!
Heaven has
fallen off the radar screen for many people.
A. J. Conyer wrote in The Eclipse of Heaven, “Even to one without
religious commitment and theological convictions, it should be an unsettling
thought that this world is attempting to chart its way through some of the most
perilous waters in history, having now decided to ignore what was for two
millennia its fixed point of reference – its North Star. The certainty of
judgment, the longing for Heaven, the dread of hell: these are not prominent
considerations in our discourse about the important matters of life. But they
once were” (quoted in Heaven by Randy Alcorn, p 9). And they still will be for
those who take the Bible seriously. How about it – are you “homed-in” on
heaven? You can be if you allow faith in God and His word to chart your course!
Think about it.
by Dan Gulley,
Smithville, TN
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