Category: heaven

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Heaven is a Real Place

Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans believe in the existence of heaven. Admittedly, some of this belief may be wishful thinking or based on made up stories, or accounts of near death experiences in books and movies.

The best source of information is the Bible and the word of Jesus. He said, “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man” (John 3: 12-13).

“I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38).

“I have come here from God. I have not come on my own. God sent me” (John 8: 42).

Jesus taught that heaven is a definite, specific place. It is not a state of mind, a fantasy, or an illusion. Jesus said to his disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:3). He called heaven a “place.” The word in Greek is topos, which gives us the English word topography, a word used by  surveyors, civil engineers, and explorers.

Most of us have a sense of place. My wife’s is her small hometown in the Virginia Highlands. We love going back there year after year. It feels like home. We possess an oil painting of the house in which I grew up in Tennessee. It is a reminder of the place where my brothers and I were reared.

Last year Connie and I moved from our pleasant home place in Oklahoma City after 32 years there. We now live in Valdosta, Georgia, to be near our daughter Carrie and her family. Last week we moved into a new house in a new neighborhood. Again we are adjusting to a new place.

Heaven is the place where God is. King Solomon dedicated the temple in Jerusalem with these words, “Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place, Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive” (1 Kings 8:30).

The apostle John spoke of heaven as the New Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God and redeemed humanity when he wrote, “Look, God’s dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them. They will be his people , and God himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).

Jesus promised the dying criminal on the cross next to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). The man was promised a place in heaven because he trusted in Jesus and asked for salvation. You and I may have the same assurance of heaven if our faith is the Savior who came from heaven to take us there.

Heaven is a real place populated by real people. I hope to see you there.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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Goodness and Mercy

I can’t help thinking about my future with Parkinson’s disease. Frankly, some of the information I’ve been given is depressing to read. I prefer to live one day at a time and try not to let Parkinson’s define me. I intend to stay as active as I can for as long as I can. I’ve continued to play racquetball, tremor and all. Today I rode my bike for fourteen miles around Lake Hefner. It was great. I feel alive.

Since I received my diagnosis, I have been meditating on Psalm 23 and writing about it on this site. The assurances offered by this inspired poem have  given me renewed confidence in the Good Shepherd who faithfully watches over his sheep. He is watching over me.

The psalmist, David, a shepherd himself, wrote, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (v.6).” Here are promises for time, and eternity, for this life, and for the afterlife. “All the days of my life” means just that. All the days, whether they are days of health or days of disability. Whatever changes may be ahead, the promise is that the Lord’s goodness and covenant love (mercy) will shepherd me.

I have heard the Lord’s goodness and mercy compared to sheep dogs that guard and pursue the sheep, rounding them up to protect them and to keep them from straying. These strong, intelligent, well-trained animals move the sheep along to pasture at the command of their master, the shepherd.

The word “surely” implies certainty. The certainty is not that life will always be easy or pleasant. The certainty is that God’s character and promises never fail. His nature does not change. His goodness and mercy will pursue me like sheep dogs, all my days on earth, and beyond.

Speaking of “beyond,” there is a truth here that gives assurance of immortality. Death, to David, is not the end of the story. Even the grave cannot deprive him of the hope of eternal life. His words, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” point forward to a promise of Jesus: “My Father’s house has many rooms . . . I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14: 2-3).

David is writing about the future, eternity.  He is grateful for the Lord’s faithful care throughout all the days of his life. Now he knows he will be cared for after he dies, in an eternal home in the presence of the Lord.

I once heard a radio interview featuring folks who were describing memories of their childhood homes. They talked about kitchens, furniture, musical instruments, bedrooms and gardens. But it was not those things that stood out most prominently. It was the people who inhabited their homes. They told about following Mom around in the kitchen, waiting for Dad to come home, pillow fights, family meals, and holiday reunions with extended family members. They were saying that home is what it is because of the people who are there.

That is what David had in mind as he closed the 23rd Psalm. He was looking forward to an eternal home in the presence of the Lord. “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” can surely be taken to mean an afterlife for the believer in actual communion with God. His goodness and unfailing love are expressions of his eternal character. They pursue God’s sheep through death into eternal life.

True fellowship with God is what is offered. The Christian understanding is that this is possible because of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, who laid down his life for his sheep, and who has gone ahead to his Father’s house to prepare a place for them.

I hope you can say with certainty that you know that you too have an eternal home in the house of the Lord. It is available to you if your faith is in the Lord Jesus.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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The Certainty of Heaven

Paul lived with a secret he had kept to himself for fourteen years. It concerned an experience with God that was so intense that to most folks it might have seemed unreal. So he had held it inside until the time came to tell about it.

It concerned heaven, invisible to mortals, and to many people a fantastic dream, to others a desperate hope, or to skeptics, an impossibility. But to Paul, it had become a reality, a very real certainty. If Paul is to be believed (and I believe him!), we are told that he actually went there. He saw and heard the sights and sounds of heaven. And he wrote to tell us about it.

He chose the most autobiographical of his letters to reveal his secret. Paul wrote 2 Corinthians to explain himself to his critics and to bare his heart to his friends. He shared intimate details about his sufferings. He wrote about opposition and criticism he faced. He wrote about discouragement. He wrote about his uncertain future.

But he also revealed his source of greatest encouragement, the most sacred privilege he had ever known. It was a special experience of heaven about which he had kept silent for fourteen years. The Lord permitted him to write about this for our benefit, so that we, too, might be encouraged by the certainty of heaven.

“I know a man in Christ,” he wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:2. This is an oblique reference to Paul himself, early in his Christian ministry, fourteen years before. This “man in Christ . . . was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know — God knows.  And I know that this man — whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows — was caught up to Paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell” (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).

