Heaven Is

These are seven attributes of "heaven" gleaned from a host of scriptures as I have understood them. These negate some of the stereotypes of the medieval view of this other unseen realm of reality and can fuel our hearts to imagine the amazing Life we will enjoy eternally in that age.

1. Heaven Is Perfect
.. The realm in which God's glory is fully manifested and His will is fully done by all of its inhabitants
.. No evil or even temptation to sin is present
.. A sweet society of extravagant love, exquisite peace and exuberant joy

2. Heaven Is Nearby
.. No sense of "remoteness" from the earth is ever implied in scripture
.. It is the presently invisible universe right next door
.. "Portals" of heaven are sometimes temporarily opened to people on earth
.. Believers who die immediately go to be with the Lord

3. Heaven Is Soon
.. Our earthly life is actually very brief, even if the Lord does not return in our lifetime.

For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James 4:14

4. Heaven Is Forever (I used to teach this to my kids when they were very young and blow their minds with the thought about how they would live on infinitely now that they existed. Existing forever is hard to imagine, but I think ceasing to exist at some point is even more difficult!)
.. Life on earth is the womb of LIFE

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. "And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26

5. Heaven Is Physical
.. We will recognize one another
.. We will eat food
.. We will receive new glorified physical bodies at the Second Coming
.. Heaven is high tech...colors, lights, music, displays of power, ultimate arts and sciences, strange creatures

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. Matt 27:50-53 (This passage implies that some, though not all, OT believers physically ascended to heaven with Jesus after receiving their resurrected bodies--like "firstfruits" that is a token of the larger general bodily resurrection that awaits the second coming of Jesus.)

C. S. Lewis Quote on the ultimate "physicality" of the age to come:
.. When Nature and Spirit are fully harmonized...when Spirit rides Nature so perfectly that the two together make rather a Centaur than a mounted knight...there will be no more room to get the finest razor-blade of thought in between Spirit and Nature. Every state of affairs in the New Nature will be the perfect expression of a spiritual state and every spiritual state...one with it [Nature] as the perfume with a flower or the "spirit" of great poetry with its form.

6. Heaven Is Lively
.. Meaningful work, friendship, really anointed worship and awesome transportation. "rest" is not "inactivity"
.. Personal development and growth..progressively experiencing the knowledge of God and the mysteries of His universe(s) and the impact of others
.. The opposite of anything that "bums us out" in this world...Sorrow, Sickness, Fatigue, Boredom, Time pressures, Limited space, Dissatisfaction, Anxiety and Fear, Regret, Rivalry, Failure, War, Racism

7. Heaven Is Connected to the Earth
.. More "continuity" than most imagine...ongoing purpose, calling, nature of work, family and friends
.. There is an accountability that relates to how we live out our earthly lives..the judgment seat of Christ
.. We will be rewarded for our faithfulness to Jesus...primarily relates to personal capacity to experience and serve God and explore heaven's mysteries
.. Heaven is keenly interested in earth's history and anticipating its destiny
.. Heaven and Earth are Destined to Interface

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Rev 21:1-2

Heaven is "perfect", but it is not yet "perfectly perfect" in that it awaits the fulfillment of the Father's will for the earth before the "new heavens" and the "new earth" come about. Heaven anticipates the earth coming into it's destiny and is, in a sense, not complete until that is accomplished. N. T. Wright calls this "life after life after death", and this is what the hosts of heaven are also awaiting.

The World Beyond This One

young bethany swift's sudden departure from this world causes me to think deeply again about the nature of the heavenly realm. i have noticed that tragic and seemingly untimely deaths and the shock effect of them on us tend to open and soften our hearts to ponder life and death and Life beyond.
however, i am convinced that many people have been trapped in medieval concepts of that marvelous place in which truly the beauty and glory of God is fully on display and that society in which his will is fully done. i believe that one of the devil's greatest ploys in history has been to create an intrinsically distasteful image of God's realm in people's minds thus causing real doubts in their hearts about desiring to live there and to live forever and thereby evoking guilt about feeling this way. haunting images of a non-material, ethereal existence that is sort of like a never-ending earthly church service (except for the presence of chubby naked baby angels) are lodged in our imaginations and either make us want to live as long as we can in this sad and fallen world or even take the risk that there might be a crazy party to join in on with the sinners in hell. one of my goals is to preach to the people of this world about God's realm in such a way that a deep and gut-wrenching hunger to live with Jesus and the Father forever is imparted to them that then becomes a powerfully motivating force for them to live well and nobly during their time in this world.

