A Heaven With No Clouds

Here are some commonly held assumptions about heaven among Christ followers:

*content is from the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn which is outlined bellow by Rick McKinley in This Beautiful Mess

We assume that heaven is a completely nonphysical experience. We'll float around and morph from place to place. We assume that heaven will feel unfamiliar and other-wordly.

Truth: The bible shows that heaven will be a restored physical world. Heaven will be a flourishing realm of city and nature, of people and conversations, of streets to walk down and good food to be enjoyed.

We assume that in heaven people will be spirits (nice ghosts, though, like Casper).

Truth: The bible tells us that we will exist in eternity in a body that has been "raised in glory" - a physical body similar to the resurrected Jesus - that will never again wrestle with sickness, want, pain, or aging.

We think of heaven as static. Harps and clouds and very loud sing-alongs. We tend to imagine a heaven where we will have no desire because everything will be perfect and we will have nothing to do.

Truth: You will have things to do, people to visit, meaningful relationships, fulfilling responsibilities. The bible shows us that we have been created in the image of God to be passionate about many things, to pursue, to enjoy, and to achieve. In heaven, there is a good chance that you'll be doing many of the same things you are doing now that you enjoy!

As we let the truth about heaven push aside our wrong assumptions, we'll find ourselves wanting heaven more and being defeated by earth less.

My note: This makes me excited to be a part of heaven even more. But it doesn't make me want to sit around and wait. It makes me want to pray even more that the Kingdom would come right here, right now, as Jesus prayed. We don't have to wait. We have the opportunity to see heaven crash into earth everyday. Let's get to it.