My dear readers,

(Extracts from “HEAVEN – a place, a city, a home” by E M Bounds in RPG March 1992, Edited by Dr SH Tow)

1. INCREASING HEAVEN’S POPULATION (Luke 14:15-24; Acts 1:6-11)

The Kingdom of God is likened to a great supper or banquet to which many are invited. Strangely, when the time came none of the invited guests turned up. All sorts of excuses are made, but the fact was those guests had no great respect for the master of the house. A second invitation is then issued to those of less honorable standing: the poor, the maimed, the halt, the blind. But the banquetting hall still was not filled. Therefore a third round of invitations goes out to those in the highways and hedges: "Whosoever will may come!" The master's banquet with its dainties must not go waste. Empty seats must be filled! There's still room for more.

That is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Our God is the Master of the house, a generous, patient and gracious host. Men of honourable estate may spurn His kindness and turn their backs on His free offer. Yet He does not easily give up, but He sends His servant to gather those who would receive him. The Gospel is like a banquet. It can feed and house many more hungering, starving people. The feast is waiting. Who will be a good servant to go out to the highways and hedges, and "compel" others to come in?

God needs servants, faithful and forceful, to go out into the highways and hedges, and bring them in. Heaven's great supper is ready; the banquetting hands prepared to receive "whosoever will". Many of the poor, the maimed, the halt, the blind, have taken their places, and yet there is room for more. Our Lord said, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest" (Matt 9:37,38).

Let us be labourers of God's harvest and increase Heaven's population.

THOUGHT: "And yet there's room for more, many more!"

2. RACING TOWARD HEAVEN OUR PRIZE (1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Hebrews 12:1,2)

Heaven is a prize to be won by earnest striving, not an idle dream for triflers and ease-lovers. The Apostle makes reference to the Isthmian games contestants whose example of selfless dedication to sport challenges Christian runners to greater sacrifice. Indeed we are shamed by our casual, half-hearted, easy-going efforts when the thing at stake is no less than the Prize of Heaven.

The Apostle provokes us with sanctified argument:

a. Consider the Prize. In the Isthmian races, many run but only one receives the prize. Each runner knows full well his uncertain prospect of winning. This does not deter him from stretching himself to the utmost. Years or months of hard training may win him nothing more than just heat, sweat, and tears.

In the Christian race there is no such uncertainty. All who run are assured of a prize, if each would run by the rules, with faith and patient endurance. And whereas the Isthmian victor's crown of a laurel or olive wreath soon withers away, the Christian's "crown of glory" is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away, an inheritance, eternal, reserved in Heaven.

b. Consider the Preparation. See how the Isthmian athlete (or today's Olympic runner) willingly subjects himself to the most gruelling programme of training, discipline, exercise, and diet. Anything which may jeopardize his prospects is sacrificed: self-indulgence in food, fun, ease and pleasure. Through punishing and painful regimes he pushes himself without a murmur. Such is his self-imposed path to uncertain glory.

How does our preparation for Heaven stand in comparison? Have you a disciplined programme of "spiritual aerobics", of wholesome diet, of self-denial? Are you temperate in all things, keeping your body under, bringing it into subjection to the law of God? Do you deny yourself those "fleshly appetites" which may cost you the race? Can we match up to the Isthmian runners?

THOUGHT: "There's no gain without pain, no Prize without sacrifice."

3. OUR KNOWLEDGE OF HEAVEN (2 Corinthians 5:1-10)

Our hope of Heaven is founded, not on speculation or wishful thinking, but on sure knowledge imparted to us by the Lord of Heaven himself. In a direct communication (in His discourse with Nicodemus) Jesus said, "Verily verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen ... If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven" (Jn 3:11-13).

Then we have the witness of the Spirit, "the earnest of our inheritance" (Eph 1:13) of Heaven. The earnest is both the pledge of Heaven and its foretaste. Every true child of God knows for sure that Heaven is awaiting him because God's Spirit dwelling within his heart constantly directs his thoughts and affections heavenward, toward God, in prayer and praise, in longing for God's Home, in striving for God's Kingdom, in suffering for His cause, in witness, urging men to turn in repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then we recall our Lord's words in John 14:1-3, that wonderful promise of a place in the Father's House. The same Apostle of love has left us the amazing record of The Revelation chapters 21 and 22 in which we read of the New Jerusalem, the Holy City whose glory and beauty cannot be adequately described, far less imagined. Finally, we thank God for the gift of faith, "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb 11:1). This faith comes by hearing and by reading the Word of God (Rom 10:17). The knowledge of Heaven enables us to tread this earthly road, though long and dreary, with confidence and courage, for shortly we shall reach that home "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

THOUGHT: Now we know in part, then, perfectly.

God bless all readers.

Yours faithfully in the Saviour’s Service,
Dr SH Tow, Founding Pastor