By Elizabeth Prata
I saw this meme on Twitter. The ‘best life now’ mantra offends me.
I’m personally glad that this is my worst life now. It’s hard and upsetting. I can’t wait until there is only joy and peace.
As for the unsaved, sadly, John MacArthur said at the Strange Fire conference some years ago,
All peoples need to hear this mantra, which is no mantra but only absolute truth:
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)
By Elizabeth Prata
I’ve got one week left and then I go back to work. I will have had 9 weeks off.
I realize that 9 weeks off, in a row no less, is an understandably wondrous gift, one that many people don’t get in 4 years of working. (Please understand that I live for 12 months on a 9-month salary, so there is a downside).
I work in the education system, so the cycle of my life follows the school year, not the calendar year. The rhythm of my life is one of hectic, fulfilling, busy, challenging, joyful work, then summer collapse rest.
There were some years where I worked for 16, 18, and one notable moment, 20 hours a day, with one week off at Christmas and one week at Independence Day. I’ve in the past felt the relentless grind, overlaid with feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction but sometimes accompanied with frustration and dispiritedness. I’ve been in the work force for 42 years, give or take. There were periods in life where I had to work two jobs and even three, laboring for 7 days a week. I’m not unfamiliar with hard work, relentless grind, whether it comes in the self-employment world, as a minimum wage minion at the bottom of the heap, or in the education world with its benefit of work then rest sprinkled throughout the year.
The job I have now is the best one I’ve ever had. I love working with children. It is a pure joy to be around kids. I enjoy the school breaks that come with the school calendar (being older now, I tire more easily). I have the best colleagues and the absolute most wonderful bosses I could ever hope for. It’s all good.
But the beginning of the school year those first days back at work are a shock to my system. And Monday morning blues still hit.
It didn’t used to be like this. In the Garden of Eden, Adam worked, but it wasn’t work that tired him out or frustrated him, or dispirited the man. It was good work, done without sweat. God gave Adam three tasks; cultivate the Garden and keep it, name all the animals, and lead his wife Eve. (Genesis 2:15, 19, 24; Ephesians 5:22-23).
Can you imagine working without sweating? Not just physical sweat, though that will be nice, but work was absent the heart-pumping stress, hustle, hectic work that office people feel, or bus drivers, or police bomb defusers or…
How do I know work wasn’t the kind of work we think of these days? The verse where God curses work. Genesis 3:17b-19
Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
We know that heaven, i.e. the eternal state after the conclusion of all things, will be one of rest. But it will also be one of work. Whattt?
Reagan Rose covers this in his essay Will We Work in Heaven?
But for now, assuming Earth is redeemed man’s final destination, we would be right to wonder, “what will we do on that renewed Earth?” The answer is that we will worship our Lord, we will wonder at His majesty, and we will work.
Mr Rose continues with explaining that Heavenly Work Will Be Restful Work, and Heavenly Work Will Be Enjoyable Work, before he comes to his conclusion.
James M. Hamilton Jr wrote Work and Our Labor for the Lord, looking at work as it was meant to be, as it is, as it can be, and as it will be.
As work will be, “We can scarcely imagine it, but everything that makes work miserable here will be removed. All our sinful concerns about ourselves will be swallowed up in devotion to the one we serve. All our frustrations that we have to be doing this task and not the other one we prefer, will be abolished because of our experience of the one who gave the assignment. All inclination to do evil will have been removed from our hearts, so we will enjoy the freedom of wanting to obey, wanting to serve, wanting to do right.”
Imagine, being released from the bondage to sin and working in complete and perfect freedom to serve to the utmost in righteousness and in joy!
On earth our work often distracts us from worship, but in heaven work will BE worship.
What of work now, here on earth? We do need to work. “if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either” (2 Thessalonians 3:10)
On the Chris Craft podcast, Chris asked guest Phil Johnson “How should we represent Christ in the workplace?”
“Work hard.”
