HEAVEN

There is a mansion in a place far away

No tears nor sadness, night is always day

The sun is always shining on an unclouded sky

Beautiful city, heavenly city of light

You also Can Get to Heaven

As I drove to work some weeks ago, the words of the above song by the legendary gospel trumpeter Phil Driscoll, titled “On the Other Side”, drifted into my heart from my MP3 player. I then had those rare moments in life when I contemplated what life after death shall be like. Of course, as a Christian believer in the person of Jesus Christ, my thinking centered on what heaven shall be like. This essay is not going to be glorifying death; rather it shall be speaking of a place called heaven and shall be exalting the Person who will be making heaven worth all of its glory – the Person of Jesus Christ.

John 14:1 – “Let not your heart be troubled:  ye believe in God, believe also in me.   2 In my Father's house are many mansions:  if it were not so, I would have told you.   I go to prepare a place for you.   3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”. These words proceeded from the mouth of Jesus as he spoke about heaven, the eternal home God Almighty has given to as many as found faith in Christ Jesus. A careful study of those words reveals that there is no air of uncertainty in His words; the only condition given to make heaven is faith; we do not see our Lord threatening fire and brimstones about sin taking Christians to hell; rather we see these words as words of comfort coming from the Savior to a group of distraught disciples as they came to grip with the fact of Jesus’ inevitable departure. To comfort them, he gave them His word: I shall be returning to take you to heaven.

There is a greater need for doctrines emphasizing the reality and certainty of heaven in

"Every moment we live, we face a thousand ways to die"

today’s turbulent, shaking and disaster ridden world. The recent Super Typhoon Haiyan that wrecked havoc through the nation of Philippines reminds us mortals of how easy it is to die in a world like this. Death seems to stir man in the face every moment. Unfortunately, the Christian church that should present a well rounded doctrine on the afterlife to men reeling from life’s uncertainties are themselves either not knowledgeable of what the bible says about this subject or they simply lack the correct biblical doctrines on heaven. So that rather than preparing the saints for the life after now, we are told that there is a prosperous life that we can look out for in this life and thus we have believers today who have their minds set more on things of this earth than on things in heaven (Colossians 3:1). Or in other cases, heaven becomes a laborious task that must be attained via human effort through the means of holiness; resulting in a group of Christians that are so heavenly minded that they become earthly useless.

The first century Christians had a better grasp of what heaven was. In their time there was an active expectation of the return of Jesus Christ. When this did not happen, they faced the mission of evangelism with such self abandonment because they believed the words of our Lord that said those who kill the body cannot kill the soul. This were their testimony: We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21). There was no ambiguity about the after life for them: heaven was a sure place they looked forward to. So much so that Paul the apostle in Philippians chapter one was in a fix as to which one to choose: whether to remain and help the church or to go and be with Christ. He felt dying was better but remaining will benefit the church. When he will eventually face death, he said in the letter to Timothy that there was a crown awaiting him and all those who look forward to Christ’s appearing (2 Timothy 4:6-8). There was an air of certainty in his statement; it was not hinged on self righteousness but on Christ the righteous Judge; and it also had a promise for those who looked forward to heaven.

Beware of False Visions of Heaven

Today, the visions of heaven that we hear of leave many Christians in doubt of what there eternal destiny shall be. Lately, we have heard of so many people with claims to after death experiences. Many of these people come back to tell us that heaven cannot be reached except by human effort. Their visions lack the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith; rather they tell us that we must pray enough, give enough, and work enough to enter heaven. So rather than a joyful expectation of the kingdom of God for laboring believers today, we instead have a fearful expectation of judgment (Hebrew 10:27). What is supposed to be the expectation of the wicked is being made the expectation of the righteous. I use this opportunity to comfort the heart of any Christian that has been shaken by these visions by saying that they are false visions from the world of Satan, and that the bible does not support a plethora of the claims these people come up with in those visions (Colosians 2:18; 2 Thessalonians 2:2). Rather, the bible makes it clear that everyone who has found faith in Jesus Christ can look forward to an eternal home in heaven; for God has not appointed us to wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Genuine Christians should look forward to heaven without fear.

For those who have a reason to fear their eternal destiny because they have not found saving faith in Christ: the very fact that you have the privilege of reading these words shows that the hope of heaven and eternal life is still within your reach. Like you may have heard, and which I will endeavor to reiterate here, Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. I will not enter into the religious debate as to whether there are other ways to God but will simply state what the bible says that Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life and as many as will come to God can only do so through Him (John 14:6). Finding eternal life through Jesus Christ is not difficult: it requires only that you understand and know God. As you come to grasp with this knowledge of God, there will be the need to ask God in the privacy of your heart to forgive you of your sins and to allow His Son to come and live in you for eternity. There is no one way fit all unto salvation; I am convinced that God can save men in myriads of ways but they all share a common route: confession of sin and faith in Jesus Christ. When you have done this sincerely from your heart, God will come to live in you by His Holy Spirit. This Spirit will help you in life and is also a guarantee that God will bring you to heaven (Ephesians 4:30).

My personal expectation of heaven is huge. The idea of heaven of being a place laced with streets of gold, mansion, angels, singing, etc, is good and nice; but what I look forward to seeing the most in heaven is the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the

"Welcome Good and Faithful Servant"

world. The One under whom all my sins are hidden; my comforter; my love; the fully breasted One who sustained me through all of life and gave me all these blessings, while comforting me through tribulations that accompanied my witness of Him in this world. The One through whom I obtained all of life’s blessings by grace alone. If I am privileged to be given a crown for my service to Him, I trust God to lay it at His feet because without Him I could do nothing: I am all that I am by the grace of God. I look forward to knowing the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. I also look forward to seeing loved ones that were long dead and had gone ahead to heaven: I trust God to see my late Mother, who taught me about God at a very early age. I look forward to seeing the great apostles of the Lamb, especially Paul, whose writings God used to disciple the church. I look forward to an eternity of worshipping God and enjoying Him forever, through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Folks, heaven is real and you can be there. It is the reason why I do not subscribe to a doctrine of long life and prosperity. If heaven is a sure place and I am done with my assignment for God on earth, why wait any longer. I trust God to allocate for me the number of years that shall be sufficient to complete my assignment on earth and when I am done, I shall be grabbing death and be using it as a horse to eternal life (if Jesus tarries His coming). This I believe is the kind of thinking that inspired Phil Driscoll to sing that song about “The Other Side”. Enjoy the second stanza and the chorus, and you may follow the link to listen and download the song itself.

See you on the other side.

In the beautiful city, the pain’s gone away

I hear that you can see the music, shines bright as day

The love they say this whole needs, is heaven’s always

Dreams cannot paint it, this heavenly city of light

Chorus:

Can I get a witness from the grand stand in the sky

Where the sun is always shining, I’m ready to fly

Won’t you tell me what you see in that city so high (so high)

I know that its so much better, so much more beautiful

The sun shines brighter on the other side

Phil Driscoll

Listen: http://www.mp3olimp.net/phil-driscoll-on-the-other-side/ (Press "play")