We like to call Heaven the afterlife, but it's not. Heaven is not the afterlife. Heaven is the future! And it's a future that is very near! When we finally get there, it won't be the afterlife, it will be the beginning of life!! Life hasn't even begun until we get to Heaven! We're encouraged by the Lord and throughout Scripture to look up and focus on that future while we continue to live down here. Not only did Jesus do this in His sermon on the mount, but He also did it in His parable of the shrewd manager.
In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus told us to store up for ourselves treasures in Heaven rather than treasures down here because everything here eventually gets stolen from us, everything here becomes corrupted, everything here becomes broken and everything here dies. Then Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." So if you're focused on your treasures in Heaven, you're gonna be focusing on Heaven itself and you're gonna be based in the reality of your future there.
When Jesus told His parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16:1-13, Jesus compared our lives down here to the life of this guy who was in a dead-end job for which he was about to be fired. Instead of the guy kissing his bosses butt to stay employed, he took advantage of his position in the company to gain points with the people on the outside because he knew he was about to be on the outside with them.
In other words, this guy basically screwed his boss in favor of the customers to get in good with the customers before he got fired. And Jesus actually taught us that this is how we should see our lives down here in this world. We all tend to act like we've got job security down here, but actually, we don't! We're all living in a dead-end job and we're all about to be fired. Why not think about our futures above and invest in it with what time we have left down here?
In Matthew 16:21-23, Peter tried to argue with Jesus about letting Himself be arrested and killed, but Jesus accused him of not being mindful of the things above, but of man. Peter was looking at the here and now while Jesus was looking at eternity.
In Luke 9:62, Jesus taught us to put our hands to the plow and look forward, not backwards. Heaven is forward. Everything else is backward and comes to nothing.
1st Corinthians 2:9 "Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, and neither has it entered into the heart of humanity, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him." People twist this verse to mean that it's impossible to imagine Heaven, so why even try? But I see this verse as a license to let your imagination run wild!!!!!! No matter what you think Heaven is, it's going to be even better, it's going to be even bigger and it's going to be so much more than your wildest imagination. So why not have fun and think about it? When someone wraps a present and says, "You'll never guess what I got you", does that stop us from trying to guess? Isn't that half the fun?
In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus told us to store up for ourselves treasures in Heaven rather than treasures down here because everything here eventually gets stolen from us, everything here becomes corrupted, everything here becomes broken and everything here dies. Then Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." So if you're focused on your treasures in Heaven, you're gonna be focusing on Heaven itself and you're gonna be based in the reality of your future there.
When Jesus told His parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16:1-13, Jesus compared our lives down here to the life of this guy who was in a dead-end job for which he was about to be fired. Instead of the guy kissing his bosses butt to stay employed, he took advantage of his position in the company to gain points with the people on the outside because he knew he was about to be on the outside with them.
In other words, this guy basically screwed his boss in favor of the customers to get in good with the customers before he got fired. And Jesus actually taught us that this is how we should see our lives down here in this world. We all tend to act like we've got job security down here, but actually, we don't! We're all living in a dead-end job and we're all about to be fired. Why not think about our futures above and invest in it with what time we have left down here?
In Matthew 16:21-23, Peter tried to argue with Jesus about letting Himself be arrested and killed, but Jesus accused him of not being mindful of the things above, but of man. Peter was looking at the here and now while Jesus was looking at eternity.
In Luke 9:62, Jesus taught us to put our hands to the plow and look forward, not backwards. Heaven is forward. Everything else is backward and comes to nothing.
1st Corinthians 2:9 "Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, and neither has it entered into the heart of humanity, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him." People twist this verse to mean that it's impossible to imagine Heaven, so why even try? But I see this verse as a license to let your imagination run wild!!!!!! No matter what you think Heaven is, it's going to be even better, it's going to be even bigger and it's going to be so much more than your wildest imagination. So why not have fun and think about it? When someone wraps a present and says, "You'll never guess what I got you", does that stop us from trying to guess? Isn't that half the fun?
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