Amen to that. I know of a custodian who works very hard all day long. She never stops. She cleans toilets, hustles to classrooms to wipe up kid-vomit, sweeps the cafeteria floor after kindergarten has been through like storming Huns. She is kind, constantly smiling and always ready to praise Jesus whenever you talk with her.
One day a second grader was waiting and I was waiting with her in the lunchroom. The kid was watching the lone custodian clean the cavernous cafeteria. After a while the child turned to me and said “She works hard. And she has to do all that by herself. But she never stops.”
When a person works so hard (for the Lord as I know she does) and a child notices the work ethic, you know it’s a good ethic. A shining ethic. Do I work that hard? Do cheerfully perform any menial task set before me? With purity of heart and a sincere effort? Sometimes no, but the lady I’d mentioned is my role-model inspiration. She represents Christ in a way that few people I’ve ever seen do so, and she does it through work.
Work hard on earth, as Colossians 3:23 says
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,
And look forward to the day when you and I will be FREE to serve without sin tainting our work ethic or the work product. What a day that will be.
Meanwhile…Happy Monday!
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I made this collage some years ago when I was pondering work and being busy even in ministry work. Do we work so hard we become too busy for God? On the left side of the collage top and bottom we see heaven and worship in heavenly peace. Below that scene are the animals, who know what to do in their spheres. Even creation groans for release. On the right side, top and bottom, is the heaving, pulsating spectacle of humanity going to and fro, with only a few looking at the Light, even noticing it.
By Elizabeth Prata
Need to take a breath and reset? Refresh?
I always find that delving into the biblical doctrine of heaven helps me. Asking the Lord to renew to my mind the facts and glories of our upcoming destination is a great salve to my soul. This world is so awful and getting worse by the day. I mean, of course there’s beauty, and I strive to focus on that. Salvations, baptism, good preaching, flowers, fellowship, green pastures, gentle rain, grazing animals, all that-God’s grace in gifts to us.
But there’s all the other things we know too well and don’t need enumerating. Heartbreaks, death, illness, degeneration of the social compact, politics, news bias, rebellion, plain grossness…all that and more, tend to weigh us down.
So, look UP! Look away from all this to where there is purity and perfect peace.
I believe that John MacArthur’s series on What Heaven Is, is a wonderful break from pain, hubbub, and distractions. There are 8 messages, here. Also linked individually below. Some of the topics covered are- Where heaven is and what it is like, What you’ll be like in eternity, How you will relate to others, How you will relate to God, What you will do in heaven, and more. In the first sermon in the series, Dr. MacArthur said,
As I mentioned to you this morning, we’re going to start a series tonight on a new subject. The subject is heaven. And this is not going to be a like a sermon series, in many ways, but more like a class, at least tonight will be. I want to teach you what the Bible has to say by way of introduction to the subject of heaven.
So, when you think about heaven, you’re identifying the place where your Father is, your Savior is, your brothers and sisters are, your name is there, your inheritance is there, your citizenship is there, your reward is there, your Master is there, of course, being God and Christ, and your treasure is there as well. To sum it up: heaven is your home.
Before I moved from one town to another, as I have, I loved learning all I could about my upcoming new home. I looked up stats on the new town, looked for photos of the place, went to real estate sites to see houses, scanned Google Maps at street view to learn what it looked like. It’s only natural that we have a curiosity about where will will devote our time, skills, and money. We want to know what it will be like where we will raise our children, work, contribute to the community.
How much more then, should we be anticipating heaven? This biblical series may bless you as it did me, and illuminate the glorious future we all have there. Whether by imminent rapture, passing through the gate of death, we who are in Christ will be there one day. Anticipating that day helps us cope with this day, in a more peaceful and confident way.
