Encouragement
From the Flock
"Heaven For Me"
Dear Ladies,
During a recent campfire time with friends and relatives, our family had the fun of singing many old favorite hymns and choruses. We really dug into the past as we named song after song and recalled the words together. For a time, we sang songs about Heaven and my heart was especially stirred by the words of this song:
I've heard of a land that is wondrously fair,
They say that it's splendor is far beyond compare,
In that place that's called Heaven, my soul longs to be,
If Jesus is there, it will be heaven for me.
If walls there weren't jasper, and if streets were not gold.
If mansions would crumble,
if folks still grew old,
Still I'd see everything I've been longing to see,
If Jesus is there, it will be heaven for me.
I've been humming this song for several weeks now and thinking about my own view of heaven.
Maybe aging parents, a daughter getting married, health concerns, and a little middle-age reflection are causing me to think more seriously about this topic. The Holy Spirit can certainly use our life
experiences to tune us in to needed teaching. As the songwriter points out, it must be Jesus that is our hope for heaven, not the promise of ease and beauty.
The newspaper recently advertised a vacation spot that is "heaven on earth" and cream cheese that tastes like a little bit of heaven. In contrast, the Bible teaches that as believers, "our citizenship is in heaven, from which we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ," Phil.3:20. Longing to have a relationship with Jesus Christ is to be our focus for now and eternity. Heaven is not merely a place of relief for the pain and hardship that life on earth often brings. Nor is it simply a great vacation spot. Heaven is the dwelling place of God. Jesus is our passageway to this exquisite place of dwelling with God. These verses describe Jesus as the way to life with God.
John 11 :25
" I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me,
though he may die, he shall live."
John 14:6
" I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me."
I Timothy 2:5
"For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men,
the Man Christ Jesus.
Our special challenge as women is to spend our days cultivating our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Our busy days of jobs, families, and responsibilities will come to an end.
Our hope for the future is to spend eternity in the presence of God.
"Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and
ever."
Ps.145:2
For where Jesus is, It will be heaven for me.
Lovingly in Christ,
Liz Venenga