Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)
I walked in the worship center not expecting what I felt. Previously I had been in the lobby talking and connecting with some of my favorite people and was coming in cold. Opening the doors, I had stepped into a different environment of tremendous weight. There was a thick presence of something entirely “other”. I fear sometimes we take this for granted. Another Sunday comes and goes with the next just around the corner. It’s easy to miss the movement of God within His people, it’s easy to do church. On Sunday’s like this, the Spirit gives me a gentle reminder of a deeper purpose. We have something special at Western Reserve, it’s in the people, and it’s in the practical theology.
It was fitting we spoke of the new heaven and earth. How miraculous and needed this is in our current fragmented world. I appreciate a theology of heaven that goes beyond “clouds and harps” while valuing the current condition in which we live. For too long, heaven has been promoted as something entirely different with little trace of our current world. But if our God is in the redemption business, then it would only make sense He would redeem this world which He created. Any time we speak on the afterlife, it is not to be used as a motivation to “turn or burn”, but as a chance to dwell with a savior who loves deeper than the pain of death. Heaven is to be longed for and not used as a evangelism tool. We are to appreciate the humanity of heaven.
Heven is nice, but we must never be so concerned with the other world, that we are of no earthly good. We still have work here to do in faith. But every now and again, it helps to think of what’s next. Today, may the longing in our heart compel us to love those around us and cherish our all too human restraints. Relief is coming.
Matt simon blog 