Heaven
Heaven is a government - a perfect government! (In the Bible it’s a kingdom). The Bible says God will bring his government to earth when God’s Son returns. Each person must either accept or reject God’s government. Jesus invites you to accept God’s loving rule today and take your place in the kingdom of heaven.
Were you surprised we connected the idea to heaven to government? Notice we did NOT say government is heaven! The reason we phrased it that way is because pop culture + ancient pagan religion have taught most of us that heaven is a place ‘up there’ or in another dimension. Many people think it’s a place for souls, not bodies. Angels, not cities. The trouble is that’s not how the writers of the Bible describe heaven. The Christian message is that God’s kingdom (Heaven) is coming here. Have you ever prayed The Lord’s Prayer? "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". The Bible says you should want God’s kingdom to come and you need to be ready for that to happen.
Do you want God’s kingdom to come? Are you tired of the problems humans have made? Good! Now get ready. How do you do that? The Bible says God’s kingdom already broke into ours once, when Jesus, God’s Son, showed us what it means to be truly and perfectly human. Jesus died an undeserved death, the Bible says, to take away your sin so that you can live forever in the kingdom with Jesus. How do you become a citizen of that kingdom; a child of God? You ask him. Ask Jesus to take away your sin (everything that’s broken or ugly or selfish about you). And he will. Done deal! Ask Jesus to start making you better. And he will! A day at a time, walking with God’s people, you’ll start to look more and more like a citizen of heaven and less and less like your old self.
God very much wants to be with you in his kingdom forever. Not because he needs you (God is God - he doesn’t need anything), he just loves you that much. Read this prayer Jesus prayed right before being arrested.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.'” (John 17:20-26)
Do you desire to be with God?
Were you surprised we connected the idea to heaven to government? Notice we did NOT say government is heaven! The reason we phrased it that way is because pop culture + ancient pagan religion have taught most of us that heaven is a place ‘up there’ or in another dimension. Many people think it’s a place for souls, not bodies. Angels, not cities. The trouble is that’s not how the writers of the Bible describe heaven. The Christian message is that God’s kingdom (Heaven) is coming here. Have you ever prayed The Lord’s Prayer? "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". The Bible says you should want God’s kingdom to come and you need to be ready for that to happen.
Do you want God’s kingdom to come? Are you tired of the problems humans have made? Good! Now get ready. How do you do that? The Bible says God’s kingdom already broke into ours once, when Jesus, God’s Son, showed us what it means to be truly and perfectly human. Jesus died an undeserved death, the Bible says, to take away your sin so that you can live forever in the kingdom with Jesus. How do you become a citizen of that kingdom; a child of God? You ask him. Ask Jesus to take away your sin (everything that’s broken or ugly or selfish about you). And he will. Done deal! Ask Jesus to start making you better. And he will! A day at a time, walking with God’s people, you’ll start to look more and more like a citizen of heaven and less and less like your old self.
God very much wants to be with you in his kingdom forever. Not because he needs you (God is God - he doesn’t need anything), he just loves you that much. Read this prayer Jesus prayed right before being arrested.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.'” (John 17:20-26)
Do you desire to be with God?
