From Hell to Heaven

Perhaps, as Timothy Keller and C.S. Lewis prescribe, Hell is a choice we make when we place our identity in something other than God.  Hell is choosing to be self-willed, self-centered, and self absorbed.  Hell is having to be all about oneself in a way that excludes the freedom of being loved by God to thankfully receive His blessings.  Isn't Hell having to get it your way and not letting go of what you want, which is a never ending gaping hole, a broken cistern, rather than choosing the fullness of God?  Is it not like Hell to live day by day unchanged when what is habitual is also shameful and self-loathing to you?  What may seem like a small problem now, and even a small problem in the next 60 years, like a small bout of anger at a friend, could turn out to be catastrophic in 4000 yrs, tortuously unmanageable in eternity.  Hell is not the judgment of God more than it is a choice to continue to be your own Savior.  Hell is a display of God's love in that we all were headed there due to our sinful inheritance, but God sent His Perfect Son to become like us and die as the One through whom we all had access to inherit the Kingdom!  To have the fullness of heaven in our hearts, which is to have all we ever wanted...to be loved and accepted, and perfect.  In Christ we have all that we need, but lies continue to mark our mortal bodies.  Lies about death, about self-preservation, about one's glory, respect, and person.  Lies that say we don't have what the gospel says, by faith, we freely have! 

"giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him."

(Colossians 1:12-14 HCSB)

From rags to riches on a level beyond our full comprehension, but enough comprehension to make a choice.  It's not that Christ died so we could all go to heaven, but Christ died so that we would choose freedom in Him because of love.  If hell is about being enslaved to the wants and desires of our never ending wants and desires, then heaven is more than just having all those wants and desires (since they continue to only lead to more wants and desires), heaven must mean satisfaction, contentment.  I ask myself everyday, Jamie, are you content?  What do you want? Have you tasted the true love of the Father who sent His only Son to die for your sins to be wiped away?  Have you been embraced by the God of the universe who calls you daughter?  And now, what do you want?  What remains in you that feels it is lacking or incomplete? 

Heaven must mean that the hole in our hearts, which could be viewed as our connection to God, is fully repaired, and every want and desire no longer slips through but stays fully enjoyed only because it is enjoyed with the Father.  I take it a step further and say that if the hole is sealed by the love of the Father, then we would no longer have a want or a desire.  In other words, heaven is having the love of the Father. 

If that's heaven, and it must be if the goal is complete wholeness bound by love and eternal acceptance and delight, then heaven begins on earth. We have access to the Father by His Spirit.  The Word of God says that we begin to experience Him the moment we believe, by faith through grace, that Jesus is the Messiah, God's Son sent to die for us.  We begin on earth...

"For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us — not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy — through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit."

(Titus 3:3-5 HCSB)

To have heaven is to have the fullness of Christ dwell in you.  Heaven is the fullness that your selfish ambition, the gaping hole, could never grasp.  Heaven is having the perfection of God, right?  Is that my heavenly?  To have the righteousness, the holiness, the love and the power of God, is that not heaven?  Or is heaven the ideal spouse who we all know is just another person like ourselves in need of that fullness that only is of a perfect God?  Is heaven money and wealth, a commodity rendered useless on our deathbeds?  Perhaps heaven is the respect and honor we all crave, but none of us gets enough of, one accolade is only the next dangling thread calling for more attention.  Without God nothing is ever enough.  What sounds like hell? A life without our comforts?  Without beauty? Without respect?  What is the root of all our desires? Is comfort an ultimate end?--if so the rich would be satisfied, in their big lush homes with exquisite and unending access to the best food, best furniture, best traveling itineraries, and best of what anyone on earth has to offer at a price.  Comfort is a gaping hole if it does not satisfy, and we all know well it is never enough for the rich who have access to all the comfort in the world without limits!

Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:2-5 HCSB)

Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving.

Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person. (Colossians 4:2, 6 HCSB)

giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him. (Colossians 1:12-14 HCSB)

We have inherited the Kingdom, but only by faith for now, and then in fullness again when Jesus gathers all the children of God to Him.  

As Colossians says,

 "When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."

And we wait with unconditional faith and the help of the Spirit of God dwelling always close within us.

I embrace heaven today, because the love of God has been revealed and made real to me.

It's weird to have everything, but nothing is quite like it.  Nothing is everything except this:

"God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

(1 John 4:9-10 HCSB)

Merry Christmas. 

Jmegrey.