Heavenward (eBook)

Introduction

On the day my oldest child died, I received a message from a friend that simply read, “How long, O Lord? How long?” This message encapsulates so much of the Christian life. We suffer in the fallen world. We wait for the return of Christ. We aim to move fruitfully toward glory.

In the Christian life, all things begin, point to, and end in eternity. For most of my life, I did not live with this awareness, but that changed radically one Veterans Day.

On November 11, 2013, my perspective shifted heavenward. On that day, my precious, vibrant, curly-haired, little boy Cam went to live with God in heaven above. On November 10, 2013, my three-year-old Cam professed faith in Christ after asking if we could “get in the car” to go see Jesus. He expressed a desire to visit Christ in heaven above. The next day, my perfectly healthy Cam shockingly and unexpectedly entered God’s eternal glory. He went to sleep in our home; he woke up above in the arms of Jesus.

Amidst the sorrow and grief of my child’s death, something radically new happened in my daily mindset. Heaven became an almost ever-present part of my perspective. This transformation made sense: this is where my firstborn child now lived.

The Eternal Problem

The primary problem in the spiritual lives of modern Christians is eschatological in nature. Eschatology is a fancy theological word for matters related to heaven and the end times. This book addresses that problem.

With each passing second, every person’s life is moving toward eternity. However, most Christians live with very little awareness of their eternal trajectory. Other Christians, as a product of life circumstances such as suffering, death, or a terminal diagnosis, do have an awareness of heaven. Still, they have very little knowledge or structure to offer them meaningful, life-giving direction as they move toward glory.

Consequently, to put it in sophisticated, academic language, one could describe the spiritual lives of many Christians as blah or meh. Perhaps, you can identify with this feeling. Your relationship with Christ lacks the deep joy and abundant life that Jesus offers. You do not experience the soaring hope and steadfast perseverance described in the New Testament. Your service to Christ feels routine and obligatory and does not contain transcendent inspiration or bold resolve.

Of course, God does not promise constant “highs” in the Christian life, and yet you can reasonably expect more than a nondescript relationship with Jesus. God’s grace to us in Jesus contains too much richness for such flatness.

A spiritual perspective quietly pervading the modern church involves what the apostle Paul referred to as “earthly mindedness” (see Phil. 3:19). A present-day term for earthly mindedness is YOLO: “You only live once.” In other words, modern Christians often live as if this life is it. There’s no heaven beyond. As a result, there’s little to no eternal hope, joy, or purpose in the spirituality of many Christians.

Consequently, people chase fleeting pleasures of this life, which do not satisfy their souls. They freak out when difficulties and trials come their way. They conceive of their purpose and mission for Christ in a manner that elicits little inspiration or boldness.

You may be reading this and thinking, “My heart and mind are anywhere but in this life.” For you, a death, a diagnosis, or a general sense of disenchantment with this world has turned your soul away from the earth. In a general, undirected way, your consciousness has shifted toward eternity. Still, you do not know exactly where to go with these feelings and longings.

Game-changing transformation occurs when we set our hearts and minds “on things above,” as Paul exhorted believers to do (Col. 3:1–2). Life-altering change can happen when we live like citizens of heaven, as Paul characterized believers (see Phil. 3:20). Your Christian life can be turned upside-down when you start to live heavenward. Christ calls us there, and the apostle Paul gives us direction.

A heavenward life means that heaven serves as the backdrop of your everyday consciousness. Heaven is a frequent object of your longings and desires. In a heavenward life, eternity organically and instinctively informs and drives the everyday matters of your life.

I can tell you from personal experience that you will discover and enjoy great spiritual riches in a heavenward life.

My Friend, the Apostle Paul

A heavenward mindset changed my life after my son died. As the sorrow of grief subsided, heavenwardness provided richer fellowship with Jesus. I had more perspective and more hope. I had more comfort and more patience. I had more focus in ministry, prayer, and evangelism. Life set in relation to heaven felt more hopeful, joyful, and purposeful. Though I was suffering deeply from the loss of my son, God was blessing my inner life in a unique way, like I had never before experienced.

However, I do not know if I would have sustained this heavenward life after the season of grief if I had not met a significant companion on the heavenly journey.

During that year after Cam died, I was thinking about heaven so much that I started to feel weird. I would forget to pay a bill and conclude, “That twenty-five-dollar late fee won’t matter in heaven.” I’d miss a college reunion and figure, “I’ll see those friends in glory.” Surely nobody was thinking in such an abnormal way.

Meanwhile, I began reading the letters of the apostle Paul in my devotional life. As I read these New Testament books, I noticed heaven popping up all over the place! I used a golden highlighter (like the heavenly streets of gold) to mark every reference to heaven and eternity in Paul’s letters. My Bible was covered with yellow highlights in the Pauline epistles.

When he talks about suffering, he mentions the resurrection of the body or being at home with God. When he considers morality and ethics, the heavenly realities of the kingdom of God appear. When Paul thinks about serving God, seeing Christ on his judgment seat motivates him.

Heaven pervaded the consciousness and life of the apostle Paul. In one sense, he lived as a person whose life was constantly moving toward glory. In another sense, Paul lived as if he were already there.

I had found a friend, someone who had thought about heaven in an even more intense, constant, and peculiar manner than I had.

What I discovered is that my life had been moving heavenward since the day of my conversion as a young person. God used the fact that my child lived in glory to awaken me to the present heavenly realities of my salvation. Paul did have circumstances that probably aided his heavenly awakening. He characterized his life as “often near death” (2 Cor. 11:23). In his letter to the Philippians, one gets the impression that Paul was not sure if his imprisonment would end in death or deliverance (Phil. 1:18–26). In 2 Corinthians, he mentions being beaten nearly to death five times and adrift at sea for a full day and a full night after a shipwreck (2 Cor. 11:25).

However, the realities brought about through Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension (known as the Christ Event) more likely drove and sustained Paul’s heavenward life.

Paul viewed the Christ Event as the arrival of heaven on earth. The Christ Event signified the beginning of the age to come, a new heavenly age, which Jews had anticipated for centuries. Paul’s letters clearly assert that the conversion of believers means that they are instantly transferred into the kingdom of heaven, and they live as citizens of that heavenly realm where Christ reigns in his glory.

As I continued to study heaven, I found other heavenward friends along the way in the writings and music of church history. The early church fathers, Christian mystics, Puritan theologians, British poets, slaves of the American South, and others all became heavenward companions. From these sources, I found other people who were consumed with heaven to various degrees.

In this season, my life changed radically. I want this change for you too.

When you understand the implications of the coming of Christ and the fullness of your salvation, heaven naturally starts to sink deeper and deeper into your heart and mind. You start to realize that, in the spiritual realm, you live with a foot in heaven and a toe on earth. The more eternity sinks into your soul, the more your life, actions, and longings move in a heavenward direction.

When you realize that God has blessed you in Christ with “all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places,” greater joy enters your relationship with Jesus. When you digest how eternally blissful your life in heaven will be, the more you can persevere in the trials and sufferings of this life. When you think about offering your life as a worshipful gift before the judgment seat of Christ, the more inspiring and convicted your purpose in life becomes.

The apostle Paul’s theology of heaven offers promise and hope in these various areas. All of these eternal benefits and blessings are on offer to you right now in the...