Going to Heaven by Father Al Jenkins
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17

I think we all want to go to heaven!

A little girl was asked what heaven is like:

Annslee, age 11 said - "Heaven is beautiful. There is no hurt or talking about people and no drugs. It is all good. You will be beautiful. Clouds are floating. Kids are laughing and praying with Jesus. You get everything you want, and you have beautiful voices to sing for God's glory. Sunflowers are everywhere. Streets are made of gold! And it smells heavenly."

She is very close! Here is a question - when do we go to heaven and what will going to heaven be like?

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 

 13Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.    

How do we know we are ready for heaven? What should we be doing?

The answers are contained in these scriptures:

Deuteronomy 8
Observe the commands of the Lord.
Walk in his ways.
Revere him.
Praise him.
Remember him.

And, when you get to heaven, here is what you’ll see -

Revelation 21 -
15The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls.
16The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 1400 miles in length, and as wide and high as it is long.
17He measured its wall and it was 200 feet thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using.
18The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.
19The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone…
21The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
22I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
23The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
25On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.
27Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

THE BOOK OF LIFE is not a literal book, of course, for the sons and daughters of God are the LIVING RECORD of the life of the indwelling Christ.

It was to the apostle Paul that the revelation was given that the Book of Life is a people – the faithful. 2 Corinthians 3:3 says -

"Forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be THE EPISTLE OF CHRIST…, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in …tables of the heart."

Here is where our journey points -

2 Corinthians 4:17-18  “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

1 Corinthians 2:9  “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.”

Heaven is a place of unlimited adventure and security.
Heaven is a place of thrilling reunion, a place more real than earth.
Heaven is a place where good never ends and people are designed for eternity.

When you get to heaven, you will say, “I have come home at last!”

God said to the prophet Jeremiah (1:15), “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart…”     

Amen.

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