"Heaven Is...."

Our pastor wrapped up a series of sermons about heaven today. He started by saying, "God forgive you if you think, in any way, heaven could be boring. Heaven is going to be a blast!" The best friends, the best music, the best accommodations, the best games, etc.

I hadn't thought about games being there, but there are many allusions in the New Testament to athletic contests.

Looking forward to it all!

I think Heaven will be exactly what each of us thinks it will be. In other words I think if you want music there will be music, if you want to sit around in a rocking chairs talking to your dad and grandpa all day you will or if you want to spend the day in the presence of the Lord you will be able to.

If there are games there will be winners and losers. That equates to happy and sad folks. Can't see heaven being like that. Unless of course the game is soccer that ends in a tie, which would mean you actually went to hell.

If there are games there will be winners and losers. That equates to happy and sad folks. Can't see heaven being like that. Unless of course the game is soccer that ends in a tie, which would mean you actually went to hell.

Of course if it's heaven, everyone will be playing for the love of the game...everyone will walk away winners. That or the opponents will be a team made up entirely of people from that other place that are forced to lose for all eternity.

When the Bible describes heaven and hell I think it uses terms from our reality to try to give us a picture.

It's like if you met a dolphin in the ocean that could speak English and you tried to describe to the dolphin how you make microwave popcorn. You'd have to think of things that the dolphin would have been exposed to in order to try to give him an idea.

I preached a sermon on this a few years ago. The link is below.

http://lystracoc.sermon.net/main/main/20359440

Heaven is primarily being in the presence of a Person. John 17:24: Jesus prayed that the disciples (both then and throughout all of history) would be "with Him" and would "see His glory." The unfettered, unfiltered, unobstructed vision of the glory of the Triune God will hold you spell bound for at least 10,000 years but more likely for all eternity. There will be moments of silence and there will be moments of the unabated expression of joy (Psalm 16:11). Our eternal occupation will be undiluted worship (see Rev. 4 & Rev. 5).

Heaven will not be whatever we want it to be, with games etc. It will be everything God wants it to be and everything we, deep down want it to be, but just don't know it yet. Our greatest privilege and our greatest joy to be experienced in ever widening breadth and ever increasing depth is the love of God engulfing us for eternity as we behold our glorious God face to face. Hallelujah!

This is the Beatific Vision and when we have this, we will not need anything else to make us happy or fulfilled or satisfied. And to think our experience of this will ever increase because how can you ever fully experience the infinite God! It is indescribable!

"Heaven will not be whatever we want it to be, with games etc. It will be everything God wants it to be and everything we, deep down want it to be, but just don't know it yet."

I agree: it won't be whatever WE want it to be. But I won't argue with the premise that there will be a (better) taste of some stuff we already know about. I have always wondered about music--"angel choirs" and the like.

"This is the Beatific Vision and when we have this, we will not need anything else to make us happy or fulfilled or satisfied."

Again, I agree: we will not need anything else to make us "happy, fulfilled or satisfied."

Indescribable indeed! Thanks grappler.