WOULD YOU BE HAPPY IN HEAVEN IF CHRIST WERE NOT THERE?
The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—
is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the
friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and
all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beau-
ties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no
human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with
heaven, if Christ were not there?
God is the Gospel by John Piper
i am reading/listening to a book and this quote is from another book ... make sense?
i will try and un-pack some of my thoughts on this later, but i would love to hear yours.
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4 comments:
No fair, Daniel. This is a trick question. Heaven is not defined by our ideas of what is perfect. If heaven were all about us...well, who wouldn't be happy.
Look around you; there are a lot of "Christians" that are content to live lives without Jesus as long as everything is going well. It is our nature to seek pleasure and look for the things that satisfy our physical beings. If we do that now, why wouldn't we be happy doing it for eternity? ...But don't get the idea that all of that self satisfaction is heaven. The utopia described here doesn't exist. All the friends you ever had would not be perfectly happy in a world designed to please you. It would be as impossible to live there without conflict as it is to live here without conflict.
Heaven is perfect because of the presence of Jesus. Without Him--it ain't heaven, brother.
I haven't read this book or the context of Piper's quote ... but I think I know what he's getting at.
Sometimes I make my life ... and Christianity, about so many other things than knowing and enjoying Jesus. It's like this idea that if heaven is really going to be all about Jesus then there is this secret fear that we are going to be bored there! ... I think this might possibly come from a lack of experiencing Him here? Because if we truly experienced all of what He wants us to experience of Him here, then an eternity where He isn't present would seem ludicrous...
Jeremiah 29:13-14a
“And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. And I will be
found by you,” declares the Lord…
Psalm 27:4
One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
Psalm 107:9
For He has satisfied the thirsty soul…
If I seek Him I will find Him, and when I find Him I will be amazed by all that He is, and will experience Him in ways I never thought possible. All of that should lead me to believe that not only would a heaven without Christ not be worth it ... but life on this earth without Him shouldn't be either.
Not sure if I answered your question ... but these thoughts began to race through my mind when I read this ...
Thanks for the challenge...
Man - you don't post for a couple of weeks and then come back with this......I am with the guys on this - although it certainly made me think for a few hours about how I live here. It is true - we make our Christianity all about so much that has nothing to do with Jesus. But when you get down to the core - it better be about Jesus!! I think we sometimes play games in our head concerning what heaven will be like - you know - no glasses, no weight problem, all the food we want, and on and on. But the older I get the more I believe that none of those concerns are going to be even a speck in our minds once we lay eyes on Jesus. Thanks I am going to be thinking about this for a bit more. I know it has so much more to do with how we live it out here than what we look forward to there.
John, I don't have to look very long for "Christians" like that... I agree with you on the rest of your post. I'll post more later.
Barbie-doll! love your heart buddy! and miss you a ton!
"I think this might possibly come from a lack of experiencing Him here" best line...
Fran - a couple of weeks?..that is my new average! Thanks for the input!
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