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Where Heaven Is and What It Is Like
How We Will Relate to One Another
By Elizabeth Prata
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; (Philippians 3:20)
Charles Spurgeon preached on this verse:
Our text, I think, might be best translated thus— “Our citizenship is in heaven.” The French translation renders it, “As for us, our burgess-ship is in the heavens.” Doddridge paraphrases it, “But we converse as citizens of heaven, considering ourselves as denizens of the New Jerusalem, and only strangers and pilgrims upon earth.”
I. The first idea which is suggested by the verse under consideration is this: if our citizenship be in heaven, then WE ARE ALIENS HERE; we are strangers and foreigners, pilgrims and sojourners in the earth, as all our fathers were. In the words of Sacred Writ “Here we have no continuing city,” but “we desire a better country, that is an heavenly.”
Let us illustrate our position. A certain young man is sent out by his father to trade on behalf of the family: he is sent to America, and he is just now living in New York. A very fortunate thing it is for him that his citizenship is in England; that, though he lives in America and trades there, yet he is an alien, and does not belong to that afflicted nation; for he retains his citizenship with us on this side the Atlantic.
Yet there is a line of conduct which is due from him to the country which affords him shelter, and he must see to it that he does not fail to render it. Since we are aliens, we must remember to behave ourselves as aliens should, and by no means come short in our duty. We are affected by the position of our temporary country.
Do you eagerly await our savior? I do. It’s Independence Day here in the United States. There will be fireworks, barbecues, beaches, parades, and gatherings. When Jesus comes, we will have a magnificent independence! The Great Gathering will happen and then we will be freed from this body of death. We will be free from the presence of sin. We will be free to gaze in adoration upon the Savior all the day long, and bask in His glory light in wonder and in love.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36).
No flags in heaven, but the presence of every nation, tribe, and tongue.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10).
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. (Luke 18:1)
Prayer straddles our lives both on earth when we pray and in heaven when Jesus hears. All week I’m focusing on prayer. It’s important. I need to do better in my life, and I can’t imagine a Christian who doesn’t think they can do better at prayer either.
Charles Spurgeon said,
Prayer meetings are the throbbing machinery of the church.
Last weekend, I was thinking of one of Spurgeon’s sermons, called God’s Providence. (#3114). Spurgeon likened the cherubim’s acts near the throne and the wheels within wheels as described by Ezekiel as machinery of Providence. He described, hypothetically of course, the wheels going up and down and left and right in tandem as the machinery of Providence carrying out God’s will and decrees. It’s an interesting thought, and Spurgeon is vivid about his descriptions.
This series of ‘prayer machinery of heaven’ is inspired by those two thoughts.
Please enjoy this scripture photo I made of the machinery of prayer. Under that will be some further resources on prayer suggestions. Monday I suggested praying for the persecuted and missionaries around the world, with some resources to check out along those lines. Tuesday I suggested praying for our elders (pastors, deacons, teachers, etc), again, with resources. Wednesday I suggested praying for each other. Today focuses on how often to pray. Thursday I offered information about frequency of prayer. Friday we focused on Jesus in heaven who hears our prayers, and what a comfort that is. For this next-to-last picture in the series, I’ll offer some thoughts and resources on persevering in prayer.
I thought Barnes’ Notes said it well. There are different kinds of prayers and seasons for each kind. There are different attitudes of prayer.
Always – At all times. That is, we must not neglect regular stated seasons of prayer; we must seize on occasions of remarkable providences as afflictions or signal blessings to seek God in prayer; we must “always” maintain a spirit of prayer, or be in a proper frame to lift up our hearts to God for his blessing, and we must not grow weary though our prayer seems not to be answered.
Not to faint – Not to grow weary or give over. The parable is designed to teach us that, though our prayers should long appear to be unanswered, we should persevere, and not grow weary in supplication to God.
The parable is instructive for us, to never give up in prayer. Jesus receives prayer around the clock, every day, all the time. For us, it’s a battle to put hands together and carve out time to pray, Satan does not want us to pray. Jesus does. We have to work toward satisfying the one and not the other. Spurgeon again, said-
It is well said that neglected prayer is the birthplace of all evil.
