Mike Focht 8/16/2024
There is an inextricable bond between the realities of heaven and Christian life on earth. Our hope and understanding of eternity will directly affect our everyday lives, both here and there. To grow in our understanding of the cords that tie this life with the next is a blessing, but to ignore or deny them is to court eternal loss.
There are many ways this truth plays out in our daily experience, but in this post, I will cover just one. Here is one of those eternal bonds: Our ability to give of ourselves here on earth will be directly proportional to our understanding of what God is giving us there in heaven.
Allow me to illustrate this through contrast.
Our worldly culture’s highest ideal is to live every moment to the fullest. That is why people make the meaning of life the self-centered pursuit of whatever feels best now. They labor to squeeze from each moment of the day all the pleasure, honor, power, and fun they possibly can. If they find a reasonable experience of these things, they have lived. If not, they have not lived.
Here is where the first layer of discontent comes in. What the world cherishes most is passing, and the nearest they come to heaven after their lusts are enacted is a good old-fashioned moment of nostalgia. Each passing day is something of a death in and of itself.
The second layer of discontent comes when the world sees others who possess more of what they want. Covetousness leaves them feeling incomplete because they envy more than money or sexual fulfillment. They envy the life they assume fulfilled lusts give others. If someone has more of what they seek to squeeze from life, it means that someone lives more than they are.
The layers of discontent continue. Inability, lack of resources, money, intelligence, beauty, sickness, and lack of time all inhibit the parasitic slurping of days. Man finds that the things of earth produce diminishing returns as the desires of the heart grow more profound and more ravenous; the same old porn, sex, drugs, stages, office, power, or money no longer satisfy as they once did. Finally, death comes into view, refusing to be ignored. And with death comes the harsh and unforgiving removal of all pleasure from this life.
Ultimately, the world’s reason for living in every moment is because they will never have it again. In direct contrast, Christians live in every moment because they will have it for eternity. The one reality breeds logical selfishness and sin—the other breeds logical selflessness and holiness.
The Christian who understands he has both this life and the next can live by giving rather than taking.
He can give his time because it was never his to begin with, and he knows that God has already procured him an eternity of it.
He offers his friendship because he knows that even those who do not recognize his love now will love him more for it.
He willingly leaves his house and lands because a perfectly prepared dwelling place awaits him with homes and lands a hundredfold.
He surrenders his wealth because he has eternal treasure in heaven.
He understands that he feels alone because he is a stranger still waiting to be gathered to his people.
He refuses to drink in all the pleasures of this life because God has promised a river of eternal satisfaction.
He doesn’t need power, prestige, or recognition because he knows that glory awaits him, and his true royal heritage does not yet appear.
He endures ridicule, slander, persecution, suffering, and even death because the One that purchased heaven for him has told him to rejoice. After all, His sufferings have secured him an eternal weight of glory that will produce eternal gladness with exceeding joy.
You and I are not to love the world. We are to set our affections on things above. We are following Jesus Christ, who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame. We do not live for this life. We live in it, through it, and beyond it.
Heaven and earth are bound together for you and me. We will live empty lives if we do not confidently believe in God’s promised reward and draw our life from that. Instead, our hearts will turn to this worldly and passing life to draw water from broken cisterns. Therefore, the Christian’s measure of selfishness, ignorance, and worldly love will always be directly proportional to our measure of hope, faith, and holy love for the things above, where Christ, the Faithful Promiser, sits on the right hand of God.