Heaven’s Homecoming Highlights!

 Heaven’s Homecoming Highlights! – Terry James - https://terryjamesprophecyline.com/2023/02/12/heavens-homecoming-highlights/ My friend Jonathan Brentner and I are set upon a book project we call HEREAFTER. Its subtitle at this point is Heaven’s Children in Eternal Glory. Considering the latenessof the hour, prophetically speaking, we believe it will be an excitingly appropriate volume for believers—especially for those who view Bible prophecy from the pre-Trib perspective. The title came to me upon remembering the late, great broadcaster Paul Harvey’s words regarding some dental product he promoted: “If you want to keep your pearly whites fromhere to hereafter, you need [whatever that product was].” The older we get, perhaps the more we can understand what Paul was talking about in his own, unique way of expressing a truth. The Bible tells us that, in old age, “the grindersare few” (Ecclesiastes 12:3). Our teeth—like the rest of us—fall victim to the accumulating years. Paul Harvey professed to be a believer in Christ for salvation. Thus, by “hereafter,” he was referring to that magnificent sphere to which believers ascend instantaneouslywhen we finish our work/journey in this foreign land we call “earth.” “Hereafter,” therefore, is the one topic that should draw our attention. This life is but a vapor, as Scripture says. Eternity is, well, forever. Heaven is our real home. With this in mind, I’d like us to think a bit on something. Jonathan and I both believe strongly that most believers alive now will experience the Rapture of the Church whenChrist calls. So we could be transported into that realm at any moment—a thrilling prospect to consider! It is sad that many pastors in churches today don’t dwell to any extent upon this thrilling prospect. Truly understanding our future in considering our “hereafter” can moveus into life more abundant, as Jesus promised. Those who are blessed to come to this understanding of the heavenly promises that await have many questions. I considered that, by researching those questions, we might getat least some small idea of that glorious future in the presence of our Lord. The following are a few attempts at answering some of the questions believers would like addressed. Why won’t we be bored in Heaven? As children, we sometimes view Heaven as a boring place. This is the view of many older believers as well. Some imagine Heaven as possibly an endless church service we’llattend while checking our heavenly watches to see how much longer until we can go to lunch. But things will be nothing like that. Worship will be action. We will explode with desire to serve as we are expected to do as believers here in this temporal life. Our heavenlydesires will be greatly magnified when we are in our eternal home. This powerful drive to serve will involve love and work. We are told to love the Lord with all our heart, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We will spend eternity interactingwith our brothers and sisters in ways that will no doubt involve love for each other and work that uplifts us and them with spectacular, ever-ascending positive results for our efforts. We will experience fulfillment individually and together in carrying outGod’s holy will—dynamic activity that is beyond our imagination in the confines of our finite understanding. Will we know family and friends like we do here on earth? I like the way one teacher put it: Just as Jesus on earth loved each person differently and specially—he did not love John as he loved Peter, because John was not Peter—so we are designed to love people specially.There is no reason why this specialness should be removed, rather than added to, in eternity. Our family and special friends will always be our family and special friends. In this life a child begins to learn to love by loving mother, then father, then siblings,then pets. The concentric circles of love are then gradually expanded, but the beginning lessons are never abandoned. There is no reason to think God rips up this plan in Heaven. (Tough Questions Christians Ask, book by Christianity Today, author of commentPeter Kreeft, professor of philosophy, Boston University) How can I be happy in Heaven if someone I loved deeply on earth doesn’t make it there? We know that the Bible tells us: And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former thingsare passed away. (Revelation 21:4) While some interpret this as occurring only after the new heavens and new earth have been created, the fact that Heaven is perfection no doubt applies the moment we leavethis earth and are at home with our Lord. From our perspective now, to lose anyone we love because they won’t believe for salvation is heart-wrenching. But we will have the mind of Christ at the moment we are withHim eternally. He tells us He will have to say to the unbeliever “I never knew you.” This is not just a judicial advisory on the part of the Lord. It means He will forget for eternity the individual who has never come to Him. Truly we can’t understand this at present, but when we have the mind of Christ and see Him as He is, we will be like Him. We, too, will have the ability to forget, just asGod has that ability. This isn’t a pleasant thought right now, but we will understand it all by and by. There are many questions we could address from Christians wanting to know about the hereafter. Jonathan and I are trying to touch on many in our upcoming book. Suffice itto say that Paul’s words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, should be a powerful stimulant for all believers while we look forward to Christ’s any-moment call to us in the Rapture. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hathrevealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searched all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9–10)