2 Pieces of Wood: Part Deux

so how do these two sweeping universal invitations from the Prince of human life fit together. how is it possible that taking up our crosses daily can jive with taking upon ourselves His easy yoke? how does "dying by execution" daily interface with carrying His "light burden" and "rest for our souls"? eugene peterson's translations in the message can help us. i'll just make some bullet points under each passage and let you ponder them and piece them together. (you can probably tell that i'm convinced that resolving this paradox in our thinking is really important for our spiritual lives!)

Luke 9:23-25..NKJV
Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?"

1. there is a competition here for what will be our dominant desire.
2. it's important to note that "desire unleashed" vs. "desire denied" is at the heart of true spirituality (unlike classic buddism).
3. Jesus is reasoning with us about how a life is actually saved and is interested in our prosperity.
4. the paradox begins to be resolved in understanding that subjugating our desire to preserve our "little life" to a superior desire to "follow" Jesus, is the immutable pathway to a "larger life"--a human life that is "fully alive" thereby bringing glory to God.
5. the daily death that Jesus is called us to is obviously not a literal death, but simply a daily/hourly practical/concrete commitment to say "no" to our own will in order to say "yes" to His--as best as we can discern it.


Mt 11:28-30..NKJV
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

1. Jesus is making it very clear that His way of living out human life brings us to a place of "rest".
2. "My" yoke stands in contrast to all the other yokes that people have chosen to live under--sin's, satan's, other people's and ones of our own making.
3. in this word picture, Jesus is not the master and we the ox, but He is Himself an older and experienced Fellow-Ox (servant) who invites us into a double yoke. He is the one who is doing the "heavy lifting" in the living out of our life--for He literally indwells us and expresses His life and Spirit through us.
4. His yoke is a yoke and His burden is a burden (necessarily the case in a fallen world), but it is "easy" and "light" because He is in it with us and vice-versa.


Luke 9:23-25..MSG
Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat, I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?"

1. Jesus moves into our vehicle and demands the controls, but He doesn't kick us out of the car--reminiscent of the "double yoke" image. An even better analogy is a cockpit of a plane with a pilot and a co-pilot (who is being trained to fly by the expert).
2. "dying daily" is about welcoming Jesus to take the lead and embracing the legitimate sufferings of living and serving His purposes in a fallen world.
3. the carnal expressions of the self are unnecessary for life and are to be shed in order to make space for legitimate expressions of the essential self--the true and real self--which Jesus came to rescue and redeem. (the "self" has too often gotten a bad rap in the history of religion.)
4. peterson's translation of the luke 9 passage helps us make the philosophical link to the matthew 11 passage


Mt 11:28-30..MSG
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me..watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

1. the passage is put into the proper context of Jesus addressing religiously committed people and all of the striving of religious flesh to "please God".
2. our Fellow-Ox is a master at pulling the plow of service for His Master.
3. our "daily cross" must be understood as a "yoke" that fits us well and is possible and meaningful for us to carry.
4. we all instinctively know that satisfaction in life does not come from self-absorption, but from living a life of love that is God-centered and other-centered...simply because God has wired us in such a way that "it is more blessed (lit. "makes us happier") to give than to receive". And...when we long for and experience this happiness, we are invited to enjoy it without any false guilt or accusation of being "selfish".

Two Pieces of Wood--Our Daily Cross/His Easy Yoke--Part One

in the gospels Jesus speaks about two pieces of wood that we are to "take" up and upon ourselves. both of these are general and sweeping invitations for us to experience his conception of a well-lived human life in this fallen world. ultimately they cannot be in contradiction to one another--they must somehow fit together. they are equally valid and practical appeals from the Master of human life.

in luke 9, Jesus challenges us to take up our cross daily in order to follow in his steps. obviously he isn't speaking about us literally dying every day, but a "dying" that essentially is about laying down our will in order to do his will.

in matthew 11 he beckons us to take his yoke upon us and that this yoke is easy and the burden that it helps us to shoulder is light. and...that it is a way of discovering rest for our souls. how is it possible that the sacrifice and suffering that is involved in embracing "our cross" in luke 9 is akin to being relieved of the weariness and heavy burdens that comes with taking upon ourselves "his easy yoke"?

certainly, there is more that needs to be said.

