Why we are not looking to Heaven...

Chapter Fifty-one:

What do you think of when you think about heaven?  Do you see it as simply the place where you will end up when you die if you are a believer and have accepted Christ's atonement for your sins?  Or do you find yourself yearning to be there, in the presence of Almighty God.  Unfortunately, for many, the former is the case.

We have allowed ourselves to become so focused on earthly things to the detriment of losing our focus on heavenly things.  Our families, our work, our hobbies, our earthly possessions hold more of our interest and enthusiasm than does the hope and joy of knowing we are heaven bound.

My father recently went to his sister's funeral and for that short period of time I dare say that many who were in attendance thought of their own mortality.  But after the funeral, they probably shook off those morbid thoughts and returned to their daily lives...after all, as the saying goes, "life must go on".  Even those of us who call ourselves Christians tend to think of heaven as just the place we will be going to when we die...it is only reassurance, if you will, that we will have a nice, happy afterlife. 

Why do we not earnestly look forward to being there with our Lord, counting the days until we are by His side?  This is not to say that we do not do the Lord's work while we are still here.  Paul, who is known as being a great Apostle and laborer for the Gospel, said in  Philippians 1:21-23 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better." 

 Unfortunately many of us, even those who are dedicated to doing the Lord's work,  have become too comfortable here in this world, to the detriment that we hardly ever stop and yearn for heaven. We are not as torn as Paul was between being here and being with the Lord.   Sadly, Heaven no longer beckons as it once did.

 

 

Philippians 3:20-21 reminds us, "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself."  

If that is true, why do we find that we are not sick and tired of living in this world.  Is it because we have allowed ourselves to become comfortable living here?  If we are honest with ourselves, would we say that we actually enjoy it here?  Jesus warned those of His day that they lived in a wicked and adulterous generation.  Can we say that our day is any less wicked and adulterous, and if not, why would we want to stay here? 

Many churches seem to have lost the emphasis on preaching the need to be ready for heaven and to watch for the signs of our Lord's return so that we are ready.  They, too, have become guilty of becoming complacent and fitting into this world too well. When the church talks about the future, it tends to talk about how to live a fuller, more blessed life or how to be more tolerant and loving so we will live in a better world rather than on the need for us to be a people who are set apart.

Believers are endeavoring to save the world by being more like it, but Scripture plainly tells us that the true power of the church comes when it is unlike it.  And the modern church is doing its best to make church such a "fun" place in order to attract new members, so why would anyone want to leave here?  

Christians are to be known as a people who do not belong on this earth. We are meant to be a people who stand out as being very different. Jesus Christ was known as being one who did not belong here and did not desire to fit in, yet we do whatever we can to fit in. Jesus did not integrate himself into society but was condemned by it and eventually crucified by it.  He condemned it by staying apart from it and for this He was looked at as being rather odd.

A. W. Tozer said, "The Christian has a homeland, and the fact that we are not anticipating it and looking forward to it with any pleasure is a serious mark of something that is wrong with us....Once more I repeat that Christians are living too much in the 'present now'--and the anticipation of better things to come has almost died out of the Church of Christ." He goes on to say, " Actually, it is true, that all of the Christians I meet who are amounting to anything for God are Christians who are very much out of key  with their age--very, very much out of tune with their generation."

Following the example of how Christ lived is to be our example, but we have allowed the world to shape us, and to our shame we often enjoy it.  As a believer we are to be changed day by day into the likeness of Christ, but if we are so focused on enjoying living in this temporary world we become less able to hear from our Lord when He wants to pinpoint something in our lives that needs to be changed. To the degree that we are walking and being changed to be more like Christ, to that degree we will be out of sync with the world.

Rather than jeopardize our friendships or our standing in the world we go along with their expectations.  Ask yourself, how do you portray yourself to others?  Do they know you are a believer or are they just presuming you are a good, moral person?  If others cannot tell or if they do not know that you are a true Christian then you may have allowed yourself to become conformed to this world, even though in your heart that is the last thing you may want to happen.  This, my friend, is a result of not being set apart as a foreigner in this world. We are nicely settled in this world and our anticipation of better things to come has become but a shadow.

As believers we cannot and should not close our eyes to what is going on around us. We have allowed ourselves to become complacent about Christ's return. We have become like the young virgins who did not have oil for their lamps (Book of Matthew, Chapter 25). While many of us do believe that Christ will return some day, we do not yearn for it to happen. Our longing to see Christ has become a weak flame and is no longer the burning desire it once was. Our lamps collect dust while we live our lives.

An example I heard once was about a man who was waiting the return of his betrothed.  At first he sits up night after night by the window, waiting for her return. But as the days go by, he begins to go about doing other things and no longer waits expectantly.  This, I am afraid to say, is how many of us act about heaven. And in so doing, the "other things" of this world replace the expectancy of heaven. Many Christians are so comfortable that they have little desire to leave.  In fact, I have heard several say they are not ready to go to heaven yet because there are still many things they want to do here on earth...unfortunately, I do not believe they were referring to doing more of the Lord's work. It is a sure sign of comfortableness, if there is such a word. 



C. S. Lewis said, "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this." 
 

What needs to happen to us to change our focus? Unless as believers we are separated from the world (we are in the world but not of it), we will succumb to spiritual lethargy.  History shows us that it is during times of suffering that the Church begins to look upwards. Times of tribulation have always sobered God's people and gotten their attention off the world and its comforts.  My prayer is that we will return to being a more heavenly-focused people who are set apart from this world while having to live in it, and that it does not take a time of trouble to bring this about. 

Standing up for the truth...

Chapter:  Fifty

"In reading such men as Wesley and Finney one is struck with the bold way they dealt with hindrances to God's work wherever they found them. They dared to look at any work of religion, to examine the claims of any would-be prophet, and appraise them for what they were worth. They were thus able to purge out those false elements which, if allowed to remain, would soon have brought the work of God to a stop.

This is an art which very much needs to be revived in the tricky times in which we live. We now seem afraid to probe into anything that claims to be of God lest we violate the spirit of love or lay irreverent hands upon the ark.

Have we forgotten that we labor under a direct injunction to "try the spirits" and "prove all things"? Through our failure to obey this charge a hundred abuses are allowed to linger within the Church, weakening it, hindering it and throwing it open to just reproach.

The fashion now is to tolerate anything lest we gain the reputation of being intolerant. The tender-minded saints cannot bear to see Agag slain (see First Samuel 15), so they choose rather to sacrifice the health of the Church for years to come by sparing error and evil; and this they do in the name of Christian love.

We are under obligation to disturb all seats of wickedness, and where this is done out of sincere love for God and men, great good is bound to follow. No true work of God will suffer from the prayerful examination of Spirit-filled men. Timidity masquerading as love has allowed useless forms and unscriptural practices to persist in many a church till they have slowly smothered the life out of it and brought it to desolation. And many a promising work of revival has been wrecked because no one was courageous enough to stand against the abuses that entered to destroy it.

We must not be afraid to inquire. The difficulty, of course, is to do this in a Christian spirit. It is hard to find fault without being a faultfinder or to criticize without being censorious. But we have it to do if we hope to keep the work of God pure in a day of iniquity."

A. W. Tozer