GOD’S WORD FOR OCTOBER 13~ ~ Colossians 3:2 ~ ~ Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth”

Today I’m going to change a little, and take the excerpt from John MacArthur’s book, “the Glory of Heaven”—–Chapter: This World is Not My Home. We will be going back to “We Shall See God” again.

It may sound paradoxical to say this, but heaven should be at the center of the Christian worldview. The term “worldview” is a name for the moral, philosophical, and spiritual framework through which we interpret the world and everything around us. Everyone Has a worldview, whether consciously or not.

A proper Christian worldview is uniquely focused heavenward. Though some would deride this as “escapism,” it is, after all, the very thing Scripture commands:

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2). The apostle Paul penned that verse, by the way, and his approach to life was anything but escapist.

In fact, Paul is a wonderful example of the proper Biblical perspective between heaven and earth. He faced overwhelming persecution on earth and never lost sight of heaven. In 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 he says:

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” Then in verses 16-27 he adds, “we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.” Elsewhere he told the church at Rome, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18)

Paul was saying exactly what Peter told the scattered and persecuted believers he wrote to in 1 Peter 1:3-7:

“Whatever we suffer in this life cannot be compared with the glory of the life to come.” In other words, we don’t seek to ESCAPE this life by dreaming of heaven. But we do find we can ENDURE this life because of the certainty of heaven. Heaven is eternal. Earth is temporal. Those who fix all their affections on the ephemeral realities of this passing world are the real escapists, because they are vainly attempting to avoid facing eternity – by hiding in the fleeting shadows of things that are only transient.

The irony is that all the things we can see and touch in this world are less substantive and less permanent than the eternal things of heaven, which things we can grasp only by faith. The apostle Paul wrote:

“We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”(2 Corinthians 4:18-5:1)

It always amazes me when I encounter someone living as if this life is an unending reality. Nothing is more obvious than the transitory nature of human life. The fact that this earthly tabernacle – the human body – is dissolving becomes obvious at an all too early age. This tent is being torn down:

“In this tent we groan” (2 Corinthians 5:2) Then in Romans 8:22: “The whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Nothing in this world is permanent. That should be obvious to anyone who contemplates the nature of things, even on the most superficial level.

There are many who mistakenly conclude that the brevity of life is a good justification for unbridled self-indulgence. After all, if there’s nothing to life but what we can see and experience in the here and now, why not make the most of personal pleasure? How different that is from Jesus’ advice to use this earthly life as an opportunity to lay up treasure in heaven!

But if this life were the sum total of human existence, then our existence would be a tragic affair indeed. Nihilism would indeed be the only philosophy that would make sense: Nothing would truly matter, so we might as well try to gain all the pleasure we can from life before we die and return to nothingness. Sadly, many unsaved people today believe this.

As Christians, we naturally deplore that kind of hedonism and lament the despair it breeds. But let’s acknowledge that a nihilistic worldview is the most clear and logical alternative to Christianity. If our existence is the product of nothing and will lead to nothing, then life itself is really nothing. If that’s the case, then there’s no good reason we should not “eat, drink and be merry.”

But Scripture tells us that is the worldview of a fool (Luke 12:19-20).(see Scriptures at end)

How much better to have the eternal perspective! A pamphlet I once read related the following anecdote from the life of John Quincy Adams:

One day in his 80^th year….he was approached by a friend who said, “And how is John Quincy Adams today?”

The former President of the United States replied graciously, “thank you, John Quincy Adams is well, sir, quite well. I thank you. But the house in which he lives at present is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering upon its foundations. Time and the seasons have nearly destroyed it. Its roof is pretty well worn out, it’s walls are much shattered, and it trembles with every wind. The old tenement is becoming almost uninhabitable, and I think John Quincy Adams will have to move out of it soon; but he himself is quite well, sir, quite well.” And with this the venerable statesman, leaning heavily upon his cane, moved slowly down the street.

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Luke 12:19-20 “And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?”

Ezekiel 11:19: “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh.”

Romans 8:6: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

Proverbs 18:14: “A (person’s) spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?”

Proverbs 20:27: “The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord that sheds light on one’s inmost being.”

Romans 8:27

“And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God”

Romans 12:2

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

2 Timothy 1:7

“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

John 4:24

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

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