I believe this. Jesus spent time instructing the disciples how to pray. (Luke 11:1-13). He spent time instructing through the parable of the importance of persisting in prayer. (Luke 18:1-8). Prayer is important. I need to do better in lots of ways- in my closet, in persisting, in focus, in content, and in earnestness and fervor. Lord, help me to pray.
Further Reading
Sermon Series: Elements of True Prayer
Valley of Vision devotional of Puritan Prayers (a wonderful wonderful resource!)
Tim Challies: Persistence in Prayer
Full of Eyes: Visual theology & exegesis of Colossians 4:2-4 being steadfast in prayer
Prayer Machinery of Heaven series:
Prayer Machinery #1: Introduction and Praying for Missionaries
Prayer Machinery #2: Praying for pray for our Elders (pastors, deacons, teachers, etc).
Prayer Machinery #3: Praying for each other
Prayer Machinery #4: How to Pray
Prayer Machinery #5: A focus on Jesus in heaven who hears our prayers, and what a comfort that is
Prayer Machinery #6: Persevering in Prayer
Prayer Machinery #7: The Two ‘If’s’ and the Importance of confessing Sin
Heaven is busy. I know you know this. But sometimes we let the invisible become abstract, and once abstract, distant. People tell me that they feel that since our faith relies on invisibility, despite their certainty, praying to heaven sometimes feels like whistling in the wind.
I understand the feeling, and I’d like to help along those lines.
Let’s get specific.
When we have a civic issue, we do things. We write letters to the editor. We complain on Facebook. We join protests. We march. We petition. We attend Town Council meetings and speak in the microphone.
“My road isn’t paved and it’s wrecking my car!”
“There’s too many potholes on my road, do something!”
“You can’t fire the Town Manager/increase the budget/Add onto the school!”
“We need a stoplight at John Smith Road!”
“Make John Q. Public Street a 4-way stop!”
“Re-stripe the lines on Main Street!”
We are pretty busy when it comes to civic duties. We make ourselves heard for our civic needs in all the venues that are available to us.
What do we do when we have a spiritual issue? We do things. We write letters to the pastor. We complain on Facebook. We join grumbling protests. We prayer march. We petition. We attend Elder Council meetings and speak up.
What don’t we do? Pray. For whatever reason, we don’t make available to us the first thing we should be doing. Instead, we relegate it to a last resort.
Far from being an inert, harp-playing, cloud lounging, Deistic place, heaven is active and always in motion. It is in operation all the time. Heaven is busy, Heaven is involved.
Heaven has angels coming and going, presenting themselves to God. The High Court is always in session. Jesus is praying. Incense is rising. The angels are hollering holy, holy, holy. Warfare is breaking out. Martyrs are arriving. Jesus is mediating. Requests and Petitions are coming in. Praise and worship is continuing.
So pray! Pray for all your concerns. Pray to praise Jesus. Pray for your sanctification. Pray for your friends’ salvation. Pray for nations abroad, and your kids at home. Pray about everything, especially your concerns.
When you pray, you become intimately involved in the activity of heaven. Your prayer is heard by Jesus and is then absorbed into the great stream of work and operations of the celestial realms. If Jesus heard Hagar’s lone cry in the vast desert, if He saw Elijah’s exhaustion in his escape from Jezebel, if He knows the heart of Nicodemus by night, if He understands all our sorrows, fears, and feelings, He hears your prayer. You don’t have to worry. You don’t need a liver shiver or a sign or confirmation. He hears it.
Scripture references
Job 1:6; Revelation 4:1-11; Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:24; Revelation 8:4, Revelation 4:8, Isaiah 6:2-3; Daniel 10:13, Revelation 12:7
Genesis 28:12; Revelation 6:9; 1 Timothy 2:5, Job 9:33; Philippians 4:6, 1 Timothy 2:1; Revelation 19:6-7, Revelation 11:16.
