Heaven, anyone?

“Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” Matthew 5:12 (NIV)

Are you afraid to go Heaven? Somewhere out there the world has convinced everyone that Heaven is a place where people become angels and sit around on clouds all day with harps looking down on the earth. I have heard more times than I care to admit “if that is what Heaven is like, I would be bored and I don’t want to go there.” Well, I would dare to say that God is not going to allow us to just sit around and be “bored.” I also cannot find any references in the Bible to sitting on clouds and playing harps, so what does God tell us about Heaven?

Heaven is God’s dwelling place. Acts says “Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet” (7:49). I would certainly rather be in the presence of a throne than a footstool. Thrones are beautiful seats made especially for a King that reveal His glory and honor. Typically in older cultures, those who were seated were in a position of honor and authority. All of the courtiers stood around the king on his throne. And when Jesus prayed to God he said “pray, then, in this way: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6:9). Jesus knew where God was-He was in heaven. Jesus had come down from heaven himself to earth to bring salvation to its fallen and sinful inhabitants (John 6:41).

Heaven is filled with rewards for the righteous. Matthew 5:12 says “rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” And Peter writes “in his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4). So whatever rewards and treasures we may have here on earth that can be taken away and perish, nothing compares to the ones waiting for us in heaven that cannot be stolen or fade.

Heaven will not have any sin or sadness. “For of this you can be sure: no immoral, impure or greedy person-such a man is an idolater-has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” (Eph 5:5). Won’t it be wonderful to go to a place where there is no sin, evil, harm, tears, greed, impurity, sickness, disease or any other bad things?

Heaven and Hell are actual places that exist and each person on earth will one day reside in one or the other for eternity. Heaven is for true believers who are sanctified by God and Hell for the unbeliever who refuses God’s grace of salvation through Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that eternal life in either of these places is a deliberate choice by the person.

So what is our alternative? Jesus says in Matthew 13 “the Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (41-42). And in Matthew 25 “then he will say to those on his left, ‘depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’” (41). So it looks like the alternative to the beautiful dwelling place of God with many rooms and righteous people (John 14:2) will be an eternal fire where we can share space with the devil himself and all his minions where there is much pain, suffering, and gnashing of teeth. Hmmm…that one is kind of a “no-brainer” to me. I think I will put my faith in Jesus Christ and live for Him so that I can dwell eternally with the Almighty God, Creator of the Universe. How about you?