Fourth in a series on Eternity.
Once when a group of Sadducees tried to trip Jesus up about heaven, He told them they were wrong about God. “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Mark 12:27)
We were created for eternity; made to live forever.
I have a friend who loves to read biographies of missionaries from long ago. One favorite that she loaned me is called In The Arena. It’s written by Isabel Kuhn, a Canadian missionary who served the Lisu tribe in China from 1928-1950. I love her perspective on heaven:
“Christians often say that the most wonderful thing of all will be to see our Lord face to face. I have pondered that much and feel it is surely worded inadequately. To see the Lord is but a lesser thing to one who has had a close spirit-with-Spirit communion with Him all along. What matter the colour of His eyes or the shape of His face? That is not what makes Him precious. Nothing is so deeply intimate as a spirit knit with the Spirit, and that we can and should enjoy right now while here on earth. I think what is meant is to be with the Lord with the root of sin gone. To fellowship with Him without the lazy flesh dragging us back, or unwanted thoughts of pride and self constantly staining us. To be finally rid of corruption, to worship and enjoy Him with heart purged into His own purity, that will be an advance over anything that is possible on earth.”
Kuhn goes on to quote a letter from Dr. Harry Rimmer to Dr. Charles Fuller, about the certainty of his piece of eternal real estate:
“Next Sunday you are to talk about Heaven. I am interested in that land, because I have held a clear title to a bit of property there for over fifty-five years. I did not buy it. It was given to me without money and without price. But the Donor purchased it for me at tremendous sacrifice. I am not holding it for speculation since the title is not transferable. It is not a vacant lot. For more than half a century I have been sending materials out of which the greatest Architect and Builder of the universe has been building a home for me, which will never need to be remodeled or repaired because it will suit me perfectly, individually, and will never grow old. Termites cannot undermine its foundations, for they rest upon the Rock of Ages. Fires cannot destroy it. Floods cannot wash it away. No locks or bolts will ever be placed upon its doors, for no vicious persons can even enter that land where my dwelling stands, now almost completed and almost ready for me to enter in and abide in peace eternally, without fear of being ejected.
“There is a valley of deep shadows between the place where I live now and that to which I shall journey in a very short time. I cannot reach my home in that city of gold without passing through this dark valley of shadows. But I am not afraid, because the best Friend I ever had went through the same valley, long, long ago and drove away all its gloom. He has stuck by me through thick and thin since we first became acquainted fifty-five years ago, and I hold His promise in printed form never to forsake me nor to leave me alone. He will be with me as I walk through the valley of shadows, and I shall not lose my way when He is with me.”
Friends, if the struggles of life are weighing you down, may you take comfort in these words: “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:13-14)