Brown's Daily Word 5-3-10

Good morning,
The Lord blessed us with a glorious weekend. Saturday, May 1, was our daughter Sunita's birthday. The day she was born in 1979 was quite hot and on Saturday the temperature read @94 F in surrounding towns. We praise Jesus for Sunita. She has been a great blessing to us and to her numerous friends and colleagues. Our youth spent part of the day at El Ranch Depaz a local Christian Center. They came home very blessed.
Krista Martin and one of her classmates from a culinary School in Rhode Island will be preparing a special meal in honor Mothers this coming Saturday. The menu includes the following and more:
* The first course is French Onion Soup and Strawberry Bleu Salad.
* Second course (served with your choice of a starch AND vegetable side)will be Baked Dijon Flounder or Chicken Marsala.
* Choice of sides include Garlic Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, Rice Pilaf, Roasted Zucchini & Squash, and Sauteed Spinach with Cranberries.
* Third course will be assorted cheesecakes.
Our Youth will be waiting on the tables. It is a great and sweet blessing to share the meal and the fellowship. The Valley Four will be presenting a concert following the meal.
The Gospel Reading for yesterday was taken from Revelation 21. To our earth-bound minds, Heaven is an abstract concept, a realm foreign to us. We accept by faith the reality of this glorious realm, but it is difficult to imagine what Heaven must be like. The Bible only gives us hints at what Heaven is like, and the descriptions we have appear in the form of poetry and metaphor.
Galileo once remarked, “The intention of the Holy Spirit is not to teach us how Heaven goes, but how one goes to Heaven.” The glories of Heaven far surpass our perception. Heaven is a real place, and the reality will exceed all images and symbols. The Apostle Paul was given a vision of heaven, but words failed him. Human language has limitations. All Paul could say was that he experienced things so astounding that they could not be told (the half has never yet been told) (II Corinthians 12). Heaven is a reality, but it is currently unreachable to any of our senses. Trying to fully understand Heaven is a little like explaining the world to an unborn baby.
Heaven is a place of joy because of our joyous God who is there. The Scripture clearly states that heaven will be a place where God will wipe away every tear and there will be no more crying. So often when we see scenes of heaven in the Bible there are great exclamations of joy and glorious singing. I think we often pass over the ecstasy of heaven. We see the holiness of heaven and the glory of God, but we miss the ecstatic joy. I believe there will be indescribable joy. When Jesus was on earth he said that his purpose in coming was, “so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). If that was Christ's desire and purpose on earth, how much more it is his purpose in heaven. He said that there was great joy in heaven when one sinner repents (Luke 15:7). There is great joy over the repentant sinner, because there is one more person who will share in the glories of heaven. The Psalmist spoke of the joy and pleasures in heaven when he wrote, “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11).
The Scripture talked of new heavens and a new earth, for the old heavens and earth have passed away. Moreover, we are told of a new city coming down from heaven. I began to think about this passage, that I have read so many times before, and was struck by a new thought. A city is a city only because it is filled with people — otherwise it is only a ghost town. This city is described as a “bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” Who are these people, but the redeemed, those who have been filling the city for thousands of years and waiting for their return to the new earth, to dwell there in their new bodies?
Heaven takes seriously the difficulties we face on earth. The Lord said, “To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son” (Revelation 21:6-7). The Lord understands that in this present world there is a thirst for something new, a world where our longings are met and fulfilled. He understands that sometimes there are things we face and must overcome.
If it was not for the hope of heaven, life would be very difficult at times. However, we do not use the hope of heaven as a means to escape the difficulties of life. No, this hope is the means of facing the realities of life. Heaven is a part of the reality of life, and even though it is largely in the future, it is beginning right here and now. It is the hope of what God has for me tomorrow that enables me to face today.
Lee Elcov has stated, “We focus on heaven not as a respite from real life, but to gain strength for real life.” Like Spring sunshine at the end of a long, hard winter, heaven will break like the dawn of a new day — a day of joy and celebration that we cannot at the present time begin to grasp.
In John Bunyan’s, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian and the Interpreter, in the course of their journey, come across a man with a muck rake in his hand. "Steadily raking filth from the floor, the man ‘could look no way but downwards’ and so, could not see the celestial crown being offered him from above.” Like that man, we can look down at the muck, or we can look up. This is the gift that the Risen Lord is offering, but we have to look up to see what is being offered. We have to open our eyes to the Lord who seeks to embrace us and take us to his eternal reward.
In Christ,
Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xwzItqYmII