13 results for tag: Heaven

Book Review: “Be Still My Soul”

Though not every portion of Be Still My Soul: Embracing God’s Purpose & Provisions in Suffering, edited by Nancy Guthrie struck a chord, I was glad I read this collection of essays and excerpts—finding some especially meaningful. As opposed to being a guide through grief or suffering, or tackling a particular aspect of suffering in depth, the range of authors and viewpoints collected in this book makes its scope rather broad. So, if you are looking to delve into further study about biblical topics surrounding suffering, and you’re not sure where or with what authors to start, you’ll likely find portions of this book you apprecia...

Anticipating Our Eternity

As we’ve spent the past few days growing our understanding of eternity and what our life will be like there, I imagine that for many of you it has served as a reminder of how temporal this life on earth really is. And the more we understand just how harsh and painful the effects of sin are in this world, the more a longing for our true, heavenly home arises in our hearts.  These glimpses of what heaven is like awaken us to all that God has in store for those who place their trust in Him.  Through His Word and His Spirit, God gives us a small taste of what is ahead so that our hearts will never be able to settle for anything less than what ...

Life In Our Eternity {Part 2}

This article is a continuation of a previous post. You can read Life In Our Eternity {Part 1} here. Clue 3 – Our Moral Capacity The third clue about what our eternal state will contain is demonstrated in man’s moral capacity. In our eternal state, man's moral capacity will be only pure and good. While we work and live out of our cultural and relational capacities too, our moral capacity is the dominant theme of the rest of Scripture after Adam's disobedience. Man's moral capacity is of utter importance because our cultural and relational capacities do not function as God intends when the moral capacity ...

Life in Our Eternity {Part 1}

Have you ever observed that the Bible starts in a garden—Eden—and ends in a garden-city—New Jerusalem—both of which are places where God dwells with mankind? The Bible begins in Genesis with a very good creation. Adam and Eve dwelled in the garden of Eden with God. God gave them everything good: close communion with Himself, a relationship together to reflect Him, and the ability to respond to God's good commands with obedience. With all of this, they chose to disobey Him. We are made for communion with God, to reflect God in relationships with each other, and for responding to God's goodness and glory with obedience. ...

Presently With the Lord

Our babies don’t exactly experience all aspects of eternity yet, seeing as the new heavens and new earth have not yet been inaugurated. Some promises (for example, the restoration of the earth, and God making His forever-home on earth with man, and the resurrection of our bodies) are still forth-coming. Yet, Jesus made clear to the believing thief on the cross beside Him that he would truly see Jesus immediately after death—in fact, Jesus used the term “today” to describe this promise (Luke 23:43). To be away from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). Even though the soul will not be united with the body again ...

We Will See Him

We will see Him. We will “behold His face” (Matt. 18:10). We will see Him “as He is” (1 John 3:2) without any separation. We will bow before Him (Phil. 2:10). To Be with God Our eternal life is where He—His holiness, sovereignty, goodness, mercy, and more—is experienced and proclaimed. Angelic beings, called seraphim, proclaim His holiness in the heavenly places (Isa. 6:3), showing us that He will be the One we want to speak of. He will be stunning to us. We will call to one another that He is holy and glorious. As people who have experienced the greatest possible magnificence and cannot keep it within, we will exchange with one ...

Heaven: What Will Eternity Be Like? (After Jesus’ Second Coming)

Q: So what does the Bible say heaven will be like after Jesus' second coming? After Jesus' second-coming, our souls will be united with physical, glorious, eternal bodies that no longer experience weakness, pain, sorrow, or death. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51-53). So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what ...

Heaven: What Will It Be Like? (Before Jesus’ Second Coming)

Q: So what does the Bible say heaven will be like before Jesus' second coming? Before Jesus' second-coming, believers will likely be in a spiritual, temporary state in God’s presence where our souls will go until they are given new bodies on the New Earth at Christ’s second-coming (emphasis has been added throughout verses below): After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne ...

Heaven: Does Purgatory Exist?

Purgatory is the belief widely held by the Catholic church (but characteristically rejected by Protestants) that a Christian will first go to purgatory “after death [to] undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”[1] The Catholic church also encourages undertaking ways of helping those who have passed away: “The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.”[1] The word “purgatory” simply means to have the quality of cleansing or purging—and it is never used in the Bible.[2] Instead, Scripture gives reason to ...

Heaven: Is My Baby There? {Part 2}

Editor's Note: This is the continuation of a two-part article. Part one can be found here. [Continued] My husband brought me the food in bed during my Scriptural search; he also listened to the thoughts that brought me tears of happiness through tears of sorrow. We made new, sink-worthy dishes that would need to be washed, and I spoke as one caught between the sight of two worlds—the world where I lived in mourning and the world I could see ahead. The pages of Scripture growing to feel thick between my fingers with this beautifully weighty news, I questioned further: How would God—the God who tells us all that we are sinners from ...