I really liked today’s study. In his introduction, Selwyn writes; “Our courage for the journey often falters because we’ve lost our hope of heaven – the consummation of the love story that started long ago in eternity when God predestined us to be His own.” (Eph. 1:4). Yet, in a way, our loss of hope in heaven is due to the fact that we’ve taken our eyes off Jesus. We have become more focused on our situation; the people, things and events which pre-occupy us – in our everyday lives.

One of the characteristics of a person looking towards heaven, is their constant prayer, ‘Come Lord Jesus, come.’

Selwyn has selected,  Philippians 3:12–21, for reading and meditation: “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ …” (v.20) Perhaps, we have become so focused on the ‘here and now’, that our eagerness in waiting for Jesus, has faded somewhat – do you agree?

The hope of heaven, is the driving force which motivates us to cry out to God for His help when we feel lost. God’s love is such, that He will always help us, through various means to restore our hope in Him.

Selwyn captures the main theme of this study with this statement: ” … that one reason why God may take us into the desert is to whet our appetite for home. Scripture, as we saw, teaches us that we cannot live without hope. Faith and love, we are told, ‘spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven’ (Col. 1:5).

Western culture is so focused on what’s happening ‘now‘; media and social networking technology constantly stream live updates into our environments – informing us of what’s happening at that moment. Superficial – one line statements – that grab 30 seconds of our time which often leave us exhausted and distract us away from the main focus of our spiritual journey. Is it any wonder, that we are losing the ability to focus on important issues – that we are losing the ability to maintain our focus on our Lord’s return? The question then remains – are you prepared for His return? Is your hope in heaven – alive and growing?

[I’m back!]

There is no harm in trying to imagine what heaven will be like – but we can’t imagine that, which we don’t know. Our imagination is based on our experiences, our knowledge, our impressions and our interpretations of other’s experiences.

Our imagination uses known building blocks to form images that may not be based on reality, but they can always be traced back to common building blocks. Sometimes they’re building blocks which are constructed by other people who have richer imaginations. The various writers of science fiction,  for example H.G. Wells or C.S. Lewis, used their imaginations to developed fantastic imaginary worlds. Yet these imaginary worlds attract us because they contain some very basic human attributes, which can easily be recognised in these fictional stories.

The apostle Paul was absolutely right when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him … “

We do know some aspects of heaven (as told to us in Scripture) but we can’t really imagine what it feels like to experience these aspects. We can know that we will have a perfect relationship with God – but we only have a glimpse of what that might be like; we may know that our spirit will be at home, to experience perfect, sinless love. To be able to perfectly worship our amazing God – but, in this life, it’s through a dark piece of glass that we catch sight of the promised flashes of heaven’s pure light. Whatever we imagine – it will be a very poor and feeble representation of what God has prepared for us.

Our minds are flawed – it’s impossible for us to conceive, in our imaginations, the reality of heaven.

Yet, rather than not yearn for what is promised – we should all the more take hold of the vision of being  at peace with our loving God – to be able to worship Him in the perfect way that he Has designed us, to do.  It’s the finish line which we all persistently run towards – using all the energy He provides – to reach that amazing place – called, ‘at home with God’.

What were your views on today’s study?