Our Loss of Sweet Bethany Joy Swift

we got one of those calls in the middle of the night last Saturday that you hypothetically dread you may receive some fateful night. steve swift was on the line informing us through his tears in broken sentences that his precious 18 year old daughter, bethany, had just been killed in a car accident in OK. terri and i cried out to steve our instinctive reactions of denial to this tragic news as we hung up the phones. (strangely, we were both wide awake at 3am and i had even gone downstairs to pray and read scriptures. we both answered the phone call simultaneously on different extensions.) steve and judy hadn't been able to reach their daughter, rebekah (our daughter in law), or our son luke at their home (their phone was in another room and they had a fan running as "white noise" while they slept). we all had gotten to our homes late that night after celebrating a most wonderful wedding and reception of our good friends john and pippa white.
we got our three boys out of bed to tell them the shocking news and we held one another weeping openly without shame in our sudden grief. (i once told my twenty-two year old son, sam, who, as an eighteen year old, had lamented his apparent inability to weep freely, that he just needed to live some more life in this fallen world and not fret about it. he wept harder than any of us on this day...i rejoice that he has emerged as a real and free man over these four years.) terri and i threw on some clothes and headed toward luke and beka's place preparing to knock on their door until they would wake up and we would be able to inform them of bethany's death. by the time we arrived, their friend, dave brown, had gotten there ahead of us and the dubious task of breaking the news to them had fallen to him...our families are so blessed to have truly amazing friends.
luke and beka headed for tulsa to be with the swifts and we all (joined in the afternoon by daughter lisa and her fiance, james, and friends john and krista) sat and laid down in our living room and wandered around the kitchen for the next 18 hours experiencing waves of grief and tears. terri and i were scheduled to preach together in our church that morning, but we knew that we could not have pulled ourselves together for such a task. jim bailey, our new lead pastor...ready to share the word of God, in season and out of season...graciously took our slot. thanks, jim....you're our man.
on monday afternoon we loaded up in two cars to join our family, by marriage, in tulsa along with the literally dozens of extended family members and friends who invaded the swifts beautiful home to simply be "present" with them in their tragic loss. by the time we arrived, the corporate mood had shifted from shock and grief, to one of prayerful worship and the beginnings of celebrating the eighteen years of bethany's life. the songs. poems, stories and tributes were flowing that night. mounds of food had been delivered to their home. hugs and kisses mysteriously mingled with tears and laughter...you never know what you will feel if you try to anticipate an event like this...you just have to live through one.
i never spent a lot of time with bethany, but those who knew her well eloquently portrayed her as an amazing life-giving spirit--a special vessel and conduit of the Life of Jesus the Lord. she had an amazing impact on the people all around her--in her skillful musical gifts and in her skillful arts of friendship too. it was hard to imagine how great of an impact she had made on so many in her brief lifetime on this earth.
tuesday at 2pm 1100 people of all ages jammed into the stately, beautiful and grand old 1st methodist church in downtown tulsa. the service was so moving and powerful it was almost incredible. our son in law to be, james, had received a song of tribute for bethany with which he opened this amazing service in celebration of bethany's life. each person, old and young, played their part to perfection...making their contributions with the deepest kind of sincerity and poise. prayers, songs, testimonies of bethany's influence, a penetrating sermon by her youth pastor dave, worship of our great God, laughter and tears again, beautiful pictures presented on the big screen with music in the background. the whole event was a living and breathing collage of love, grace, gratitude, beauty, respect, longing, conviction, faith, truth and life and death and life beyond death. the methodist pastor lady concluded, "none of us will ever be the same again." agreed.

