I Know There Is A Heaven # 1

I Know There Is A Heaven # 1

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Revelation 21:1-4).

Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. It is one of the mightiest, if not the very mightiest, rewards of God Almighty holds out to those who accept His Son as Saviour and by persistent well-doing show forth their title to eternal fellowship with the hosts of glory. It is a joyous, noble, inspiring, cheering doctrine. It has encouraged the martyr at the stake and sustained the bed-ridden Christian tormented by the burden, the weight, the ailments of the flesh. It's message has charmed our childhood, heartened our maturity, inspired out old age. It has given us the brave fortitude to bear the trials and temptations of life with unbowed head and unfaltering step. There is not a soul among us, no matter how seemingly indifferent or unconcerned who is not at times - and these times come oftener and oftener with the advance of years - brought face to face with the problems of the reality, of the very existence of heaven. It is my purpose, God aiding, to bring to your minds, hearts, your souls some of the glorious, victorious truths about heaven, its citizens, its perfections, its conditions, and, perhaps most of all, to point out to you what you must do to get there; then to plead with you in all the passion of my soul that you put your feet by faith in the way of the Cross that leads to God and to heaven. My outline is simple, brief, and, I hope, to the point. I know there is a heaven. I know what kind of place it is. I know I am going there.

1. I Know There Is A Heaven

Fairness says so, decency, justice, rightness, honor, honesty, common sense, demand it. Where would the justice, the boasted equity of God, were there no heaven? Christians do not always have the best of it in this life. Many of them are poor. Many of them are sick. Many of them are oppressed, afflicted, tormented. There is very little reward for them in this life. Tell me, can you believe that the sacrificial saint and the selfish sinner will meet God and enjoy the same conditions of life beyond? Fairness requires that there be a difference. Heaven is the difference. Fairness says so.

Feeling says so. There is something in my heart as there is surely in your hearts, some affection, some emotion, some drawing, pulling, echoing something that tells us again and again that there is life beyond the skies, a life with God, a life with joy, of tenderness, purity, holiness, peace, where these troublesome, trying, tempestuous burdens that afflict us will be sloughed off and we shall stand free and upright in the sight of God and of His Christ. Look into the very depths of your souls. Tell me, is it not so? Is there not in your hearts a longing for the fellowship of God, for the communion of Christ, for the freedom of the Holy Spirit, for the presence of the angels? That feeling was placed there by God. It has grown with the passing of years. Surely God would not have endowed you with that yearning, kept it alive all these years, unless He meant to satisfy it in His own good time, in His own good will. This life cannot be the all in all. Our feelings prohibit such a thought. There must be a heaven. There is a heaven. Feeling says so.

Faith says so. Faith is confidence in the Word of God. The Book unmistakable, definitely, shoutingly, pressingly, imperatively teaches that there is a heaven. Doubt it, and the whole Christian system is exploded. Jesus spoke the fact of God when He said, "In My Father's house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you. "Faith says so. Backed up by, founded on the inerrant, unchangeable, unmistakable, eternal Word of God. The world that Christians are seeking, is a city whose founder and builder is God, a city of peace, of rest, of bliss, of reward. There is a heaven. Faith says so.

2. I Know What Kind of a Place Heaven Is

My heart tells me. My soul whispers to me. My mind loves to dwell upon it. But, best of all, most assuring of all, safest of all, most satisfactory of all, the Bible definitely describes it. It is good exercise, inspiring practice, uplifting meditation, to run the references in the old Book on Heaven.

~Wilbur A. Maier~

(continued with # 2)