Most likely today, you will do things you will never do in heaven.
1. If You Turn on a Light, You Did Something You Will Never Do in Heaven.
Half of the time in this world is spent in darkness. Most businesses and many residences pay each month to have dusk to dawn lights to push back the darkness. Many children and some adults sleep with night-lights. The Bible acknowledges the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13) and says that we battle against the rulers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12). There is no darkness in heaven, for the glory of God lights it, “and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Revelation 21:23). “There shall be no night there” (Revelation 21:25).
2. If You Lock Your Doors, You Did Something You Will Never Do in Heaven.
We live in a wicked society. Every night the news tells us about those who were robbed, beaten, and killed the night before. We fasten our windows, bolt our doors, and secure our homes. We lock our vehicles in church parking lots. There will be no bad news in heaven. The doors on those mansions have no dead bolts, the windows have no locks, and the houses have no burglar alarms. “There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, nor maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27). The wedding feast is by invitation only, and no one crashes the party.
3. If You Drive by a Cemetery, You Did Something You Will Never Do in Heaven.
Death is used 904 times in the Bible (in various forms[1]). The next to last time is Revelation 21:4, which says “There shall be no more death.” The hearse will have made its last trip. You won’t see long lines of cars following a coach with their lights on. No funeral services, no tombstones, no funeral plans, no tearful goodbyes. There are no hillsides dotted with the markers of loved ones “across Jordan.” You will find no silent cities of the dead, for no one ever dies there. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26).
4. If You Face a Temptation, You Did Something You Will Never Do in Heaven.
Our community has many places of temptation—bars, night clubs, vapor stores, gambling dens, drug houses, places of prostitution. We daily face temptations of many varieties because the devil and his workers are ever busy (James 1:3, 12-14; 1 Peter 5:8). No one is immune to temptation. “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed” (James 1:14). We must abhor, shun, and abstain from the appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). We look forward to an atmosphere of no temptation and sin. Oh, how we wish we could lay our armor aside and rest from the constant battle of faith (Ephesians 6:13-16). That day is coming! In the land where we have staked our claim, the devil has no passport. He will be cast down into the take of fire and brimstone (Revelation 20:10). His helpers—personified as the beast and the false prophet—will also be cast into that lake (Revelation 19:20).
5. If You Visit a Sick Person, You Did Something You Will Never Do in Heaven.
Each week our congregation has someone hospitalized or having surgery. Here we visit those shut-in their homes and nursing facilities, but we will never do so in heaven. Sickness is a result of the fall, and all those ill effects are reversed in heaven, for “the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4). There are no germs, no diseases, and no injuries.
6. If You See an Old Person, You Did Something You Will Never Do in Heaven.
We see the aging process in ourselves and our loved ones. Our skin wrinkles, our vision dims, our hearing goes, our strength fails, and our energy wanes (cf. Ecclesiastes 12:3-7). But in that land, there are no retirement homes and no nursing facilities because there people never age. When we have been there ten thousand years, we will be just as youthful as on the first day when we received our new, incorruptible bodies (2 Corinthians 5:1-6).
7. If You Take Medicine, You Did Something You Will Never Do in Heaven.
Here we have to deal with headaches, toothaches, backaches, arthritis, bursitis, sinusitis, and a million other pains and medical conditions. But there are no drug stores in heaven. “Neither shall there be any more pain” (Revelation 21:4).
8. If You Shed a Tear, You Did Something You Will Never Do in Heaven.
Hardly a week goes by that there is not some sadness mixed with our blessings. We face heartaches—and sometimes heart breaks—far more frequently than would be our choice. Imagine the buckets of tears that will be shed today by the seven billion people inhabiting Planet Earth. In heaven there will be no more crying. Whatever tears we have upon arrival, God will wipe away (Revelation 7:17). There is nothing to cry about there. Some ask, “How can I be happy in heaven knowing that a loved one is not there?” Some theologians suggest that God will erase that part of our memory. Perhaps, but it is hard to imagine God solving a problem by expanding ignorance. We might be comforted, by knowing more—seeing God’s viewpoint—instead of less. If God can be happy in heaven with people He loves not there, then He can make us happy there. “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying” (Revelation 21:4).
Don’t you want to go home? You will need a passport signed by Jesus Christ (John 14:6). A man may go to heaven
without health, without wealth,
without fame, without name,
without learning, without earnings,
without culture, without beauty,
without friends, and without a thousand other things,
but he cannot go to Heaven without Christ.
Have you made your reservations by obeying the Bible’s commands, contacting Christ’s blood, and reaching God’s grace? To obey Christ’s Gospel, learn the Truth (John 6:44-45); believe in Jesus as God’s Son (John 8:24); repent of sins (Luke 13:3); confess faith in His deity (Romans 10:9-10); and be baptized for remission of sins (Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16). Then live faithfully unto death (Revelation 2:10).
Endote
[1] Death, 372 times; die, 321; died, 201; deaths, 4; dying, 6
[…] [1] Death, 372 times; die, 321; died, 201; deaths, 4; dying, 6 […]