Heaven

H. A. Baker

Posted on by Kath Walden

The step to heaven after death, or at the coming of the Lord seemed so small and the coming up of Lord so near that it removed from our mind all mystery as to why the first disciples could sell their possessions and face persecution and death without wavering; our kingdom is not of this world. Our citizenship is in heaven, whence also we wait for our Saviour. Our life, our work, our service, and our hardships are only brief and passing incidents on the way to the true life, the true city in the true kingdom that cannot be shaken.

 

George Eldon Ladd

Posted on by Kath Walden

The Kingdom of God is His kingship, His rule, His authority. When this is once realized, we can go through the New Testament and find passage after passage where this meaning is evident, where the Kingdom is not a realm or a people but God’s reign. Jesus said that we must “receive the kingdom of God” as little children (Mark 10:15). What is received? The Church? Heaven? What is received is God’s rule. In order to enter the future realm of the Kingdom, one must submit himself in perfect trust to God’s rule here and now. We must also “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matt. 6: 33). What is the object of our quest? The Church? Heaven? No, we are to seek God’s righteousness—His sway, His rule, His reign in our lives.

Eugene H. Peterson

Posted on by Kath Walden

God created the heavens and the earth. Heavens, the realm of the spiritual, and earth, the realm of the physical. It is easy to find instances of people who take one and leave the other. We have specialists in things of the spirit who ignore things of the earth—people who are so heavenly-minded that they do no earthly good. They are full of dreams, visions, pious sighs, and beautiful thoughts, but somehow it never makes any difference in how they treat their friends, conduct their business, or care about the world. And then there are people who are specialists in the material and ignore things of the spirit. They collect money, pursue sensations, play games, or accumulate possessions, but with all their devotion to the material, they never seem to become any better, happier, or more useful. They are selfish, disgruntled, and anxious.

Garris Ellis

Posted on by Kath Walden

As believers, we are sojourners from another Kingdom while we live here on Earth. The documentation of our heavenly passport and the word of God define who we are and how we are to live in this world when its demands of earthly citizenship contradict our higher allegiance. We should always speak with the accent of Heaven and carry with us the customs and lifestyle inherent with that citizenship. Without those distinctions, we will slowly fall into the slumber of compromise where we will succumb to ways of thinking we would have never thought possible when our faith was awake and clearheaded.

Thomas Fuller

Posted on by Kath Walden

No man who is fit to live need fear to die. To us here, death is the most terrible thing we know. But when we have tasted its reality it will mean to us birth, deliverance, a new creation of ourselves. It will be what health is to the sick man; what home is to the exile; what the loved one given back is to the bereaved. As we draw near to it a solemn gladness should fill our hearts. It is God’s great morning lighting up the sky. Our fears are the terror of children in the night. The night with its terrors, its darkness, its feverish dreams, is passing away; and when we awake it will be into the sunlight of God.

Suprise Sithole

Posted on by Kath Walden

We might have the beautiful house, beautiful country, fat account, good friends, wonderful children, nice jobs, but there is nothing that can replace the reality of disturbed soul that is heading towards destruction.
But what the joy it is, on the other hand, to be in peace with God, to feel His presence and to smell His presences. This is what we should, by all means, strive for in faith, hope for and die for, for the city of God, is far much better than a taste of this life.