The Tribulation is a future prophesied time of distress on the earth that will be unequalled in affliction, so Jesus said. (Matthew 24:21). This is because He will pour out all His stored-up wrath onto the unbelieving world, and He will punish the nation Israel for their rebellion against Him.
A series of judgments in sets of 7 are unleashed from heaven to earth in proceedings that become progressively worse as each set is executed. The angels are mainly the agents who deliver the wrath.
The judgments go in this order-
The 7 Seals. The seal judgments open the events with a dramatic moment in heaven where John of Patmos had been given the vision which recorded that Jesus is the only One who is worthy to open them. Revelation 5:1-5 records this scene:
Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. 2And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” 3But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. 4I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
The detail that the document was sealed on both sides has meaning. It indicates that it is a legal document. Bible Study Tools explains,
Concerning this practice, Weemse wrote, “For the manner of writing the contract, he who was to buy the ground wrote two instruments; the one to be sealed with his own signet, the other he showed unclosed to the witnesses, that they might subscribe and bear witness of that which was written. This, the witnesses did subscribe UPON THE BACK of the enclosed instrument” . . . Gaston Maspero gave an example of an enclosed document being used as evidence. “Contracts stamped upon clay tablets have been found in Babylonia, enclosed in an envelope of clay, on the outside of which an exact duplicate of the contract is impressed: if in the course of time any disagreement arose and it was suspected that the outside text had been tampered with, the envelope was broken in the presence of witnesses to see if the inside text agreed with it or not.” The fact that the sealed scroll of Revelation Rev. 5:1+ had writing on both the inside and the outside (Rev. Rev. 5:1+), in the same manner as Jeremiah’s and other deeds of purchase in Israel’s land redemption system, indicates that it is a deed of purchase.
The document with the seals upon it is in fact the title deed to the earth.
The revelation then turns to the actual opening of the seals. Jesus has triumphed – on the cross – and the document is opened by Him who is triumph itself. The judgments begin. The 7th seal unlocks the next series of judgments, which are the Trumpet Judgments. (Revelation 8). These are worse. The ultimate purpose of the judgments are to render wrath for His glory onto the peoples, so they will repent under the knowledge of His active anger. Revelation 8 has the first half of the Trumpet Judgments and the angel announces woe to those on the earth as the worsening of the second half of the trumpet judgments begin. (Revelation 9).
Revelation 10 announces the beginning of the next series of judgments, the Seven Thunders. However in an unusual move, the voice from heaven called out for John to seal up this series of judgments and not to write them down. We do now know why the Seven Thunders are sealed nor do we know what they contain, if they are judgments at all.
The last set of judgments are the Bowls. These are truly the worst of the worst. By now the world has either repented and given Jesus glory, or has confirmed their permanent state of rebellion by accepting the devil’s mark of the beast. The mark is a mark of worship of the antichrist and displays allegiance to him (and the devil). (Revelation 13:15-16).
The scene shifts from the throne as seen in previous judgments, to the sanctuary. The door to the sanctuary is opened and it is an incredible view. Revelation 15:5-8 concludes this chapter and the introduction to the last judgments.
After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests. And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.
No one was allowed to enter. Not the other angels, not glorified humans, no one. Is the reason so that no man or angel may intercede? Is it because God’s glory is so powerful, even for a holy angel or a glorified man? Nevertheless, the angels, those mighty and holy angels, are given the task of delivering the last 7 judgments on the earth.
This is the God of power and judgment. His mercy seat has become a judgment seat. All the millennia of patience, the times of overlooking man’s ignorance (Acts 17:30) are over. He is no longer reasoning with man. (Isaiah 1:18). His might is come to the fore and the sanctuary is filled with smoke. No one is allowed entry. God commands the 7 powerful angels to dispense His final wrath.
It reminds me of the verse in Isaiah 63:3.
I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel.
