50 Days of Heaven: Reflections That Bring Eternity to Light (A Devotional Based on the Award-Winning Full-Length Book Heaven)

by Randy Alcorn

In the words of Francis Schaeffer, "The Christian is the really free man-he is free to have imagination. This too is our heritage. The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars."9

On the Christian & Imagination

even though Job's body would be destroyed through physical death, he knew that he would in his own flesh see God. It's hard to imagine a clearer reference to the coming resurrection. In what form will we be when we see God? Will we be ghostly spirits, floating about? No, we will be resurrected human beings, standing and kneeling, walking and talking, praying and worshiping and laughing, eating and drinking in our new bodies. As Job cried out, "After my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God."

Will the Christ we worship in Heaven as God also be human? Yes. According to Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday [when he lived on Earth] and today [when he lives in the intermediate Heaven] and forever [when he will live on the New Earth, in the eternal Heaven]." Jesus didn't put on a body and then shed it again as if it were a coat. He doesn't comprise two separable components, man and God, to be switched on and off. He was and is and always will be God and a man. The Incarnation is permanent.

Jonathan Edwards said, "The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things.... But that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever, that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what will be seen of God in them.""

God is the Fountainhead, the Source of all lesser streams of our desire. When we desire food, friendship, work, play, music, drama, or art, we are ultimately desiring God.

Consider this analogy: When you're sick and your friend brings you a meal, what meets your needs-the meal or the friend? Both. Without your friend, there would be no meal; but even without the meal, you would still treasure your friendship. Thus, your friend is both your higher pleasure and the source of your secondary pleasure (the meal). Likewise, God is the so...

Perhaps you're thinking, But our eyes should be on the giver, not the gift and, thus, We ought to focus on God, not on Heaven. But this perspective erroneously divorces our experience of God from life, relationships, and the world-all of which God graciously gives us to draw us closer to him. It also sees the material realm and other people as God's competitors rather than as instruments that communicate his love and character. It fails to recognize that because God is the ultimate source of joy, and all ...

So empower us to think clearly, Lord. May we see you as you are, so we may always enjoy but never idolize the magnificent lesser desires and joys you have graciously granted to us. Use the things that delight us to draw us closer to you.

God's first commandment is that we should put no created thing before him. We should never make what he has created into a God substitute. But sometimes we wrongly conclude that people and things and pleasures are therefore bad, forgetting that it was God himself who made them.

Though preoccupation with a God-given gift can turn into idolatry, enjoying that same gift with a grateful heart can draw us closer to God. In Heaven, we'll have no capacity to turn people or things into idols. When we find joy in God's gifts, we'll find our joy in him.

Another gem from 50 Days of Heaven

All secondary joys are derivative in nature. They cannot be separated from our primary joy, which is God. Flowers are beautiful because God is beautiful. Rainbows are stunning because God is stunning. Puppies are delightful because God is delightful. Sports are fun because God is fun. Study is rewarding because God is rewarding. Work is fulfilling because God is fulfilling.

God is a lavish giver. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). The God who gave us his Son delights to graciously give us "all things." These "things" are in addition to Christ, but they are never instead of him-they come "along with him." If we didn't have Christ, we would have nothing. But because we have Christ, we have everything. Hence, we can enjoy the people and ...

Father, many of us have lost sight of the fact that you created the earth and that you are the inventor ofpleasure. You created our bodies with nerve endings and taste buds and senses that allow us to find pleasure. But as a result of the Fall, we've misused your gracious provisions and turned them into idols. We've made substitute gods out of sex and money and food and a thousand other good things. Lord, only when we understand how you have richly provided the material world for our enjoyment can we then embrace your plan to reclaim what has been lost. Help us to see that pleasure is not unspiritual, that it is from your hand and for our enjoyment within the bounds ofyour commandments, which are designed to keep us from destruction. Help us to pursue you as the Great Pleasure from which every lesser pleasure flows.