GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 16~ ~ Isaiah 65:17-19 ~ ~“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;  And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;  For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing,  And her people a joy.  I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her,  nor the voice of crying.”

From the book, “We Shall See God”  with Charles Spurgeon and Randy Alcorn.

“Joy in the New Creation”  Part 2

ALCORN:

Spurgeon spoke this message (posted yesterday)  only six months before he died.  For large parts of the previous twenty-two years he had lived with great physical pain.  He suffered from gout, rheumatism, and Bright’s disease (Inflammation of the kidneys). Also his lungs were damaged from preaching in the huge halls of London.  He had a magnificent voice, and thousands could hear him to the back of the hall and beyond into the streets before microphones or any type of speaker.  But this took a huge toll on his lungs.

 He had even contracted smallpox.  His first attack of gout came in 1869 at the age of thirty-five.  His health became progressively worse so that nearly a third of his last twenty-two years were spent away from the pulpit, either suffering or convalescing.  This physical hardship took a great emotional toll on him.  At times he struggled with deep depression.

When he was twenty-two years old, Spurgeon preached for the first time in the Music Hall of the Royal Surrey Gardens because his own church wasn’t large enough.  The ten-thousand-person seating capacity was far exceeded by the crowds pressing in.  Someone shouted, “FIRE!”, and panic took over.   The stampede that followed resulted in many injuries and the deaths of seven people.  Years later, Spurgeon said this horrifying incident resulted in taking him “near the burning furnace of insanity”

As no stranger to the suffering of body and mind, and with his own death looming, Spurgeon speaks here to the body, mind and emotions about the promise of resurrection.

Many people have a hard time dealing with their emotions.  In heaven, we’ll be free to feel intensely.  God has emotions, real ones, but they are not subject to whims and dips  and inconsistencies.  He made us in His image, so we have emotions too.  But ours are under the curse and subject to sin.  In heaven our emotions will be fully redeemed.  There they will always be assets, never liabilities.  Won’t that be an incredible relief?

One writer says of our lives in heaven:  “We will live on a perpetual and exhilarating high akin to the feeling we have now when we shout “Yes!” at a great victory.”  I’m not so sure.  Living constantly at a fever pitch of exhilaration would mean there wouldn’t be special moments of greater joy.  Certainly in heaven we won’t experience sadness, but that doesn’t require each moment’s joy to be exactly equal to the rest.  We currently experience an ebb and flow of our lives.  That rhythm is not part of being sinful but part of being human and finite—and we’ll always be both of these, even when we’re no longer subject to sin.

We know that people in heaven have a range of feelings—all good ones.  We’re told of banquets, feasts, and singing.  Remember, God assures those who mourn now, “You will laugh” (Luke :21)  Laughter is an emotional response.  Feasting, singing, and rejoicing involve feelings.  Our present emotions are bent by sin, but they will be straightened forever when God removes the curse.

Just two verses after Jesus promises, “You will laugh” He tells us precisely when the promise will be fulfilled:  “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven (Luke 6:23)

Jesus doesn’t say, “if you weep now, soon things on earth will take a better turn, and then you’ll laugh”  things won’t always take a better turn on earth.  Just as our reward will come in heaven, laughter  (itself one of our rewards) will come in heaven, compensating for our present sorrow.  Yet by God’s grace, we can laugh on earth now, getting a head start on heaven’s laughter.

God won’t only wipe away all our tears; He’ll also fill our hearts with joy and our mouths with laughter.  And just as laughter itself will be redeemed, so our emotions will be free at last of all sin, ill will, and lack of perspective.

If you are experiencing hard times that leave you physically and emotionally frail or drained, take heart.  Spurgeon once said, “Glory be to God for the furnace, the hammer and the file.  Heaven shall be all the more full of happiness because we have been filled with anguish here below; and earth shall be better tilled because of our training in the school of adversity.”

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2 Corinthians 5:6-8

So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Philippians 1:21-23

 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

1Timothy 6:14-16

 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.

(He dwells in unapproachable light, yet, in eternity, we will see Him face to face!!!):

Revelation 22:4

 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.

1 Corinthians 13:12

 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

Psalm 17:15

As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness;

I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.

Revelation 21:3

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.

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