He does indeed tread the wine-press, but it is the great wine-press of the wrath of God (Rev. 14:19, M. Henry). Our precious Lord had taken on all of God’s wrath, had drunk the cup on the cross. He “treads the wine-press” here not as a sufferer, but as an inflicter of vengeance.
It’s good to dwell on God’s love. It”s also good to remember His other attributes- power, wrath, sole arbiter of justice. It is good to remember that these scenes in heaven are future, perhaps to occur in our own generation. Be clear-eyed about who our God is. He isn’t a romantic Jesus skipping among the daisies to wrap us in His manly arms. He is not a cash machine dispensing wealth from heaven. His attributes include love and mercy, to be sure, but also power, wrath, and justice from the very sanctuary in heaven. He is mighty.
For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:19)
I used to teach kids at church on Wednesday nights. I love their conversations and their thoughts and their joy. One night they were asking about Jesus and heaven. They got so excited when they figured out that their Christian friends will be in heaven too. They practically jumped out of their seats when they made the connection that they will actually see Jesus and hang out with Him. They started making plans, clapping their hands … Ironically, the verse being taught that night was of Mark 10:13-16, “suffer the little children to come unto Me, do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Boy, does it ever. Let US be excited, innocent, planning, expectant, too. Are we? We should be!
I love that photo of the cross lifted up and the verses referring the Jesus who is lifted up. It’s a comfort to know He is in the Holy Place. It’s also a comfort to know He is returning to catch up His Bride into heaven. He will lift us to His abode and we will never be troubled by sin again. Best of all, we will be with Jesus.
John MacArthur said: You don’t know how long you’re going to live or when Christ will return. That demands a different approach to life. Living in Anticipation of Christ’s Return Part 1
Since He is coming again, what kind of people should we be? Peter asked the question in the second epistle, chapter 3, where he is explaining the last things.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:11-14)
It’s not an esoteric, or abstract, or irrelevant question. The sermon linked above will help us learn from the Bible how to live in anticipation of His coming. The children I mentioned in the beginning knew how to live in anticipation of a living and present Jesus in their lives. Let us do the same. Let us be as children, who have no power, are meek, teachable, excited, trusting, and above all, loving Christ simply and beautifully.
Missionary to Vanuatu in the late 1800s, John G. Paton, writing about the death of one of his first native converts in his book Thirty Years Among the South Sea Cannibals, said:
“While staying at Aneityum, I learned with as deep emotion as man ever felt for man, that noble old Abraham, the sharer of my Tannese trials, had during the interval peacefully fallen asleep in Jesus. He left for me his silver watch one which I had myself sent to the dear soul from Sydney, and which he greatly prized. In his dying hour he said, “Give it to Missi, my own Missi Paton; and tell him that I go to Jesus, where Time is dead.”
That converted cannibal had a real and profound grasp of his position in Christ. I have read many times that in heaven sin will be dead, tears will be dead, sorrow will be dead, but I never read anything put quite like that. In heaven, time is dead.
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| Graphics Fairy |
What will it be like when we are never running late? When the good labors we perform stretch endlessly ahead in joy and interest but not in constriction of artificial hours or days? When we don’t have birthdays or appointments? When there is no catching up, falling behind, or getting ahead? Instead, all our tasks and meetings simply unfold perfectly and in a pace that is like the very river of life streaming from the Fount- constant and perfect?
God instituted seasonal time, and He instituted day and night. (Psalm 104:19, Genesis 1:14). He did this for the benefit of man, certainly not because God needed to mark time. He dwells in eternity where it is all time at once. The clock measures time precisely, in specific increments, and this mechanism more than any other has subdued man. The clock at once has inhibited man in his actions and catalyzed man in his actions. I’m late! I’m early! I’m behind! I’m on time- give me a gold star!
The clock segments the teacher’s day. It regulates the inmate’s day. It formulates the train conductor’s, the pilot’s, the bus driver’s day. The clock convicts the chronic tardiness of the employee. The clock dares. The clock monotonizes.