Our Non-agenda Bible Study

our staff gets together every thursday morning for an hour or so to read and meditate on scripture together. actually, one thursday a month we give ourselves to supplication..which will have to be a topic for another time. i have called it a "non-agenda bible study". basically it's just a retro idea--very retro--and not novel at all. before the printing press and wide-spread literacy, the primary way that people were exposed to God's word was through both an auditory and a community experience. folks would get together and someone would read aloud from a text and everyone would listen to it together. i am convinced that we are missing out on something amazingly rich in our church life these days. now that we all have personal bibles and personal quiet times, we tend to ignore this historically proven spiritual discipline and wondrous experience--how ironic. we read the bible silently to ourselves and we hear sermons about the bible, but rarely do we sit together in spiritual communion and community and listen to the scripture being read aloud and proclaimed,
last week we were reading out of a devotional paraphrase from the fifth chapter of the book of romans that I wrote back in the early nineties called the romance of romans. a visiting friend, marty, read the first half and then bob read the last half. (after we read we wait prayerfully and then simply begin to share what has impacted us from the reading. we often get into amazing discussions and we learn a lot from the Holy Spirit through one another on the spot. all this is without any preparation or concern about how far we get into the chapter.)
on this day, as we read about the worldwide impact of adam's "one act of disobedience" throughout every generation of humanity, and then about the "much more" amazing "one act of righteousness" of Jesus and it's impact on the whole cosmos, we were all progressively breaking down in tears of wonder, love and gratitude as we shared what had touched us. it's really good to cry (more like a gift of grace) with others when we're sitting at the feet of Jesus Christ with humbled hearts and teachable spirits. i believe that's the kind of thing that caused the moravians to view "koininia" as a sacrament.
anyway...the thing that hit me the most was about a terrible irony in the church world today in which there is so much avoidance of talking straightforwardly about sin. of course this is often the case because of an understandable reaction to the "gospel of sin-management" (as my long-distance friend dallas willard has called it) that has, mostly inadvertently, been promoted through the fundamentalism and evagelicalism of modern times. but the irony is that if we don't speak candidly and honestly about sin and its horrible consequences, then the marvelous work that Jesus accomplished to reverse it all through his work on the cross (and then, in his resurrection) is diminished and under-valued. as our Lord said in one place, "he who is forgiven much loves much". i guess this implies that if we never (or rarely) consider the "much" of which we've been forgiven, then our love will be less fervent. i do know that this thought is primarily why we were crying together last week and that our hearts were more deeply knit together in that amazing love.

The Ted Haggard Ordeal: Some Random Thoughts

i met him a few times. so sad. many are hurt. many are stunned. i am not actually surprised. not because i know ted so well, but because i have seen the state of church leadership in our nation over 32 years of ministry. prayers and a broken heart for his family and the many sincere believers at new life church. another black eye for the church in our culture. we all suffer when one of our "celebrities" has his scandalous sins exposed.

maybe our problem is that we have created a paradigm of spirituality that promotes our church leaders to celebrity status in the first place--yea, i think we have. let's repent. the false power of image projection and the price tag on image management--ugh. there is not only a lust for sex, forbidden "highs", and money, but for power. it's not true spiritual power that comes from an intimate friendship with the trinity, but a fleshly counterfeit "love of power"--and a terrible abuse of God's gifts and callings. we've confused a legitimate longing and prayer for the Spirit's power with an illegitimate lust for and use of personality and organizational power that sometimes looks and feels like it could only come from God alone--we are so gullable. men can do some amazing things far removed from God's pleasure. some church leaders (especially, and tragically, of the "charismatic" brand) set up their organizations in such a way that they are allowed to act like little kings and don't genuinely share the authority of leadership with their co-workers. the outside accountability system worked fairly well in this crisis (at least initially), but what about a greater accountability and sharing of power with those with whom we live and work every day. maybe there would be fewer crises--although even the very best "systems" can be "cheated on".

how come a man who admittedly stuggled with controlling lower passions for his whole adult life had so much drive to lead "evanglicalism" in america? i think that we sometimes are wrongly pressured by our culture and the sicknesses in our souls to imagine that God wants us to do more than He is actually calling us or any one group of us to accomplish. we become infected with an inflated sense of self-importance. we can inadvertantly get beyond the radius of God's grace for us and the pressures mount from many sides. people often get to the "top" and realize that it doesn't make them any happier in God or in life. they sometimes commit "professional suicide" and maybe even subconsciously want to get caught in their compromises. their souls are unsatisfied with the thrills of noteriety and large budgets and they are sorely tempted to indulge in juicier illegal thrills.

ted has humbly confessed to, at least, some of his sins. (unfortunately, my experience is that busted leaders confess to about 60% of their sins, so they don't have to confess the other 40%.) will ted stay on the course of restoration that others will outline for him to follow--i pray so--and may Jesus be gracious to him and his family. most fallen church leaders (and, by the way, ted fell quite some time ago--it's just that we've now discovered it so.) whom i have seen come under discipline have eventually "bolted" and found other groups who are more than williing to prematurely deliver them from the "unjust" restraints of the original disciplining body. time will tell if ted has truly humbled himself or if he is feigning humility--he's a smart guy and he knows the right things to say. i pray he will live in the light of God his master...me too...U2.