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. TRANSLATED INTO HEAVEN (Colossians 1:1-14; Hebrews 11:5,6)

God's wonderful salvation is variously expressed, as "passing from death unto life" (Jn 5:24), calling “out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Pet 2:9), "delivered ... from the power of darkness ... translated into the kingdom of his dear Son" (Col 1:13).

What do we understand by the word “translated”? It refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion, imparting new life to those who were dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1), the quickening of our mortal bodies (Rom 8:11), the giving of power to become the sons of God. The Spirit's translation brought us into the Gospel state, making us members of the Church and body of Jesus Christ (Eph 5:30).

But the translation of believers will not be fully and finally manifested before our Lord returns, as expressed by the Apostle John: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ..." (1 Jn 3:2). The translation has made us sons of God by title and spirit. At our Lord's return a marvellous, miraculous, supernatural transformation will come over all believers, dead and alive.

The full and final translation is described by the Apostle Paul: "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye ..." (1 Cor 15:51,52). "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout ... and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess 4:16, 17).

Like Enoch, those of us who are alive at the Lord's return will be translated i.e. transported into Heaven, without tasting the sting of death.

PRAYER: Thank Thee Lord for thy marvellous translation.

2. FOR HEAVEN FLEE THIS DYING EARTH (Genesis 19:17-26; 2 Peter 3:7-14)

Archaeologists have in recent years uncovered the buried remains of the ancient cities of sin, Sodom and Gomorrah, by the shores of the Dead Sea. Among the ruins were sex houses, sex appliances and pornographic materials as advanced as today's. God's Word says that God spared not those cities, but turned them into ashes, "making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly” lives (2 Pet 2:6).

In a wider universal global judgment, God destroyed the "old world" but saved Noah's family of eight, "bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly" (2 Pet 2:5). These catastrophic "acts of God" serve to remind us that our God is holy and righteous and just. He who judged the earth once before will judge it again. This is both a promise and a warning: a promise to return to earth for His own, and a warning to sinners of judgment to come.

The need of the hour is for sinners to turn to the Lord in repentance, for He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet 3:9). The need of the hour is also for saints, believers, the redeemed of God, to go forth with the Gospel of God's salvation, and turn men and women from sin to righteousness, and escape the wrath and judgment to come.

Dear reader, look around you. What do you see? The world beckons with enticing, ensnaring seductions of the eyes and the flesh; the end of these is death. See the world for what it is: a vast universal graveyard and death trap, doomed to judgment and destruction. Our one and only hope is to flee now to Jesus, the Saviour, before He comes as Judge. In Him you will find salvation, and Heaven.

THOUGHT: Do it today; do not delay!
                       The Lord's coming is at hand

3. ONE WAY ONLY TO HEAVEN (John 10:7-18; Acts4;10-12)

"God is love and He will never send anybody to hell. All religions teach people to be good. One day everybody will get to Heaven." Such thinking and teaching prevail in the liberal churches, in society generally, and in most schools of philosophy, that is, "if Heaven exists."

What do we say to this? Firstly, the domain and jurisdiction of Heaven does not belong to any man, but to God. No man has any authority to make rules of entry to Heaven. Any man aspiring to Heaven must enquire at the one legitimate and rightful authority. He is Jesus Christ the King of Heaven. If you have a mind to make your home in Heaven, come to Jesus today. He has much to say on this matter.

Jesus says, "I am the way ... no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (Jn 14:6); "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved ..." (Jn 10:9). The way to Heaven is narrow. Our Lord says "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matt 7:13,14).

Today the way to Heaven is clear, and the door is wide open. The gospel invitation is, "Whosoever will may come". The Saviour awaits to receive those who will turn to Him in faith and repentance. He alone is the way. To go by any other way will lead to disappointment and rejection. Our Lord says, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt 7:21).  And what is the will of the Father? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).

THOUGHT: Heaven admits only those whose names are written in Heaven's Book of Life.

God bless you dear readers.

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