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Showing Heaven to the World |
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 "Heaven is a great place to be and a great place to look forward to. The goal and the ultimate aim of our message is Heaven!" |
It was not only the immediate future that
interested David, but also eternity, and more specifically Heaven. He once remarked,
"My interest is in the future because I'm going to spend the rest of my life
there." In the early 1980s he extensively researched everything the Bible had to say
about Heaven, and supervised the creation of a number of colorful, detailed posters
depicting and explaining what it will be like. Family members subsequently distributed
these by the tens of millions. To David, this was not an academic exercise. He recognized that the hope of Heaven was an integral part of the Christian faith, and therefore should be presented as part of the Gospel message to the world. Perhaps if more people were persuaded of its reality, he reasoned, they would accept Christ as their Savior. He explained: "What's the Gospel for? It's about Jesus, but what is Jesus for? To save us! For what? -- For Heaven! So the goal and the ultimate aim of our message is Heaven! That's our message, 'For God so loved the world that He gave His Only begotten Son.' -- Just so we'll know His Son? So that 'whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!' -- In Heaven! "And that's what our message is all about: How to get to Heaven! -- And to portray and preach about the Heavenly City! Preaching Heaven is preaching Jesus! Because they're never going to get to Heaven without Him! He says, 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father in Heaven but by Me!' (John 14:6). [132] "I like to talk about Heaven, think about Heaven and read about Heaven! After all, that's where we're going to spend eternity, so it's a pretty important place and we ought to be pretty interested, don't you think? It's our eternal Home, the place Jesus has gone to prepare for us forever, so we certainly ought to be interested in it and want to know what it's like and what we're going to be like when we get There!" [133] "In fact, all God's children of faith since the beginning of time have been looking for 'a city which hath foundations' -- eternal foundations --'whose Builder and Maker is God' (Hebrews 11:10). They were not satisfied with being citizens of this world, with its earthly, carnal, flesh-and-blood kingdoms of evil men and evil spirits. But rather they looked for a country made by God, a Heavenly Country, a Heavenly City, built by the Lord!" [134] "So Heaven is a great place to be and a great place to look forward to, and I'm thrilled and excited about it, and I want to get you thrilled and excited about it!" [135] "Heaven is a real place that you're really going to, and you're really going to see and live there with all the beauties and glories and pleasures that only Heaven could hold!" [136] "It will help you bear some of these burdens and trials that you're going through now when you realize these are only for a moment. 'The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us!' (Romans 8:18). [137] "There used to be an old song, 'Oh, there's no disappointment in Heaven, No weariness, sorrow nor pain! No hearts that are bleeding and broken, No song with a minor refrain. The clouds of our Earthly horizon Will never appear in the sky, For all will be sunshine and gladness, With never a sob nor a sigh!'" [138] "We're going to finally get to enjoy life and ... everything to the full, perfectly, without sin and pain and death and sickness and sorrow." [139] "[Heaven] will be like this life, with all its joys and beauties and pleasures, but without the drawbacks!" [140] "Our good times will never end, for we're going to enjoy each other and the Lord forever in Heaven eternally!" [141] "Thank God for Heaven, where everything will get straightened out and made right!" [142] |
