When Marin and I were on our way back from our honeymoon in Colorado, we listened to an audiobook called “The Slumber of Christianity”. The book is very detailed but can be summarized around a few core verses:
Colossians 3:1-2 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.
Matthew 6:19-20 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal…”
As a kid and teenager I knew about heaven but I didn’t think about it very much. To me, everything was primarily about this life. You lived, you died; if you believed in Jesus you went to heaven, which was better than hell, but still wasn’t necessarily something to be excited about. In listening to “The Slumber of Christianity” it awoke me to the reality of how real heaven is and of how temporary our time here is. At first, I didn’t really know what to do with this information. My honest assessment was feeling like Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:14 “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind”. Life here felt so temporary. Even Paul said in Philippians 1:23 “I would long to go be with Christ, which would be far better for me”.
God let me wrestle with these truths during the following weeks and months and slowly started to give me understanding. I started to realize that even though heaven was the eternity, the here and now have unimaginable importance. This is the war, this is the battle zone spiritually speaking. What we do here has eternal implications like no other time in history. I think that Christians, myself included often forget this. 2nd Timothy 2:4 says “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him”. Often we do find ourselves entangled in civilian affairs. We spend much of our time concerned with making ourselves comfortable and ensuring that we are safe. How silly would it be if a soldier, away at war, spent the majority of his time trying to get his barracks just right so they were as comfortable as home? It wouldn’t make any sense at all. His commanding officer would come to him and say “how about we win the war first and then you can enjoy fully the comforts or your actual real home”. Additionally, it would get pretty frustrating trying to make paradise on the battlefield with things getting blown up every so often. In the same way, it is silly for us to get comfortable in our present life. “…for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart” – Ecclesiastes 7:2″. These words ring all to true to our ears and should encourage us to run to Jesus and say “use me while I’m here”. Everything we invest in his kingdom will last forever.
My basic purpose for writing this post is simply to encourage you to have proper perspective. Understand that this present age is the war and think about what that means in your life. Put on the full armor of God as described in Ephesians 6. I think the video below captures what I’m trying to say extremely well. It’s only 4 minutes long and I greatly encourage you to watch it. I’m hoping to write next week on how having a biblical understanding of heaven is an essential piece of setting our sights on heaven.
God Bless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86dsfBbZfWs
