Heaven

June 23, 2008

Why It Matters That God Does Everything for His Own Glory

From John Piper: Why should we emphasize that God loves, forgives, and saves for his own glory? Two reasons (among others). 1) Because the Bible does. I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. (Isaiah 43:25) For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. (Psalm 25:11) Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake! (Psalm 79:9) Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you. (Jeremiah 14:7) We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you. Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonor your glorious throne. (Jeremiah 14:20-21) God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be

June 13, 2008

Heavenly Treasures in [is] Christ

“The Lord willingly and freely reveals himself in his Christ. For in Christ, he offers all happiness in place of our misery, all wealth in place of our neediness; in him he opens to us the heavenly treasures that our whole faith may contemplate his beloved Son, our whole expectation depend upon him, and our whole hope cleave to and rest in him.” —John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.20.1 (HT: Of First Importance)

June 13, 2008

“Then the church shall be brought to the full enjoyment of her bridegroom, having all tears wiped away from her eyes, and there shall be no more distance or absence. She shall then be brought to the entertainments of an eternal wedding feast, and to dwell forever with her bridegroom, yea, to dwell eternally in his embraces. Then Christ will give her his loves, and she shall drink her fill, yea, she shall swim in the ocean of his love.” Jonathan Edwards, “The Church’s Marriage to her Sons and to her God,” in Works, II:22. (HT: Christ is Deeper Still)

May 31, 2008May 31, 2008

The revelation of Jesus Christ

My thanks to Dave Bish (great to meet you in Louisville Dave) for this. Here is the testimony of one truly caught up to paradise. See previous post! The revelation of Jesus Christ He is the faithful witness, reliably revealing what will happen. He is the firstborn from the dead, his resurrection brings ours. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth, they all stand accountable to him. He loves us. He freed us from our sins by his blood, taking our punishment, cleansing us. He made us a kingdom, over which he is king. He made us priests to God the Father, and we may boldly approach. He owns glory and rule over all things forever, he is incomparable. He is coming with the clouds, he will return. He will be seen by every eye, even those who pierced him. He will cause all to wail, the light who exposes our sin. He is the beginning and

March 20, 2008

Godly Restlessness

I love this from D.A. Carson: “[R]estlessness is for our good. It is a design feature of our makeup, of our nature as creatures made in the image of God. We were made to inhabit eternity; by constitution we know that we belong to something better than a world (however beautiful at times) awash in sin. Paul understands this point perfectly (2 Corinthians 5:1 – 5). He anticipates the time when “the earthly tent” (our present body will be destroyed, and we will receive “an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (5:1) — our resurrection body. “Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling” (5:2). It is not that we wish to “shuffle off our mortal coil” and exist in naked immortality: that is not our ultimate hope, for “we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by

Infinite Eternal Delight In God

“There, even in heaven, dwells the God from whom every stream of holy love, yea, every drop that is, or ever was, proceeds. There dwells God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, united as one, in infinitely dear and incomprehensible and mutual and eternal love. There dwells God the Father, who is the father of mercies, and so the father of love, who so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son to die for it. There dwells Christ, the Lamb of God, the prince of peace and of love, who so loved the world that he shed his blood and poured out his soul unto death for men. . . . And there dwells the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of divine love, in whom the very essence of God, as it were, flows out and is breathed forth in love and by whose immediate influence all holy love is shed abroad in the

February 4, 2008February 4, 2008

Christ is All!

“But alas, how little fit for heaven are many who talk of going to heaven, when they die, while they manifestly have no saving faith and no real acquaintance with Christ. You give Christ no honor here. You have no communion with Him. You do not love Him. Alas, what could you do in heaven? It would be no place for you. Its joys would be no joys for you. Its happiness would be a happiness into which you could not enter. Its employments would be a weariness and a burden to your heart. Oh, repent and change before it be too late!” – J.C. Ryle (HT: Symphony of Scripture) “Jesus Christ is not merely the means of our rescue from damnation; he is the goal of our salvation. If he is not satisfying to be with, there is no salvation. He is not merely the rope that pulls us from the threatening waves; he is the solid beach under