Taste of Heaven.

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“Church is a preview of Heaven”

 

If your love for family and friends in your home and in your church is not a taste of Heaven, you are deceiving yourself.

 

If you have not learned to love God and people on the earth, what makes you think that you can love God and people in heaven? If the presence of God is not what the church is, what difference would it make to have God in heaven if on earth he wasn’t real. The skin-deep relationship we have with God and people is a reflection of our faith in God and the people of God.

 

There is a saying that says, “The eyes of the master fattens the horses and the cows.” This means that workers do better only under the oversight of the master. The man who has not learned to walk in this life by faith will find in heaven faith will not be by sight either but more of the same than on earth.

 

The kingdom of God was announced.

The kingdom of God came near.

The kingdom of God was with us.

The kingdom of God dwelled within us.

The kingdom of God has come.

The kingdom of God has gone back to heaven.

The kingdom of God is coming back again.

 

Jesus is the king and the kingdom of God is where Jesus is. If Jesus is not welcome in all of his magnitude in his body, in his head and body parts in the members of his church on earth, how could my oneness with Jesus be a reality in heaven?  The reality of Jesus in me is the hope of glory. If Jesus is not real in me today, I have no hope of glory tomorrow.

 

Dear brothers and sisters, let's not deceive ourselves and think of heaven as the pie in the sky when we die. Heaven has a beginning in the here and now. The church is the preview of heaven. If you don’t even smile in your church, if you don’t even make eye contact with a fellow believer, if you don’t even greet a brother and a sister let along handshake or hug someone, or care for your brothers to whom you have seen, how can you love God to whom you have not seen? Why should you be different in Heaven?

 

As my favorite pastor says, “Let us be true to ourselves.” Let us be brutally honest with only ourselves, let us be nice to God, nice to people and ourselves. Even though it is nice to be important, it is still more important to be nice.

 

If we do not long for the kingdom of heaven now it is because we have a distorted vision of Heaven in the church on earth. The practice of our faith on earth is just good enough to keep guilt at a manageable level.  As someone said, “Let us know Jesus spiritually so intimately that when he walks into a room we do not recognize him in the body.”

 

Gerry Gutierrez.

 

PS. The Good part of my sleepless night in Tacoma (not Seattle) is that it keeps me focused on the things I would have liked to hear when I was young, poor and without ID. My present ID is I am a witness of Jesus who loves to testify to the love and grace of God in Jesus.

 

The picture is of one Sunday morning infant baptism where I promised to pray for the little ones I hope to see in heaven. I love this little family. Please pray for them.