for Heaven's sake!

It seems to me that keeping the focus on Heaven is a great challenge.  We may have felt the touch, even the embrace, of our Lord.  Our hearts may have quickened as we grasped the reality of the Lord ... of His personal love and of the necessity to turn away from our old life and turned toward Him for true life.  Yet we often struggle and stumble as we walk with Him, live for Him and await Him.  We love this life so much...our routines...our homes...our families...our friends...our property and possessions.   When the Pharisees asked Jesus to explain when the kingdom of God was coming (Luke 17:20-21) "He answered and said, 'The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, 'Look here it is!' or, 'There it is!'  For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst."  I think it is good to remember that we are living in the kingdom of God now.  As His believers (faith receivers), spiritual open heart surgery has been performed and we are living through the post-operation plan.  We are cautioned to walk, not run, through life and to let Him do the heavy lifting.  We are instructed to stop looking around for our purpose and our guidance...and look up!  The time is coming, soon enough, when we will go to Him or He will come to us.  At that point our opportunity to choose Him over all the distractions will be over.   When we are in the presence of God, every knee will bow.  Now is the time of great challenge and opportunity...to live for Him when we can choose to live for ourselves.   When my wife and I go to a restaurant she always takes a lot longer than I do to study the menu, review the choices and even ask questions of the waiter or waitress before making her selection.   I usually pick quickly, with little thought given to the choice.  I think we ought to give more care to the choices we make each day.  It's as if we have a menu to choose from and we can take care about our selection, or we can let the downward forces of habit and self pull us like gravity.   It is good to remember that He died for us that we might live for (and with!) Him.

 

blessings,

Rob Smit