Thursday March 31 2011

Read Revelation 21

Some believers are said to have their head so far in the clouds that they are of no earthly use! I wonder if you have ever described someone in these words. The truth is quite the opposite. The more our head and heart are in the heavens the more useful we will be here on earth.

Just think for a moment how this oxymoron can be true. As you meditate on heaven and as you contemplate the beauty and peace of being with God for all eternity, that truth will filter outwards into the lives of others.  Since heaven is relational and since our God is relational it’s virtually impossible to taste the delights of heaven and then to keep it to yourself. The more you understand of heaven and God’s eternal plan, the more you will yearn and cry out for opportunities to share your faith and invite others into that eternal kingdom. The more you know of heaven the more your prayers for others will take on an eternal perspective.  It really is parallel to our bodies and food. If you put good food into your body, your body reacts well and grows healthily. But if you put bad food into your body, you suffer in sickness.. Setting our heart and mind on Christ in the heavenlies and meditating on the beauty of heaven is good food for our soul and grows outwards in joy, other centeredness and Christ-likeness.  Filling our heart and soul and mind with bad food (like pornography, greed, material things, lusts and covetings etc) results in spiritual sickness. Shallow Christianity, greed, selfishness, anger and unforgiveness and so on are all symptoms of a misdirected heart and mind that have been fed bad food.

This is why so much of the New Testament is spent telling us to focus and to keep our mind fixed on Christ in the heavenlies. See Colossians 3 and how the heavenly perspective flows outwards in our lives.  Hebrews 12 encourages us to set our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who sits at the right hand of the throne of God.  1 Peter 1 tells us to be filled with hope and rejoicing because of our heavenly inheritance.

What are you doing each day to set your heart and mind on Christ Jesus sitting at the right hand of God? How are you ensuring that you have the correct focus each and every single day? How are you drawing near to God moment by moment?

Prayer:-

þ Ask the Lord to give our brothers in the Myanmar Bible Colleges a greater heavenly focus so that they can serve and teach and give selflessly of themselves. Pray this for your congregation as well. Pray that both groups see the fruit of such a focus.