Monday, August 20, 2012

Anticipation of Heaven: More Than Eschatology

"But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city" (Hebrews 11:16)

We have come to a wretched emphasis in the Christian church, so that when we talk about the future we talk about "eschatology" instead of heaven!

We must confess 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.

We find ourselves so well-situated now, that we don't really need any tomorrow's heaven. We don't need to hope - we have everything well enough now!

In this kind of emphasis, the fact remains that the true Christian is one who is kind of sick of this world. When God works a miracle within the human breast, heaven becomes the Christian's home immediately, and he is drawn to it as the bird is drawn in the springtime to fly north.

The Christian does have 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.

When I find someone who is settled down too snugly into this world and its system, I am forced to doubt whether he has ever been born again.

Actually, it is true that all of the Christians I meed who really amount to something for God are those very  much out of key with their age - very, very much out of tune with their generation! Remember, you are on earth and God is in heaven - so don't be afraid to dream high spiritual dreams, believing what your Bible says.

~A. W. Tozer~

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