Paul is talking about himself and an experience he had had with God. We know this because of what he said next. Such an experience might have made him conceited and boastful, if the Lord had not humbled him with a “thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest upon me” ( 2 Corinthians 2:7-9).

From this we learn the profound lesson that heaven is a real place. Paul called it “Paradise.” The word comes from the ancient theology of the Hebrews. They thought of it as a place where the righteous go when they die. It’s basic meaning is of a garden, reminding us of the Garden of Eden. When Jesus offered eternal life to the repentant thief on the cross dying next to him he said, “today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Paul also referred to it as “the third heaven.” Where is that? According to Paul, it is “up,” probably a reference to its location beyond the first heaven (atmosphere of earth), and the second heaven (outer space). A literal Greek reading of Hebrews 4:14 says that in his ascension, Jesus “has gone through the heavens.”

Another implication is that Paul’s experience of Paradise was indescribable. It was a revelation “from the Lord” (v. 1) It had happened at a specific time which Paul remembered. What he did not know was whether or not this was an out of the body experience. He had held this secret for fourteen years (v.2), without speculating on the things he couldn’t explain. There are some things the Lord does not want us to understand as yet. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Paul said that in this vision of heaven he heard “inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell” (v.4). Did he see Jesus? Did the Lord speak to him directly? Warren Wiersbe wrote that Paul “overheard divine secrets that are shared only in heaven.” This much is certain. He was given a revelation of heaven for our sakes, for his first century and his twenty-first century readers.

One more thing we can learn from Paul is that this place called Paradise is a desirable place. Paul had been there and he knew. These were “surpassingly great revelations” (v. 7) A Sunday School boy was asked, “Do you want to go to heaven?” He answered, “I don’t think so. Grandpa will be there and he will just say, ‘run along boys and be quiet!'”

In heaven there will be no grumpy, bitter, unhappy, or boring people. I know heaven will not be boring because Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. The kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Mark 10:14-15). If children could be happy there it will not be boring. It will be a desirable place. There will be no sin, no suffering, no disappointment or futility. Christ will make all things new. Those who are there will have been made new in Christ.

Paul was ready to go back there when his earthy assignment was completed. In 2 Corinthians 5:8 he said he “would prefer to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord.” Little wonder. His experience of heaven had etched in his heart the conviction that “to go and be with Christ is better by far” (Philippians 1:21-23).

I am glad Paul let us in on his secret.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Death Is All Around

Here in Oklahoma, as of yesterday, 763 people have died of the COVID-19 virus. According to the White House Corona Virus Task Force, our state has the twelfth-highest rate of new cases per capita. One can only speculate as to the reasons for the increase in new cases and deaths. Super spreading events such as the return to university campuses, off-campus parties,  and political rallies have been blamed. What will happen when football season gets underway?

At the same time, nationwide, almost 180,000 people have died of the virus. Medical researchers are predicting that the number of deaths will exceed 200,000 by the end of the year.

My wife and I are concerned for college classmates of ours who are hospitalized with the virus. We are praying for their recovery.

This week I heard a university instructor say that for the students of this generation, the current national health emergency will be the psychological equivalent of the Great Depression. This generation of young people will be marked for life by the specter of death.

In a sense, death has always been lurking. During the thirties, for many, it was the threat of starvation. In the forties, it was war. In the fifties the possibility of nuclear destruction threatened civilization. In succeeding decades, if it wasn’t civil unrest, it was terrorism that prompted the fear of death.

Does the Christian message offer any consolation? For every generation, including our own, the New Testament offers words such as these: “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we belong to the Lord” (Romans 14:8). Paul lived under a cloud of foreboding and he faced the possibility of martyrdom when he wrote: “Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. … I desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is better by far” (Philippians 1:20-21, 23).

When he said, “to live is Christ,” he was declaring his purpose in life. It was Jesus Christ who gave meaning to his life and a mission to fulfill. When he said, “to die is gain,” it was his assurance that he would gain heaven because of the saving grace of God. To depart this life to be with Christ is better by far, Paul stated with confidence.

I have not kept count of the many funeral services I have conducted. In forty-seven years of pastoral ministry I have stood with grieving families at hundreds of gravesides. At committal services it has always been my practice to remind the living that their loved one is not in the casket. For those whose trust is in the Savior, to be absent from the body is to be immediately present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).

The “dead in Christ” (1 Thessalonians 4:16) are not extinguished. They are not annihilated. They are as alive as he is. They are with him in heaven. When the early martyr Stephen was dying, he prayed, “Lord Jesus receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). Jesus stood to welcome him to heaven (Acts 7:56). When the thief on the cross prayed to Jesus, the Lord answered, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

The spirits of those who have been justified through the blood of Jesus are with the angels and with all whose names are written in the Book of Life in heaven. They are there with Jesus the mediator of the new covenant (Hebrews 12:22-24). Promises such as these take the sting out of death.

The other day Connie and I were reading in Revelation about the return of Christ and the final judgment. There is a beautiful scene in Revelation 20:4. The apostle John saw in a vision of heaven, the souls of those who will have given their lives for their faith in Jesus. They are described as having been faithful in their worship of Jesus and rejection of satanic counterfeit religion. They will have taken their stand for the testimony about Jesus and the true word of God.

They will have died on earth. They are seen as alive in heaven. They will fulfill their mission for Christ on earth. Their identity and destiny will be preserved in Christ in heaven.

These days, death is all around us and is on everyone’s mind. Those whose faith is in the Son of God can say, even when life here is uncertain, “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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