Anarchist George Woodcock wrote in The Tyranny of the Clock,
Socially the clock had a more radical influence than any other machine, in that it was the means by which the regularisation and regimentation of life necessary for an exploiting system of industry could best be attained. The clock provided the means by which time – a category so elusive that no philosophy has yet determined its nature – could be measured concretely in more tangible forms of space provided by the circumference of a clock dial. Time as duration became disregarded, and men began to talk and think always of ‘lengths’ of time, just as if they were talking of lengths of calico. And time, being now measurable in mathematical symbols, became regarded as a commodity that could be bought and sold in the same way as any other commodity.
Sadly he did not know that liberating man from the tyranny of the clock would only enslave him to another device, another machine, another apparatus, whatever it may be. God created time for our benefit and ever since He has been ordaining its orderly progression, despite man’s over-dependence on the clock.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8)
In heaven, time is dead. However without clocks the orderly progression of all things will continue, for God is God of heaven as He is of earth. Our liberation from the tyranny of the clock will free us in ways we can’t even imagine. The old cannibal and new man, Abraham of Vanuatu, knew. He went where time is dead and men are alive. Where there are no clocks but precision is more precise than it has ever been anywhere on earth.
making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:10)
I’ve looked at the numbers and have been discouraged by the seeming few that will be in heaven. The proportions of saved to lost seems wide. All the world died in the flood…except for 8. All four cities of the plain were smote … only four people escaped … and one of them turned out to be false. The road is broad and many are on it, while the path is narrow and few find it.
I’ve written about that proportion here
I’m looking at the numbers and they don’t look good
and here
Many ‘Christians’ will be left out of heaven
I’ve also been discouraged by the lack of solid churches and the difficulty in finding them. Many of you have written to me about the same thing.
In listening to Justin Peters last night teach about child conversions, he said the encouraging regarding both topics. In his lesson he also named off a list of many solid churches he is personally familiar with.
It is easy to get discouraged when looking at the broad swathe of Christianity, and it is easy when we see so much heresy, so much compromise even from the supposedly good guys. It’s rampant. But there are good churches out there God does have His people everywhere. They’re not in the limelight, they’re not in the spotlight. … There are good churches, it’s just that they’re in small places. They’re hard to find, but they’re out there.
He said this about numbers in heaven. I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one who gets discouraged. I’am also glad to know that I overlooked something. Children who have died will massively add to the number in heaven-
I believe that the best understanding of scripture holds that when a baby, toddler, young child dies, that little one goes to heaven. … Have you ever thought about this? have you ever been discouraged at how few people go to heaven? When you look around the world, there’s 7 billion people on this planet and I think it is safe to say that well under and only probably less than 1% of truly born again, there’s a lot of people who say they’re Christians but they’re not. It can get kind of discouraging can’t it? But you know what? Have you ever thought about how many hundreds of millions or billions of children have died? In a miscarriage, before they were even born? Or how many children have been killed in abortions? Or how many children have died at early ages? Do you know where all those young ones are? They’re in heaven. There’s going to be a lot of folks in heaven! It’s going to be a busy place, with a lot of people in it! (Source)
In the lesson, Peters had previously explained from scripture why he and most others believe that infants, toddlers, and children will be in heaven. There was a biblical context for his statement.
In the United states alone, there have been 60 million abortions in the last 40 years. All those aborted children are in heaven. The worldwide infant mortality rate due to natural causes is also very high. It always has been.
The infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of deaths of infants under one year old per 1,000 live births. This rate is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country. The infant mortality rate of the world is 49.4 according to the United Nations and 42.09 according to the CIA World Factbook. The under-5 mortality rate of the world is 73.7 according to the United Nations. (Source)
Praise the Lord, the numbers of departed children I’d overlooked when thinking of heaven massively increases the number that will be there. Bless the Lord, and bless the children waiting for us there (whatever age they will be upon heavenly entry).
the-end-time.org 